Zen is a tool

Zen is a tool, not an identity.

Beware the danger of identification to any belief system, the ego loves it.

Is this affirmation not a lack of respect, towards Zen itself? No, I think it’s not.

If you can’t joke and laugh about Zen … than it’s not Zen at all! : )

So my best appreciations come for something that is not pretending a “forced respect”, something that loves you openly and unconditionally even if you laugh at it.

In Alchemy this is described as the “Law of the Mirror”: 
only giving unconditional love you will receive unconditional love.

This concept is widely know also as the Karma.

And this indeed is generating the higher form of respect, something very powerful:

having the ultimate respect without pretending respect

described in the Tao Te Ching as “Wu Wei” or “acting without acting”.