Series: October 2024
Speaker: Bethany Nelson
Today's Sermon
"We Are Joy-Filled"
Philippians 4:4-9
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Psalm 16
Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight. Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink-offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me; because God is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure. For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit. You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
My son is currently in the middle of the wonderful process of applying to college. And when I say wonderful, I really mean grueling. Or arduous. Or anxiety-producing. Any of those adjectives will work. A big part of that process is the essays. No pressure … just tell us everything we need to know about you in 500 words. One of the essay prompts asked him to write about the values that he would contribute to the college community. Here is how he ended that essay (still very much in rough draft form) –
“Lastly, joy. I think that the key to a good life is joy. For without joy, what is the purpose of life? I try to bring joy to every activity and person I meet. I keep a smile on my face and try to lighten the mood with a joke (although not everyone laughs all the time). Being surrounded by joy is like being wrapped in a comfy blanket.” It is so interesting to hear about joy from a 17-year old’s perspective. Apparently joy is everything from the key to life, to a good joke, to a comfy blanket. In many ways, he’s not wrong!
As you have likely heard Rob mention, last May at our annual Session retreat, our ruling Elders discussed how they might foster “joyful engagement” both in our Westminster community and in the wider community. That has inspired me to think more about joy and what it means in the context of faith, for I think joy is something that often gets misunderstood, and can even be the source of frustration. I feel that when I read this passage from Philippians. Paul writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always … Do not worry about anything … The peace of God will guard your hearts.” Really? Try walking a mile in my shoes, Paul. There’s no way you would rejoice always and not worry about anything. It may be all rainbows and unicorns for you, but not here in the real world. How out of touch can he be?
However, it wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns for Paul. He wrote this letter from prison. Why was he in prison? Because he had commanded an evil spirit to come out of a slave girl. He had tried to help someone – to heal her – and for that he was thrown in jail. I don’t think anyone would have blamed him if he fell into despair, or lashed out in anger. Instead, from his jail cell, he writes this letter to the Philippians, full of joy and encouragement. In the full letter, there are 16 instances of Paul using the language of joy or rejoicing. What’s going on here? Seminary professor Carla Works explains the letter like this - “Joy, for Paul, is not a feeling that is dependent upon circumstances. It is a theological act.”[i]
Joy as a theological act. Paul, and we, rejoice not because of how life is going at any given moment, not because of a specific event, not even because of how we might be feeling. No, we rejoice in the Lord because God is good. We rejoice because God is loving and merciful and faithful. We rejoice because God forgives. We rejoice because God’s faithfulness never fails.
I could go on, but I think you get the point. And … what about when life is terrible? What about when joy seems impossible? Paul rejoices from a jail cell, but I don’t know if I could. The last time I preached, I used a beautiful text from the prophet Isaiah about God’s steadfastness. The passage was filled with wonderful visions of the wolf and lamb feeding together, and of no creature hurting or destroying. I talked about the hope that we can find in God and the importance of taking time to behold the awe and wonder of God’s amazing creation. I was sure it was a sermon filled with inspiration.
And then, after worship, one of you came up to me filled with grief about a friend who was going through an incredibly difficult time. Multiple family members were sick or had recently died, and this friend’s life just seemed devoid of the hope about which I had just preached. This congregant wondered how my sermon could ever speak to someone like her friend, who certainly wasn’t feeling any awe or wonder in her life.
I get it. It’s easy to talk about hope or about rejoicing when things are great. It’s a lot harder to “rejoice in the Lord always” when things are tough. That is, in part, why I changed the title of my sermon. It was going to be “We Are Joyful,” but I changed it to “We Are Joy-filled.” Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but I hear an important difference in those two statements. For, we really don’t feel joyful all the time. But, I do believe that we are joy-filled all the time. We are filled with the joy of God’s presence and love and grace that is with us always, even when we are not feeling joyful. That is what makes joy a theological act. Holding fast to the promise that in God’s presence there is – always - fullness of joy, as the Psalmist sings. Even in the hard times.
