Advent: Joy

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 

10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:8-12)

 “I bring you good news of great joy for all people”: not some, not a select few, not just the best and the brightest or just the worst and the dullest. All people. It’s a remarkably sweeping claim, and it’s our focus on this 4th Sunday of Advent.

Where Do We Get Joy?

When the children of Israelite faced exile and captivity, Isaiah wrote of a time when God would raise a new prophet like Moses who would deliver his people out of whatever Egypt they were facing. On that day,

“the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 51:11).

It wasn’t that they had not ever experienced joy (more on that in a moment). It had just been temporary and fleeting in their experience. The Israelites waited for hundreds of years for the Messiah who would bring everlasting joy. This messiah arrived in the person of Jesus, who brought everlasting joy to both Jews and Gentiles (1 John 2:2) – read, “all people” like the angels said J  

But this wasn’t going to be never-ending temporal pleasure. It was something much deeper and greater. This Messiah came to set us free from the bondage of sin, death, and judgment; brought peace between us and God (2 Corinthians 5:21); and demonstrated the fullness of his grace to the world. That sacrifice, ‘once’ and ‘for all’, was going to last forever.

So where do we get joy? This is where the classic Sunday school answer works really well: Jesus J I just want to note before we move on to defining joy how often the Bible uses language of joy or rejoicing when someone is reconciled to God through Jesus, or when one enters into life in the Kingdom of God.

”We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” (Romans 5:11) 

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9)

 “In your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forervermore.”  (Psalm 16:11) 

“You have put joy in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased.  I will lie down in peace, and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” (Psalm 4:6-8) 

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.  (Matthew 13:44) 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. – Galatians 5:22

 What is biblical joy?

I have often been inclined to separate joy from happiness, but the Bible doesn’t make such a clean distinction. When the Bible talks about joy, it uses a broad range of words or expressions to describe it. In the Old Testament, that’s gladness, mirth, brightness, rejoicing, leaping, and dancing. It can be a response to something good now (Esther 8:15-17) or a reference to something good in the future that helps us endure the present (Hebrews 12:2).

If you're a human being, regardless of your spiritual state, God has extended what we call “common grace”[2] such that all people experience good things that come from God for the world. Jesus noted that everyone gets the blessing of rain and sun (Matthew 5:45). David wrote that, “The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” (Psalm 145:9) And then there are very specific verses about joy.

• When Paul and Silas were confused with Zeus and Hermes, they took the opportunity to tell the crowds about the true God: “ In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” (Acts 14)

• David wrote, “You have put more joy in my heart than when grain and wine abound.” (Psalm 4:7)

This “fading joy”[3] is rooted in God's common grace to all people. These blessings include talents, family, possessions, health, the beauty of a sunrise, a cozy evening around a fire pit, game night with people you love, the satisfaction of a job well done. This is a lovely form of joy experienced by all people; but it is a fading and temporary joy.[4] Talents fade; possessions break; health leaves; relationships fall apart or people die. It’s lovely while it lasts, but it doesn’t last. 

Then there is the kind of joy from God that transcends all the momentarily good things and lasts into eternity. As I was reading how others tried to define joy this week, I found lots a different ways Christians tried to wrap their minds around it.

• Joy is the fruit of a right relation with God.

• Joy is confidence in God, nurtured by the Holy Spirit.[5]  

• Joy comes from confidence in being a daughter or son of God, who loves us tenderly and will never abandon us.[6] 

• Joy is how we feel in a life going well and being lived well. 

• Joy comes from delighting in that which delights God.[7]

• Joy comes from loving the right things in the right way.[8]

 I think they all probably work to some degree. One thing I know: true biblical joy is grounded on something permanent and transcendent. Its foundation will not be a “fading joy,” though those can be built on top of that foundation.

Here is where word studies are helpful. The Greek word chara (joy) is closely related to charis, which means “grace” or “a gift.” Charles Spurgeon said,

“Believers’…joy comes not from what they have, but from what they are, not from where they are, but from whose they are, not from what they enjoy, but from that which was suffered for them by their Lord.”

