Waiting in Joy
RUMC
12/8/13
You see the word everywhere these
days. This week I saw it in store windows, in advertisements and commercials,
on pins, in Christmas carols, on Christmas ornaments, and on Christmas cards. It
seems like, when you start looking for it, the word “JOY” is everywhere during
advent. However, looking at the blank faces of the clerks who work behind those
joy-filled windows, seeing the empty eyes of the woman wearing the JOY pin, the
sad people putting up the ornaments, I am hard pressed to identify much JOY.
I’ll admit it is hard to see joy and
hard to quantify it. Dean Snyder writes, “The problem is that joy is not a
commodity that can be produced, bought, sold, or stolen. We can’t get joy on
discount at J.C. Penny’s. We can’t buy joy in a (cup at Starbucks.) We can’t
download joy. We can’t lobby for it. We can’t legislate it. We can’t win it in
a lawsuit. We can’t seduce it. We can’t turn it on with a remote control. We
can’t earn it. And we can’t inherit it.”[1]
We can’t quantify Joy, but we all know
it. At least I hope we do. When have you been filled with joy? Maybe it was the
new job or promotion for which you had worked so hard. Perhaps you felt joy
when you finally received the degree you studied so hard to get. Perhaps it was
at the birth of your first child. (That is one of mine.) Perhaps you won a
contest or a sporting event. Maybe your joy came was when “he” finally popped the question, or when “she” finally said, “Yes.” Hopefully, you can identify at least a
few times in your life when you have felt the kind of joy that wells up inside
of you and bubbles over in tears, or laughter, or smiles, or pride. Hopefully
you have experienced the kind of joy that sears itself on your memory and, to some
degree, you can recall it whenever you like. I hope you know that kind of
fleeting joy, because it gives us a clue to what advent joy should be like.
I have to be clear now, that I am not
talking about happiness. We can get a sense of happiness in our life, from
things that we do. A satisfying job can give us a sense of happiness. A loving
relationship or money in the bank might give us a sense of happiness. A
pleasant vacation or good health might give us a sense of happiness. However,
Frederick Buechner says, “Joy is different. Joy is something that is as
unpredictable as the one who bestows it. We can try to achieve happiness, but
we can only receive joy”
That is a second clue to what advent joy
is about.
Let’s look at the story in the Bible from
which our gospel lesson is taken. It starts with Mary, a single (albeit
engaged) girl from Nazareth. The angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her that
both she and her kinswoman, Elizabeth, would be having children. Although a
child is always a blessing, this news must have been frightening and disturbing
to Mary. After all, she was unmarried and a virgin. What would people think?
Never mind people, what would her parents think? Never mind her parents, what
would Joseph think?
This was dangerous. Mary didn’t tell
anyone because the law was clear that if she was convicted of adultery she
could be stoned. Even if her loved ones believed her, there was Herod. If he caught
wind of the things that the angel said, he would have her and the child killed.
We know that from later in the story when Herod tried to get rid of the
competition by having the children in Bethlehem killed.
As frightening and disturbing as it must
have been, it was also a great miracle. Not only was Mary a virgin, but Elizabeth
was thought to be unable to have children. What a tremendous miracle this was!
Mary was as excited as she was afraid.
So, as soon as she could, she went down to Ein Karem to tell Elizabeth what the
angel had said.
When Mary arrived in Ein Karem, and
Elizabeth saw her, the baby in Elizabeth leapt for joy. Now I have felt babies
push and kick before they were born. I can’t say that I quite understand what
it means when it says that the baby leapt. Even though I don’t quite understand
it, I have to believe that somehow, in some mysterious spiritual way even the
unborn John the Baptist could feel joy in the power of the nearby savior.
The baby leapt and Elizabeth burst forth
in prophecy, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will
bear…. Blessed is she who has believed that what the lord has said to her will
be accomplished.” (Luke 1:42)
That is all in prelude to the gospel
reading today, which comes from the song of Mary we know as the Magnificat.
Magnificat means magnify or glorify and is the first word in the song when
printed in Latin.
When Mary heard the blessing of
Elizabeth, she was finally convinced. She was at last able to trust that this
was indeed God’s work. She believed that in spite of the grave danger in
carrying the messiah; despite the reality that her hopes and dreams had been
turned upside down; and despite the fact that she didn’t fully understand, GOD
WAS WORKING! That's when Mary let loose with a song of joy. “My soul magnifies
(or glorifies) the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”
You see she was able
to rejoice. Not because of the circumstances of her life which were frightening
and dangerous, but because she suddenly saw them through a different set of
eyes. Joy comes from seeing life through God’s eyes instead of our own.
Mary continues, “For he has looked with favor on the
lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me
blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”
Mary now sees herself not as a mere child, nor a victim, nor even a
lowly servant. Through God’s eyes, Mary sees how blessed she really is, and how
fortunate she is to have God working in her life in this very special way.