Returning to professor Carla Works, she writes, “Rejoicing does not negate or turn a blind eye to despair. Rejoicing does not somehow make the suffering go away or minimize the injustice. Rather, rejoicing acknowledges that we are serving the God who can – and has – stood in solidarity with the oppressed. Rejoicing is a courageous act, a theological hope that stems from a vision of God’s shalom – wholeness, restoration, and goodness. The presence of this shalom can give joy even in the most difficult of times.”[ii]
I want to share a story that Trisha Farrow told our pilgrimage retreat in Tahoe a few weeks ago. Trisha can’t be in worship today, but I want to assure you that I do have her permission to share this with you. One of our retreat goals was to get to know each other and to share our stories with one another, so while we were eating lunch one day, we discussed the question, “What qualities do you value most in a friend.” We had a great list going, and then Trisha told a story that she felt illustrated some of those qualities. She shared about the day that her beloved husband, Rod, died. She was, of course, distraught, so she called a friend. That friend showed up right away at Trisha’s house and did not leave. She stayed with Trisha all day long, making sure that Trisha was not alone on what was one of the most difficult days of her life. This friend didn’t do or say anything especially out of the ordinary. She just was present – listening when Trisha needed to talk, offering tissue when Trisha needed to cry, sitting in quiet when the moment called for it.
As Trisha was telling us this story, do you know what I noticed? She told it with joy. Sure, that day was devastating for her. In fact, when I asked Trisha if it was OK to share this story, her eyes began to fill with tears remembering how hard that day was. But, when she looks back on that day, there is also joy. Joy that her friend sat by her side. Joy that her friend was an instrument of God’s shalom in such a difficult time. Joy and despair are not mutually exclusive. They can and often do exist together.
Remember also that Paul was writing to an entire community in Philippi. Because there will definitely be times when we – as individuals - simply cannot rejoice. But, someone else in our community will be there to hold God’s joy for us. There will be times when we forget that we are filled with God’s joy. But, someone else in the community will be there to remind us that God is with us through those moments of deepest despair. Together, as a community, we are joy-filled.
While on sabbatical, one of the books I read was by a Sikh author, Valarie Kaur, titled, “See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love.” She writes about the intense struggles her family and community members faced as non-Christian, non-white Americans following 9-11. The hate and violence they endured was absolutely terrible. But, she chose to respond to that hate not with more hate, but with love. And part of that love was choosing to live in joy. In fact, the epilogue of her book is titled, simply, “Joy.” She writes, “Joy is possible even amid great labors. We cannot force it. But when we create moments to breathe between labor pains, and surrender our senses to the present moment, notice the colors and light and feeling of being alive, here, together, joy comes more easily. It is a felt sense in our bodies. In the face of horrors visited upon our world daily, in the struggle to protect our loved ones, choosing to let in joy is a revolutionary act. Joy returns us to everything good and beautiful and worth fighting for. It gives us energy for the long labor. Joy is the gift of love: It makes the labor an end in itself. I believe laboring in joy is the meaning of life. May we let joy in.”[iii]
Joy is a theological act. Joy is a revolutionary act. As a joy-filled people, we dare to say that though our anxieties and grief and struggles and fear are very real and very hard, they will not and do not have the final word. Pastor Philip Campbell calls this “joy that emerges from a deep connection with our spiritual source.” It’s no accident that in the same paragraph where Paul tells us to “rejoice in the Lord always,” he also tells us, “in prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God.” What do we do when we are anxious or grieving or fearful? We come to God in prayer. Not because everything will automatically be fixed. Not because life will immediately become wonderful. But because prayer connects us with our spiritual source. Prayer reminds us that we do not walk this road alone. Prayer invites the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And that peace, that shalom, brings joy.
So, I’ll tell my college essay writing son to keep working on his jokes. They certainly can bring a smile, though maybe not quite the fullness of God’s joy. His comfy blanket metaphor? Not bad. God’s joy does offer comfort. But joy as the key to life ... now he’s on to something. For God’s joy really does sustain us throughout our lives. We are joy-filled, so let us rejoice in the promise, in the gift, in the blessing of God with us always. Amen.
[i]https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-of-advent-3/commentary-on-philippians-44-7-5.