Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
SCRIPTURE | PHILIPPIANS 4:4-9 (NIV)
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
I can’t help but start this way again. Happy New Year! Advent is the season of new beginnings: We start the Christian year over again and are reminded of our waiting – not just for Christmas, but for the coming Messiah. We are reminded that we are waiting for that final day when Christ will return in ultimate glory and we can finally go back to our homeland – when we can finally return to our native country: the Kingdom of God. Waiting for this amazing thing to take place is not easy. There are struggles along the way. We can distract ourselves with things like mood-altering substances, parties, and anxiety. We can be overwhelmed by the realities of war and violence in our world. But in the midst of this waiting, we have both hope and peace which come from Jesus Christ. There is another aspect of our wait and of Advent: Joy. This is what we’re exploring today.
I have to start by telling you about one of my worst experiences at Christmas. Growing up, we would go to my great-aunt’s house on Christmas day. We’d wake up at four in the morning to travel the 9-hour drive from Superior, WI to a suburb of Chicago. With four kids in the car, you can imagine what the trip was like. Finally, after all of that driving, we would arrive to see our cousins and family members and having fun and eating great food. It was a blast! One of the best parts was when we would give out presents. One year, it was decided that a white elephant gift-giving time was better. So, when I was about seven, we all gathered into the living room to go after the presents we wanted. And the instant I walked in, I knew which one was for me. It was HUGE! Wrapped in red wrapping paper, it was almost the size of me! I knew in an instant that I was destined to have that present.
When my turn finally came, I went running over. You know that when you’re seven, biggest is best. But I was about to learn a painful lesson in life – biggest is not always best. As I opened the present, I burst into tears as I found a drying rack awaiting me. I didn’t know what it was, what it was for, but I did know that I didn’t want it. This unexpected present brought me anything but joy.
There’s another story – one which takes place in the Bible – of an unexpected gift. It comes from Luke 1:26-33: “In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
So an angel shows up and tells Mary, “I’ve got great news, you’re going to have to give birth.” Mary is a young girl, who’s not even married yet and God is coming down to tell her that she is going to have a child. The angel says that this is something wonderful, but we read that Mary was pretty troubled at what the angel was telling her. And for good reason! How many women alive today would say that childbirth is an easy, pain-free thing? And during this time, there were no ways of numbing anything. She was going to feel everything. Worse yet, in these times, women could very easily die from childbirth.
Worse than receiving a drying rack for Christmas, Mary was going to receive the pain, uncertainty, and possibility of death which comes with childbirth. For the guys in the room, it’s like a doctor coming in and telling you that you’re going to have a kidney stone on Christmas day – and it’s not just going to feel like it’s going to kill you – it might. This is a considerably worse shock than finding that drying rack was for me – yet Mary’s response was radically different. Granted, she was a little older than I was, but not by much. This is her response starting in verse 47: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.” Instead of throwing a temper tantrum like someone I know, Mary sings praises to God and is filled with joy.
The question is why? Why on earth would Mary find joy in the fact that all of these hardships were awaiting her. To understand why, we have to understand what. What is joy? Where does it come from? How do we come to have it? Some people would certainly say that joy comes from the things which make you happy. It could be spending time with friends or family or giving a beautiful gift to someone you love. But by the same token, that would mean that anything which makes you happy could bring you joy. Even things which only grant you pleasures or happiness for a moment. Things, money, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, TV – the list goes on. But these things can’t give you joy. Most of them can barely give you fleeting happiness.
But is there difference between joy and happiness? Is there a difference between joy and pleasure? Yes. Pleasure is something which comes from external sources which changes your brain chemistry for a short amount of time. Happiness is a more prolonged change, but is situational. You cannot be happy and have a knife stabbed in your back. But joy is something which is continual. It is a happiness, a pleasure, which fundamentally changes who you are and stays with you at all times. You can have joy while having a knife in your back. You can have joy and be starving. You can have joy while being told that you might die as you face the unknowns of a holy childbirth.
We now know what joy is, but the better question is where does it come from? And how do we get it? John Wesley, who is the founder of Methodism, taught that true joy comes from faith. And only faith. He preaches, “It is true that while we are in the vigor of youth and health – while our blood dances in our veins, while the world smiles upon us and we have all the conveniences… of life – we frequently have pleasing dreams and enjoy a kind of happiness. But it cannot continue; it flies away like a shadow. And even while it does, it is not solid or substantial; it does not satisfy the soul. We still pant for something else, something which we don’t have… That something is neither more nor less than the knowledge and love of God, without which no spirit can be happy either in heaven or on earth.”
There will be times in our lives when we experience a kind of happiness. But this happiness is like all other happinesses which come for a while and then leave us as quickly as they came. Yet these are the kinds of happinesses which we are taught to seek after. Our society talks about finding happiness in yourself. Finding happiness in your work or in your family. We chase after these things, but in the end, they cannot give us joy. That is why we are a depressed nation with suicides on the rise and antidepressants prescribed to 1 in every 10 Americans. Because we are staking our joy on things which cannot give it.
But, as Christians, we know where real joy comes from. We know where the joy which lasts and never leaves us resides! John Wesley taught that there is One God, One Faith, One Joy. He says, “As there is but one God in heaven above and in the earth below, so there is only one joy for created spirits, either in heaven or on earth. This one God made our hearts for Himself, and our hearts cannot find rest until they rest in Him.” God is the only source of that which is Good for God is good. Everything which is good in the world and in our lives comes from Him and Him alone. So true love only comes from the true God. True hope only comes from the true God. True peace only comes from the true God. True joy only comes from the true God. One God. One Faith. One Joy.
So that’s where joy comes from. The final question is, how do we get it? How do we have joy in our lives? As John would say, we receive joy through faith and we receive faith from knowing God more. In our scripture text for today, Paul says to the church in Philippi, “brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” In other words, spend time coming to know God more. Take time to figure out who God is and what He is doing in the world and don’t just learn, but put into practice these things.
This is where knowledge turns into faith – when we put into practice what we have learned. Then, as we grow deeper in our knowledge of God, we will grow deeper in our faith of God. As we grow deeper in our faith of God, we will receive joy. And this joy will last through all things. It is a joy which will be present when we do our taxes. When we’re in line at the DMV. When we’re held at gun point. When the plan is crashing down. When we’re standing a top of the tallest building. When we’re doing our laundry. And when we’re told to expect a child.
Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” When we come to know the One God, we come to have the One Faith; through our One Faith comes our One Joy; and through our Joy, we have hope and peace. This is what helps bring us through our waiting – the Joy which comes from faith which comes from knowing God. So let us go and know God more, find faith, and rejoice. Amen? Amen.