6^th SUNDAY OF EASTER May 17, 2009

the Rev. Ken Kroohs

(Acts 10:44-48; 1 John 5:1-6; Ps. 98; John 15:9-17)

THAT YOUR JOY MAY BE COMPLETE

St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, High Point, NC

MAY THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH ... AND THE MEDITATIONS OF ALL OUR HEARTS ... BE ALWAYS ACCEPTABLE TO YOU --- OUR STRENGTH AND OUR REDEEMER AMEN

Last week we spent a lot of time looking at Jesus’ image for our relationship with God, and specifically the word “abide”. The image was the wonderful image: “I am the vine you are the branches” – the idea that everything we have is dependent on God. That all our sustenance comes from God. That our energy, our brains, our initiative, our worldly goods, our very lives come from God.

Furthermore, I pointed out that most of us live like a branch which is partially broken from the vine. Our leaves and fruit are shrunken and shriveled – although alive. The more we seek to connect with God — the better, deeper our connection with God the more life we have in our beings.

This week’s lessons continue that thought. And I am struck how we continue to focus on “abiding”. To abide in does not mean “to remain” as much as to “live in” ... to be “part of”.

The most important part of today’s lesson is that we are given a reason to abide in Him ... and this reason has nothing to do with avoiding burning in hell!

Notice how this passage begins. I suspect the punctuation, which I want to emphasize is not original and was added hundreds of years after Jesus ... the punctuation is a bit confusing. Jesus says: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.” – end of first thought. Then “abide in my love”.

Wow. Those four words are so wonderful and powerful. “Abide in Jesus’ love” — to live in Jesus’ love.

Have you ever been cold and put on something warm and snuggley? ... Just kind of drifted from discomfort into extreme comfort? .... Abide in God’s love ... Stay in, live in, exist in God’s love.

The next part is confusing because it sounds at first, if we miss the meaning of “abide”, it sounds as if Jesus is telling us that we earn His love. Not so. We keep the commandments BECAUSE we abide in His love. Because we are so close, so connected to God that we honestly would not consider any other course of action - so we keep the commandments.

The only “if - then” thinking is in the sense that as we keep the commandments we abide more deeply in God’s love ... NOT because God is rewarding us for doing what we should do but because the more we keep the commandments we more we understand the wonder of God’s love and the closer we grow.

Then comes one of the most important phrases in scripture: “That my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete”.

Jesus invites us to be part of Him ... NOT OUT OF FEAR! But to gain great joy. Jesus invites us to be part of Him so our joy may be complete.

OK – another linguistic issue ... “joy”. We tend to hear the word “joy” as synonymous with “happiness”. In this context it is not. There is some overlap between the two concepts but they are not the same. Jesus is not talking about LOL ... laughing out loud in text language ... Jesus is not talking about the laughing out loud, never have any concerns, seeking the new pleasure type of happiness. In fact, I doubt “pleasure” and “joy” are connected in this case.

No, the word “joy” parallels the concept of being fulfilled. Rather than the happiness of the basketball team win, we are talking about the fulfillment we feel when we have the perfect job. Not necessarily the perfect group of people to work with — but a task that just is right for us.

This joy is the joy we feel when we find the right person for us. The person we can laugh with yes. In fact, I suspect Jesus had a playful side and playfulness is part of the good life. But more importantly the person we can be comfortable with. How often in movies and books, and real life, a person has said the other person “completes them”. Jesus is speaking about this kind of “joy” .... this kind of “fulfillment” .... this kind of “abiding in Jesus”.

What’s a bit strange is that Jesus goes on to say that the way to achieve this joy is to die! And this is not a reference to “going to heaven”. In fact, I believe Jesus was deliberately speaking at two levels. On the one level He is predicting His own death and saying how important it is. But on another level Jesus is repeating the teaching that “a person who saves his own life will lose it, and who loses his life for My sake with save it”. Not about physical death specifically although many of the disciples would be martyred.

