Unquenchable Joy
Luke 7:11-17 & Ephesians 3:16-21
Did you know that in America nearly 90% of people say they believe in God? But only 45% of people who believe in the Christian God are regularly in worship! In other words, 55% of our brothers and sisters in Christ rarely come to the family get-togethers! More than ½ of God’s family finds something else to do, rather to come to worship or fellowship or study! Maybe some of your earthly families are like that – but mine isn’t! When there’s a family celebration everyone (with the exception of one or two) really tries to make it! I can’t imagine Christmas and birthday parties without all my aunts and uncles, cousins and their spouses and children all gathered to celebrate together as a family.
I guess there are a couple reasons why my family is like this. First of all, when Grandma Ethel (my great-grandma) and Grandma Fern were alive, there was just no questioning. When the family joined for Sunday dinner every Sunday after our various worship services – everyone was expected to be there. I grew up eating Sunday dinner every week with 20 of my relatives. And second of all, we enjoyed it. We enjoyed being together as a family! Those Sunday afternoons and holidays are some of my fondest childhood memories! I couldn’t wait for church to be over so I could go to grandma’s and walk into her house and smell baked potatoes baking and grandpa’s vanilla pipe tobacco!
Even now, after both grandmas have been called to their heavenly home and as our family has scattered across several states, we still make every effort to get home for holidays and even for impromptu family get-togethers! We could all make excuses now not to go, but in truth my family just enjoys being together.
Wouldn’t it be great if the whole family of God really enjoyed the times we spend together? But how can that be when over half of the family doesn’t come to our family get togethers?
There are many reasons people don’t come to church. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church and author of several books (including the Purpose Driven Life) states there are four main reasons people give for not going to church:
1. “Church services are boring, especially the sermons.”
2. “Church members are unfriendly to visitors.”
3. “The church is more interested in money than in me.” And
4. “We worry about the quality of the church’s child care.”
Of these four reasons, you will notice that none of them have anything to do directly with God. When people are invited to God’s family gatherings, they rarely say, “I don’t believe in God.” Most excuses have to do with “church” – with the human institution and with how family members treat each other and those on the outside. These excuses that Rick Warren highlights have nothing to do with God and people’s relationships with God but they everything to do with how we – the church family – present ourselves to others. And in actuality, many Christians don’t present a joy-filled attitude in church or out of church. I wonder how many of us have gathered here today out of sheer joy for being together as the family of God?
In the gospel reading today, Jesus encounters a funeral procession. Funerals are not usually seen as joyful events in our lives – although there have been a handful of ones I have attended that truly were joyful. But this was not one of them. This funeral is for the only son of a widow – so it’s no wonder that the mother is weeping. She’s buried her husband. She’s now burying her only son. Which means she is now left as a woman who would need to rely on her family or the generosity of the community for her livelihood. This widow (and those others in the funeral procession) had every reason to be weeping. The tears were not just for the dead, but as often at a funeral, the tears were also for she who survived. And I love the NIV translation of Luke 7:13: When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her, and he said, “Don’t cry.”
Jesus saw the woman who was mourning the death of her son, who was worrying about the future and who would take care of her and his heart went out to her and he said, “don’t cry.” It wasn’t a pat remark. These words are the words of Christ’s heart for her. And then he touched the coffin and said, “young man, I say to you, get up!” And he sat up and began talking. And everyone there was filled with awe and praised God. What joy filled their lives at this moment!
Christ saw the hardship of the woman and his heart went out to her. And through Christ’s touch life was restored to her son and to her. And everyone (not just the mother and son) but everyone was filled with such awe that right there they bean praising God. And the awe and joy of this moment energized those who were there to go to their homes and to go throughout Judea spreading the news of Christ.
Christ does the same for us. Christ sees the tears we cry and his heart goes out to us. And through Christ’s touch we are brought again to life. Through Christ’s touch we are restored. Through Christ WE have been brought back from the death of sin… and yet I say, where is our joy?
Why do we feel like we have nothing to offer the world? We Christians have the greatest news of all time – the truth of Jesus Christ who once was dead, but now is alive. The truth of our faith through which we believe in the LIFE everlasting. This is the unquenchable joy that fills the life of every Christian. And yet we go out of our way to not share it. We go out of our way to not invite others to come to the fountain of life-giving water. Why?
Perhaps we are scared that the eternal spring of Living Water may not be eternal. What if we invite people into the joy of Christ only to find out there isn’t enough of Christ to go around? But as the words of Paul remind us, Christ is able to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” There is more than enough joy to spread throughout the world. There is more than enough God-inspired awe to fill each of God’s children in the world. The love, grace, mercy and joy of Christ is an ever-flowing stream of living water.
Is that something to be excited about? Yes it is! And more than just be excited about it, we need to share it!
The widow and her son and all who were at the funeral procession were so filled with joy that they went and told others. They didn’t care what others might think. They didn’t force others to believe. They just shared the remarkable, immeasurable, unimaginable work that they experienced through Christ.
That is what we are called to do. We are called to share the joy of Christ that is in our lives with others. That’s it. We’re not called to “make others believe.” We’re not responsible for the salvation of others. But we are obligated as witnesses to the glory of Christ in our lives to spread the good news to the world.
We are commanded by Christ to be witnesses to the world. Witnesses who speak the truth of salvation with their words and actions. Witnesses who proclaim the joy of Christ at work in our lives. Witnesses who are strengthened through the power of the Holy Spirit to take Christ outside of these walls and proclaim him at home, at school, at work, in the line at the bank, wherever we are.
But before we can go out and be witnesses to the unquenchable joy of Christ in our lives, we must first recognize the joy of Christ. Some of us may have a mountaintop experience or a deep valley experience where we experienced the heart of Christ and the hand of his salvation. Others of us may be traveling across the flat, even terrain. Regardless, there is much in our lives that can witness to the joy of Christ.
We are here this morning. We are here to gather for worship without the threat of others finding us and killing us. Most of us (if not all of us) drove here this morning in air conditioned cars, not having to walk the miles from our homes through dirt and garbage. Most of us are able to pick up the Bible in the pew or the one at home and read for ourselves the words of God. We will leave today after worship and go home to houses that are safe, have electric and plumbing and will eat more food for lunch than some of our brothers and sisters will eat this week.
But what do we have to be joyful about?
Maybe we can be joyful about the blessings of God that have enable the long tradition of our church family to support mission and ministries in Jessamine county and throughout the world? Perhaps the joy of Christ is seen in the children and adults who come to Wednesday evenings for fellowship and study. If we examine our lives as individuals and as a branch of God’s family tree, we do indeed have many reason to celebrate and be joyful.
God’s unquenchable joy flows in our lives every minute of everyday – but we have to stop and recognize it.
Christ desires to do great works in and through our lives – but we have to open ourselves to him.
The Holy Spirit will lead us to share joy with others – but we have to trust in the Spirit’s guidance.
We can’t preach God’s love for the world, when we ourselves hate the world.
We can’t tell others about God’s forgiveness, when we ourselves refuse to forgive or be forgiven.
We can’t share God’s unquenchable joy with others, when we ourselves are not joyful.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., a member of the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years once explained his choice in career by saying: "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers."
It’s time we stop looking and acting like members of a funeral procession and begin living as God’s children – forgiven, loved and freed from the bondage of sin. This, my friends, is the joyful and good news of our Lord and Savior! This is the joyful news that we should be sharing with all God’s children. May we each go out this week and be bearers of the Good News which we have received through the power of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
