That Joy May Be In You 12/4/49
Scripture: John 15: 1-17
Text: John 15: 11; “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
The advent season is one of joyfulness. It is a fact that pre-Christmas excitement fills the air with more than usual good will. But for the Christian there is much more than holiday gaiety. The contemplation of the birth of our Lord is a reminder more joyful than festivity, though festivity may be a partial expression of that joy.
The babe of Bethlehem was born in the midst of privation, oppression, dissatisfaction and fear. Temporal authority tried to make sure he would not live to challenge any of its power, and all of the male infants of Bethlehem were liquidated by governmental order so that he who was reported “born a king” might not grow up to challenge Rome’s power. You remember that Joseph was warned in a dream and escaped for a while to Egypt with the mother and child. Such was the darkness and fear under which people lived then. And so it was through much of the time in which Jesus lived. In effect upon people, it was not greatly different from what is endured by hosts of people in our own anxious time.
Jesus has often been portrayed as a “man of sorrows;” and indeed he was. He knew poverty, loneliness, persecution, disloyalty and suffering. He tasted bitter death.
But with equal truth, Jesus can be portrayed as a man of joys. His coming to earth brought a tremendous, joyful hope to the hearts of many - a hopeful joy that continues even to our day. Jesus rejoiced in nature, finding greater beauty in wild flowers than in the splendor of royal raiment. He was strongly attracted to little children, and they to him. That tells us that he probably smiled often and easily. Children do not make up to people who seldom or never smile, and usually such people have scant regard for children.
Remember that Jesus hob-nobbed with people who were labeled “publicans and sinners,” not only out of divine interest for their soul’s salvation, but because he genuinely, and joyfully liked them. Had he been a crepe-hanger, they would have found ways to avoid him, and he would not have been accused by his enemies of being a glutton and a drunkard.
Jesus was once asked why his disciples did not observe the practice of fasting. Were they less devoted or zealous than the disciples of John the Baptist and the followers of the Pharisees? His answer was: “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?” His religious devotion was so altogether joyous that fasting, as a spiritual discipline, seemed out of place.
He did, indeed, know the taste of bitter sorrow, and yet no one ever lived who found more joy in life than he - or who brought more joy to others than did he. Toward the last of his life, he is reported, in the gospel of John, to have said: “These things I have spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full.” [John 15: 11]. A little later he remarked, “Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name; ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” [John 16: 24]. And still later he says: “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” [John 16: 33]. Have you met people like that - people who have such a joyful, spiritual assurance that it appears they have overcome “the world, the flesh and the devil?”
As it is true that Jesus was at once a man of sorrows and of joy, so it is true of Christianity that it makes for both pain and happiness. One reason for this is that good Christians are more than a little sensitive, sympathetic and compassionate. One who is morally sensitive may be overwhelmed with self-reproach by an exhibition of bad temper or selfishness or pettiness that would not disturb a case-hardened individual.
One who takes a lively interest in others gives hostages to his emotional fortune for he cannot escape his liability to pain if they suffer. Nor does he stand apart from their joy when happiness comes their way. This liability to pain and joy with others is tremendously increased as one shares the compassion of Christ, who so identified himself with others as to say truthfully: “Inasmuch as ye have done (this) unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” [Matthew 25: 40]. An Abraham Lincoln experiences the suffering of others as if they were his own. But the Christian in his sensitiveness is also lifted by the joys of all whom he loves. The capacity to “weep with those who weep” is also the capacity to “rejoice with those who rejoice.”
Christianity is foremost a religion of joy. Most of the early Christians were poor and harried people. But they were notably happy. In the third century, a Christian writer could say: “The church is the one thing in the world that always rejoices.”
A. [Knowing God] Christianity makes for joy because it brings the knowledge of God as He is revealed in Christ. This is its gospel.
We are not alone in an uncaring universe, but are in the hands of divine goodness, mercy and power.
With God there is forgiveness, healing for sorrow, strength and courage for living in all conditions.
Christianity is -- faith in the working out of a divine purpose of good --- that this purpose is not realized in full amid the catastrophes of history, but is ultimately beyond defeat.