Even though joy is a simple, three
letter word, J.O.Y. most of us have a hard time stringing together those three
letters in our everyday life. Life is hard. We come this morning battered and
bruised from the beating we took this week. Some come bleeding because they
have been deeply wounded by those whom they love. Some come reeking of the
stench of sin that weighs them down. Some come just broken by the demands and
troubles of the week. The important thing, however, is that we come. We come
because we know that we need to see life through a different set of eyes;
divine eyes. From where we live slithering through our days, life is scary,
demanding, and just plain hard. From where God sits, life looks very different.
When we see life from God’s perspective, the grays and blacks of the pain and
trouble give way to the brilliant oranges and reds of the joy of being in
relationship to and being used by the God of all creation.
Catherine Marshall writes about a friend
named Marge: Marge got on an airplane bound for Cleveland. She noticed a
strange phenomenon. Through the windows on one side of the plane, the sky was afire
with the glorious colors of the sunset. Out of the window next to her Marge
could see only dark threatening skies.
Under the roar of the engine, Marge
could hear a voice. It said, “You have noticed the windows. Your life will
contain some happy times, but also some dark shadows. Here is the lesson I want
you to remember. Life is a mix of both heartache and happiness. You must decide
which window you will use.
“You see it doesn’t really matter which
window you choose. This plane is still going to Cleveland.”
So it is with Joy. We can choose to look
through the dark night of our hearts or the bright light of God’s joy.
That is what we are about in this advent
season. Seeing life differently. Seeing life from God’s perspective. Seeing
ourselves from God’s perspective as beautiful and worthy servants of the most
high God. Seeing ourselves from God’s perspective as redeemed sinners. Seeing
ourselves from God’s perspective as his adopted children being prepared to
receive the full inheritance of joy that is being prepared for us in heaven.
Joy comes in seeing life through God’s window.
However, we have to go back to the first two clues before we fully understand
joy.
Remember I said that we
can try to achieve happiness, but we can only receive joy. Advent joy is as
unpredictable as the one who bestows it. That is a reminder that we do not
control joy. We can choose it, but we cannot control it. As I said earlier, joy
is not a commodity we can’t buy joy, download joy, lobby for joy, or legislate
joy. We can’t win it, seduce it, turn it on and off, earn it or inherit joy. We
must simply receive it. Joy is a gift from God. Unpredictable and
uncontrollable grace poured upon us by the fountain of all joy, God himself.
Joy comes in the like a summer shower
not water from the faucet. Joy comes like the mountain brook bubbling over the rocks,
not as a reservoir we can tap at will. Joy comes like a rainbow reflected
through the droplets of grace and refracted in our lives filling our lives with
the full spectrum of godliness. Joy is a wonderful gift from God who is the wellspring
of all salvation. Because if you push joy back far enough in what does our joy
lie? WE can only look through God’s eyes for one reason. Because God came to
look through human eyes. We cannot see the world as God sees it through
unredeemed eyes. It is only in our redemption by the incarnation, life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus that we find the gift of joy. It is only in our
salvation that the gift of joy comes to us and gives us new eyes.
That is really Paul’s message in
Philippians his joy rests not on the success of his mission. In fact he had
been accused, arrested, imprisoned, threatened, beaten, ship wrecked and more. His
mission was far from perfect yet he says, “Rejoice, and again I say rejoice.”
Paul does not boast of his own ability but that of Christ. Paul does not lift
himself up as an example, but lifts up Christ instead. Paul doesn’t rely on his
own plans but ever since he was blinded on the road to Damascus, tries to see
the world through God’s eyes.
Therefore, like Paul, our salvation
comes only from God; and our Joy comes only from God.
Finally, joy is life
transforming. You can never take away the joy of the birth of my children. You cannot
surgically remove the joy of my ordination. You can never steal the joy of
seeing my grandchild or sitting beside the river in Cache La Pudre canyon in
Colorado. Joy is forever because joy changes us. Joy leaves its indelible mark
on our hearts. It transforms the way we look at life and ourselves. Joy
fundamentally changes who we are from creatures existing on the face of an
insignificant rock floating through space, to children of the one true God who
more than anything loves us and wants to transform our existence with joy.
Once you look at life through God’s eyes
of joy, you’ll never look back again, you’ll never see the same again, you’ll
never feel the same again.
Once we finally receive joy, then, we
are marked and changed it makes it easier to receive it again and again. You
might say practice makes perfect. Although we may never in this life know
perfect joy, isn’t it worth practicing?
To put it all together: Joy is the life-transforming
gift of looking at life through God’s eyes.
May this season of Joy find you filled
with the gift.
May this season find changed by the
gift.
May this season be the gift for which you are looking,
[1]
"Making way for joy" Sermon Preached At Foundry United Methodist
Church By Dean Snyder December 8, 2002
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