Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

“Wearing Joy on Your Sleeve”

I had a huge conversation this week with my colleagues; we were talking about encountering God, having experiences of God in daily life. I shared my experiences with them. I grew up in church, I sat behind my mother from the time I was 3 weeks old listening and learning. I never knew the experience of suddenly being aware of the presence of God in my life. It took a lot of years before I could look back and see how God had transformed my life because it was so gradual. I know that there are many who have a similar experience. I also know that some folks have had moments of extreme and instantaneous transformation that they can describe in great detail.

And I have heard those kind of experiences from you . . . some of you have described or alluded to those kinds of things. Miraculous transformations, internally or externally, have marked your life of faith. And I have heard about lives of calm continuous faith and serenity not marked by any great transformation, just a simple life of trust and walking through life with God.

And all of these experiences are legitimate and authentic experiences of having God in one’s life. It’s just that sometimes as human beings we don’t really notice anything unless we are exposed to its utter opposite. It is easier to know we are sad if we’ve been ecstatic recently. We might be more likely to recognize joy if it felt in contrast to despair, but we can be joyful without hitting bottom or lying in the gutter. And yet, even if we have hit bottom with despair that doesn’t mean that God has been distant, only that we have had a different journey to God than other folks might have had.

Yet joy never exists in perfection—not in this world. There is a Jewish custom that says you should always leave a corner or some part of your house unfinished as a reminder that all is temporary. Nothing that we create will last an eternity—only God creates eternally and most of that which we experience in God’s creation is also temporary. It may last millions of years, but it is temporary. History and story move on—only God remains constant and continually working toward God’s vision for all creation.

I’ve been blessed enough in the last few months to get some great leaps and bounds toward my own personal vision of joy in my life. Since Carl has come into my life, I feel incredibly blessed and full of joy. Yet I also know that this is just a part of all the dreams that I have. . . and Carl knows that, too. And Carl still has dreams to be fulfilled. In the midst of these moments of time, we are full of joy. Joy is happiness mixed with reality and the anticipation of more yet to come. All is not perfect and never will be, but joy is in me.

And there are wonderful things happening all around us. . . the cycles of nature continue on, renewing the world through the seasons. Flowers and trees will bud next spring because the damp, dark, cold winter has given them respite—a time of dormancy when new growth is developed and readied to sprout. Animals of all kinds may enter a time of slowing down when they are given a chance to rest until the coming seasons of reproduction. Some mammals even give birth through the winter so that when the young are ready to eat solid food, there is solid food available in spring.

Joy isn’t about whether or not human institutions that we have come to rely upon are thriving—that’s a false confidence—joy is about God’s creation continuing to produce and bring forth the life and wholeness that God originated at the outset of the universe. Joy means rejoicing as we see the cycles of life roll on toward God’s intentions. We may not see the culmination of the vision, but there is joy in the process toward which we are focused.

In Isaiah 61.11 we read,
“11For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.”

We all experience the presence of God as God has decided to be made manifest in our lives. We experience the presence of God as we ourselves are built to recognize God. In my conversation with my friends this week, I heard that how we are built makes a difference in how we feel the joy that God gives—it even makes a difference in our recognition of that joy.

In the desert, plants and flowers shoot up out of the ground very quickly in the spring—or the wet season. They don’t wait around to see if the rain will continue, because it doesn’t. Life in the desert takes advantage of the blessing as it falls from the sky. Their growth cycle may be days long from sprout to maturity.

Yet in more temperate climates, plants may take years to mature before they produce fruit. Fruit trees may need a year or more to make much fruit. Even a crop like wheat has varieties that need the winter freezes to mature. Moving here to Illinois made this difference more prominent in my mind. I was used to seeing green wheat in the fields all winter—some with cattle grazing on it. Here I see fields of corn stubble covered with bird—waiting spring planting. And corn is one of those almost instantaneous plants. In less than 60 days, it will grow 2-3 feet, at least that’s what I’ve seen.

How does the righteousness and praise spring up before all nations? Like the earth growing crops and the garden growing food. . . either really quickly with results to be seen immediately or really slowly as they take time to mature and be made real in the lives of people among the nations in the world. The presence and praise of God might spring up quickly in those who are prepared somehow to receive it. . . the presence and praise of God might take a little longer in those whose lives have more obstacles. Or it might be a simple carpet of pasture flowers in one life while the righteousness and justice God brings might be a mighty oak in another person or community

I often get the feeling that the contradictions of scripture express the counterpoint of God’s dance within the history of humanity. God doesn’t feel the same to everyone. The joy God brings to each situation might sometimes bring laughter and in other times or other people bring tears. Yet the joy is still there, even in the realization that life is incomplete, imperfect and yet to be fulfilled. Life is always yet to be and yet we are called to live in what is the now.

We are called to rejoice in today. In the present manifestation of God’s dream for the world, we can praise God.

Psalm 126 sings with happiness and joy when God accomplished good things among the people of Israel—by reestablishing Jerusalem after exile. The psalmist sang,
1When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,* we were like those who dream. 2Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy;then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ 3The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.
Yet when they returned, we read in the histories of Ezra and Nehemiah, things weren’t all cherries and cream. They came back to Jerusalem and had to rebuild their homes, the city, the temple and they had to reestablish their knowledge of God’s work in the lives of their ancestors. The history of that people had to be pieced together from very little written evidence and lots of oral history. The priestly lines knew some things and wrote them down. The prophets knew other things and wrote those down. The people knew other things and told their stories which were eventually written down in places. The gathered the knowledge they had of their past and made a future out of it. Some of the past had been idealized and other parts misunderstood, yet it was their story as it existed for them.

They rejoiced in the story of God’s presence in the lives of their ancestors and in God’s repeated fulfillment of God’s promises in their lives.

Joy to Isaiah meant that all those who were under the boot of oppression whether physical, mental, emotion or political would be freed and given the opportunity to experience liberation. Joy in the psalmist’s eyes meant the remembrance of the great things of the past and the hope that great things would continue into the future for God’s people and with God’s action.

And the people of God express the joy they have experienced—they sing out their joy with great feeling, even if it is quiet, it can be genuine. Not everyone is a great singer, but everyone can sing with great feeling. The people of God have expressed their joy by working on the mission that God has given. Rebuilding and restoring Jerusalem was the joy of the people of Isaiah and of this psalm. Standing up and expressing the joy that Christ brought to their lives was the story of the people of the early church. In Thessalonica, Paul saw joy and prayer, continuous acknowledgment and celebration as a mark of their faith in all that God had done through Jesus. “16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

And when Jesus came into the world, there were witnesses to the joy that his presence brought, John the baptizer was a witness in the fourth gospel. Mary was a joyous witness in Luke’s gospel as her approaching pregnancy was announced to her. Mary and Joseph both welcomed Jesus into their lives with joy in Matthew and Mark celebrated Jesus’ action with quiet determination. Mark gospel isn’t poetic like Luke or a wordsmith like John, but it expresses the joy that the community felt inn that story.

When we wear our joy on our sleeve, we all find our own style . . . some of our differences are dependent on who we are deep inside—those things we cannot change. Some may express joy in the contentment of life—sharing what they have quietly and without fanfare. Some may have exuberant passion and shout their joy from the highest pinnacle—communicating with many at a time, which is great if the person doesn’t become the message. Most of us remain somewhere in between depending on who we are and how we were raised. Yet we are all called to bring attention to the joy that God has given us in some way.

Live joy each day so that others may ask for the secret to your contentment. Live joy each day so that God will be glorified in what you do. Live joy each day so that people will not wonder if God is in you life—they will know.

In the name of God, hope, peace and joy. Amen.