:: In.a.Mirror.Dimly ::

Just a reminder that Sarcastic Saturday is fictional.

In the recently launched Seventh Quest for the historical Jesus, scholars have revealed the shocking discovery that Jesus actually preached the Sermon on the Mount on April Fools Day. While some religious leaders remain skeptical of this assertion, many in the Christian community have welcomed this discovery about Jesus’ counterintuitive blessings in the beatitudes with a sigh of relief.

One Christian theologian and author in Connecticut responded, “Phew, that sure makes following Jesus easier. I was really getting overwhelmed with having to think about Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize speech and how to deal with materialism and my personal search for comfort this holiday season. It looks like the joke was on me.”

If the April Fools Day Hypothesis holds true then Jesus was responsible for pulling off the longest running, most comprehensive prank in all of history.

Why Sarcastic Saturday?

I think I owe my readers a brief explanation of what I’m up to with these Sarcastic Saturday posts.

In one sense it is very unhealthy for Christians to criticize and to parody one another. Our goal should be mutual edification and building up the body. So while that does not rule out thoughtful debate and critical thinking, such stabs at one another have no redemptive benefit. However, I don’t believe that rules out mocking ourselves, and that’s where Sarcastic Saturday comes in.

Sarcastic Saturday is written as a parody, a mocking of myself. Whether it’s myself at one point in my life or of myself in the present, I make sure that I am the butt of my own joke. That doesn’t mean that everyone else will necessarily be safe, but when the finger is pointing at myself, then hopefully others will feel free to confront their own issues along with me. I also think it is a good exercise in humility to poke fun at myself, to expose my own hypocrisy, and to stir up questions with a little bit of sharp-edged humor.

We’ll see how long I can keep this up, but I trust that so long as I am thinking and blogging, I will always have something about myself to parody…