JOY

Zephaniah 3: 14-20; Philippians 4:4-7

In the prologue to his wonderful daily devotional called GRACE FOR THE MOMENT, Max Lucado says: “Each day I am free to choose; because of Calvary, I’m free to choose. And so I choose … love.” That is his first point. As I started his book I joined him in silently declaring that: I too choose to love God and others. He then says “I choose peace.” That I could do too. Peace in tandem with justice is a winning combination to me. I too choose to work for peace. He then says “I choose forgiveness” and I knew I was with him there. I have gone through days, months, even years not forgiving another person. It sapped my energy every day; it drained my spirit every day; and it changed my mood every day. I have certainly decided to choose forgiveness. But the last point on the page made me struggle: Max says: and I choose joy. I don’t think that I am a glass-half-empty kind of guy, but I still wonder if I can choose joy. Certainly there I times I’ve experienced joy in wonderful and serendipitous moments; certainly I have hoped for joy for another person. But is all the human garbage in the world prohibiting or inhibiting me from declaring “I choose joy?” Political wrangling saps joy; knowing the secret anguishes of couples and singles can make joy difficult for me. It was Smokey Robinson who identified that there are few things sadder than “the tears of a clown, when there’s no one around,” Today I wonder how I can choose joy. And yet, Christmas carols implore Good Christian men (and women) to “Rejoice!” We sing of “Tiding of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, at the birth of the Savior.” I thought about the poignant 1966 song called “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night, sung by Simon and Garfunkel. As the beautiful harmonies on “Silent Night, Holy Night” are sung, a local newscaster’s voice grows louder and louder, almost drowning out the music with the report from the evening news: a civil rights march, a drug overdose, and wrangling in the House and Senate. I still wonder if I can choose joy. Certainly there are times, such as Christmas dinner or Christmas morning, when each of us could choose to compliment instead of criticize; to redirect children’s arguments into energy for games; or to embrace what Christmas is rather than pine for what Christmas no longer can be. Like the Simon and Garfunkel song, underneath the House and Senate wrangling, the drug overdoses, the affairs, and the men and women in uniform in harms way, is a persistent theme, a theme that grows louder, as a trumpet: The words of the prophet are these: “Sing! Shout! Rejoice! … The Lord will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love! He will exult over you with loud singing, as on a day of a festival!” And when I read that, if it’s not too blasphemous to say, I picture the Lord smiling, and laughing, and celebrating. Do we allow ourselves the chance to picture a laughing Lord? Then reality sets in: there are words of judgment and doom before the ones of comfort and joy. The Bible has its share of “corrections,” of holy prescriptions on how to return to spiritual health. But the Bible also describes blessings- rewards that are ours for lives lived well. Chapter three of Zephaniah is the good news for those who “waited patiently for the Lord and served him with one accord.” Have you waited patiently for the Lord? I’ve asked myself the same question. How and when, then, shall we rejoice?

In the Christmas story, the 7 o’clock News includes a report of the maniacal King Herod murdering yet another family member, the Romans increasing taxes, and beggars, widows, and orphan crying for mercy. But suddenly, drifting in to the news report comes the messages of angels: One announced to Zechariah (father of John the Baptist, who is different from the prophet Zephaniah): “Fear not Zechariah, … thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth.” [Luke 1:13-14] Angels described the joy that a childless old man and his wife would have, and the world would have too! That’s amazing! An angel then appeared to the Virgin Mary and told her the incredible news that she would bear a son, who will be the son of God. To her credit, she accepted the news, and then she rejoiced! “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices with God my Savior!” [Luke 1: 46-47] The Christmas story is so full of people rejoicing that it makes the bad news of the world inaudible. Let me say that again: The Christmas story is so full of people rejoicing that it makes the bad news of the world inaudible! In fact, joy is not just a Christmas anomaly, it a Christian way of life for many! Take the apostle Paul for instance. He gets arrested and imprisoned, he is run out of towns, he has at least one major human impediment that he calls his “thorn in the flesh,” and he cannot make a living doing the Lord’s work so he has to work on the side making tents. Yet what do we find him doing while in prison? Singing; singing, and rejoicing, and converting the jailor by his joy! What a witness! In his letter to the Philippians, Paul speaks of either joy or rejoicing twelve times in four chapters. In today’s text he just gets delirious with joy: as the camp song put it “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice!” One might wonder how out of touch with reality this man was who, after enduring jails, criticisms, and physical limitations, said we should have no anxiety about anything! “Do you know what I’m going through, Paul?” you might want to cry out. And the man who had no real home, no car, a criminal record, critics, and a handicap might say right back: “Yes, I have a pretty good idea what you’re going through! But Jesus saves! In a land of pompous men, god figurines sold to unsuspecting tourists, and shallow lives, the news that Jesus saves is good news!” I can hear Paul say that and I can hear the enthusiastic way that he would say it! Presbyterian pastor and writer Earl Palmer describes Paul’s letter to the Philippians like this: “Here in verse 4 the call to rejoice is repeated. It is too much to say that joy is the theme of the letter, because nowhere does Paul describe it or treat it as a subject. But because it permeates his message, we can say that joy is the spirit of the letter. The apostle who once sang hymns with his partner Silas in a prison in Philippi (Acts 16: 25), now writes a letter of thanks to Philippi from another prison! With his [own] life in danger, Paul calls on the Philippians to rejoice with him in the Lord.” [Roger E. Van Harn, THE LECTIONARY COMMENTARY, Eerdman’s 2001, p.369.] Hmmmmm. Max Lucado chose joy. God chose to rejoice over a repentant nation named Judah; angels told an old man who was about to become a father to rejoice, and another told a very young woman who was about to become a mother to rejoice. Young motherhood and old fatherhood can usually bring on worries, but they still heard the announcement and rejoiced! Paul chose joy even in prison.

Around the church, it seems, angels have planted messages wherever I go. On the bulletin inserts each week I see the words, Christmas joy! On the bulletin boards, angels get my attention with the words Christmas joy! Little church-shaped banks I gave out to children say Christmas joy! How hard-headed do I have to be? I hope your head isn’t as thick as mine! With all the bad news of the world at the first Christmas, God chose joy. With all the bad news from the world at Christmas this year, I will join the ones I’ve read about in the Bible! I will join Paul! I will join Mary too! I will do it, Max! I will join you in choosing joy!

The angels in heaven are waiting on the edge of the clouds; they are waiting now with great hope, to see also what you will do with Christmas joy ….

Jeffrey A. Sumner December 13, 2009