JOY CHANGES US

Philippians 4:4-7

Third Sunday in Advent

December 17, 2006

This time of year our moments are filled with people wishing us well. For nearly a month and a half the shopping centers and stores have been festively decorated and those checking you out with your purchases duly charged with wishing you well. They’ve replaced “Have a nice day!” with “Happy Holidays!” although it might not be clear which holiday they are wishing you happy—St. Nicholas Day, Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, St. Lucia’s Day, take your pick as we count down the days to Christmas.

Moments of gladness wished and times of happiness—although, after this season is over, will those same well wishes remain? Do they even last the season? I wonder how many of those who were so eager to wish you well one moment when they feel you haven’t waited your turn at the four-way stop or that you’ve cut them off on the interstate think those same happy thoughts. Do you wish happy thoughts in the same situations?

Gladness and happiness are emotions that pass with the moment. I think that as Paul writes to the Philippians about joy, he means something a little more than to speak of an emotion. He writes these words from prison after all. I don’t know how many of you have been in prison—I’m not really asking for a show of hands—but you know that is not a place where gladness and happiness fill one’s moments. Yet Paul has the audacity to encourage the Philippians to “rejoice!” So certain is he of this joy that he repeats the encouragement—“Again I will say it, rejoice!” Joy must be more than an emotion.

The folks to whom Paul writes these words know uncertain times. We know from the Book of Acts and this letter that, formerly, the Philippians had provided Paul with a gift that helped support his mission. Then, something happened. We don’t know—it could have been conflict, it could have been an economic downturn—but the Philippians weren’t able to send another gift for a while. Now, things had changed and they were able. We live in similar uncertain times, yet even to us—along with the Philippians—Paul is bold to encourage us to rejoice. He doesn’t get around to addressing anxiety until after he’s reminded us that the Lord is at hand.

So joy is something more than an emotion. Maybe, as the Grinch in Dr. Seuss’ story discovered about Christmas, joy is a little bit more. Joy is a way of life; joy is a way of faith. Joy changes us as we live in Christ. We are changed from people who are earth-bound—whose sight is limited by our circumstance; whose thoughts are tied to our locations—to people who are heaven-bound. We are changed from people who live tied to the moment—and often overwhelmed by those moments—to people who live as those who can see past the moment into eternity. Joy changes us.

I can think of a number of ways joy changes us as we live in Christ.

Joy gives us a different urgency. So many people live very busy lives. We live lives filled with details—details that can accumulate and seem very important. These details can come to set our priorities and define our lives. Joy changes us.

I’m reminded of what Ida Moll, who was president of the (at the time) International Women’s Missionary League, said that describes the joy-described urgency so well. She said, “If it doesn’t affect your salvation or someone else’ salvation, don’t sweat the details.” Our urgency is all about salvation. Our urgency is defined by Christ’s coming as Savior and His coming again as King. That there are people dying aside from His salvation is our urgency—everything else is less important than this.

Living in Christ gives us a different focus. I think Paul would have shared Ida’s words with Euodia and Synthyche in Philippi. In the verses just before those of our text, Paul writes to these two sisters in Christ—I’m sure they had no idea their conflict would be forever remembered in the Scriptures—to ask them to remember that living in Christ together was more important than whatever it was that divided them. Joy changes us.

Living in this joy in Christ changes the way we see things. It changes the way we look at each other—even how we see total strangers. Think about the last time you had time to just watch people. How did you categorize them? Did you make judgments on the basis of their dress or their size or the color of their skin? Did you draw conclusions about them on the basis of your expectations? We do that sort of thing as people, thinking we get to be in charge of others.

Living in Christ lets us set all those expectations, prejudices, categories and perspectives aside. More than allows us, the joy that we live in with Christ transforms us to see others as our Father in heaven sees them. We see those folks as people—like ourselves—whom God so loved that He sent Jesus to be Savior. Jesus came into our flesh as the Baby in the manger for those people, too. Jesus went to the cross; carrying the penalty for the sin those people live under, too. Jesus rose from the dead so that those people might live in hope, too.

Joy changes us to set our judgments aside for His. We forgive whom He forgives. We accept whom He accepts. We love whom He loves. Our confidence is not in ourselves—our knowledge or expectations or rules—but in Him and His salvation.

What do the people you work with hope for? What do they work for? Do they work for the weekend and the enjoyment of a few days? Do they hope for a few years of satisfaction economically? We are immersed in a culture that lives for the moment and whatever satisfaction can be squeezed from that moment. Joy changes you and me so that we live and hope for a different goal.

We know that moments pass, taking with them the enjoyment, the satisfaction and the pleasure we so briefly know. We also know that moments pass and circumstances change—even difficult times do not last—and we, by the grace of God and the gifting of the Holy Spirit, see past the moment to heaven. You are perhaps familiar with the hymn that sings as a refrain, “I’m but a stranger here, heaven is my home.” Joy changes us so we not only sing that, we believe and live it.

That’s Paul can be so bold in prison. Paul’s prison was not the relatively well-lit and humanely appointed place we know today. It was a dark and often damp pit, a hole in the ground that was dimly-lit, poorly patrolled and dangerous. Paul knew thought that prison wasn’t forever. He knew where his forever would be, so he can be bold to shout about joy!

You and I can be as bold. Paul writes to the Philippians that their citizenship is in heaven. We live through the moments, focused on this eternal goal as we live in faith in Christ. I’ve seen this certainty of heaven expressed beautifully recently. I saw it at one of the chapels at Fort Logan National Cemetery of all places. I’ve seen it in other cemeteries, too, it was just most recently there. After the funeral, after the committal and after the family had bid their farewells to their loved one, they did something amazing. They sang!

They sang in a cemetery. They sang the Doxology—“Praise God from Whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below, praise Him above you heavenly host! Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!” Praising God in a cemetery is what we can do living lives changed by joy. We can praise God in the funeral home, in the hospital—even in your kitchen at 2AM when whatever it is that is bothering you wakes you up. Joy is more than an emotion; it is a way of living in faith—a way of living in Christ.

You notice the pink candle on the Advent wreath is lit today. If you are as old as I am—and I think some of you are—you might remember purple rather than blue candles. Purple was the color of the royalty, remembering the King Who comes. Purple is also the color for solemn preparation and repentance that fills the Advent season. Today though joy changes everything. The color of the candle is changed to show that joy changes even the candle by which we count our days.

Be the candle. Shine Christ’s light into the darkness around you as you live in the joy that is ours in Christ. Joy is a way to see, to act, and even to organize our days. Joy is a way live, not just a way to feel. Joy changes us as we live in Christ.