5 Reasons Why Worship Should Not Be Comedy

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Have you seen those Christian comedians who make comedy about worship styles, how they raise their hands, or the way worship songs are written?

How about those who change up the lyrics of old worship songs to make them seem funny?

Are these jokes harmless?

Do they offend God?

Christians are easy targets, even among their peers, because even Christians take cheap shots at other Christians.

And while it’s perhaps not offensive to tell a “how many pastors does it take to change a light bulb” joke, there is a point where it all goes too far.

There are some things that should be off limits.

There was a term that was used long ago: “sacrilege“.

Sacrilege basically means that we have taken what is holy and made it common, we’ve defiled it, we’ve mistreated it, we’ve desecrated it.

We’d do well to reintroduce it to our vocabulary because while we’d look at certain sitcoms and comedians and immediately recognize that they’ve committed sacrilege, we don’t realize there are times when we do the same.

5 Reasons Why Worship Should Not Be Comedy

I love to laugh and make people laugh.

I think God has a great sense of humor. He created the emu and alpaca. He must have a sense of humor.

And I don’t think God ever meant for Christians to be somber people who take life too seriously.

However, in Scripture, we see that God drew a line between those things that were for everyday use and those things that were for sacred use.

He took this very seriously.

Those who misused things for sacred use were dealt with harshly, even instant death.

While God doesn’t use the same judgment today as He used in the Old Testament, I believe that His displeasure can be seen in other ways, such as a spiritual coldness and desensitization to the Holy Spirit

1. Joking about worship offends God

Worship is an expression God created for mankind as a way to fully and intimately convey the depth of our love to Him.

It is as intimate as a man loving his wife or a woman loving her husband.

To presume that we have the freedom to invade another person’s intimate expression of worship, whether it be their physical expression of worship or their creative expression of worship through lyrics or music, is offensive to God.

• How they clap their hands
• How they raise their hands
• How they sing
• Their facial expressions as they worship

Their worship conveys the depth of their love to God, and it is fully received by God with joy. It is the glorification and exaltation of God.

It offends God when we turn this into comedy. 

2. Joking about worship desecrates worship

Desecration of worship is a very serious thing, and God takes it seriously.

We read in the Old Testament about two men – Nadab and Abihu – who dared to offer a “profane fire” to God. The fire of God went out from the censors and devoured them.

God is a jealous God.

He said, “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.”

To make fun of worship is to desecrate it. We fail to regard God as holy and to glorify Him when we take acts of worship that He has created and make them into a punchline.

3. Joking about worship distracts us

Imagine that on Saturday, you’re laughing along with the Christian comedian who pokes fun at the way people raise their hands in worship, and the next day, we’re in our favorite row in church, and the music starts.

As people around us begin to worship, we suddenly notice how funny they look as they raise their hands at various angles.

We find it hard to enter into worship because all we can think of now is the comedy act we watched the night before, and how funny the comedian looked imitating how people raise their hands.

Not only is this offensive to God, but it is a distraction to our own worship. We suddenly feel subconscious about how we look when we raise our hands.

And God is robbed of the praise and glory He deserves.

4. Joking about worship distracts others and robs them of something sacred

But what about those who overhear us laughing and talking about the funny hand raising?

How weird it is to clap on the “1 & 3”, how only cool people clap on the “2 & 4”, or how lame it is to sing those old worship songs?

Now, when they enter God’s presence, they no longer feel the freedom they used to feel.

They can’t just let go of their inhibitions and worship because they feel like they are the center of someone’s attention, who is going to make them the butt of a joke later on.

Now all they can think about is, “What do I look like when I raise my hands?”

“Oh my word, am I the totally uncool person clapping on the 1 & 3? What is a 1 & 3?”

How about those who hear us parodying the lyrics to outdated worship songs from the 80’s and 90’s?

Have we thought about the fact that the song we’ve parodied could possibly hold great significance to someone, that this song, perhaps, was the anthem of a great spiritual breakthrough in their spiritual life?

Perhaps it is a landmark song of a time when God met them where they were, at a time of grief or sorrow.

And now this song is the butt of a joke. A comedy routine. A mockery in the eyes of those who should be their spiritual family.

Do you see how damaging it is to take the sacred and make it a punchline?

5. Joking about worship reveals a cold heart

When our heart burns with a love for the Lord, we enjoy a closeness and intimacy with Him that allows us to feel the joy He feels….and the pain He feels.

Truly, the Holy Spirit inside of us will send warning signals when something is offensive to God.

Some people call this a check in their spirit. But whatever you call it, you feel something is off, something’s not right.

It is when our heart has grown cold and distant that we can no longer sense that check. We can’t tell when something’s off because our cold and distant heart no longer senses the Holy Spirit’s warnings.

When we can easily entertain

• Comedy that desecrates that which is holy
• Parodies of worship songs
• Lists of worship songs that are “in” and “out”, giving us the freedom to show disdain for the ones that are “out.”
• Jokes that make people’s intimate acts of worship a punchline…

When we can laugh at this and not feel how deeply it offends God, we can be sure our hearts have grown cold.

If our hearts have grown cold, we need to get down on our knees and cry out to God in repentance for mocking that which is holy.

We need to ask God to ignite our hearts once again with a passion for His presence.

We need to tarry in prayer until we feel our hearts once again burn with reverence for His glory and for the things that are sacred.

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