Filled With Joy                                             1/24/10

         As many of you know, I’m a collector.  I collect nativities, snowmen, bunnies, birdhouses.  The list goes on.  Among them all, I collect different versions of the 23^rd Psalm.  Some of them are serious like the Native American version; some are humorous, like the one on losing weight called the 23^rd Pound.  But while I was studying for this sermon, I found a new one.  It goes like this:

The Lord is the joy of my life, I shall never be bored.

He brings me into the fellowship of happy friends.

He gives me ecstatic confidence;

He enchants my soul.

He leads me in the way of jubilance for His own great praise.

Yea though I struggle through the experience of gloom

I will fear no sadness; the joy of the Lord is with me;

Thy grace and Thy cheer, they delight me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of the prophets

         of gloom.

Thou annointest my head with gladness.

My heart bubbles over with joy.

Surely delight and rapture shall follow me all the days of my life;

And I will rejoice in the presence of the Lord always.

         Now, I need to make one thing clear.  The joy of the Lord is not the same thing as the “Be Happy Attitudes.”  It’s not pasting a smile on your face and saying “praise God” when life hits back.  It is much deeper than that.

 It is the assurance that God’s love and power cloaks you like a protective shield when life becomes a battle.  It is knowing that you don’t walk through dark valleys of depression, grief, pain, alone.  God walks with you.  He comforts you and gives you the strength you need to know you will make it through. The joy of the Lord is like a river that sometimes bubbles up and flows through our lives, adding to our stream of laughter and delight yet sometimes it is a river that runs under the ground of life’s troubling times.  But the river is always there whether we see it or not. 

However many your fears and failures; however many times you must pick yourself up; however difficult it is to get through each day, the joy of the Lord can be yours --- and the joy of the Lord is our strength. 

Our joy does not deny the darkness of life.  It does not depend on our circumstances.  Instead as the hymn “Beautiful Savior” states “It makes our sorrowing spirit sing.”  Why?  Because our joy is grounded in the good news of the gospel:  Christ has faced the ultimate in evil, and Christ has defeated it.  The victory is ours.  He won the battle against darkness and He won it for you and He has won it for all eternity.  That is why a teenage girl could state what should be the obvious:  “Christians ought to be the most joyful people on the face of the earth.” 

That is why Nehemiah could tell the people that their worship should be joy-filled, not guilt filled.  And yet too many churches seem to enjoy their gloom.  The Florida Boys wrote this song just for them:

I go to many meetings, see Christians everywhere,

We sing and talk of Jesus and how it will be up there;

We talk of all the burdens confronting the human race

And say Jesus is the answer with a frown all over our face.

So what does a joy-filled worship look like?  Well for starters, it’s not a worship style.  It’s not necessarily a rock band and praise choruses just like it’s not necessarily a pipe organ playing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”  It can be both --- or neither. 

It does not lie in the order of worship.  It lies in the heart of worship – a heart of love and grace, joy and gratitude for the mysteries of life – for the smile of a new born baby, for the wonder of a beautiful sunset, for the comforting hug from a close friend. 

Like the joy that infuses our lives, our worship does not deny evil or tragedy.  It does not ignore events like the one in Haiti, but at the same time our worship does not wallow in despair.  It offers the certain hope of God’s power to overcome it all.  It is a celebration of God’s life-giving, life affirming yes.  It is as Brother Zorba said, “... an oasis of joy and hope in a desert of depression and fear.”

You see, the book of Nehemiah tells a story of courage and triumph in the face of tremendous challenges.  The people had at long last returned from exile only to find Jerusalem in ruins, the temple a pile of rubble.  The sight smashed all their dreams of a grand and glorious homecoming.  Instead they had to face the overwhelming task of rebuilding it all one more time. 

Then when the temple stood once again and the wall around the city was finished, they gathered together to worship and their priest Ezra read to them once more the story of the Exodus. 

What the people heard was a story of failure after failure as they refused to follow God’s law, breaking it time and time again.  What they heard was their failure to have faith in the promises of God while they spent their time grumbling and complaining.  What they heard was that they were not good enough and would never be good enough so they began to weep and wail.   This was not what Ezra expected. 

Oh, the people were right.  They had failed to follow the Law.  They were not the faithful people God created them to be and they did need to repent in sorrow and shame but then they needed to begin again, for guilt and sorrow are only half of the story – and not necessarily the most important half.  The other half focuses on God’s great love for His people and the gift of His unfailing grace, the gift of a new beginning. 

That is why Nehemiah and Ezra said together, “This day is holy to the Lord, do not mourn or weep.”  Instead they said to eat and drink and not be grieved for the Lord is good and His joy is our strength.

And so I say to you, “eat, drink, let this be a celebration of God’s love and hope and grace.  Let us rejoice together, for God is here in this place and His joy truly is our strength.”