Advent Three: Joy

The New Revised Standard Version The Return of the Redeemed to Zion

35 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,

the desert shall rejoice and blossom;

like the crocus 2 it shall blossom abundantly,

and rejoice with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,

the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.

They shall see the glory of the LORD,

the majesty of our God.

3 Strengthen the weak hands,

and make firm the feeble knees.

4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart,

“Be strong, do not fear!

Here is your God.

He will come with vengeance,

with terrible recompense.

He will come and save you.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

6 then the lame shall leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.

For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert;

7 the burning sand shall become a pool,

and the thirsty ground springs of water;

the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp,

the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

8 A highway shall be there,

and it shall be called the Holy Way;

the unclean shall not travel on it,

but it shall be for God’s people;

no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.

9 No lion shall be there,

nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;

they shall not be found there,

but the redeemed shall walk there.

10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return,

and come to Zion with singing;

everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain joy and gladness,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Knowing Place

Introduction: Cheap Imitations

I have a whole bunch of very expensive hobbies.

Music

Cycling

Camping

And so to try to defray the cost of some of these very expensive hobbies, I used to be in the habit of buying the cheap imitation of the thing I needed.

So instead of buying the $100 tent, I would buy a $25 tent.

But then the $25 tent would rip on a trip, so I would buy a second $25 tent.

And then one of the poles would snap, so I’d buy a third $25 tent.

And then I would snap one of the tent stakes in the ground, and buy a fourth $25 tent...

You see the problem right?

At some point one of my friends stopped me and said “Buy the right thing first, and only buy it once.”

So while this means my trips out to get new gear are fewer and farther between, that’s actually a good thing.

Because cheap imitations can be deadly.

Where We’ve Been: Building to Something

Hope- Active Participation in moving the story forward

We looked at how hope is a verb, that we are to play a role in the hope that is springing up from the ground.

We asked that you take a look around for the hope that you see in the world, and you have not disappointed!

For those at the emergent last week:

Faith- Letting the parachute hold you.

We talked about what it means to step off the ledge and let the parachute hold you.

Beliefs are great, but we need faith to keep walking in the light of God.

And sometimes the faith we need to have is to let the darker parts of ourselves die.

Peace- A general sense of wellness.

And then it turns out that when we have faith, when we let God kill the darker parts of ourselves, this leads us to a sense of peace.

We just have to be brave enough to let God do that work.

Joy

Joy has a lot of cheap imitations

Happiness.

Money can buy happiness

I can walk out of this building later today, and for something like $5 I can have in my hand a donut and a coffee.

And that sweet sweet combination of sugar and caffeine and carbs is going to send a chemical to my brain, and for however long I can enjoy it, I’m going to be happy.

And you know what? I might just do that after church today...

But happiness is unsustainable

First, as soon as I put the donut and the coffee down, the happiness is likely gone.

But then even worse, that donut and coffee when repeated over and over again, is going to lead to a rather unfortunate side effect...

Which then means I’m going to work out more.

And working out more does not buy happiness.

It buys rage.

So we come to find out that yes, money can buy happiness.

But happiness is just unsustainable.

It can’t go the distance.

It can’t last beyond the moment it’s in.

And so it’s a rather cheap imitation of joy, isn’t it?

Ignorance

Ignorance is bliss.

Imagine a person who is having financial difficulty in their life.

After months and months of struggling, they decided that their best option is to just never look at their bank account again.

No logging in.

No alerts.

No balancing a check book.

Just total ignorance.

For a little while, this person stops stressing out about money!

Everything is just ok.

Until the bill comes due.

Eventually the creditor shows up, and you have to take a gander at the bank account.

In that situation it’s not going to be pretty, is it?

One of the warnings in the great Marvel Movie “Dr. Strange” comes from one of the wizard who says “the bill always comes due.”

If you are ignoring issues in your marriage, the bill will eventually come due, won’t it?

If you are ignoring issues regarding your health, the bill will eventually come due, won’t it?

If you are ignoring the issues that you are experiencing with God in your spiritual life, the bill will indeed eventually come due.

Winning the Argument

Our culture values winning the argument

There is of course the easy target, the partisan political divide of our day.

So often I don’t hear a substantive argument when I turn on the news, I just hear people trying to “own the libs” or “put down the MAGA crowd” or whatever.

But this also lives in our theological spheres, doesn’t it?

I frankly think Jesus would be embarrassed how much time we spend in Christian circles today debating our theology rather than living our theology.

And the sad thing is that while we think it provides us some kind of joy or satisfaction if we win the argument, it really doesn’t does it?

Has anyone ever walked away from “putting someone in their place” and felt joyful about it?

Have you ever won an argument and felt joyful about it?

Or have you walked away with a sense of guilt?

Or pride?

Or arrogance?

Or even shame?

It turns out that kind of like happiness, if we get any kind of emotional hit from winning an argument with someone, it’s a very short lived kind of thing.

There’s only one path to joy: Through suffering.

It turns out that each of our cheap imitations today has an interesting relationship with suffering.

As I was writing this I was sitting in the woods, and so I had this kind of image of suffering as a wilderness that needed to be crossed.

Happiness wants to walk around the suffering.

Happiness might see the coming of suffering, but it takes the nearest off ramp and does it’s best to avoid it.

People who settle for happiness will go to tremendous lengths to make sure that they never have to deal with suffering.

They’ll get addicted to something, like drugs or alcohol or sugar or experiences or adventures.

Whatever it takes to make sure that little happy hit comes along, and that we never have to go through the wilderness of suffering.

