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On This Fourth Sunday of Advent We Come to the Last Christmas Carol in Our Homily Series

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On This Fourth Sunday of Advent We Come to the Last Christmas Carol in Our Homily Series On this fourth Sunday of Advent we come to the last Christmas carol in our homily series. Today we’ll take a look at a song Isaac Watts wrote over 300 years ago: “Joy to the World.” We think of this as a Christmas song, but if you look at the lyrics, it only hints at Jesus’ birth. We could easily use it as a general-purpose song of praise for which the words were inspired by Psalm 98. Let’s face it; Christmas is a stressful time for most adults. For some it is a time of intense loneliness or crushing grief because of a loved one who is gone. Even at its best, Christmas means parties to plan, gifts to buy, elaborate meals to cook, long trips to take, or out-of-town guests to host. Instead of bringing JOY, Christmas can bring frustration. I heard a story about a woman who was doing her last-minute Christmas shopping at a crowded mall. She was tired of fighting the crowds. She was tired of standing in lines. She was tired of fighting her way down long aisles looking for a gift that had sold out days before. Her arms were full of bulky packages when the Elevator door opened. It was full. The occupants of the elevator grudgingly tightened ranks to allow a small space for her and her packages. As the doors closed she blurted out, “Whoever is responsible for this whole Christmas thing ought to be arrested, strung up, and shot!” A few others nodded their heads or grunted in agreement. Then, from somewhere in the back of the elevator came a single voice that said, “Don’t worry. They already crucified him.” We need to remember who is responsible for the whole Christmas thing. It is all about how God so loved the world that He gave his only Son so that whoever believes in Him might have eternal life. John 3:16 Unfortunately, many people leave Christ out of Christmas. Instead of looking to Jesus, people look for JOY anywhere and everywhere else. Pretty much everybody wants happiness. In fact, people do what they do for the purpose of “finding happiness.” People work hard to buy possessions that can make them happy. They look for happiness in entertainment, hobbies, sports, passions and various addictions. When you consider that happiness seems to be the main goal, it seems surprising that the Bible doesn’t talk much about happiness. But the Bible says a lot about something that is often confused with happiness. The Bible says a lot about JOY. The kind of JOY the Bible talks about goes much deeper than mere happiness. You see, happiness deals with what is happening. Happiness depends on circumstance. In fact, for most people happiness is nothing more than a temporary interruption to boredom. We’ve all heard kids complain, “I’m bored.” That means, “I want some happiness, and I’m NOT finding it!” Genuine joy, on the other hand does not depend on what’s happening. Joy is an inner sense of well-being that has nothing to do with circumstance. The kind of JOY the Bible describes can’t be found in possessions or entertainments or even in looking deeply into your inner self. The first line of “Joy to the World” sums it up. There is one reason --- and only one --- that we can find JOY in this world. As the song says, we can have joy because The Lord has come! Are you prepared to receive into your life Christ as King, who provides Joy? In the same way that your body craves food, exercise and rest, so your Spirit craves a relationship with God. Without that relationship, your soul will become famished and restless. If we look deeply within ourselves, we will not find happiness, but we will find that space that only God can fill. If we try to fill it with anything besides God, we will be forever unsatisfied. That’s why the 1st stanza of JOY TO THE WORLD teaches: THERE IS JOY WHEN THE KING IS RECEIVED --"Joy to the world! The Lord is come! Let earth receive her king; let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing." The second stanza teaches: THERE IS JOY WHEN THE SAVIOR REIGNS --"Joy to the world! The Savior reigns! Let men their songs employ; while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, repeat the sounding Joy." Receiving Christ is the important first step. But then we must go on to let him reign in our lives. While he was living here on earth, Jesus encountered large crowds who were ready and willing to receive him. But they were not at all ready to let him take charge. They wanted Him to do things their way … not the other way around. There are a lot of people today who are more than willing to receive all the good things Christ wants to offer them. But they don’t want Him to try to take charge of their business ethics, their entertainments, the language they use when under pressure, or their public image. They don’t want Jesus to be in charge of where they live, or who they date, or who they marry, or what kind of career they choose. In his autobiography C.S. Lewis said that his search for God really began as a search for joy. There were moments in his life when he had experienced joy, and he mentions specifically the memory of a memory, the delight he experienced in reading a particular book. These experiences whetted his appetite and made him want joy all the more. Lewis’ search for joy eventually led him to a search for God who he discovered is the source of joy. Joy involves a choice. We either choose to live in concert with Christ and claim His joy for our lives, or we choose to live in disobedience to His Word and forfeit this precious gift. And we shouldn’t be surprised that we lack joy if we are living contrary to what the Church teaches. The baby whose birth we celebrate at Christmas would later on meet with His disciples in an upper room the night before His death, and there Jesus spoke with them about joy. I think it took them by surprise, as joy often does. Jesus told them of His impending separation from the disciples, and He tried to prepare them for the terror of His trial, the awfulness of His death, and the devastation that stood before Him and them. Nevertheless, it was in that difficult moment that Jesus told them about joy. He said, "You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy....Now is your time for grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy…. " What Christ was saying is that joy can be ours even in the midst of difficult circumstances. Regardless of what is happening around us and to us, we can still know the joy of Christ. The calling of Christ is to choose joy, even in difficult times. If you try to RECEIVE Christ without letting Him REIGN in your life, you will miss out on one thing: JOY. I know I do a poor job of running my life on my own. Jesus knows what will give you JOY. He knows the person who will suit you best in marriage. He knows the kind of work that is made for you. It has been said that Joy is the by-product of obedience. That sums it up pretty well. True JOY will be yours this Christmas if you will RECEIVE Christ, and let Jesus REIGN. We need to look beyond the tinsel and lights and see the real cause of JOY. Joy to the World! The Lord is Come! .
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