Chara (joy) is the normal response to charis (grace). So what if we define biblical joy this way:joy is living with confidence and delight in God’s grace. When that happens, we are all those things mentioned earlier:

• in right relation with God (because of Jesus).

• nurtured by the Holy Spirit.

• living well (in light of eternity). 

• delighting in that which delights God.

• loving the right things in the right way.

When Do We Rejoice? 

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul speaks about the Christian's duty to “rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, Rejoice” (4:4). This leaves no room for not rejoicing. We don’t do it occasionally or when we feel like it. It’s an ongoing, steady outlook on life.

This can’t be about being dishonestly positive about our circumstances. Paul wrote this epistle from prison, and he notes he may well be martyred, “poured out as a sacrifice” (2:17). Yet even then, he insists this is a time to rejoice. It’s so counterintuitive and countercultural. This would be the time I would be inclined to be very complainy.

• I can barely drive through town without finding yet another reason to think people are stupid and the world is ridiculous.

• My internet lags and I’m instantly annoyed.

• I spent months recovering basic strength after my heart  attack, and years more adjusting to the new me, and just not being happy about a lot of it.

• I spent years grieving my father, and I still miss him.

• I hate the way even the people of God have been split apart by politics and culture wars. 

• My friends in Ukraine are fighting for their lives.

 Rejoice? Really?

Yes, but note how Paul very carefully phrases this: rejoice “in the Lord.” Elsewhere, Paul notes of the readers of his letter to Thessalonica that “you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 1:6)

The Lord always gives me a reason to rejoice.  I am glad God is who God is. I rejoice in the person and work of Jesus. The Spirit of God at work in me reminds me of and focuses me on the goodness of God. This is why Paul says we can be “full of sorrow and yet rejoicing” in “all our affliction” (2 Corinthians 6:10; 2 Corinthians 7:4.)

James has another reason to find joy: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4) In this case, the joy is not the trials, but what God will bring about on the other side: maturity.

Peter notes this future aspect too, but points toward eternity: “If you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when his glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”  (1 Peter 4:13) We see this idea of future joy in Jesus himself, who “for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame…” (Hebrews 12:2)

There is a “near” and a “far” aspect of joy, what some have called the “now and not yet.” We do experience forms of joy in this life – happiness, gladness, pleasure, an overwhelming appreciation for the goodness of God and His creation. There are likely seasons where you experience a lot, and seasons where you experience it only a little.

Joy “now” is the one minute trailer for the 3 hour marquee movie that you have been waiting to see. The trailer itself is a ton of fun; if you are like me, you will applaud after the really good ones until your wife makes you stop. And if I like the trailer that much, you can imagine what I will think about the movie.

Joy “now” is the signpost, a billboard on the road to glory, like the old Burma shave signs. Lewis wrote in Surprised By Joy of the role of fading joy ‘now’ as signposts or pointers beckoning us toward the eternal joy ‘not yet’:  “It [fading joy now] is valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer…He who first sees [the pointer] cries, ‘Look!’ The whole party gathers round and stares. But when we have found the road and are passing signposts every few miles, we shall not stop and stare. They will encourage us and we shall be grateful to the authority that set them up. But we shall not stop and stare, or not much; not on this road, though their pillars are of silver and their lettering of gold. ‘We would be at Jerusalem’.”

True joy is a mashup of the near and the far,[9] and all that we experience now is a signpost for what is to come. It is because of the joy set before us that we  Christians learn to respond to the ‘near’ in light of the ‘far’.  

The ‘far,’ the ‘not yet,’ is the joy that awaits us in the life to come, fully in the presence of a God who loves us in a heaven and earth remade in its uncorrupted fullness. That is the vision that sustains us when the “now” is sketchy. These are the “far” things that are always “near.”

During the Christmas season of Advent, we celebrate the “now”, the world changed because of the Incarnation, the ‘unveiling’ of Emmanuel, Christ with us, the hope of glory. We also joyfully expect the “not yet,” the day when we will experience the fullness of His joy either because we go to be with God or God returns for His children. David Mathis notes:

“The incomplete joy in Jesus we have now — with its roller-coaster ups and downs, its twists and turns, its frustrating enigmas and pleasant surprises — is not separate from the fullness of joy that is coming. Today’s seeds and stalks are organically related to the coming flowers and fruit.”[10]

Joy to the world; the Lord has come. Joy to the world; He will come again. Let us receive the King, the Messiah, into our hearts and homes.

