Read the Lectionary Texts

It’s really starting to feel like Christmas, isn’t it? I find myself getting all filled up with the Christmas spirit, and I just feel like singing all the time. Do you? Let’s sing a song together, okay?

We wish you a merry Christmas! We wish you a merry Christmas!

We wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin!

We wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!

Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. It’s good to feel merry, and happy.

But what if you don’t? What if you don’t feel happy, or merry?

What if life overwhelms you and sucks away all the merry and happy feelings?

The newspaper said the little 6-year old boy who was killed in an aircraft accident years ago in Chicago was happily singing “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” just moments before the car was hit by the plane. The television shows us images of Israelis and Palestinians not sure how Christmas can be celebrated this year as war rages not far from the little town of Bethlehem. Families we know are having a hard time coming to grips with their first Christmas after the death of a loved one.

Merry Christmas? Happy New Year?

These words describe human feelings that are so very dependent upon the circumstances of our lives. Either you feel happy, or you don’t. Either you are merry, or you’re not. And as our feelings go, so goes our ability to experience Christmas.

The Christian life, however, is not built upon the ever-changing feelings we experience. Jesus never told us to be happy or merry. And considering that the world in which he lived was a very harsh and oppressive world, and that the people among whom he lived were mostly poor, despised, marginalized and unfairly treated, it would have been just plain wrong to come with a Gospel message that essentially said, “Don’t worry, be happy!”

The Christian life never puts a happy face on human difficulty.

Jesus never told hurting people to be happy.

But we are told to REJOICE!

When the prophet Isaiah announced the future Messiah, he said, “I delight greatly in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God!” Paul, in 1^st Thessalonians says, “Rejoice always!” The command to rejoice is heard 68 times in the New Testament alone!

And how is the call to rejoice different than being happy or merry? Well, those two are adjectives, describing feelings. Either you have them, or you don’t have them. But to rejoice is a verb – an action we can take in the face of life as it really is, however it is.

Rejoice always!

The Greek word for rejoice is chairos. And chairos is the root word for charis, which means GRACE! And grace is the unconditional, undeserved, unearned, unmerited gift of God’s love. Someone has said that grace is God’s loving us just for the heck of it – just because God wants to! More accurately, grace is God’s very nature. We can’t ever earn it or deserve it. Grace is God’s gift to freely give as God chooses.

So if we understand that rejoicing has something to do with God’s grace, perhaps we could define it this way: to rejoice is to FIND the grace God has placed in life. 

I guess you could say it like this: “To rejoice is to FIND THE JOY!”

And God has literally permeated this world with JOY! God’s gracious JOY is everywhere to be found!

It’s in your sense of humor. Did you know that? Your sense of humor is a gift from God. It is a part of your body’s defense mechanism and healing system. Researchers tell us that laughter releases seratonin which is the body’s “Joy hormone.” Laughter can help you sleep better at night. Laughter can reduce the incidences of stress-related illness, including high-blood pressure. Laughter can lessen pain and speed up the healing of your body. That’s why Reader’s Digest labeled their famous column, “Laughter is the Best…”…what? Medicine. Your ability to find humor in the midst of reality is a skill set God wants you to have.

I was doing a graveside funeral service in Boston. I was in the middle of saying that we now committed our dear departed sister’s body to the ground, “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust“ when all of a sudden, the ground let go! I started to sink! Right into the grave! It was the first time I’d ever buried myself! Well, the mourners were very concerned and immediately rushed to my aid. They and the funeral director, who was a friend of mine, pulled me up and dusted me off and anxiously examined me for damage. They all had great looks of worry on their faces, including my funeral director friend. After a few moments, he invited me to resume the service. And as I did, from behind me, I heard him let out a little (snicker). And looking around at all the mourners there at graveside, I could plainly see that while they were grieving death, they were really dying to laugh!

Years later, I ran into the son of the woman I’d been buried with that day. He said, “Reverend, that was just the best funeral we’ve ever been too. The family still talks about it when we get together! Ma would have loved it!”

Joy…even in the face of death. Joy is everywhere, and that little humorous moment became a part of the healing of that grieving family.

How’s your sense of humor? Have you ever considered that humor is a very important component in the life of the Christian?

So is music. There is Joy to be found in music! I spend a lot of time in the car, driving back and forth to hospitals. Quite often, I feel overwhelmed by the enormous amount of illness and tragedy we experience as the church we are, and this weighs on me as I head up the interstate. But I’ve discovered something very interesting. All I’ve got to do is hit the ‘50’s, ‘60’s or ‘70’s channel on my XM radio, turn the volume up, and as the songs of my growing up years pound forth, I find….Joy! Doo-wah-diddy-diddy-dum-diddy-do! really DOES something for me! And the Joy lifts my spirits, and by the time I get to the hospital – subwoofer woofin’ and tweeters tweetin’ – I’m ready to be a pastor again.

God has placed a lot of Joy in music! What are the songs of your growing up? Have you listened to them lately? What are the tunes, hymns, and classical works that contain Joy for you? If you want a suggestion that can lead you to find Joy in the middle of the day this week, let me suggest first of all that you turn off the talk radio. That just riles us up. Tune in one of the stations playing all Christmas music all the time. You’ll find it quiets your spirit, and brings you to Joy!

Memories contain Joy. Sometimes looking through the old family photo album, or pulling out the Super 8 millimeter home movies, or just telling family stories can lead you to Joy.

Nature is filled with Joy. Get up early and drink in the sunrise. Drive up the Cherohala Skyway to where the ice coating the branches of the trees glistens in the sunlight. Step out at night and see the beautiful stars – if you can see them at all through the glow of the Christmas lights on your neighbor’s house.

Joy is everywhere! God has graciously permeated this world with Joy!

REJOICE!

The act of finding the Joy in life! It’s a Christian discipline that should rank right up there with prayer!

REJOICE!

But the most important kind of rejoicing we can do is to rejoice in the Lord!

The greatest Joy of all is the Joy you will find in Jesus!

When the harsh realities of life come our way – whether they have to do with our own personal losses, or the more global tragedies of things like war, poverty and injustice – what we don’t need is to just “put on a happy face” and pretend that everything is okay. We don’t need easy answers that gloss over life’s most complicated questions. We don’t need some way to explain it all away.

What we need in this challenging world in which we live is not a happy or merry feeling to mask over our sorrow. What we do need is a Savior. We need Someone who can help us find our way through the hard times. We need a Friend who can help us face the dark nights and difficult days. We need a Partner who can help us find the resources we will need to make it through to the other side. And most especially, we need a Redeemer who we can trust to transform our sorrows into joy, and even death into resurrection!

From the night of his birth to the day of his resurrection, people just like us found Joy in Jesus. As Isaiah writes, the Messiah will be sent to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to set the captives free, to comfort all who mourn and bestow upon them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

And isn’t that exactly what Jesus did among people like you and me?

“Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I will say rejoice!” says St. Paul.

That’s why we light the pink Joy candle on the third Sunday in the season of Advent – to remind us that true Joy is to be found in the One whose coming we await.

And that’s why we invite you – each and every one – to open your heart to Jesus. Study his life. Learn his teachings. Follow his way. Tell him your secrets. Share with him your sorrow. Invite him to live in your heart and walk with you every day.

In other words, REJOICE IN THE LORD!