JOY -- NEVERTHELESS
Rev. Dr. Dennis Winkleblack
Prospect United Methodist Church
Bristol, Connecticut
June 28, 2009
Acts 16: 16-34
John 15: 8-17
Do you remember the book, “All I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten?” It’s author, Robert Fulghum, wrote another book titled "Uh-Oh." Anyone read it? In this book he tells the story of his friend Grady.
He says that seven years ago Grady got a divorce and moved into a scuzzy little apartment - just temporarily, you know, until the future clarified itself. Now, seven years later he still is temporarily in this depressing little apartment. He can't decide whether or not to move out, because after all his wife might decide that she made a big mistake and will ask him to come back. And that's ridiculous because she sold the house, remarried, and moved to Wyoming five years ago. But Grady's never been able to accept that reality, so he continues to live in this apartment which he hates. It's so depressing. Gray walls. Gray carpet. Gray drapes. Gray, ugly furniture. He ought to at least paint the walls.
Grady even knows what color he should paint them. Yellow. Two gallons of yellow paint would do the trick. But if he paints his apartment, then he'd have to get new furniture, and if he's going to get new furniture, then he might as well get a new apartment. But a nice apartment is expensive, and he'd have to sign a lease, and change his address and driver's license and everything. And if he's going to go to all that trouble, he might as well buy a house, which is a better investment of his money, after all. But buying a house takes so much time and effort, and there are real estate agents and banks and credit checks and mortgages to hassle with.
Besides, what if he goes to all this trouble, and then his wife finally realizes what a mistake she made and wants to come back, and there he is stuck with a house that his wife doesn't like. He'd end up in therapy before long and you know how much that costs!
In sum, Grady figures a couple of gallons of yellow paint could end up costing him a half a million dollars in the long run. It just isn't worth it.
Fulghum says he told his friend that he should just buy himself a cemetery plot now, dig a hole in it and pitch a tent over it, and move in. Save all that hassle in between.
This morning is the second in the midst of a series of sermons on the fruits of the spirit -- those distinctive Christian characteristics that Paul wrote about in the book of Galatians. Remember them? love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, kindness and self-control.
The fruit of the Spirit which we focus on today is JOY. It's what Grady doesn't have in spades. He’s not perfectly miserable, but his life has become a kind of just going through of the motions. Joy-less, to say the least. Like any of ours can become, if we’re not careful.
Of all the fruits of the spirit, joy and peace are perhaps the most coveted. If one could sell real joy, one could put any price tag on it and get it. Don’t you think so? It’s what many feel temporarily when they’re high on alcohol or drugs or on the newest thing they just bought. It feels so good. But, of course, that kind of joy is soon gone.
Not surprisingly, many people confuse joy with happiness. It’s easy to do. Even the dictionary makes joy sound more like happiness: "Joy is the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or the prospect of possessing what one desires."
Now, is that joy or happiness? What's the difference, you ask?
The difference is that joy – Greek chara -- Christian joy, the joy that Jesus offers in today's Gospel, can survive and thrive even when there is no well-being, is no success, is no good fortune or the prospect thereof. That’s a huge difference between this joy and mere happiness!
For example, in the New Testament we have recorded the story of Paul and Silas imprisoned in Philippi. The Bible says their feet were fastened in stocks. To have one’s feet in stocks in the first century was to have one’s legs forced painfully apart. Yet even in this condition the Bible says about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God out loud!
Their fellow inmates and guards couldn’t believe their ears. Were they to have heard cries of agony they would not have been surprised. But songs of praise!! They couldn’t believe it!
Happiness comes and goes. Happiness may disappear with the next telephone call. A loved one dies. Your X ray shows bad news. Your pension fund may be eliminated. There goes your happiness.
Joy, on the other hand, is bone deep. It can be momentarily overwhelmed by sadness. It may be eclipsed by dark clouds of life, but if your joy is rooted in the real, authentic life that God offers, it’s never entirely absent. Happiness is surface. Joy is bone deep, deep at the cellular level.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus says his greatest desire is for us to have his joy in us so that our joy may be complete.
Every time I read this saying of Jesus – that his greatest desire is for us to have his joy in us so that we might know joy to the max – I’m stunned at the simplicity of what God wants for me and you. Isn’t that profound? Joy!
