Rejoice in the Lord Always, Again I Say Rejoice

And Again I say Rejoice! Philippians 4:4:4-7, Zephaniah 3:14-17 Advent 3: JOY, Dec. 16, 2012

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say Rejoice! Really? Is that possible? To rejoice always?

There are days in my life when joy seems so distant. What are the top Joy Destroyers in your life? You have a chance to list them today. Sometimes when we know what we are up against, we have a greater chance to overcome it. For me, one of the primary Joy Destroyers is FATIGUE. When I am weary, I struggle to maintain joy. Sometimes I feel fatigue because I have too many purposeful things to do in my life. But sometimes it’s because I don’t have enough purposeful things to do in my life. Both can create fatigue in body and spirit.

Another Joy Destroyer is when I TURN INWARD; focusing on my own worries and burdens more than focusing on others, whose burdens I might be able to share. When I turn inward I tend to isolate myself from community, even from the church. I tend to forget about being thankful, or about praying, and joy evaporates.

A third Joy Destroyer is when I LIVE IN MY PAST GLORIES versus living in the present, because when I live in the past I fail to see the potential glories each present day holds. Looking back and remembering good moments is healthy, but getting stuck in the past is not. Because then, I long for the good ole days, where life seemed so meaningful and comfortable. And, I fail to become who I am yet meant to be.

Fourth, when I am fatigued, when I turn inward, when I get stuck in the past, God seems so far away, almost non-existent. When GOD IS ABSENT in my life I lose my joy.

But Paul says there are steps we can follow to bring JOY back into our lives. In begins in vs. 5: The Lord is near. That’s where JOY is created. In God. Trusting that God is here. Now, Jesus says in John 4 that God is Spirit. God is not an old man with a long white beard, or a middle-aged maternal woman, but Spirit. What is that to you? Spirit? To me it is a source of energy from a dimension beyond this one, yet a dimension that contains this one. Unseen yet tangible. Incomprehensible yet intimate Illusive yet distinct. Everything, literally everything, lives within this Spirit, this energy.

I often say that a seed of God lives within each of us, but what I truly mean is that each of us live within this Spirit, within God, within God’s love. Which means: God is near; God is always at hand. And, God is the source of our deepest joy.

Now that doesn’t mean we will never have problems. We will. But Paul urges: pray about everything, pray with thanksgiving. As I Peter 5:7 states, “Throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon God, for you are God’s personal concern.” When we worry, hand over those concerns to God, for God is near. Pray, “God, this is too big for me, I can’t handle this by myself.” It is then that God takes the responsibility off of our shoulders for a bit, giving us a chance to catch our breath and rest. Paul says, “And the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds.” Giving you a chance to give thanks for simple pleasures. Each simple gratitude revives joy. So, you want joy? Make a list of thanksgiving. Such as: -Sparkling dewdrops on grass blades in the morning light, -Warm mugs of cocoa after shoveling snow. -The cool crispness of fresh bed sheets after a long, hot day of labor. For what are you thankful?

When we lose gratitude we lose joy: every sunset is bleached pale, every meal is bland, every relationship is sour.

“In everything give thanks,” Paul urges in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.” Corrie ten Boom who, with her family, lived through the Nazi holocaust, hid Jewish people in her home to keep them from being taken to the camps. Long afterward she would tell the story of how she and her sister Betsy ended up in a Nazi prison camp that was such a flea-ridden, terrible place that she couldn’t stand it. Betsy one day said, “But I have found something in the Bible that will help us. It says, ‘in all things give thanks.’” Corrie said, “I can’t give thanks for these fleas.” Betsy said, “Give thanks that we’re together. Most families have been split up.” Corrie thought, “I can do that.” Her sister continued, “Give thanks that somehow the guards didn’t check our belongings and our Bible is with us.” She gave thanks for that, but never would she give thanks for those blasted fleas. Later they found out that the only reason they were not molested and harmed by the guards was because their captors were so repulsed by the fleas that they would not enter their cell. Corrie explained how this taught her to give thanks in all things, because you never know…” The good and the bad, the bright and the dark…somehow, all of it is to be embraced. Maybe you’ve had such moments when only long after a terrible time were you able to see the good that came out of it, and give thanks.

“Finally, beloved,” Paul writes, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Paul does not say, “Finally beloved, whatever is tragic, whatever is scandalous, whatever is gruesome, whatever is despicable, think about these things.”

Though social media of every form often focuses on scandal and tragedy, Paul says that what you choose to think about is what you live. If you think this world is miserable then this world shall be miserable. You cannot have one kind of mind and another kind of environment. This is the supreme key to life: you cannot change your mind without your environment changing too. Choose to think and to practice the way of God. Paul urges, “Keep doing the things you have learned from God.” Keep choosing the way of God and the peace of Christ will be with you.

While there are some who would rather get all stirred up debating on whether there is a God or not, there are others who are acting with every ounce of energy as though there is. While others look on at this grimy old world of injustice and think surely someone will come and right this wrong, any minute now someone will come; a few see that the someone to come to right the wrong is in fact, themselves, me, you, us. One of our church families gave three heavy crates of fresh oranges to the Food Pantry this week. I delivered the oranges on Tue, where I saw Don Heller, early that morning helping a family carry a box of food to their car. Don was thrilled to get the oranges, but not nearly as thrilled as the man I saw later that morning outside my office window pulling a child’s wagon of food and gently holding an orange in his hand as through it was gold. That evening, by chance, I drove by the Food Pantry again, and again I saw Don Heller pushing a cart of food to a car. Startled by the late hour, I remembered that the Pantry is now open one night each month, for those whose work schedules will not allow them to come during the day. He walked with the same energy I had witnessed that morning. While at the Victims Assistance Phoenix House for a board meeting last Monday night, I heard how Barbara, the director, has assisted 33 county families in the last two months, separating them from violent homes to places of safety, 9 of whom were children, 1 an 84 year old woman. Yet despite this troubling work, Barbara continues to serve with an energy that is grounded in something bigger than the task at hand. For Don and Barbara it is JOY that motivates them, joy more expansive than their own worries; a joy they practice, a joy that is a choice.

The more we practice, the more we keep doing the things we have learned from Christ Jesus, the more peace will be within us. The more peace—the deeper joy. That’s the truth! It is a choice we make.

When Paul turned away from his Jewish faith in order to follow Jesus, his family and friends abandoned him, essentially treating him as dead. Over the course of his life he was shipwrecked, nearly stoned to death, and beaten with iron rods three times. And, he experienced 39 lashes from a whip. Since the Romans thought 40 lashes would kill a man, they always stopped one lash short of death. This they did to Paul five times. Paul was imprisoned at least twice, and it was while he was rotting in a dungeon in Rome that he wrote these words to the church at Philippi: Rejoice in the Lord always; I’ll say it again, rejoice! The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything pray and give thanks. Whatever is honorable, whatever is commendable…think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned from Christ And the God of peace will be with you.

Paul made his choice. Today we ordain three who, through your affirmation and their own choice, shall willingly do the things they have learned from Christ. They will be able to keep doing these things, whatever the cost, whatever the challenge, because God is near.

Who makes it possible for all followers to say: Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice!