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Sermon
for 4 Pentecost, Yr C 27/06/2004 Based
on Ps 16:11 & Gal 5:22-23 By
Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson Pastor
of Grace Lutheran Church, & Chaplain
of the Good Samaritan Society’s South
Ridge Village, Medicine Hat, Alberta Joy. It has been said that a sorrow shared
is half the sorrow, while a joy shared is twice the joy. Joy from our
Christian perspective comes from God and flows back to God—it is often
associated with awe, wonder, praise and adoration; of being fully engaged in
worshipping God and serving one another. Reichel was conducting the
final rehearsal of “The Messiah” with his great choir. The choir had reached
the point where the female soprano takes up the refrain and sings, “I know
that my Redeemer liveth!” Her technique was perfect. Her breathing was
faultless. She had accurate note placement and flawless enunciation. When she finished, all
looked to Reichel for his approval. But he silenced the orchestra and walked
over to the soprano. “My dear,” Reichel asked, “do you really believe that
your redeemer lives? Do you?” “Why yes. I think so,” she
replied. “Then sing it! Tell it to
me, so I will know that you know the joy and power of it!” Then Reichel moved back
and motioned the orchestra to begin. This time, the soprano sang the truth as
she knew it and had experienced it in her own soul. All who heard her sing
wept. The old master approached her with tears streaming from his eyes. “You
do know, for you told me,” he said. 1
We Lutherans have often projected the
image of being a sober lot. Sometimes we have been described as “God’s frozen chosen!” Unfortunately,
many Lutherans find it much easier to wear a frown rather than a smile; to be
grumpy or depressed rather than share God’s joy. I, too, have met people who
acted or spoke as if joy were a sin—or,
even worse, as if, for them, joy did
not exist, as if there were a law against joy. In our Psalm and second
lesson today, we learn however, that joy does indeed exist; that it comes from God; that it helps us
realise and celebrate God’s presence and purpose in our lives.
The psalmist is confident that God is the Source of joy. God has
given the psalmist fullness of joy. In
this joy, the psalmist realises God has given and preserved his life; God has
worked out a purpose for the psalmist’s life in good times as well as in bad
times. The psalmist experiences fullness of joy because he is confident that
his eternal destiny is in God’s hands.
In our second lesson, Paul explains
the differences between a life lived under the influence of the flesh and the
new life in Christ—a life lived by the Spirit. He lists the vices of the
flesh and the virtues of the Spirit. In the Greek, the word “fruit” is in the
singular—therefore; verses 22 and 23 are probably best interpreted to mean
that love is the foundation, the basis, the root, the originator of
all the other virtues. Just as the plant is the result of a seed, so the
virtues of the Spirit’s fruit are the result of love. Today we shall then
focus on only one of these “by-products” of love—joy.
The beauty and depth of the meaning
of joy is perhaps best understood and appreciated by way of story. Anthony de
Mello told the following story on the importance of joy in our lives. Among the Jews, the observance
of the Sabbath, the day of the Lord, was originally a thing of joy. But too many Rabbis kept
issuing one injunction after another on how exactly it was to be observed,
what sort of activity was allowed, until some people felt they could hardly
move during the Sabbath for fear that some regulation or other might be
transgressed. The Baal Shem, son of
Eliezer, gave much thought to this matter. One night he had a dream. An angel
took him up to heaven and showed him two thrones placed far above all others. “For whom are these
reserved?” he asked. “For you”—was the
answer—“if you make use of your intelligence; and for a man whose name and
address is now being written down and given to you.” He was then taken to the
deepest spot in hell and shown two vacant seats. “For whom are these
prepared?” he asked. “For you”—the answer
came—“if you do not make use of your intelligence; and for the man whose name
and address are being written down for you.” In his dream Baal Shem
visited the man who was to be his companion in paradise. He found him living
among Gentiles, quite ignorant of Jewish customs; and, on the Sabbath, he
would give a banquet at which there was a lot of merrymaking, and to which
all his Gentile neighbours were invited. When Baal Shem asked him why he held
this banquet, the man replied, “I recall that in my childhood my parents
taught me that the Sabbath was a day of rest and for rejoicing; so on
Saturdays my mother made the most succulent meals at which we sang and danced
and made merry. I do the same today.” Baal Shem attempted to
instruct the man in the ways of his religion, for he had been born a Jew but
was evidently quite ignorant of the rabbinical prescriptions. But Baal Shem
was struck dumb when he realized that the man’s joy in the Sabbath would be
marred if he was aware of his shortcomings. Baal Shem, still in his
dream, then went to the home of his companion in hell. He found the man to be
a strict observer of the Law, always apprehensive lest his conduct should not
be correct. The poor man spent each Sabbath day in a scrupulous tension as if
he were sitting on hot coals. When Baal Shem attempted to upbraid him for his
slavery to the Law, the power of speech was taken from him as he realized
that the man would never understand that he could do wrong by fulfilling
religious injunctions. Thanks to this revelation
given him in the form of a dream, the Baal Shem Tov evolved a new system of
observance whereby God is worshipped in joy that comes from the heart. 2
The psalmist and the apostle Paul
knew and experienced this joy as eternal, and thus coming from God and
leading ultimately back to God. In good times and in bad times, our God has
given us joy. That is why Jesus sums up the beatitudes by admonishing us to rejoice
and be glad even when we are reviled or persecuted. That is why the great
composer Beethoven was able to compose his Ninth Symphony when he was stone
deaf—as a work of sheer joy. That is why Martin Luther King Jr. could say
with joy in the face of death threats and violent racism: “I have been to the
mountain-top and have seen the promised land.”
May we too know and experience the
fullness of God’s joy. For in this joy we discover God’s presence everywhere
and at all times and places. In this joy we discover the meaning, purpose and
goal of our lives as well as that of the whole creation. Amen. ____________ [1] Cited from: Clergy Talk, April 1999, pp. 14-15. 2 Cited from: Anthony
de Mello, Taking Flight (New York:
Doubleday, 1988), pp. 90-92. |
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