Sometimes you’ll “see Jesus again soon” because you’ll feel his presence in your life. Other times you’ll “see him again soon” because you’ll see him living in the lives of other disciples of Jesus Christ. That’s the way I saw Jesus during that weekend of the 20th Reunion of the Class of ’77.

No wonder that my best friend was so good at welcoming sinners, washing other people’s feet, weeping with those who weep, and blessing children. Because I saw that weekend that our class—the Class of ‘77—had become far more than classmates. We had become far more than Good Samaritans—good neighbors—who help each other in need. We had become best friends. That meant we constantly treated each other the way that Jesus treats us: welcoming sinners, weeping with those who weep, washing each other’s feet, and blessing each other’s children.

This was most apparent Saturday afternoon. About 50 of our returning classmates attended a “sharing time” in the “rec room” in the lower level of the Campus Center. Someone had a guitar. We sang the type of songs you sing around the campfire at a church retreat. For me, at least, the intervening years fell away. I felt young and in college again, singing these same songs. People shared what had been happening in their lives during the 20 years that flew by while our hair fell out and our waists expanded.

Most of the stories were sad. We were all a little past 40 years old now.

It was hard to find someone who hadn’t had tragedy and disappointment somewhere in their life. Yet, in the midst of these tragedies, a glow of triumph shone through. As one person said, “When we said we’d trust God ‘no matter what’ when we were 20 years old, what did we know? But now that we’ve faced so many of the problems that life can send our way, it means so much more when we say we’re still trusting God and that he’s always faithful.”

By age 40, who hasn’t known times when the word of God was snatched from our hearts, separating us from God and from the Promised Land—times when we failed and denied Jesus? By age 40, who hasn’t known times when the roots of our faith were so shallow that our hearts withered and died, sending us into exile away from the Promised Land—times when we feared, doubted and despaired? By age 40, who hasn’t known times when the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things kept us from being strong and courageous enough to establish the work of our hands—times when we needed to find hope and purpose for living.

By age 40, all of my classmates—all of my best friends—knew about the power of Sin that so easily entangles us to keep us from running the race set before us. What race? The race to establish the work of our hands in the Promised Land so that we can bless others while we worship the LORD in spirit and in truth. We all knew that we had fallen behind in this race. We had all fallen short of the glory of God.

Fortunately, by age 40, all of my classmates—all of my best friends—also knew how faith, hope and love bless us in the Promised Land. We knew that we need pure hearts and a steadfast spirit. We need truth and wisdom in the inmost place. We need words of our mouths and meditations of our hearts that are pleasing to the LORD, our Strength and our Redeemer. We knew that the whirlwinds in our lives teach us that the joy of the LORD is our strength.

And so we praised the LORD, as we remembered how faith in Jesus carried us across the ocean of our sins to end the separation between us and God. We praised the LORD as we remembered how hope in Jesus carried us across oceans of despair until we reached the Promised Land.

We praised the LORD, remembering how our hearts burned within us as we learned more about the love of Jesus.

We praised the LORD, remembering how Jesus carried us across oceans of fears, confusions, denials and failures by giving us pure hearts and steadfast spirits.

We praised the LORD, remembering how Jesus carried us across oceans of doubts, despite the whirlwinds that struck us.

The more that we remembered about Jesus, the more we worshiped the LORD in spirit and in truth.

The more we told our best friends about Jesus, the more we blessed each other. The more we remembered about Jesus, the more we realized how the joy of the LORD had become our strength, establishing the work of our hands by bearing 30, 60 and 100 times the fruit that the Holy Spirit had sown in our lives: love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The more we remembered about Jesus, the more we found the hope in the LORD to soar on spiritual wings like eagles, to run spiritually without growing weary, and to walk spiritually without fainting or limping.

If all this sounds too somber, take heart. We  also had plenty of time  to laugh at our Reunion. There’ll never be a dull, boring moment in that ultimate Reunion in the Promised Land. There’ll be plenty of laughter to fill our days.

God’s sense of humor is a part of his personality that Christians often overlook. But certainly, God would not have created us with the capacity and yearning to laugh unless he wanted us to laugh early and often throughout our lives.

Jesus laughed!

During his life among us, Jesus revealed this part of God’s personality to us, as surely as he revealed that God loves us.

Jesus loved to laugh! Jesus loved to hear other people laugh!

