21st Sunday after
Pentecost /
Isaiah
25:1–9; Philippians 4:1–9; Matthew 22:1–14
Rev. Gayle M. Highness
Rejoice in the Lord
Let’s start out this sermon by
singing. Can you sing with me?
“I’ve got that joy, joy, joy, joy
down in my heart,
down in my heart, down in my heart.
“I’ve got that joy, joy, joy, joy
down in my heart,
down in my heart to stay.
Do you have that joy, joy, joy, joy
down in your heart today?
I’m going to have you pick a number
from 1 to 10. If “10” is living in perfect joy and “1” is living in constant
despair, what’s your number today?
“Rejoice,” the apostle Paul wrote to
the Philippians in our second reading this morning. “Rejoice always!” Always? How realistic is that? Stuff happens to us
all the time. We are constantly battered, ground down, worried, disappointed
and often just plain worn out. Rejoice always?
Did you notice that I left some
words out when I quoted Paul? What Paul
actually said was, “Rejoice in the Lord always!” and then he
added, “The LORD is near!”
This joy that rates a “TEN” in our
lives doesn’t have anything to do with circumstances. Paul knows this first hand. After all, he is
writing this letter from prison where he is facing the real possibility of
execution. And STILL he says, “Rejoice
always.”
The joy Paul talks about is joy is in
the Lord. It is the joy of knowing Christ – of being in a relationship
with Christ – and in Christ, knowing the complete, unconditional, gracious and
forgiving love of God for you personally.
Knowing you are loved by God is joy.
This joy eludes us when our
relationship with God is disrupted because of our sin.
Sometimes we may be actively engaged
in sinful behavior that we KNOW is contrary to God’s good will for our lives.
So, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we hide. We don’t want the Lord to
be near! It’s pretty hard to rejoice in
the Lord when we’re hiding from him.
In that case, God calls us to
confess our sin, repent and receive forgiveness. And, as he said to the woman
caught in adultery in the gospel of John, “Neither
do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” Joy is restored when the
relationship is restored.
But perhaps the more pervasive sin
that blocks our joy in the Lord is simply forgetfulness. We forget that THE
LORD IS NEAR. We become preoccupied with whatever is happening in the world around
us and lose sight of God’s presence and power in our lives.
In that case, there are some things
we can do – some habits we can develop – to help us refocus and reconnect with
God.
First, as Paul says, “Do not worry about ANYTHING, but in
EVERYTHING, by prayer and supplication with THANKSGIVING let your requests be
made known to God.”
So … when you feel worried, develop
the habit of turning that worry into a prayer – specifically a prayer of thanks
and supplication or request.
For example: right now I’m a little
worried about my daughter Amy because she is probably going to marry Rodrigo
who I just met for the first time and who is from another country to which he
could possibly take my daughter some day and who doesn’t speak much English.
And I just worry if they’re doing the right thing.
Well, according to
this passage, I should pray about this with thanksgiving. So I thank God for Amy and Rodrigo. I thank
the Lord for Amy’s strength and independence and the gifts that enabled her to
go to a country so far away all by herself and to open her heart to people
there. And I thank God that Rodrigo was able to obtain a visa and get here
safely and that he is good to Amy and makes her happy.
Then I make my
petition for God to surround them and protect them and give them wisdom. I remember God is near me and near them and
that God loves them and will be with them no matter what. And that prayer gives
me peace.
So the first habit to help us remain
joyful in the Lord is to stop worrying and instead, ask God for what we need
with a thankful heart.
The second habit is
to keep our minds on good things. Paul
writes, “Whatever is true, whatever is
honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever
is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of
praise, think about these things.”
The story is told of a Native
American elder who was telling his grandson about his feelings following a
recent loss. “I feel as if I have two wolves fighting within myself, one is
hateful and vengeful, the other is loving and compassionate,” he told his
grandson. “Which one will win?” the
grandson asked. “The one I feed,” the
grandfather replied. When we let our
minds dwell on the negative, we block God’s healing.
Several years ago,
I was on a busy street in the Twin Cities. I made a right turn at a stop sign
and so was watching to make sure there were no cars coming on my left. What I
didn’t notice is that there was a school bus facing me on the street I turned
on to, with its stop sign out and lights blinking.
As soon as I passed it, I realized
my mistake. The next thing I noticed was a police car in my rear view
mirror. And, of course, he wrote me a
ticket.
I was so frustrated. All I could think about was having to pay a big fine and having my insurance rates go
up. But then I remembered about giving
thanks to God for everything, so I said a prayer of thanks for the stupid
ticket and began to realize how much better it was to get a ticket and even pay
higher car insurance than it would be to run over a child. At that point, I really did become thankful.
Several years ago, Terry was having
one of the worst years ever on his farm. Not only were the crops terrible, he
had lost a lot of livestock to disease. At that time, a friend of Terry’s gave
him a verse that has stayed with him ever since. It’s Habakkuk 3:17-18, which reads:
“Though
the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce
of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off
from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the
Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation.”
The beloved Psalm 23, which we
recited earlier, paints a picture of the life of joy in the Lord. The psalmist
describes a sense of continual awareness of God’s loving presence and care as a
shepherd cares for sheep.
Notice the psalm doesn’t DENY perils
and troubles, but faces them directly. “Though
I walk through – not around – the
valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me;
“You spread a table before me in the
presence of those who trouble me” –
not far away from them.
Theologian Karl Barth,
in his commentary on Philippians, said, "Joy is most always joy despite
something. It's a defiant nevertheless."
In the 16th chapter of
the gospel of John, Jesus was sharing his final words with his disciples the
night before he was to die on the cross. He told them, “So you have pain now, but I will see you again and your hearts will
rejoice. No one will take your joy from
you.”
Jesus knew that he himself was about
to endure tremendous physical, mental, emotional and spiritual pain and finally
death, but that his suffering would be followed by resurrection. And that through his own death and resurrection, he would rescue from
death everyone who believes in him.
On the cross, Jesus defeated
everything that can possibly defeat us, and so he could say to his disciples
and to us, “no one will take your joy from you.”
When our joy is in the Lord, we
truly CAN rejoice always. Because the
Lord is always near and no one can take that joy from us.
We started by singing, “I’ve got the
joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart.
Let’s end by singing the third verse of that song, which tells the
reason WHY we have joy – which is the love of Jesus.
I’ve got the love of Jesus, love of
Jesus
down in my heart,
down in my heart, down in my heart.
I’ve got the love of Jesus, love of
Jesus
down in my heart,
down in my heart to stay.
Amen