How much money would it take to make you happy? A million dollars? Two million? Jack Whittaker, 57, won the largest undivided jackpot in U. S. History — $314.9 million — two years ago. But Jewel Whittaker, Jack’s wife, told the Charleston Gazette, “I wish all of this never would have happened. I wish I would have torn the ticket up.” Jack has been arrested twice for drunken driving and has been ordered into a rehabilitation program. He has been charged with assault after attacking a bar manager, and is being sued for causing trouble at a nightclub and a racetrack. There have been several thefts at his office and home, including a car. Apparently there are many other problems as well which are under investigation.
What would it take to make you happy? The people who go on The Swan or Extreme Makeover say that if they just had a chin, a smaller nose, or if they just had those bags under their eyes taken care of they would be happy. And what would life be without a tummy tuck and liposuction of the thighs? Bring on the holly and Botox and we will have joy this Christmas
The Christian faith has a very different perspective on happiness. We believe that joy is experienced in ways the world never seriously considers as real options. I want us to consider the things which rob us of joy, and as we do that, reflect on the things that lead to joy. Again, these are not really profound, but they are buried deep in the reality of what it means to experience joy and really be alive. It will mean, as Stanley Hauerwas is fond of saying, that we are living in such a way that we are going with the grain of the universe. The universe was designed in a certain way by its Creator, and it is important to live so that we are going with the grain of the universe rather than trying to always go against it. Life becomes very difficult when you are going against the grain. Joy is found when we begin to live in the surprising and simple ways that life was meant to be lived.
There are many things in life that rob us of joy, but I want to point out a few that I believe are prominent on the list. The first thing that I see as robbing us of joy is: Living in Isolation. Life was never meant to be lived alone. Stanley Hauerwas says, “I think Americans are very lonely as a people, and their loneliness desires a sense of belonging.” The answer to that is living in community. Essentially, that is what church is: it is a community of believers who are committed to God and each other. We are committed to love, understand and stand by you. There was a time in the church’s history that it was thought to be very spiritual to live alone with God. These were those who wanted to escape the corruption of the world — the ascetics, the mystics who lived a monastic lifestyle. They were recluses who withdrew to caves. Others retreated to monasteries, and within the monasteries withdrew into private cells. Some of the anchorites went so far as to seal themselves up in the walls of churches with only a small opening through which they could be fed and receive communion. Many of them had hallucinations and some went insane. Living without other people in your life is unhealthy and robs you of joy. Prisons have learned that solitary confinement is an effective punishment.
God’s plan for his people is not the monastery, but the church. The church is a group of believers who are the “called out” ones. We are called out of the world to live together in Christian community, and empowered by that experience of community, we are able to hear and obey God when he calls us back out into the world. But there are always those who want to be the Christian equivalent of the Lone Ranger, or in modern terms, “An army of one.” It’s just me and Jesus. I have my personal devotions so I do not need to be a part of a group. I will teach others, but I will not share with others in a group setting. This is an Americanized form of Christianity. I have literally had people say to me, “There is nothing that the Lord and I can’t work out together.” Oh, but there are things that you and the Lord cannot do alone. For one thing, you cannot love others when you are not around others. You cannot meet the needs of others. The radical individualism of our culture makes people believe that they can be a Christian with no connection with a church — other Christians. I have seen the unfortunate circumstance where an individual, or a single family, will become so narrow in their thinking that since no one believes quite like they believe, they draw the circle smaller and smaller until they are the only ones left in it. They don’t have any real contact with other believers. Still others simply don’t want to take the time to be a part of a body of believers and remain aloof. They believe in God, why do they need “organized” religion?
Here is how community looked in the early church: “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:46-47). The Bible warns against living outside a Christian community when it says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
But to live alone is to live without joy. Better to live with a group of people where you have to work at getting along with each other, than living alone so that you never struggle with relationships. This is the way we were made. We were designed to live in community with each other, not isolated aloneness. You cannot live in joy when you are going against the grain of the way you were designed. And you were designed to live closely with other people, not far away from them. You need other people who can balance you, correct you, encourage you, discipline you and help you. We were not made to live alone, and we enormously benefit from being in community with each other.