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[1] Here is a huge list of bible verses about joy. You will see “blessed, happy, rejoice, joy” – depending on your translation, different English words capture the same idea. https://god.net/god/bible-topics/blessings-for-those-who-love-god/true-joy-and-happiness-comes-from-god/

[2] Read more at “What Is Common Grace,” by Tim Keller. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53189f41e4b0ee73efed7b5a/t/533ea67ce4b05289c3da94dc/1396614780413/What_Is_Common_Grace.pdf

[3] https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/superficial-joy-vs-true-joy

[4] https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/superficial-joy-vs-true-joy

[5] https://fcfamily.org/blog/2020/06/23/is-true-joy-possible-3-principles-of-finding-joy-in-chaos

[6] https://www.hprweb.com/2012/06/prayer-as-the-channel-of-celestial-joy/

[7] https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2021/09/what-is-true-joy/

[8] https://www.citieschurch.com/journal/what-is-true-joy

[9] https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2021/09/what-is-true-joy/

[10] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-greatest-joy-is-still-to-come

Practice The Fruits (Not The Counterfeit Or the Opposite)

Children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The one practicing (poeio) righteousness is just imitating Jesus, the Righteous One.  The one who practices (poeio) sin belongs to the diabolical one, who has been all about sin from the beginning. That is why the Son of God came into our world: to destroy the plague of destruction inflicted on the world by the diabolical one.

No one who has been born into God’s family practices sin as a lifestyle because the God’s children are the spiritually generated offspring of God Himself. Therefore, a child of God has the power to reject a life of persistent sin.  So it is not hard to figure out who are the children of God and who are the children of the diabolical one: those who do not practice righteousness and those who don’t practice agape love for one another do not belong to God.

‘Practice’[1] in this passage is poeio: to make or make ready, to prepare, to acquire, to produce, to do a thing well. 

As I noted last week, practicing is not in opposition to the reality that God’s gifts are, well, gifts.Something can be given to us freely, and we still have to practice, like the recorder my parents got me one Christmas and then quickly regretted. 

I think that’s true also of the gifts from God the Bible calls the ‘fruits of the Spirit.’ Here are a few places the Bible talks about the idea that we invest sweat equity into the gifts of the fruit:

·      Seek and pursue the fruit of peace  (Psalm 34:14) as much as it depends on you (Romans 12:18).

·      Consider it the fruit of joy when you face trials (James 1:2), or when we share in Christ’s suffering (1 Peter 4:13)

·      Choose the fruit of love (Luke 6:27 “But to you who are willing to listen…”)

·      Be patient (James 5:7-8) like a farmer waiting for crops, imitating the saints before us (Hebrews 6:12)

·      Make every effort to add to your faith goodness and self-control (2 Peter 1:5-7)  

·      Clothe yourself with gentleness and kindness (Colossians 3:12)

So these things are all gifts from God; they are all part of the fruit our lives bear when the Holy Spirit is the sap in these people trees. In that sense, they are not something we demand or we earn or we are even responsible for having. But…we are responsible for poeio. For practicing, cultivating, looking for opportunities, do the things that someone like us is made and empowered to do. 

This morning I want us to begin looking at how to do this. Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus:

“At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8)

I’d like to offer something to help us discern whether or not we are a walking in the light in a way that pleases the Lord. Think of it as a Self-Assessment Fruit Test. We are going to get better at what we practice. Are we practicing righteous fruit like we think we are? 

Love (agape). I like Ken Boa’s definition: “a love not of emotions or feelings but of the will and of choice. This type of love can be defined as the steady intention of the will to another’s highest good. It is an ongoing benevolence—willing (-volence) what’s good or best (bene-) for another.”[2]

Agape love is is serving people for their intrinsic worth, not for how they make us feel or what they give us in return. It is a love that seeks first to give rather than be given. It’s what one popular song calls “reckless”[3] love. I don’t know that I like that word to describe the kind of love that originates in God,[4] but I think it’s meant to reflect what God’s love looks like to us. Extravagant. 

