The Case for Joy
Dear Mount Calvary Lutheran Church,
Please consider the following Bible verses…
“the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, and peace.” (Galatians 5:22-23)
“Rejoice in the Lord always and again I will say rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)
“you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy” (John 16:20)
Yet, joy is elusive. In fact, many of us may be entirely unfamiliar with joy. Joy is fleeting or transient. It seems disingenuous in a world with so much hurt and suffering. Our own pain can be too familiar or comfortable to choose joy. This is assuming that joy is something that we choose at all. Where does one begin to look for joy?
God wants us to experience joy. Joy, as we will see, is not a superficial response to positive events but rather a deep satisfaction with life. The fruit, the end, the result of God’s own Spirit is joy. Joy is the outcome of the Christian life, full stop. So perhaps we ought to ask, “What is stealing our joy? What is getting in the way?”
In my Easter message, I discussed the crippling effects that social media has on our wellbeing. Social media is designed to consume as much of your time and attention as possible in order to sell advertising time. It is a vicious, zero-sum game. There are only 24 hours in a day. Furthermore, these organizations have discovered that the emotions that keep us coming back for more and more are not positive ones. Hate, not love, fear, not hope, sadness, rather than joy, boost user engagement. There is a reason that even the traditional news is stingy with stories of puppy adoptions while laying on thick stories of crime and depravity. While the negative effects of social media on youth and teens are well documented, tragically, adults are not much better off. Hence, continual warnings from my office to stay off the news and avoid politics online. When we choose to engage with the angriest and bitterest content, we aren’t working towards justice; we are quite literally selling our time while starving our souls. Who is stealing your joy?
Of course, social media isn’t the only factor. John writes, “for all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” (1 John 2:16) Two phrases stand out here: the desires of the flesh and the pride of life. The desires of the flesh are things we consume for a temporary lift. These are often simple sins, but they can condition us to look for instant gratification rather than lasting solutions. The phrase the pride of life is a fascinating one. On one hand, God is the author of life, and on the other, here we have a warning against taking life too seriously. God loves life and our lives. Yet, when we put too much effort into maximizing the outcome of our lives, we ironically make life less worth living. You can see it in the burned out eyes of the young professional. You can see it in the man worried about leaving a legacy. He is in conversations to make his mark, the grand finale of his career, and he can’t sleep. The pride of life, the quest for perfection, would rob us of our joy. A far more difficult task than disciplining our flesh is shaping our souls. Yet, as our souls become conformed to His will, the pride of life tempers into the form of contentment.
The account of Noah’s flood is famous for the animals, the ark, and the rainbow. Yet, there is one detail during the narrative that has always captivated me. We are told that while still in the ark, Noah was sending out birds to look for green sprouts growing. If a bird returned with fresh greens, this would be a sign that the land had dried out and new life was beginning. How many times did Noah send out the bird only to have it return a dead, waterlogged stick or worse? How many times did Noah suffer crushing disappointment while waiting in this divine shelter in place situation? Then one day, the bird brought back a green branch. It probably wasn’t much, but can you imagine Noah’s reaction as he held it up? A green twig against all the death in the world. What joy! Noah remembered that God said it, and He did it. Easter is one of those green tigs against the world moments. Life in the midst of sorrow. Did Jesus not say he would rise again? God said it, and He did it. Maybe you have or have not experienced a moment like this. Nevertheless, the kind of joy God gives is the joy that knows God loves to work such moments. The case for joy is the case for the God who loves. The case against joy is the case that God isn’t enough or that somehow we would do better if we were in control of the situation.
It is my earnest desire for you this Easter season that you experience a little joy against the odds.
In Jesus’ Service,
Pastor Kurt