The question, then, is how do we get this joy of Jesus in us? Fortunately, in this morning's Gospel lesson we have something else that’s straightforward and profound. And that is in the Gospel reading scripture we have noted two basic requirements for joy.
First of all, for Jesus’ brand of complete joy, we need to trust that this Jesus really is who he says he is: the chosen one of God whom God raised from the dead. Which is to say that Christian joy is rooted in the Christ of Easter.
To trust that Jesus is the Christ of Easter is to totally reframe one’s secular outlook on what life is all about. It is to have one’s understanding of reality totally re-cast.
Think about it: As a result of this affirmation of faith, now we believe that death is no longer the great enemy. Now we believe that our existence is no longer bordered by the stages we call birth and death. Now we believe there's timelessness to existence. Now we believe that we don't have to "get it all" in 70 or 80 or 90 or 100 years. Now we believe that the most heart-wrenching things that can happen to a person -- the loss of someone we love so much -- isn't the end of the world. Now we believe that the little boy Dylan Pannuto for whom we’ve been praying who died a week ago will rise again. We believe that death will not have the last word. God will!
And more: Now we believe that the evil which stalks the earth, undoing years of peace with a single terrorist strike, or which fuels and fans the fires of racism and sexism and classism and consumerism and militarism will not reign, that God's justice will in fact be done in God's time – and we can share in defeating this evil.
Believing this way makes all the difference in the world.
As Paul will later write, “We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”
Easter changes everything. If you deeply believe the cosmic shaking truth of the Christ of Easter, you will find fertile soil from which will grow joy, joy, joy, down in your heart.
Secondly, for the joy of Christ to be in us, we can’t just be passive believers. This is where some of the most conservative churches really mislead their people. It’s not just enough to believe certain doctrinal truths.
Jesus said to enjoy his joy we must keep his commandments. And what are his commandments?
Well, we remember how Jesus summarized the commandments to the requirement to love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength. And added: and to love one’s neighbor as oneself.
In our scripture today, he even simplified all this. He said his requirement was to love one another as he has loved us. And, it just so happens, in loving another as God loves us we experience joy.
Last week we talked about conditional love and unconditional love. We talked about self-centered love and self-less love. Jesus of course being the model for both unconditional love and self-less love.
The eminent psychiatrist, Carl Jung, the son of a Lutheran pastor, said that the wisest thing that had ever been spoken in the history of humankind was Jesus' saying that if you try to save your life, you'll lose it; but if you will lose your life for God's sake you'll find it.
Jung brought it closer to our day in and day out lives by saying that it's an undeniable psychological truth that if we focus on trying to be happy, on trying to have joy we'll never, never get it. However, if we will lose our life, that is be willing to set aside our own agendas, and earnestly be on the lookout to do good for others, and then do it – we will end up saving it. And in the process, we will know joy.
Indeed, the kind of love that brings joy deep in our hearts is love that is focused on meeting the needs of another, even at great cost to us.
Parents who choose to raise a profoundly handicapped child show this kind of love.
Those who give themselves to a vocation or career serving others even though they could make more money elsewhere show such love.
And, like many of you whom I often hear about or observe, those who quietly do good for others without caring for publicity show such love.
And, as you know better than I could ever say in a thousand sermons, if you have loved like this you have a kind of joy – a sense of fulfillment -- that nothing or nobody can take away from you. You have a joy, a satisfaction down deep in your heart that is so far beyond mere happiness it can’t be measured.
The fruit of the spirit, says Paul, includes joy born of un-selfish, unconditional love. Selfish love yields a Grady or at best transitory happiness.
On the other hand, loving as Jesus loves -- even in the midst of pain and suffering -- yields joy, joy, joy down in your heart. Joy – Nevertheless!
As we finish, I invite you to ponder the following questions:
- Who is the most joyful person you know?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how joyful are you?
- To what extent would your friends and family describe you as joyful?
- If asked, could you give examples of ways you love others, unselfishly?
- Will you ask God to lead you to whatever it requires of you in order to show you even more joy, joy, joy, joy down in your heart?
Jesus said, “As the father has loved me, so I have loved you: abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”