·      It’s a bottle of tears or a ridiculously expensive jar of perfume poured on feet as an act of love[5]

·      it’s leaving the 99 to get the 1[6]

·      it’s an innocent man paying the penalty on behalf of the world’s guilt.[7]

·       It’s the physical body of Jesus[8] and then the spiritual body of Christ (the church) being spiritually broken and spilled out for even the mockers and haters. 

 Poeio. Practice that. 

The counterfeit of agape love is selfish love or lust, where you care for others because of how they make you feel about yourself or because it benefits you. Instead of willing the best for the other even at cost to yourself, it’s willing the best for yourself at the expense of the other. It’s an easy love, really, a love that is all about you and what makes your life easier, and that’s not love. It’s actually a “love” that has no problem harming others for the sake of “love.” 

I call this Twilight love. “I love you, but in order for us to be together I am going to need to kill you and turn you into one of the undead.” Yeah, not love.  

The opposite is hate or indifference. That’s why we can murder people with our hands and in our hearts.[9] It’s the same spirit behind them both. Someone’s life is not worth caring about at best, and at worst is worth hating. “I hope terrible things happen to them” is not that far apart from  “I don’t care if terrible things happen to them.”  You’re on the same page.   

·      “I don’t want to have to care about you” is practice. 

·      “I don’t care about you,” means your practice is working. 

·      “I hope nobody cares about you.” It just keeps going. 

·      “I wish someone would harm you.”

·      “I wonder if there is some way I can harm you?”

The fruit of the Spirit is love. 

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (I John 4:9-11)

  Poeio. Practice it. Watch the love from Jesus in you to others do a miracle in this broken world.

 Joy is a delight focused on God for the sheer beauty and worth of who He is. It is independent of our circumstances.  

·      Joy does not come from personal comfort or emotional highs. “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 6:10)

·      Joy is not us-centered; it’s God centered. It only comes from a focus on Christ. “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9) 

·      Joy looks to the future in spite of the present. “The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.” (Proverbs 10:28) For the joy set before him Jesus endured the cross.[10]

·      Joy happens when we set our eyes on things above, and not on things of this world. Habakkuk 3:17-19, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The joy of the Lord is the thing that gives us strength.[11]

Because joy is dependent not on you but on the source of your joy, it is always available.

 The counterfeit of joy is happiness. You feel good as long as you have money, health, affirmation, success, and a schedule that’s just like you want it. Happiness is fine, but it’s fleeting. Happiness is a terrible task master.  It will drive you and the people around you into the ground. You cannot sustain happiness. Every vacation picture on FB shows you happy people (maybe). Do you know how many of them came home miserable? Happiness ain’t joy. 

A song we sang as kids made this confusing: “I’ve got joy down in my heart…and I am so happy.”  Sometimes that’s true. But you can be happy and not joyful, and joyful and not happy. In fact, happiness is not a biblical word. Seriously. If your translation has the word “happy” in it, it’s a bad translation. It should read “blessed,”[12] which comes from a root word meaning to walk in a straight path, which is an apt depiction of righteousness.

 “Some glad morning when this life is over…just a few more weary days and then…to that home on God’s celestial shore.” Whoever wrote that song[13] was not happy, but they were loaded with joy. 

The opposite of happiness is probably depression; the opposite of joy is despair. Despair happens when there is no hope. There seems to be nothing to set our eyes upon. Not only do we find our situation terrible, but we don’t see a future where it is not, and we certainly don’t believe anyone can save us. 

 So how do we practice joy?

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 

10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of  faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4)

 Peace is an internal groundedness that comes from a right relationship with a God whose sovereignty we trust. This, peace, as a fruit of the Spirit, seems to be something different than the peace that Jesus made possible between us and God through his death and resurrection like we read about in Romans 5. This has more to do with the John 14 kind of peace, which addresses Jesus’ gift of peace to address times of trouble and fear in our lives.[14] 

Peace is not controlling the storm; it’s offering our situation to Christ in the midst of it. We often seek peace through power or control. If I can just control the storm; if I can get my way; if everybody else could just understand how smart my ideas are; if you do that and this goes there, I can finally relax because I have properly ordered the world. Then I will have peace. 