In fact to fully understand this we need to jump back to the first John reading. I invite you to read the entire book of First John this week. It is ... oh, two or three pages long depending on the print size. It is an amazingly packed three pages!

In this part the author, probably not the apostle John, the author writes: “And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world”.

“Not burdensome” – they are not difficult. But why not – because “whatever is born of God conquers the world.”

Let me first shoot down the take a few words out of context and call yourself a literalist thinking. This is NOT a call to military action. This is NOT a suggestion we should bomb the middle east as some have argued. This, in fact is the exact opposite.

“The victory that conquers the world is our faith” — what the supposed literalist misses is how the word we translate “world” is used. Saint Paul uses it many times to indicate the powers that can influence us ... and more specifically the powers of evil. The influences which want us to focus on pleasure rather than God’s joy. The influences which want us to focus on ourselves rather than on others.

We are told that to reach God’s joy we must defeat those powers which is not hard because God will help us.

The link between the two passages might be summarized as “sacrifice” — oh, we hate that word! It sound so negative and painful. But we do it all the time. All of us have had parents who sacrificed their lives for us .... gave up going to the play to save money or help with homework. Gave up Saturday plans for our soccer game.

And we have all done things like that. We have all been willing to sacrifice something for someone else. And many times we have experienced God’s joy in that act.

One of my favorite Christmases was when a neighbor and I noticed our elderly neighbor did not have a Christmas tree on Christmas eve. She always had one in the window. We went and bought one – by then they were virtually giving them away, got some lights and decorations we weren’t using anyway, and put up a tree for her. Our sacrifice was at most a couple hours. Our joy was fantastic.

A friend has told me he decided to give up his Starbucks lattes — he travels a lot, and instead buy regular coffee at McDonalds. He figures two cups a day, at least one dollar a cup, and that is $10 a week he can give to the church or somewhere else where it will help other people. Make no mistake — He MISSES his latte! But his joy is more complete because he focuses on other people rather than himself.

Theologian Paul Tillich asks: “Is our lack of joy due to the fact that we are Christians, or to the fact that we are not sufficiently Christian?” ... Tillich argues that the picture much of the world has of Christians as either hyprocritical or funless comes from a mis-understanding on our part. “Joy is possible only when we are driven towards things and persons because of what they are and not because of what we can get from them.” .... Is the money or time we are spending helping us focus on other people, or ourselves? ... Simple question — uncomfortable answer.

If we wish to more fully abide in Jesus, we are told “simply” to focus more on others.

Consider .... how often have we said, or been told, that if we want to get something out of an activity that depends on how much we put into it. For example, how much we learn from a class depends on whether or not we “sacrifice” ourselves to attend class and study. If we don’t, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Now flip the language around ... still accurate ... and say that how much we learn depends on whether nor not we invest ourselves to attend class and study. “Sacrifice” feels negative, “invest” feels positive and probably is a better translation.

When we “invest” in other people .... personally or through organizations .... we grow closer to God. When we decide we will invest our money in someone other than ourselves, and specifically someone in need ... when we decide we will invest our time in someone other than ourselves ... that is when we will abide in Jesus ... and feel that joy, that fulfillment.

Of course, don’t expect fireworks and don’t be surprised if there is no visible appreciation. If we are looking for the fireworks which honor us or the appreciation that makes us feel good, then we are not focused on the other person, we are still focused on ourselves.

Tillich explains: “Joy is nothing else than the awareness of our being fulfilled in our true being, in our personal center.”

We do not have to ask for God’s guidance ... there is no question about that so let’s pray for our awareness and our willingness to seek to abide in God’s joy.

AMEN

Special thanks to the Rev. Anthony Dean Bailey for his thoughts in the April-May 2009 Lectionary Homiletics, p. 55-56.

We have previous sermons on our website. To read an earlier recent sermon just enter: www.st-christopher.org/sermon.html.

CLICK HERE TO RESPOND: I would enjoy reading your comments about this sermon. Please feel free to discuss content or presentation. (If you wish to use another email system send your comments to: ken@st-christopher.com)