Over the years, I’ve noticed something surprising: some comedians can deliver more inspiring messages than any sermon I’ve ever preached. And, to be honest, that realization sometimes bugs me. Sure, comedians are master storytellers with countless hours of practice, but I suspect there’s more to it than just their skill.
In an episode of Working It Out with Mike Birbiglia–an all-time great story-teller–comedian Pete Holmes offers to improve a Birbiglia joke about religion (BTW this clip is NSFW), that leads him to a riff about belief in God–something he’s working on.
A comedian responds to ‘there is no god’
The bit he reads off his phone and tells us he’s never done on stage, is ostensibly a response to those who say God cannot exist because of all the evil in the world. The imagery he chooses is so simple, yet so powerful: a film and its filmmaker; a book and its author.
What does the plot of a movie have to do with whether or not someone made the movie?… Who cares if it’s nice or not? It’s here. There is a movie. We have to deal with that. Just because it’s not the movie you would have made doesn’t mean something didn’t make it…
All the arguments you can come up with for there being no god, are come up with, within reality… You use the mystery of consciousness, your existence, to say there is no mystery. Consciousness is the mystery…
It’s like characters in a book arguing for the existence of an author… The author isn’t in the book. Even if the author writes a character named ‘the author,’ that’s not the author. That’s a hint that there might be an author. That’s as close as we’re going to get.
Mystery
It’s that middle quote that I believe holds the answer. Three times in a couple of sentences Holmes uses the word mystery and just leaves it there.
Comedians like Holmes aren’t just great at making us laugh; they have an uncanny ability to tap into the uncertainties of life without trying to resolve them. Their willingness to sit with the unknown, to acknowledge the ambiguity of existence, is something that we, as preachers, might learn from.
Preachers, myself included, often feel a responsibility to make life and faith comprehensible, to reconcile the mysteries we encounter. Perhaps it’s a product of our Enlightenment-influenced thinking, where we’ve been taught that everything can eventually be explained. But in doing so, are we missing out on something vital?
Holmes and other comedians are far more comfortable with the ambiguity than we are. They celebrate the mystery. In fact, Holmes has a bit on YouTube titled, Life Doesn’t Make Sense (also NSFW).
Maybe it’s time we stop trying to have all the answers. Instead of striving for certainty, what if we celebrated the questions? Embracing the mystery doesn’t mean giving up on faith; it means recognizing that our faith is big enough to hold the unknown. By letting go of our need for explanations, we might find a deeper, more authentic connection to the divine.
As I continue to wrestle with these ideas, I’m learning that faith isn’t about answers—it’s about finding peace in the not-knowing. So let’s challenge ourselves to sit with the mystery, to find joy in the uncertainty, and to celebrate the journey, even when the destination is unclear.