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Joy is a word that we can use to describe everything from the delight
of being given an extra helping of Christmas pudding through to the sense
of awesome wonder and joy that we have when our baby is born.
Our Candle liturgy today linked Peace, justice and hope with Joy. I extracted
it from a liturgy on Peace that was given to me a few years ago and adapted
it to our Candle liturgy, to make the link between hope, peace and Joy.
I hope you got the link because a Christian concept of Joy is tied to
hope and to peace.
Christian Joy is not fairy floss joy. It's more than just feel good emotion.
It has substance and is tied up with having an effect on our world that
is for good, that is healing and just and has a real impact upon the people
we rub shoulders with and upon the other species with whom we share this
planet.
By itself, that would sound like Christian joy is such a serious business
that there's no room left for light heartedtedness and laughter. The good
news is that Joy is also about delighting in the good things God has given
us.
Joy is noticing the warmth in a friend's eyes, noticing the genuiness
in a Christian brother or sister's actions for another, delighting in
the beauty of the sunrise, the song of the birds;
The things God has given us for our pleasure are there to be delighted
in.
God knows that joy works at a lot of levels for us, and while the love
of God is shown to us in the hope of Christian faith its also shown to
us in the loveliness of God's gifts of friends and family and nature.
And we want it even more - for those who are denied it. Christians want
that joy for others because how can you have the joy of God's love and
not want to share it. Next week at the gift service, our joy might be
shared with others in the giving for the Lithuania Link, so that people
who are a long way from home will have some sense of being cared about,
looked after, connected and loved at Christmas time.
Christian joy is also tied up with hope and courage and celebration. It
is tied up to justice and liberation. In the Christian faith, we give
a definite shape to the word Joy, a shape that is defined by what Jesus
taught and practised. It is tied up to selflessness. It is about fulfilling
God's desire which has become at one with my desire and that propels me
out from my own interests into the interests of God, and we know that
God's love doesn't stop at the borders of our country or culture.
Joy is tied up with Peace and peace, as we remembered last week is tied
up with justice. That's why with one breath we say Joy to the World and
with the other we say "OK What's our Christmas Offering going to
be for this year?"
Joy is about knowing that my life, your life, counts for something bigger
than me and you. Christian joy is about having a mission that is worth
something, that affects our world in a good way, that touches people's
lives with the love of God, that looks after what God has given us.
A Christian understanding of Joy is tied to being in harmony with God's
spirit.
In the passage where Paul tells the Christians in Thessalonica to rejoice
all the time, he first tells them that they must remember to only do good
to others. He reminds them that they are to encourage the faint hearted,
help the weak, be patient with each other, be at peace with each other.
Stay in touch with God all the time (Paul calls that praying without ceasing)
Joy is about living like God intends us to live. If we are doing that,
it will bring a smile to our heart, and hopefully to others as well because
our living will be a blessing.
But I don't want to just get nailed down to a functional description of
joy. It's also spiritual in a mystical sense, and it has to do with the
God who has made God'self known in Jesus.
In our Psalm reading, the psalmist was talking about how bad things were
at the time of his writing. But he remembers, in the middle of his distress
that God has always been faithful and because of this, he trusts that
God will restore his people. His faith in God means that he has hope for
the future, no matter what is happening now. That is a powerful hope.
God will not desert you and me. God who calls us to be faithful is also
faithful to us, and will bring us to the place of joy. Paul writes to
Thessalonica "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will
of God." The reason he says this is that he trusts that God will
see him to a place of joy.
Tonight, when we celebrate Communion together in the evening service,
Like at every Communion Service, there will be a time when we will give
thanks to God for God's faithfulness throughout the centuries and remind
ourselves that at the right time, God sent Jesus to us, God with us, a
wonderful picture of God's faithfulness and love for us. And we will reaffirm
that we trust God is still faithful.. Joy is associated with knowing we
belong to God, male, female, black, white, poor and rich, infant and ancient.
We are loved and held by God, eternally.
What's so brilliant about the baby Jesus that we talk about Joy To The
World? It is that at this moment of Jesus birth, something has been begun
that will not be stopped. Something is begun, that when it has been played
out, in the fullness of time, does mean that poverty and injustice and
evil will be defeated. When God stepped into our life in this little baby,
a process was started that will work its way out, and you and I are a
part of it's outworking. We don't know how far along the road we are,
but the process is in train, and you and I are a part of it, and we have
been told where it will end. God is with us. Our church name, Emmanuel,
is a statement of faith that this is happening. Joy to the world. The
Lord is come. And what we celeb rate is that faith that says I know it
is done. We may be in the process still, but it is done.
The Kingdom has come and it will come, and God's living Word will take
this world to where God wants it to be. God is with us, with you and me,
and God's love surrounds us in our living. We are forgiven, we are God's
loved people and God's is with us, and this is a reason for Joy.
May the Joy of the Lord be with us as we prepare ourselves for the sheer
joy of the Christmas story and all it promises to us and to our world.
Amen
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