I remember the movie as a kid on the Friday night late show – WCTV Tallahassee – “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” I was a toddler and Lisa was a newborn when it hit the silver screen in 1963, so we kind of missed that premiere. But I caught it in serendipitous snippets over the years, before TCM, Netflix, and the like made it available on-demand. The cast was an endless line of Hollywood who’s who in mid-twentieth century comedy. Couldn’t assemble a comedy crew like that today. It would cost too much and they don’t exist. The story line was basic: a bunch of interesting characters race cross-country in pursuit of stolen money. The laughs were gut wrenchers if silly was your thing. Tell a good story, let funny people be funny, don’t take it all too seriously and you just have a little fun. And learn a little about the best and worst of human nature.

Half a century and change later, its labeling of the world seems pretty on target. By just about any definition, the world is madder by the day. Not to be a downer, but you have to look hard to find a word of blessing amid the bluster. I’d like to be able to prop my feet up and watch a couple of hours of mindless mayhem and render myself “happy” with and in it all. Not that simple. Distractions aplenty, we have them. Divisions and disparaging words, got our share of those too. Darkened demeanors and dispositions, order of the day. Crowds gather to express their frustration, unleash their lesser angles and listen for a voice to follow. There are lots of options. But how do we know the truth? Who has the words of life? Who offered medicine for the madness and solace for the soul?

If you go back a couple thousand years, you might find an answer. Jesus stood on a hillside and delivered a countercultural message out of step for the listeners of his day. He offered blessing. Unreasonable happiness. Comfort. Partnership in the kingdom. All in exchange for, get this, valuing and pushing the very things they were conditioned to avoid, deny, and demean. Pretty sure he came down from the mountain to strains of, “Yeah preacher, but that’s not the way it is in the real world.” I imagine the response today mightn’t be much different. Appears it’s not.

So what does your pastor have to say about that? Not exactly sure, but I’m going to hang close to and hide behind Jesus while walking up to Easter by way of the Beatitudes. I’m calling the series “Living Happy in a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Let’s take that trip together and see what treasure awaits us at the end of the journey. I have a hunch resurrection might just mean a little more if we live in line with the one lifted up. We can start by taking all we have and being happy about being poor. Truth is, that’s not how I would start the series. Opting for something more promising and positive might attract and appease a bigger crowd. But that’s not how Jesus did it, so I reckon I won’t either. So we will start where he did and go from there. Seems Christ had enjoyed a pretty good run as the Messiah whose message calmed the madness, lit the darkness, and told the most counterintuitive truths. Let’s see how it plays today. Got a hunch that it will stand the test of time.