Responses to the Resurrection: Joy
John 20:19-20
Mother Teresa once said, “Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. … She gives most who gives with joy. The best way to show our gratitude to God and the people is to accept everything with joy. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love. Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the risen Christ.”
There is not another emotional experience that quite rivals joy.
Many in our congregation are experiencing the unbridled joy that comes with being a new parent. Others of us remember that moment quite well. A week or so ago Matt * was trying to explain the feeling he got the first time he held his baby girl -- he just couldn’t quite find the words to do it. There were a lot of sighs, and smiles, and attempts but he could not articulate his joy even though he communicated it very well.
Other things bring surprising joy too.
Can you remember a time when you were overwhelmed by joy? The bliss cannot be explained fully can it?
• You finally land the dream job you’ve have been working toward
• You meet the love of your life
• You get good news - real good news - from a doctor about your spouse or child or parent
I remember one particular car accident that I helped work when I was in law enforcement. It involved a teen-aged boy. It was one of the worst accidents I have ever scene where no one was killed. I remember when mom and dad arrived on scene. There could not have been more of a sense of fear, panic, and desperation. They got out and began searching the wreckage scanning for their son. Then they saw him sitting on a curb next to another officer. Their son was alive and relatively unhurt. The switching of emotions that took place at that moment will never leave me. That couple went from utter despair to absolute euphoria! Mom and dad sprinted across the wreck scene and dove into the arms of their son. There was no holding back the joy they felt.
Again, think of a time or event when you experienced real joy. Is there anything better in the world?
God has given us a great gift when He gave us the potential to experience joy - it’s the “dessert” in the diet of emotions we experience.
The word joy means:
• Happiness over an unanticipated or present good
• It carries overtones of gladness, exuberance, and celebration
• On the spiritual level it refers to the extreme happiness with which the believer contemplates salvation and the bliss of the afterlife. It is often expressed when unexpected benefits of faith are discovered.
Richard foster describes holy joy like this:
“Joy, not grit, is the hallmark of holy obedience. … It is a cheerful revolt against self and pride. … Utter abandonment to God is done freely and with celebration. And so I urge you to enjoy this ministry of self-surrender. … The saints throughout the ages have witnessed to this reality.... You know, of course, that they are not speaking of a silly, superficial, bubbly kind of joy like that flaunted in modern society. No, this is a deep, resonant joy that has been shaped and tempered by the fires of suffering and sorrow; joy through the cross, joy because of the cross.”
God’s kingdom is described as "righteousness, peace and joy" (Rom 14:17) isn’t it? It is a descriptive trait of His Kingdom.
The Gospels use the word joy a lot ... a whole lot! One of the most illustrative might be when Luke places three parables about finding things in the same chapter: the lost sheep (15:3-7); the lost coin (15:8-10); and the lost son ( 15:11-32 ). In each case the response to the discovery is joy! Great joy! That is the shared emotional response that they all have in common after finding something ... or of being found.
Joy, in the sense we are looking at it today, arrives when God brings relief, rescue, resolution, resources, or redemption. All are reasons for joy and all find their nexus in the love of God.
For us, Good Friday is an opportunity for joy to be renewed. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Guess what … that “joy set before Him” ... IS YOU!
There is great joy for God when he finds that which was lost – and there is great joy for the one who is found too.
I remember very vividly getting lost as a child. I don’t remember where it was or how old I was but let me assure you I still remember it vividly. It was in a department store. I was with my mom and then … I wasn’t. I remember the fear; the sense of alone-ness. I can still feel it when I think of that scene. I remember beginning to yell, and crying and wandering around aimlessly looking for mommy. And then – she found me. I did not find her she found me! I suspect it was a shared moment but I know for certain that I was joyful. And that encounter changed me. I didn’t wander off like that anymore. I stayed close to safe hands.
Have you ever heard it said that you don’t know what you have until you lose it? I think the disciples might “amen” that comment. In Christ’s death they lost it all! They were cowering in homes and behind closed doors. They were returning to their old jobs and old ways of life and then – Jesus arrives. HE FOUND THEM! Jesus arrives and they were overwhelmed with joy. I don’t think they ever again wanted to lose that relationship and Jesus made sure they didn’t – that’s why He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within them.
All of this was made possible on Good Friday. That is when the ultimate price was paid by God Himself to bring us back into fellowship. That is when God made it possible for us to know Him intimately through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
There are things that happen to humans -- to you and me -- that bring a sense of deadness inside. It can be caused by so many things but the general result is that we lose hope. Today, your hope can be restored. You can sense the joy that the disciples felt when they met the living, resurrected Christ.
While Kim * was writing the Mary Magdalene reflections for our Holy Week services she wrote a few related things that simply didn’t fit the readings. One fits nicely here as a conclusion to our homily on joy and as a preface to communion:
Imagine him saying your name…
Now, identifying you with something about you that you may have felt was a weakness, but something in the way he says it makes you know, not only, did he intentionally make you that way, but he loves that about you!
He identifies you with that in a positive way. Let’s say you have an anger issue… and perhaps thought God could use you better if only you did not… and He says: “And Here’s ’X’ …my angry one” at first you are surprised that He just put it out there… But then think … perhaps He might love how you hate sin and Satan and how it makes you angry so many are harmed by it, and maybe God wanted you to take that anger to prayer and rebuke the enemy with the power that only your God given anger could bring to intercession…
Suddenly you feel
safe,
loved,
chosen,
holy
joy-full.
And you are called, not in spite of your weaknesses but called with all that you are; and God has a plan that only you can fulfill, and he’s glad you have come to join him, in fact, He’s been waiting for you.
May the peace of Christ be with you this week.
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This sermon is provided by Dr. Kenneth Pell
Potsdam Church of the Nazarene, Potsdam, New York
www.potsdam-naz.org
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Responsive Reading
“A Living Hope”
(1 Peter 1:3-5, 8-9)
Leader: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
People: In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Leader: And into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you
People: You who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming
of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Leader: Though you have not seen him
People: You love him
Leader: Even though you do not see him now
People: You believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
Leader: You are receiving the goal of your faith,
People: The salvation of your souls.
