Good morning everyone. Happy Advent. This is probably one of my favorite Sundays of the year.
I mean we talk about joy every third Sunday of Advent but we get to see it so like exuberantly displayed.
On this day with the Treehouse program kids are not afraid of joy like adults can be.
And so it is a great joy to watch them and enjoy what they always work so hard to prepare.
And they did so well. So please even if you don't know the kids just after church today tell them what a fabulous job that they did.
But also tell them that what they did mattered to you. That it affected you. It ministered to you today.
That is the wonderful power of the presence of our kids is that they minister to us and they have a deep effect on us.
So grateful for that. Robin is great.
Funny enough joy is one of my favorite topics to talk about but I have not preached on joy during Advent before.
I looked in my I have a folder that is sermons and one specifically for Advent.
And every two years it looks like I've preached during Advent but hadn't completed my full collection.
And so today is today is that day you guys so excited.
But joy is one of my favorite topics to talk about which is funny since I once had an aversion to it pretty heavily when I was in my middle school and high school years which probably checks out.
Being kind warm and upbeat felt very fake.
People who were energetic and running adjacent to anything joyful felt real cringe to me.
They I felt like they were ignoring everything wrong in the world and nobody was paying attention to what was really happening like maybe I was not OK with it.
Everybody's painted with primary colors. It's terrible.
But being in dark felt real. Minor keys and darker tones felt real and I wanted everyone to stop pretending be real.
So it was a shocking revelation to me one day to realize that joy is not the primary colors I believe that it was and that joy genuine joy was not a cover up or a disregard for what is difficult or dark in the world.
A shocking revelation to me to understand that when scripture talks about joy it is in direct correlation to times of trial and mourning and exhaustion and depletion of personal resources and waiting.
I had sorely misunderstood joy.
Joy can be mistaken as sunshine and rainbows still like fruit bowl paintings painted in the style of the 16th century Dutch Renaissance painters with Galatians five written underneath it and the fruit of the spirit.
But joy is an actual force. It comes alongside other fierce warriors such as peace which scripture describes as strong enough to keep guard over my heart and my mind.
Love which is powerful enough to cover over a multitude of sins patience which is an unclosable door to the hope of salvation and kindness a firm and foundational path that leads to life.
These are things with fierceness behind them. These are these are elements that are strong and they are strong in the commonly Christ like way in which the things of this world and the things of this kingdom are flipped.
When I used to see people with joy when I was overlooking was the very real experiences they had gone through to get to joy.
They weren't overlooking or ignoring the real things. In fact, if I had really paid attention, I would have still seen that they were even covered in the mess.
But they had, they had absolutely gone through it they knew they just were not drowning in it.
Let's pray.
Lord speak to us today about joy.
Fill our hearts with joy.
Fill our minds with joyful things and help us.
Help us look at the world around us through a lens that is open to joy and help us be open to joy in our own lives.
We pray this in your name. Amen.
I want to talk about Paul.
Paul wrote a number of books, letters in the New Testament.
He was detained and imprisoned, a number of times throughout his ministry years, what we call the Book of Philippians was written while he was imprisoned and was intended for the church that he had founded in the town of Philippi.
What's notable about this letter is that it is recognized that as Paul's most joyful, referring to joy close to 10 times in four chapters, he encourages the Philippians, the Philippian believers to rejoice in spite of suffering and anxiety, and he himself does the same as he reflects on what God has done.
Philippians 1 12 through 19 says, and I want you to know my dear brothers and sisters that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the good news for everyone here, including the whole palace guard knows that I am in chains because of Christ,
and because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear.
It's true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry but others preach about Christ with pure motives, whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way and so I rejoice, and I will continue to rejoice.
Nehemiah.
Nehemiah was from the Old Testament. He was living deep in the Persian kingdom as a result of the Babylonian capture of those that had lived in the kingdom of Judah, about 150 years before the captives then, and then their ancestors of which Nehemiah was were servants within
the Persian kingdom at the height of its strength.
Nehemiah gives us some context in the book Nehemiah one says, one of my brothers came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived in the exile and also about Jerusalem.
And they said to me those who survived the exile are back in the province, and are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire.
So Nehemiah had become an elevated servant in the royal house but a servant, nonetheless, those that were captives were never fully integrated into society, they were always going to be servants.
However, he had access to the king.
And he boldly asked the king, if he could travel back to Jerusalem indefinitely to rebuild the wall for the safety of the people within it, and for the dignity of the city.