Early in the year 2000, a 26-year-old former computer systems manager from Dallas moved into an empty house with only his laptop computer and the clothes on his back. It was an experiment to prove how wired the world is. Mitch Maddox, who changed his name to DotComGuy, did not leave the house for nearly a year. He wanted to prove that you could live alone and survive on products bought only over the Internet, from food to clothing, furniture, books and everything needed for life. Digital video cameras were set up around the house to monitor his progress and broadcast his activities on the Internet. The newspaper said: “Isolation is likely to prove the biggest challenge.” DotComGuy occasionally referred to himself as the Internet version of a pet rock. He is now engaged to a girl he met in a chat room. The article did not say if they have ever actually met. But one person did not find this unusual. He wrote: “I don’t go out of the house much either. I buy my books from Amazon, my food from Kozmo and I get my music from Napster. I socialize with my friends using Internet Relay Chat. I do my banking online, and I telecommute to work. Most of my friends have the same lifestyle.” But this has also sparked some reaction by others. For instance, a Chicago Tribune columnist, 42-year-old Eric Zorn, has dubbed himself “NotComGuy.” The article says: “Irked at his own dependence on technology, NotComGuy has vowed to eschew all tech-gadgets for a week and — gasp — reach out to other humans for all his needs.” Now there is an innovative idea
The second thing that I see robbing us of joy is: Living for the Material World. Things cannot satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart. Things are often used as a band-aid to cover the deep wound in our inner being caused by the neglect of the spiritual part of our lives. Somehow we have to get back to the understanding that we are spiritual beings and that material things cannot satisfy us. Jesus said, “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:27-32). Here is joy, and it cannot be found anywhere else. Paul talked of those who live only for the material and sensate world when he said: “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:18-20).
How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carey is an imaginative movie based on Dr. Seuss’ classic Christmas book. If you have kids you know that the Grinch is a hairy, green, cantankerous beast, who looks down on the town of Whoville from his perspective high on a mountain of garbage. The Whos in Whoville disgust him, because they love Christmas and everything about it. The Whos are constantly having parties, decorating and hanging lights. Intent on destroying their Christmas, the Grinch steals all their presents and Christmas trees. Secure and alone in his hideaway, he prepares to hear the howling from Whoville all the way up the mountain. He looks forward to the wailing and gnashing of teeth, as he puts it. But instead, he hears the townspeople singing down in the valley. The narrator explains: “Then the Grinch heard a sound rising over the snow. It started in low and it started to grow.” The Grinch’s face becomes twisted as the narrator continues: “But the sound wasn’t sad, but merry… very. Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small, were singing without any presents at all.” The Grinch is enraged that his plan of stealing their presents and trees has not worked. The narrator goes on: “He hadn’t stopped Christmas from coming. It came. Somehow or other it came just the same. And the Grinch with his Grinch feet ice cold in the snow stood puzzling and puzzling how could it be so.” Finally, the Grinch speaks: “It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags. And he puzzled three hours, ‘till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas. . . perhaps. . . means a little bit more.” How can some green guy with really bad hair understand what and so many today cannot?
Living only in the material realm robs us of true joy and turns us into a Grinch. But the thing that robs us of joy more than any other thing is the third point: Living without Jesus. Perhaps you have seen the sign: “Know Jesus, Know Joy. No Jesus, No Joy.” A little cheesy perhaps, but nonetheless true. We keep trying to live a godless and valueless life and still be happy. It cannot be done. How much we miss when we try to live without Jesus. He is the very source of joy. The world was founded on joy. In the book of Job, God asks him: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone — while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38:7). There was joy at the creation of the earth — the world was founded upon it. Joy is at the center of the universe. And at the coming of Jesus, joy was realized in a personal way that could never be experienced before. To reject Jesus is to reject joy.
Frederick Buechner was twenty-seven and living alone in New York trying to start a novel. He tells of going to hear a famous preacher in New York on impulse. He was not a churchgoer, but the church was right next door. It was around the time that Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey and the preacher compared it to Jesus being crowned king in the believer’s heart. Buechner picks up the story: “He said that unlike Elizabeth’s coronation in the Abbey, this coronation of Jesus in the believer’s heart took place among confession — and I thought, yes, yes, confession — and tears, he said — and I thought tears, yes, perfectly plausible that the coronation of Jesus in the believing heart should take place among confession and tears. And then with his head bobbing up and down so that his glasses glittered, he said in this odd, sandy voice, the voice of an old nurse, that the coronation of Jesus took place among confession and tears and then, as God was and is my witness, great laughter, he said. Jesus is crowned among confession and tears and great laughter, and at the phrase great laughter, for reasons that I have never satisfactorily understood, the great wall of China crumbled and Atlantis rose up out of the sea, and on Madison Avenue, at 73rd Street, tears leapt from my eyes as though I had been struck across the face.” He experienced joy because he experienced Jesus.
It amazes me that the world tries so hard to avoid Jesus, especially during Christmas. I went to a “Yuletide” school program this week. It was an interesting tour of various countries, but it had very little to do with the holiday we are supposed to be celebrating. I was wondering what it would be like for someone from another planet to come to that program and try to figure out what this earth holiday was all about. They did actually use the name “Christmas” a few times, for which I was grateful. They even sang, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” but if you were completely unfamiliar with what Christmas was really about, you might assume it had something to do with figgy pudding, and obnoxious guests who were demanding their fair share of it before they would leave the premises.
The hymn says, “Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king.” Joy has come to the world, for the Lord of Joy has come. But if joy is to be experienced by the world, then the world, and the world’s people, must receive their king. And when they do, it will be with confession, and tears, and great laughter.
Rodney J. Buchanan
December 19, 2004
Mulberry St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