Now, I’m not talking to ya’ll who are wired to be organized. I don’t understand what that’s like, but it’s a gift to be able to bring order from chaos. I’m also not talking to those with OCD-type tendencies. That’s just a thing. Carry on. I’m talking about the idolatry of order and control, the kind of thing that reflects a heart that does not trust the sovereignty and Lordship of Christ. 

I’m talking about how we respond to the storms in our lives. Do we have to walk on the water – do we have to have the power to control cultural, relational and spiritual elements around us - to find peace, or is it enough to know that Jesus is reaching his hand toward us? The peace that comes from controlling the world around us is like happiness: it’s fleeting. Peter didn’t walk on the water for long.[15] The world is never ours to control. If it was, we wouldn’t need Jesus. And if we think it must be, the inability to control it will eat away at us like a cancer. 

Here is one way the peace of God passes understanding: We remember that God is sovereign, and that He wins in the end, and that focus on the source of our hope-filled joy sustains us through the times when we don’t feel peace in the midst of chaos that we cannot control.

The counterfeit of peace is indifference or apathy. People think you are calm; really, you have just stopped caring.  You have become numb and it feels like a win. “Dude, nothing rattles me.” Yeah, because you’ve checked out. You don’t have the heart of Jesus for the world because you barely have a heartbeat. That’s not a mark in your favor.   

·      “Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.” (Proverbs 18:9) 

·      “Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.” (Obadiah 1:10-11)

It’s a small step from apathy to complicity. At some point, doing nothing makes us partners with those who do something. Sometimes, “I just don’t get worked up about things” is a terrible sign. If you lived in the antebellum South during the time of slavery, or during Jim Crow, or read about the shooting of Ahmad Arbury, or saw this past week the story of this Snapchat group in town that had set up a slave market on line for black students in TCAPS, and someone asked, “How are you so chill about these issues of racial hatred?” and you said, “Guys, I know about these things, but it’s just not something I care about,” that would not be a mark in your favor. 

In fact, that’s how evil flourishes: when good people do nothing. And good people tend not to do something about evil either because they don’t know about it, they don’t realize it’s evil, or they just don’t care enough to get involved. It doesn’t mean we all respond in the same way, of course. But to shrug it off so that our peace is not disturbed – that’s not biblical peace. 

The opposites are worry, greed, or dissention. 

·      Worry links with lack of control (Take no thought for tomorrow…”[16]) 

·      Greed is what takes root in us when we must have what we do not have. That’s not just boats and lovers; that’s power and control. “Like ravenous dogs, they are never satisfied.They are shepherds with no discernment; they all turn to their own way, each one seeking his own gain.” (Isaiah 56:11)

·      Dissention is what we sow that robs those around us of peace. You’ve heard the phrase, “Hurt people hurt people?” Well, unsettled people unsettle people. If one my chickens panics, they all panic. It’s that idea. If even just one of them stays chill, the others will calm down. 

So how do we practice peace?

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:4-9)

 Patience is persistently enduring without blowing up, giving up or lashing out. You can face insults, for example, without lashing out. You can watch your kids screw up without blowing up. You can navigate hard seasons in relationships without giving up. This is sometimes translated as “longsuffering.” Yep, suffering for a loooong time. 

This isn’t encouraging enablement of passivity in harmful situations (see previous point about passivity). I mean, Jesus was patient and confrontational, patient and in-your-face as the situation required; patient and still comfortable with telling his disciples there are some places you will have to leave when they attack you.[17] You find your stability in knowing that God is sovereign in both circumstances and timing. 

I think this has to do with what we would call not ‘flying off the handle’, not jumping to conclusions, not giving in to immediate emotional outbursts, not rushing God’s timing in our lives and the lives of others. And if we must shake the dust off our feet and move on from a situation in life, it’s not a poorly thought out, emotional, knee-jerk reaction because someone pushed our buttons. It is a thoughtful, prayerful decision, likely after we have received counsel, following Matthew 18’s recommendation. 

