"Unabashed Joy"

“Unabashed Joy”

Isaiah 35: 1-10 and Luke 1:46b - 55

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
    the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly
    and rejoice with joy and shouting.
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.]]

Strengthen the weak hands
    and make firm the feeble knees.
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.”

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
    and the ears of the deaf shall be opened;
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;
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.                                   Isaiah 35:1-10

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant.
    Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
    and holy is his name;
indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him
    from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
    he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
    and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the aid of his child Israel,
    in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
    to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”                                       Luke 1:46-55

When we take children to the shrine of the Golden Arches, they always seem to lust for the meal that comes in a box with a cheap little prize, a combination christened, in a moment of marketing genius, the “Happy Meal”.  You’re not just buying fries, McNuggets, and a dinosaur stamp; you’re buying happiness.  Their advertisements have convinced scores of children they have a little McDonald’s shaped vacuum in their souls: “our hearts are restless till they find their rest in a happy meal.

I’ve tried to buy off kids before.  I’ll give you extra money and you can buy a toy from a machine… or, let’s just get the hamburger and fries and we’ll save money for something you want more…

But their lamentations are extraordinarily embarrassing and can be heard down the street.  And people from all around look to see who the tight-fisted, penny-pinching cheapskate is who would deny a child the meal of great joy.

The problem with a Happy Meal is that the happy wears off, and they need a new fix.  No child I’ve ever heard of says, “Remember that Happy Meal I had last month?  What deep and lasting happiness I got from that!”

No, Happy Meals only bring happiness to McDonald’s.  You ever wonder why Ronald McDonald wears that grin?  Twenty billion Happy Meals, that’s why.

But it’s a problem that grows as we get older.  We don’t seem to get smarter.  We continue to believe that Happy things will make us happy.  Only problem ~ our happy things get more and more expensive as we get older.                                    ~ paraphrased from John Ortberg in “Dangers, Toils & Snares"

It seems a little cliché to say that money can’t buy happiness.  And yet, I can’t tell you how many people I listen to as they process confusion about why they are not happy with their lives as they recount the things they thought would bring joy but ended up empty and wanting.  Most of us get that things don’t buy happiness.

But what about:
people? 
Relationships? 
Events?
Education?
Jobs? 
Children?
Good health?

These are good things, desirable things, and critically important things.  And yet, they don’t necessarily provide happiness or joy.   So, from where or what does joy come?

Joni Eareckson Tada, the woman who is a quadriplegic and paints beautifully with a brush held in her teeth, talks about lasting joy… “Honesty is always the best policy, but especially when you’re surrounded by a crowd of women in a restroom during a break at a Christian women’s conference.  One woman, putting on lipstick, said, ‘Oh Joni, you always look so together, so happy in your wheelchair.  I wish I had your joy!’  Several women around her nodded.  ‘How do you do 

it?’ she asked as she capped her lipstick.

‘I don’t do it,’ I said.  ‘In fact, may I tell you honestly how I woke up this morning?’

‘This is an average day,’ I breathed deeply.  ‘After my husband, Ken, leaves for work at 6:00 a.m., I’m alone until I hear the front door open at 7:00 a.m.  That’s when a friend arrives to get me up.  While I listen to her make coffee, I pray, ‘Oh, Lord, my friend will soon give me a bath, get me dressed, sit me up in my chair, brush my hair and teeth, and send me out the door.  I don’t have the strength to face this routine one more time.  I have no resources.  I don’t have a smile to take into the day.           

‘So, what happens when your friend comes through the bedroom door?’ one of them asked.  ‘I turn my head toward her and give her a smile sent straight from heaven.  It’s not my smile.  It’s God’s.  And so,’ I said, gesturing to my paralyzed legs, ‘whatever joy you see today was hard won this morning.’”

                                                                        ~ Joni Eareckson Tada in “Joy Hard Won”

Joy does not come from things.  It doesn’t even come from good relationships, great health, or a wonderful job.  Those are all important and worth having.  But joy comes from something much deeper and is not dependent upon what we experience or what we have.  Coming to church on Sunday doesn’t even guarantee joy.  There is only one way to ensure joy.  C.S. Lewis wrote, “God is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on.  There is no other. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there.  There is no such thing.

The Hebrew people of the Bible learned this lesson several times.  Our scripture lesson for today is a prophecy by Isaiah about a time when joy would be everlasting and plentiful.  And yet, Isaiah was a prophet when Israel’s future looked very bleak.  If you want to hear bleak, consider the chapter right before this one.  It is a proclamation of destruction.  The metaphors in that chapter are images of sacrifice and slaughter that leave the land blood-soaked.  It is a vivid description of doom and gloom – “The slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood.”  Yuck

Isaiah 35 abruptly brings a very different message and a joyous word.  It is a wonder-filled poem about how the land and the people will be transformed.  First, the wilderness, dry land and desert become fertile.  Then, unbelievable things begin to happen.  Blind eyes are opened, unhearing ears are unstopped, the lame leap up, and the wilderness breaks forth in water and the desert in springs.  The people are joyful and glad.  All sorrow and sighing goes away.  Compare the words of this exuberant poem with the ones before it.

The stories are endless about all of us who are waiting to feel some kind of joy in our lives.  There are successful businesspeople sitting at mahogany desks hoping that there is something more to life than what they feel inside day after day.

There are thousands of couples that feel themselves trapped in dead-end marriages and hoping that perhaps tomorrow or next year their spouse will change, and life will be bearable again.

There are even people who look to the church for joy.  And they wonder why, when they attend regularly, give money, and participate, they don’t automatically walk away with some happiness in their lives.  Some even blame the church.

Such stories could be multiplied endlessly.  And some of us are living those stories.  But the good news of our text is that we don’t have to wait for joy to come and hit us on the head.  Joy doesn’t work that way.  

Joy is available right here.  Right now.  Joy comes from the Spirit of Christ living inside of us.  It is not dependent on the circumstances of our lives.  Joy is part of the package with faith.  It’s ours to claim.  It’s ours to incorporate into our lives. 

Are you living your days, one after the other, wishing there was more to life?  Are you always forging ahead hoping that when this-or-that happens, you will be happy?  Don’t wait!  Joy is yours already.  And Christmas is just the right time to remember it!  You can’t find joy in a Happy Meal or even in an Almond Joy.  But you can find it in a prayer, a bite of communion bread, or even in a wheelchair.

Here's your practice of joy this week from the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu:  Think of 3 or more people or things that you are grateful for in your life right now.  Put your hand on your heart or place the palms of your hands together at your heart.  Feel the light of loving-kindness shining from your heart and send that joy to them right now.  Radiate out your gratitude and generosity of spirit to those around you.  When we give joy to others, we experience true joy ourselves!  Take time this week to feel that unabashed joy and to share it with others, by being grateful and by being joyous.