And surprisingly he was given the green light and whatever he needed for the project.
Nehemiah gathered the people, the resources he became the project manager and in 52 days they rebuilt the wall, bolstered the remnant of the people that were living there and called them back into alignment with God and their father, with the God of their fathers.
And Nehemiah 8, 1 through 11 says, all the people assembled with a unified purpose at the square, just inside the water gate, a section of the wall they had just rebuilt.
They asked Ezra, the scribe, to bring out the book of the law of Moses, and Ezra, the priest, brought the book of the law before the assembly which included men and women and all children old enough to understand.
And when they saw him open the book, they all rose to their feet.
A practice we still, we incorporate here at the house.
Then Ezra praised the Lord, the great God and all the people chanted, Amen, Amen, as they lifted their hands. The Levites read from the book of the law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read helping the people understand.
Then Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites said to them, don't mourn or weep on such a day as this because they had been. That had been a part of their lives.
For today is a sacred, a sacred day before the Lord your God for the people had all been weeping as they listened to the words of the law. And Nehemiah continued, go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared.
This is a sacred day before the Lord. Don't be dejected and sad for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Mary.
Mary story, probably doesn't need much context.
We're pretty familiar but there are some things worth mentioning.
We already recognize that in her story, societally, things were stacked against Mary as a yet to be married woman, finding herself pregnant.
That was going to be a difficult road.
But there were some additional odds. Mary was from Galilee, the region in the north.
The northern provinces were viewed as lesser Jews born out of the history of the Assyrian occupation centuries before which are events related to the Babylonian exile of Nehemiah.
You may call to mind the stories featuring in the New Testament, Jesus and Samaritans, who southern Jews balked at, believing them to be too enmeshed with secular history to be properly Jewish.
And so the northern Jews were not seen as real Jews.
They did not follow the rules, they were not to be trusted.
And this was the Mary region that Mary was from.
It was going to be a hard sell that a girl from Galilee would be the one chosen to carry the long awaited Messiah.
She was not well resourced. She was not from an ideal location.
She did not meet expectations in every way.
She was not going to have an easy go and arguably had not already.
So Luke 1 39 through 56, a few days later, this is after the angels visit to her, giving her the news.
Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, which is in the south, to the town where Zechariah lived.
She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth, her cousin.
At the sound of Mary's greeting, Elizabeth's child leaped within her and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, God has blessed you above all women and your child is blessed.
Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me when I heard your greeting?
The baby in my womb jumped for joy.
You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.
And Mary responded, oh, how my soul praises the Lord, how my spirit rejoices in God, my savior.
For he took notice on this lowly servant girl.
And from now on, all generations will call me blessed for the mighty one is holy and he has done great things for me.
He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him.
His mighty arm has done tremendous things.
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.
He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful for he made his promise to his aunt, to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his children forever.
And Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home.
She's not reciting things that she's not familiar with.
When she talks about those that are hungry, Mary probably understood.
And when she talks about sending the rich away with empty hands, she knows what it was like to live in the Roman Empire, but be handed something from the Lord.
She understands she is not reciting sweet words, unconnected to personal challenges.
She is speaking out of the joy of her heart and what it has gone through.
And so there are some key things I want us to take away from these stories.
For us, when joy arrives, do not turn it away.
Don't be suspicious of it.
Don't wonder what it means.
Why is it here?
What's happening?
What should I watch out for?
We tend to have suspicion when joy shows up, much like I did.
I don't trust it.
This isn't real.
This isn't something is not right.
If we are floating above the turmoil, if we are upheld, but when joy shows up, do not turn it away.
Let it stay for a while.
Welcome it.
We don't generate joy.
It arrives.
It comes to us.
It sources from God alone, but we can welcome it instead of closing the door on it because we are afraid.
Afraid of what it will do to us, what it will have us believing about the world, what it might change in us.
Joy is scary for adults.
So when it shows up, I challenge you not to be suspicious of it and not to close the door on it.
What we see in these stories also is that when joy arrives, rejoice.
Let that joy sit with you and then talk about it.
Rejoice.
Retell the story about how the joy arrived.
Retell the story of why it's there and where it's coming from.
Paul says in Philippians later in the chapter we talked about, rejoice in the Lord always.
I will say it again.
Rejoice.
Remind yourself of this joy, why it's here, where it's coming from.
Retell the stories about it to yourself and to others.
God continually told the people of the Old Testament, retell the stories.
Retell the stories.
Do not get far away from the stories.
Throughout all generations, retell the stories.
