Letter 11: Laughter

Review:
  • Patient made new friends
  • Can we be in the world, but not of the world?
Outline:
  • Things going well with patient's new friends.
  • Screwtape looks at laughter and 4 causes of human laughter:
    1. Joy - demons do not know the real cause of this. Related to that of music, which is 'disgusting'.
    2. Fun - related to joy, based off of 'play'. Only good is to divert attention, but often leads to charity, courage, contentment, etc.
    3. Joke Proper - get them to use humor as an excuse for sin: cruel joke, coward with humor. Stir up trouble. "Can't you take a joke." Suggest too much and you're a puritan.
      • not necessarily indecent humor (2nd rate tempters), two groups
        1. people for 'whom no passion is as serious as lust' and when it becomes funny takes away from the lust.
        2. others in whom lust and laughter occur at same time; jokes give them a reason to talk about sex.
    4. Flippancy - Anyone can make light of anything. Everything serious is treated as a joke. Far from joy; dulls the intellect.
Terminology:

  • Austerity - sternness,   being without adornment, strictness
  • Incongruity - not consistent or suitable to the surroundings or associations
  • Lasciviousness - lewd, lustful 

Questions/Discussions:
  • Have you ever used humor as a defense to talking about something serious?
  • Laughter, laugh is seldom used in the bible as we do; but more in mocking and disbelief. Abraham and Sarah laughed when told they would have a child in old age. God laughed in scorn Psalm 37:12-13
  • The joke or flippancy is seen in Acts 2:12-13 when the disciples are speaking and various tongues being heard
  • But Joy and Happiness is all through the bible. True joy is only found in Christ. Matthew 25:21, Acts 14:17, John 15:10-11
  • An example of flippancy that hurt. Sitting in a pizza shop one day, a table of high school students were at the table behind me. They started talking about going to Church. One boy when asked if he had to go to church, replied "No, thank God". They then laughed at this.
  • As a small group discuss:
    • Do you think Christ laughed? About what? (I know I often wonder if he didn't at least smile at some of the things Peter did, like walking on the water and then sinking)
    • Do you ever have 'fun' serving God?
Scripture:

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