That’s one of the reasons why Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding. That’s one of the reasons why people–especially “sinners”—loved having Jesus come to their dinner parties.

That’s one of the reasons why Jesus loved to welcome little children with their giggles and laughter.

It’s easy to remember the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35).

It’s right to “weep with them that weep” (Romans 12:15, KJV).

But it’s also right to “[r]ejoice with those who rejoice” (Romans 12:15).

Therefore, add the image of Jesus laughing to the other word pictures that teach us more about who Jesus is, what God is like, and how we should live than volumes of theological speculations or hundreds of pages of my writings.

That’s why, when I think about what it was like to walk with Jesus 2000 years ago, a passage from Latourette’s A History of Christianity about Jesus’ wonderful sense of humor often comes to my mind. Latourette wrote that:

Jesus had a keen sense of humour which again and again bubbles out irrepressibly, all the more strikingly because it  is in contrast with the complete absence of humour in those writings of the Christians of the first century which have been preserved in the New Testament.

He had a keen eye for the ridiculous and could make startling what he saw—the self- righteous man with the huge beam in his eye essaying to see and pluck out a mere speck in his neighbour’s eye; the solemn and meticulous legalist who was so conscientious about details and yet so blind to great moral issues that he was like a man who, anxious lest he be contaminated by his food and drink, would painstakingly strain out the most minute gnat and then, without blinking, swallow an entire camel, hair, hoofs, humps, and offensive breath.

He laughed at children playing in the market place, especially those who, pouting, refused to join in the sport, even when their companions were quite willing to adjust the game to meet their wishes.

His questions to the crowds about John the Baptist-–”What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? … a man clothed in soft raiment?”—must have provoked laughter, so purposely contrary were they to what all of his hearers knew.

Since Jesus had such a great sense of humor, I believe that the ultimate Reunion in the perfect Future will be full of laughter. And that means that there will be many Glee Clubs like the Glee Club of the Class of ’77. This group of roughly a dozen men sang and vocalized the humor and satire that are the heart and soul of the Class of ’77. Indeed, the Glee Club is so loved by our Class that for our 20th Reunion, one of our best friends put together a short, humorous history of the Glee Club, including the words to its songs. As our best friend explained:

… what brings my thoughts back to Houghton again and again is the tapestry that I hope you will find in this book. It is the tapestry of humor.

And what brings me back physically . . . to Houghton reunion after reunion is that it is there that I (paraphrasing [a classmate’s letter]) enjoyed “some of the deepest heart felt laughter I have ever experienced.” . . . .

And I guess what it all comes down to is love. Charity takes many forms—one of these says “you look like you need to laugh, so I’ll give it a try.”

And so, 20 years after saying good-bye to Houghton, we knew we needed to recapture its laughter by hearing the Glee Club one more time. We all needed to be blessed by the Glee Club in the Promised Land one more time.

Another one of our best friends was its conductor. He still wore the huge, comic ears and spoke in the same ersatz sophisticated voice that always made us laugh.

The rest of the Glee Club were dressed in the same zany, crazy way—fake noses, colorful clothes, and wigs. The fake hair was an especially welcome touch for those Glee Club members who had gone bald. And the flowing, billowing clothes were an especially welcome touch for those Glee Club members who had gotten fat.

So—for a few precious moments—we forgot about our lack of hair and our excess of fat amidst gut-wrenching laughs and enthusiastic clapping. 

Their “signature” song was entitled “Ye Shall Go Out With Joy.” It was a spoof based on how the College Choir sang a serious song that quoted the prophecy in Isaiah that describes the results when God’s Word lights the world. The words are: 

 

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:12) 

The solemn-faced, black-garbed College Choir used to sing this song as if they were mountains and hills bursting into song and as if they were trees of the field clapping their hands.

Even when the College Choir tried to sing the song seriously, it was hard not to laugh. So when the Glee Club mocked out the College Choir with their spoof, it was hard not to fall out of our chairs laughing.

Fear not! There’ll be more humor in that ultimate Reunion and perfect Future than hearing “oldies but goodies” over and over again until they lose their power to make us laugh.

Our best friend who conducted the Glee Club included one new number in the Glee Club’s repertoire–a mocking rendition of “The Macarena.” As he put it: “I want you to know that the Glee Club is still doing new material.”

And as I thought about it later, I realized that one of the things that will keep us from being bored in the Future is that the Glee Clubs there will always keep doing new material.