There is a reason for this.
Not everyone will understand and not everyone will rejoice with you, but still rejoice.
Do it anyway.
Mary has one of the best recorded moments of rejoicing in scripture, a passage used on the third week of Advent all over the world.
Mary is retelling why God is great and why her joy is full.
She is rejoicing so that Elizabeth can rejoice with her.
When joy arrives, gather.
This is common in these stories as well.
When joy showed up in these passages and in others in scripture, you will find that people gather when joy is present.
Nehemiah called for the people to go and be together.
Paul reached out to be with others in the only way he could.
He wrote letters.
And Mary hurried.
Scripture says she hurried to Elizabeth's.
They gathered.
And when they gathered, they rejoiced and the story was told once again.
They retold it to each other and it generated something deeper because they were now sharing.
They were sharing.
Joy is important to share.
We gather so that we can rejoice and retell.
You need to do that with others.
That is an important thing.
If there is anything scripture has a huge theme of, it is community and togetherness.
There is something true among those with whom the joy has been shared.
Gather together and share the joy and then rejoice together.
But don't just get together.
Celebrate.
These stories also talk about celebration.
Celebration is a part of these passages too.
And how many other times in scripture is celebration highlighted along with joy?
What a fabulous thing.
When joy is present, rejoice, get together and celebrate it.
Don't let it pass by you.
The parable of the lost coins.
It seems so frivolous, right?
A couple coins found.
Except there was celebration.
You may not throw a party every time joy descends upon you in your house.
That's okay.
But celebrate it somehow.
Find ways to grow celebration because of joy in your life.
What this does is it helps joy stretch and reach.
You're giving it some space to move out.
You're giving it some space to reflect.
When we celebrate.
And what this does is joy becomes a raft to us in the ocean.
So that we will not drown.
What an extraordinary thing.
I understand that there are a lot of questions about why God doesn't fix and change and end certain things.
If we have to get into, we will not.
But I find it extraordinary that what God has done for us in a very difficult place is that he has provided us a way to survive and then thrive.
One of the things social media has offered us windows to in the midst of difficult world events are these windows into the extraordinary events.
The weddings that happen in spite of the war among the rebel.
The dancing lines that the elders are leading.
The explosions of rejoicing at the opening of college acceptance letters after generations built to the hope of that youth future.
We don't know these people, but we love we love watching those stories because we want to rejoice.
We want to do it.
We want to believe that joy is real.
We don't want to be suspicious of it.
We want to rejoice.
And we even look at those things and we think I wish I was there.
I would love to be there right now.
We want to rejoice.
We want to gather.
We want to celebrate.
We just have really done a great job on ourselves by denying it.
Haven't we?
We deny ourselves joy.
We want to rejoice with them because we know that it is extraordinary that they are doing it at all.
And that's the reality of joy.
It shows up in spite of everything that says it shouldn't.
Joy will not be tamped down.
We might try.
It is still out there.
You are just not getting to experience it.
If you try it.
Join in the joy.
Welcome it.
Say yes to it.
Keep the door open to it.
When it shows up, talk about it.
And then gather so you can talk about it some more.
And then celebrate it so that it can spread out to others from you.
And build a bigger raft for those who don't know that that's there.
What an extraordinary thing.
So even though we have been through it or in it, it will not take us is what joy says.
As we sit in the advent of a new year, looking ahead, practice joy this year.
Practice joy at all costs and in spite of everything.
Defy your circumstances and resist them in that you say, I will not drown.
I see that this is happening.
A lot of times we can't do a whole lot about it.
Things are out of our control in the world, period.
We cannot control all the things.
But I can say yes to joy.
And I can find that it is not taking me under.
Practice joy at all costs, commit to rejoicing, commit to gathering, commit to celebrating as God wells up in you, springs of living water.
Let joy in this year.
Let's pray.
Lord, we need you to soften our hearts and open us up to joy.
In whatever places we have either closed the door or put all the locks on it.
Help us be willing to do anything from unlock the door and maybe open it a crack to just swing it right open or take the door off the hinges.
Whatever we want to do with this metaphor, God.
We ask for your help in letting joy in.
And then help us remember that we have community that wants to hear about it and rejoice with us.
Help us remember that there are those here, even if we may not know each other well, we may sit on opposite sides of the room.
Help us know that if I were to go up to somebody with a story of joy, they would rejoice with me.
Would you make that a culture of this community?
And then help us to celebrate as we gather and tell the stories of how great you are.
I pray all this in your name.
Amen.