Growing Together IN JOY Faithfully!

October 9 2011

The Rev. John A. Baldwin

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice". (Phil.4:4)

Today is the beginning of our 4 week Every Member Commitment campaign “Growing Together....Faithfully”, in which we are asking everyone who considers Emmanuel to be their spiritual home & parish family to make a commitment (a pledge) to support our mission & ministry in the year ahead (2012). Our theme this morning is “Growing Together in Joy Faithfully”. My sermon focuses, therefore, on that elusive quality of life we all crave, experiencing Joy. At the conclusion of my sermon you will also hear briefly from someone who, I believe, epitomizes joyfulness in his ministry of music.

Our Epistle this morning comes from the 4th chapter of Philippians, the most affectionate letter of all those written by St. Paul. It is addressed to the members of the first congregation he established in Europe, at Philippi in Macedonia. Paul's relations with this church in all the years afterward seem to have been extraordinarily close & happy. Their contributions (which Paul gratefully acknowledges) are among the only ones he accepts. Their generosity stands out conspicuously in this Epistle. It's particularly remarkable, in that the Macedonian converts were, as a whole, very poor. Their poverty and their open-handed support of Paul and his work, moved him deeply.

One of the most remarkable things about this short Epistle is how much "joy" is woven into the very fabric of the letter. Here is a sampling: "I thank my God... always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy." (1:4) "Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord & of one mind." (2:2) " "You also should be glad & rejoice with me." (2:18) "Receive him in the Lord with all joy." (3:1) "Therefore, my brethren, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown." (4:1)

Paul's joy is deep, absolutely sincere & foundational. It is not a naive, Pollyanna, "Don't worry, be happy" kind of joy, because as Paul asserts in this Epistle, "I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any & all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance & want."(4:12) His secret? "I can do all things in him (Jesus Christ) who strengthens me." (4:13)

Paul didn't have an easy life once he met Jesus on the road to Damascus & was converted from zealous persecutor of Christians to bold proclaimer of Jesus' Resurrection. He was beaten, abused, stoned, imprisoned numerous times, and ultimately (according to Christian legend) beheaded in Rome during the reign of Nero. How is it possible to be so grounded in joy, when suffering & hardship were so close at hand? Quite simply, Paul did not equate joy with happiness. It is far deeper, far more steadfast & dependable than happiness, which can flee from moment to moment. They're not the same thing at all.

Happiness is grounded in material things, events & emotions which can evaporate in an instant when setbacks, disappointments & hard knocks interrupt our daily existence, as they inevitably do. Joy, however, is rooted in the divine.... in knowing deep down that no matter what, we are deeply cherished by the God who created us; in believing implicitly, as Paul asserts in Romans 9:39, that "Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord". Psalm 30 puts it this way, “Sing praises to the Lord...for his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” The pursuit of happiness is limited and bound for disappointment, but the pursuit of joy is eternal.

In an article about "Joy" that profoundly impacted me when I first read it many years ago, Louis Evely wrote this: "The Christian religion is a religion of joy. The Gospel is Good News, and in spite of our occasional melancholy appearance, we are messengers of joy, witnesses of the resurrection. (Yet), strangely enough, we do not cherish the joy of God. We are much more inclined to mourn with Christ (to follow the way of the Cross) than to rejoice with Him (to follow the way of Joy)."

We do a pretty good job of rejoicing on Easter Morning, but as Evely goes on to say, “All too often after Easter, we go on vacation in our religious life. We have worked hard during Lent. We reason: Christ is risen...He is happy....He is safely in heaven. We can do no more for him. Now that his hour of suffering is over, his way and ours can part. We are going to go on with our life and suffering here below. He is in beatitude.”

How crazy is that!! Each and every Sunday is a celebration of the Resurrection. Evely goes on to make some bold assertions that I want you to listen to carefully and ponder. He writes: “We have to make for God the sacrifice of being happy! This will prove the sincerity of our friendship. We have to give God the joy of seeing us happy because of him, to tell him, "You did so much for us, you loved us so much and suffered so much for us, that we now want to give you the reward of seeing us happy. We want to be happy with faith, happy with confidence, happy to be with you."

“Everything which we have closed to happiness, we have closed to God,” Evely asserts. ”We shut God out from all those areas in ourselves where we are resigned not to let joy, hope, confidence, and love enter. Our sadness measures exactly our attachment to ourselves. It denounces our selfishness. The place we give to joy is the place we give to God.”

It means a lot to me to be part of a faith community here at Emmanuel whose mission statement is this: “Sharing the Joy and Power of Life in Christ”. I have experienced Joy here repeatedly, not just on Easter, but sometimes even in the saddest events of life: the joy of recalling at the funeral of Father Bill and other dear members of Emmanuel now departed, how they impacted my life for the better, and how they honored God in their lives; the joy of seeing members cope with severe blows in their lives – chronic illness & life-threatening disease, divorce & broken relationships, loss of jobs, fear about the future for their troubled teenagers, and yet have still remained strong in faith; the joy of seeing infants I've baptized grow into beautiful and handsome young adults; the joy of connecting with the unique gifts and person-hood of so many people; the joy of empowering people for service in the world through the celebration of Holy Eucharist; and the joy of having God affirm for me over and over that in spite my flaws and foibles, I am His beloved child.

Evely concluded his article on Joy by saying, “Our (calling) is this: to have so generous a behavior, a love so alive among us, a heart so filled with joy & faith, that those who meet us can only explain it by admitting in their turn that Christ is risen from the dead. Our greatest mistake is to believe that we always lack only one thing in order to be happy: some money, a promotion, some luck; that this illness be cured or that trial ended. If we think thus, then we will never be happy, for there will always be another illness, another trial, some unexpected catastrophe. It is God we lack, & the unexpected thing about God is that he does not fail us: we fail him. We must learn to be happy immediately....right away - or we will never be happy. For the eternal, like the joy which it engenders, always begins now.” Amen.

Lectionary: October 9, 2011 Year A, Proper 23.Philippians 4:1-9, Matthew 22:1-14