 The counterfeit of patience is cynicism. You don’t blow up, lash out, or quit, so you look like a patient person, but really you expected the worst anyway and you are kind of watching things fall apart because it proves you right. You're the one in heated arguments that is cool, calm and collected not because you have peace, but because you think all of them are fools, and you figure time will prove that you were indeed the smartest one in the room because you knew this was all a fruitless joke.  

The opposite is impatience/resentment. 

  Impatience:

·      “I do not have time for this. How many times have I told you to stop pulling the cat’s tale! Twice? You’re 1 ½ now. Grow up!“ 

·      “I have to show you this again? How do you not know how to tie your shoe/change your oil/pack your own lunch?” 

·      “You said God was working with you about your impatience and it’s been what, a week already, and yet here you still are with your impatient self!” 

·      “This COVID stuff is dragging on forever! AAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!” 

·      “How have we not started fixing the fire damage yet!!!” 

   If our timetable is shorter than God’s, he’s not the one who needs to realign his outlook.

Resentment: “How dare you…

·      make me wait

·      disrupt my vegging in front of the TV

·      take so long to become just who I want you to be

·      not show up on my terms yet again

·      still not agree with me!  

So how do we practice patience?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 2: 22-25)

Up next week…the rest of the fruitJ

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[1] Philippians 4:9 has a word for ‘practice’ similar to poeio that more directly means doing something over and over. John uses a word that referred to individual acts, but in his context he makes clear these should be done over and over.

[2] https://kenboa.org/living-out-your-faith/five-loves-greatest-agape/

[3] Cory Asbury, “Reckless Love”

[4] Precise doxology, ya’ll J

[5] Luke 7

[6] Matthew 18; Luke 15

[7] All the gospel narratives of the crucifixion of Jesus

[8] 1 Corinthians 11:24

[9] 1 John 3:15; 1 John 4:20; Matthew 5:21-22

[10] Hebrews 12:2

[11] Nehemiah 8:10

[12] At least two translations use the word “happy” in the Beatitudes. Nope. It’s “blessed.”

[13] Turns out it was written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley J

[14] https://biblehub.com/commentaries/john/14-27.htm

[15] Matthew 14

[16] Matthew 6:34

[17] Matthew 10:14

Advent Ends In The Light (Isaiah 60:1-2)

ADVENT THEME: JOY

The candle we light for Joy is also known as the Shepherd Candle, because of the joy given to the shepherds by the angels (Luke 2:8-20).  When Jesus was born, it was announced as “good tidings that brings great joy.” Jesus was a gift of God incarnate that brought joy into the world; Paul would later write that joy is also a gift from God’s Spirit into us. Because of this, we can say that we are “full of sorrow, and yet rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).  

Jesus once said, “You have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:22) So if you were to ask me how to find joy, I would say that joy is given by God the Father through the Holy Spirit, but joy is found in the person and presence of Jesus. See Jesus. And that’s what we are going to do today.

* * * * * 

Advent Ends In The Light

December 20, 2020

I discovered chickens cannot see in the dark when I heard one of my bantams squawking loudly from the shed. When I went out, it was fine. It just couldn’t find its buddies, who were about 5 feet away in a part of the shed that was very dark. So now, during the day, I turn on a light. Happy chickens. My chickens need light so that the darkness does not paralyze and terrify them. Simple thing, chickens. Stay with me. I’m establishing patterns J

As a kid, I longed for light in the darkness. I was terrified of the night. I took a running leap into bed; I quivered under the covers. But turn on a night light or leave a door open so some light could get in, I was good. I needed light so that all the imagined fears that could take place in the darkness were dispelled by the light. 

When you have endured a week of gloomy winter, nothing beats a sunny day. I don’t care how cold it is. The whole world feels better. I’ve been known to roll my window down on sunny days when the temp is in the 20s. You start showering again, and think, “Maybe I should start exercising and not eat pancakes every day as a snack.” 

“Light to dark” is an image we know. It’s a pattern ingrained in so many things in the world. No wonder it’s a pattern we see in the Bible constantly, starting in Genesis 1, almost as if God masterminded the whole thing. J

·      The initial command “Let there be light!” was a hint: This God does not settle for darkness.When darkness settles on the deep, the Spirit of God moves.  