It is possible to say “I believe in God” and not live as though one had said it. It is possible to deny the existence of God and not mean it (college freshman - “I am an atheist, thank God”) -- But if the denial of God is real, it is nothing to rejoice in -- no meaning in life, no purpose in history, no higher power than one’s self or one’s group.
Christian faith makes a difference. Paul -- “Rejoice in the Lord always.” [Philippians 4: 4] -- This is a possibility -- There are things over which no Christiaan man will rejoice - injustice, needless poverty, suffering, overwhelming loss and pain, bitter personal experiences. But, for the Christian, there is something in which to rejoice. There is God, “the aid of all that need, the helper of all that flee to (him) for succor, the life of them that believe, the resurrection of the dead.”
B. [Helping God] Christianity provides ground for joy by affirming the reality of God in his unceasing concern for the children of men. -- by desire to cooperate with God in his work of creation.
- Man’s best effort goes into creative effort. -- Sometimes we overlook or deny this. Some years ago, a prominent American man declared: “Say what you will, it is the profit motive that makes the wheels of the world go round.” -- Many believe it. -- If it true? you can have enlightening fun applying it to several areas of life.
1) World of letters -- John Milton wrote “Paradise Lost” and ssold it for 10 pounds -- $50. Profitable?
2) Education -- George Herbert Palmer devoted his life to teaching - remarked that Harvard University paid him for what he would gladly pay for the privilege of doing if he could afford it!
3) Science -- Pierre and Marie Curie engaging in scientific research - greatest discovery (they slaved for it) -- turned over to some hospital every mite of radium they were able to extract from tons of rock.
4) History -- profit motive? brought founding fathers to these shores on --- Mayflower --- one of them led to say: “Blandishments will not fascinate us, nor will threats of halters intimidate us, for under God we are determined that wheresoever, whensoever, howsoever we are called on to make our exit we will die free men.”
5) Even in business (whence came this remark about the profit motive) -- probably a very large number, influenced quite as much by the desire for recognition as men of integrity and ability -- by the “kick” they get out of being identified with great enterprise. [Atherton Richards re “fight” in pineapple business].
C. [Further Motives]
“Say what you will, it is not the profit motive that only, or even chiefly, makes the wheels of the world go round.”
1) The desire to create. Child’s house of blocks. Same true of adults; Dean Inge: “The happy people are those who are producing something. The bored people are those who are consuming much and producing nothing.”
A man’s life consists not so much in “the abundance of his possessions” as in the abundance of his creations.
And more --- Christianity gives men power to rise above self in devotion to others. (The 4 immortal chaplains)
Jacob Riis badgered greedy landlords, Tammany Hall, inert public into doing something about New York City’s Mulberry Bund.
When - cub reporter - the Bund smelled to heaven with squalor & developed reputation as New York’s worst slum. He lived to see it transformed into a sunny park with children dancing in the sunlight.
Riis had recorded 17 murders in one block by the time the last house in the Bund was torn down - maybe more. In the 4 years following, he reported only one act of violence in that neighborhood - a suicide by one who came there from somewhere else to kill himself.
The light and decency of the changed neighborhood brought a new life for all. Did that issue from the profit motive? The urge to make life successful includes the profit motive in its place, but there are more important motives -- the life of men that makes the world’s wheels turn toward joy.
D [This joy is for All]
Not “force a smile and live up to it,” but the joy we see in the New Testament and seek here comes from the deep experiences of living in the presence of God. We try to increase our faith by (1) thinking and reading, (2) fellowship with other Christians, (3) aligning ourselves with good forces, (4) undertaking to create something of true worth to somebody.
Providing a meal for one needy person.
providing an opportunity for abundant living for one child, brings the same kind of joy as Jacob Riis working to transform a city slum.
Robert Louis Stevenson considered it a duty to be happy. (14 years without a day of real health; wrote in bed).
Helen Keller -- determined to be happy by finding joy at its true source, by knowing God and having a part in His work of creation and redemption.
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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, December 4, 1949.