A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To Communion: Finding Subtle Humor in the Bible

By Dale T. Stanton

Is the Bible a humorous book? Probably most people wouldn’t think of it as being funny at all. Even as the Bible is regarded as the Word of God, we find considerable ungodly human activity, immorality, wars, rebellion, murder, adultery, demon possession, and just about every other facet of what we call the human condition. Yes, the Bible is full of some pretty serious and heavy stuff. In spite of all this, is there a remote possibility we might discover something amusing, something to bring a smile on our face, something that might even cause us to laugh? Author Dale Stanton says, “Yes!”

In his book, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Communion, Dale explores some of the subtle, camouflaged, and elusive gems of humor in the Bible that don’t exactly leap out at you as one would find in a comic strip or a TV sitcom. These hidden treasures of humor come alive in the biblical characters themselves, revealed in all their human quirks, foibles, and idiosyncrasies, which remind us that, in many ways, these biblical personalities are just like us.

Referring to many of the Scripture lessons that are read in church on Sunday morning, Dale, in his tongue-in-cheek style, brings to life this collection of inconspicuous and sometimes wry nuggets of humor that might just make you laugh.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638855286

Book preview

The What Party?

So, when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him.

—Acts 11:2 (ESV)

Now this one really made me laugh. The circumcision party? C’mon. Get real. We’re used to the Democratic party, the Republican party, the Libertarian party, the Independent party, the Green party, but the circumcision party? What in the world was that?

Apparently in the early church, there was the hot debate over whether or not non-Jews, the gentiles, first had to circumcise in order to become Christians (at least the male population, that is). Of course, back then women had no status whatsoever, so they didn’t even enter the picture. At least they had the advantage of avoiding this little surgical procedure.

The diehards weren’t about to budge on the matter and took Peter to task for letting these outsiders into the church and corrupt everything. Peter responded by telling them of a dream he had wherein he could kill and eat any kind of food he wanted; it didn’t have to be kosher. Essentially, he argued the old Jewish laws no longer applied to the gentiles, that the Gospel is a gift to all people—Jew and gentile alike.

There may not be any circumcision parties in the church today, but it is not uncommon to find cliques, in-groups, and inner circles in which some folks are made to feel welcome and others are excluded, either intentionally or inadvertently. My family and I were members of a congregation for several years wherein I also served as organist and director of music. During the whole time, we often felt like we were on the outside looking in. Not a good thing.

The church is and always should be the one place, the one group, the one family on earth where anyone and everyone is not only welcomed, but included and valued. Sure there are different organizations, groups, and committees that function within the congregation and that members can hook up with depending on individual needs and interests. But in the final analysis, every member must share in the same high status of being part of the family of God, no matter what. As the old adage goes, "Family is the place you are always