We won’t be bored. We’ll be busy!

Because the God who created the heavens and the earth will keep us creating new songs and new humor in the unending Reunion we will share in the Future.

Not all of the songs will be humorous. Even the Glee Club once sang a song that was not merely funny. In fact, I consider it to be one of the most touching, sacred moments that the Class of ’77 ever shared.

It came during Senior Skip Weekend—the name for the traditional retreat that a senior class takes, bridging the few days between the end of finals and graduation day. Senior Skip Weekend  took place at Watkins  Homestead, a  Christian retreat center nestled in picturesque hills. There we shared undignified moments such as water fights. And we shared deeply spiritual moments such as our last class communion when we would all be together physically in one place.

The last performance of the Glee Club (except for Reunions) took place in the large meeting room in the rustic “lodge” where we ate our meals. Their performance was mostly filled with undignified moments. But for their final song, they found the perfect blend of humor and love. As one of our best friends wrote 20 years later in Ye Shall Go Out With Joy: 

When humor mixes with music as it does so many times in this book, the result is … love that borders on the spiritual. Jim Croce said it best- “I had to say I love you in a song.”

So for the Glee Club’s last song before we graduated, they said goodbye on behalf of all the guys in our Class to the girls we’d come to love in our four years together. And this meant “love” in its most inclusive sense. Not just the girls we’d shared romantic moments with. But also girls like my best friend who I loved to be with even though romantic sparks never caught fire. With a bit of humor and lots of sincerity, the Glee Club was able to say what many of us (or at least I) felt and wanted to say, but just couldn’t find the words or courage to say. 

The Glee Club found the words by satirizing Jim Croce’s hit “I Had to Say I Love You in a Song.” As it is recorded in the official history of the Glee Club:

 

(In tribute to the fellow classwomen who had suffered from our subtle ribs during our Houghton years, the following words were Crayola’d and offered in sincere apology during our Senior Skip Weekend) 

Every time we tried to say it 

None of us could say it right.

So we’d like to say we love you here tonight. 

Even though we kid and tease you  We think you’re alright,

And we’d like to say we love you here tonight.

 

And so, the songs of laughter will turn to songs of love for each other. And then the songs of love for each other will turn to songs of love and praise for God the Father, revealed to us by the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and through the works of the Holy Spirit.

That moment when we hail the power of Jesus’ name and crown him Lord of all is always the culmination of any Reunion of the Class of ’77. And such moments of song and praise will be the culmination of the ultimate Reunion in the perfect Future.

That culminating moment of our Reunion came the next morning when we gathered again to bless each other and to worship together in spirit and in truth. In the eternal Future that lies ahead, we will gather this way each morning. But in this life, our reunions must come to an end.

To end our time together, the Class of ’77 sang our Class Hymn: ”All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.”

The experience of hailing the power of Jesus’ name and crowning him Lord of all is the ultimate blessing that God gives to the Class of ’77, to civilization, and to all people in the Promised Land. Therefore, I am ending these books about the Bible’s Promised Land—the “civilization” that is good, that is very good—by recalling how the Class of ’77 gathered that morning to sing our Class Hymn.

My best friend stood beside me singing. We could see our classmates—our best friends—and their families singing, too.

Our voices swelled together. We sang with the perfect diversity of 4-part harmony that is good, that is very good. We sang with the perfect unity that blesses all people in the Promised Land. We worshiped with pure hearts in spirit and in truth as we sang:

 

O that with yonder sacred throng

We at His feet may fall,

We at His feet may fall!

 

We’ll join the everlasting song,

And crown Him, crown Him, crown Him, crown Him,

And crown Him Lord of all.

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This blog copies the chapter “Best Friends Worship Together in Spirit and in Truth” at the conclusion of my book Lighting the World. This chapter was written shortly after the 20th Reunion of my Class at Houghton College—the Class of ‘77. Other thoughts arising from that Reunion on August 8-10, 1997 are set forth in Lighting the World in the chapters “The Future” and “Best Friends Bless Each Other”.

In these chapters, I reference a number of concepts and themes that appeared throughout my four books based upon the entire Bible: The Promised Land (covering Genesis through Ruth), Healing the Promised Land (covering the rest of the Old Testament), Hoping in the LORD (covering the Gospels), and Lighting the World (covering the rest of the New Testament).