Of course, this means that your journey will likely be a lot longer and a lot more difficult.

Ignorance wants to pretend the suffering isn’t there.

Like our imaginary person who’s not looking at the bank account, ignorance might go through the suffering.

But it wants to wear a blindfold the whole time.

Ignorance wants to pretend that everything is ok, that all is right with the world, that the sun is shining this morning.

And the person who practices ignorance as an imitation of joy probably knows what’s going on, they just want to pretend.

But the problem is that you’re still going through the wilderness of suffering, you’re just unaware of how painful it really is.

If I tried to walk through the woods with a blindfold on, I’m pretty sure I would snap an ankle before I made it very far.

And truth is, that’s what happens when we practice ignorance instead of joy.

Winning the argument wants to make the other person suffer.

So much of why we debate in our culture is not so that we can feel right.

It’s so that our opponent gets “owned” or feels badly.

And this is an important distinction!

It’s ok to have an opinion.

It’s ok to back the truth.

It’s ok to stand firm in your convictions.

But if your only goal, or even just a primary goal, in having an argument with someone is to make sure they feel like they’ve lost, then you need to re-think what you’re doing.

Our job is not and has never been to inflict suffering on another person.

Our job is not and has never been to enjoy seeing someone else be wrong.

Just because your opponent gets knocked down a couple of pegs doesn’t mean that you got any taller.

We owe it to ourselves to make sure that we’re not sending others into the the wilderness of suffering for our own amusement.

Joy wants to go through the suffering and come out the other side.

Breast Cancer Survivor

A few nights ago I was talking to a friend of mine who survived a pretty grueling bout with breast cancer.

In the aftermath of that battle, she has become one of the most joyful people I know.

She takes tremendous joy in her family.

She takes tremendous joy in making music with her friends.

She takes tremendous joy in helping others who are walking that terrible journey of cancer just as she had.

When I asked her where she summons that joy, the very obvious answer came back.

When you see how fleeting, how fragile life can really be, then you want to experience every ounce of joy it has to offer.

Joy wants to go through the wilderness of suffering because it knows there’s a better life on the other side.

Irony- a focus on suffering can blind us to joy.

Cycling and Suffering

A few weeks ago a friend and I rode our bikes from Washington DC (almost) back to Pittsburgh.

The fourth day of that trip coming out of Cumberland is a straight up hill ride for 24 miles.

It’s brutal in it’s unrelenting onslaught.

So I put my head down, focused on my pedals, and just stared at my front tire while I was climbing.

At one point I came across my friend who’s much faster than me, and he had pulled off to the side of the trail.

I was worried he had a flat or something like that, so I pulled over to see what was up.

And he had to actually point so that I would look.

The hill we had been climbing was now visible through the valley, and was in peak leaf season.

My first thought through it all was that I had been riding that whole way, and I missed it.

I was so focused on how much I was suffering, how miserable I was feeling, that I forgot to look up and look around at what God was doing right in my midst.

In fact, this passage in Isaiah reminds us that suffering is part of the equation, but that we don’t have to do it alone.

God will strengthen weak hands and make firm feeble knees to see joy all around.

I have been on plenty of rides with weak hands and feeble knees.

I have been on plenty of rides where I didn’t think I could turn the cranks just one more time.

I’ve done those rides.

And it’s a beautiful thing when God gives you a strength you didn’t know you had.

I wonder where else in your life you could experience that?

I wonder where your suffering could be helped by some stronger hands or firmer knees?

I wonder how much farther we could go on this journey if we weren’t so scared our knees were knocking together?

I wonder how much different life would be if we were less focused on our suffering, on our pains, on our complaints, and more focused on the joy that God is putting on display all around us.

Don’t misunderstand- A word about mental health.

At our Wednesday evening sermon discussion group (which you are ALL welcome to join us for by the way!) someone offered a word of caution that I think is important here.

There are pastors that would use a sermon like this to say to those struggling with mental health issues that you just need to get through those, tough it out, get strong, and find the joy.

That’s not only hurtful, it’s not at all what I’m saying here.

Some of us have the unfortunate reality of spending extended periods of time in the wilderness of suffering.

Whether that’s due to trauma

Or family situation.

Or mental health struggles.

And our message today is not to those who have made their home in the wilderness of suffering to hurry up and get out.

Our message today is that those who find themselves in joyful places should have absolutely no fear charging back into the wilderness of suffering to practice holy presence with our brothers and sisters who are struggling.

We don’t need to solve everyone’s problem, or even pull anyone out.

We just need to be disciplined enough to be with them.

Joy to the World

We can take joy out of this building…

We have to tell happy people that there’s a more sustainable way.

We have to tell ignorant people that there’s more beauty to see if only we’d look around.

We have to tell those who would rather win the argument that they can put their weapons down.

We can be brave enough to practice the ministry of presence with those who have made their home for one reason or another in the wilderness of suffering.

…but maybe we can invite them in too...

As we keep drawing closer and closer to Christmas, I am painfully aware of how many folks, particularly in the twilight of the pandemic, are just desperate to feel some joy this season.

Who do you know who needs to be here?

Invite them.

Invite them to the 4:00 Emergent Service, or the 7:00 Traditional, or heck go crazy and come to both!

But by all means, don’t invite them to a show.

There are plenty of those out there in the world and we just can’t compete.

Instead, invite them into a community of joy.

A community that welcomes them no matter where they are on the journey through the wilderness of suffering.

A community that loves folks sight unseen.

A community that would place our hopes not in our own abilities, but in the coming King Jesus Christ.

And in so doing, we can keep walking toward the light.