·      It was “while shepherds watched their flocks by night” that the glory of the Lord shone around them. This God will not be announced without dispelling some darkness.

·      When the Wise Men from the east needed a sign– the east, the land “East of Eden” (another motif from Genesis for those far from the presence of God)  - they were given a light in a dark sky to guide them to the Light of the World, “the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone.” (John 1:9)  This God will make a way for those who live in darkness. 

 Any advent or arrival in which God is involved may begin in darkness, but it ends in light. 

I am fascinated this year by how the Bible establishes the darkness into which Jesus arrived before introducing the light of his apocalypse (“unveiling”). I think it’s probably the case that our appreciation of the light correlates with how profound the darkness was into which it was introduced. Let’s see why God’s people longed for the light before the first Advent of Jesus, and then we will look at our own lives. 

Isaiah 58: A Timeless Oracle For The People Of God

Eternal One: Tell My people about their wrongdoing…hold nothing back: [my people] have failed to do what is right…They pretend to want to learn what I teach, as if they are indeed a [people] good and true, as if they hadn’t really turned their backs on My directives. They even ask Me, as though they care, about what I want them to be and do, as if they really want Me in their lives. 

People: Why didn’t You notice how diligently we fasted before You? We humbled ourselves with pious practices and You paid no attention. 

Eternal One: I have to tell you, on those fasting days, all you were really seeking was your own pleasure; besides, you were busy defrauding people and abusing your workers… Is a true fast simply some religious exercise for making a person feel miserable and woeful? Is it about how you bow your head (like a bent reed), how you dress (in sackcloth), and where you sit (in a bed of ashes)? Is this what you call a fast, a day the Eternal One finds good and proper?

This isn’t looking good at all. If I can summarize: “Hey, God! How are we doing down here? Check out our fasting!?”[1]  God: “It’s disgusting. It sickens me.” Okay…. However, Isaiah has what looks like good news: a solution!  

No, what I want in a fast is this: to liberate those tied down and held back by injustice, to lighten the load of those heavily burdened, to free the oppressed and shatter every type of oppression. A fast for Me involves sharing your food with people who have none, giving those who are homeless a space in your home, giving clothes to those who need them, and not neglecting your own family.

Excellent. There is a plan. There are action steps. And now, here comes some light!

Then, oh then, your light will break out like the warm, golden rays of a rising sun; in an instant, you will be healed. Your rightness will precede and protect you; the glory of the Eternal will follow and defend you. Then when you do call out, “My God, Where are You?” The Eternal One will answer, “I am here, I am here.” 

If you remove the yoke of oppression from the downtrodden among you, stop accusing others, and do away with mean and inflammatory speech, if you make sure that the hungry and oppressed have all that they need, then your light will shine in the darkness, and even your bleakest moments will be bright as a clear day...

That sound really good! But, uh, notice the “if”. If you do these things, your righteousness will be amazing. Let’s keep reading. 

Isaiah 59

Your persistent wrongdoing has come between you and your God; since you constantly reject and push God away He had to turn aside and ignore your cries... Their thoughts are bent toward injustice; destruction and trouble line the roads of their lives.8 They never travel the path of peace; no justice is found where they have been. They set a course down crooked roads; no one who follows their lead has a chance of knowing peace.

Well, I think that’s pretty clear. It didn’t happen. It looks like they can’t light up the world with their own righteousness. In hindsight, that’s obvious, but don’t we wrestle with that same sense of capability?  How many times do we think we can clean up our lives and this world on our own? 

·      “If you can control your attitude with the customers and get here on time, your job will be safe.” 

·      “Oh, yeah. I got this.”

·      ”If you can curb your addictions, your marriage will survive and maybe even flourish.”

·      “You got it.”

·      “If you can just bounce your eyes, that porn problem will go away.”

·      “Done.”

·      “If you figure out your identity in Christ, that depression, shame negative self-talk, anxiety, loneliness will go away.”

·      “Commencing self-help.” 

 “If…” It’s such a loaded word. “If you can do that, all will be well.” Isn’t this a lesson every Christian has to learn? If our righteous effort is what it takes to fix us, we are in trouble. The people of Israel figured it out. 

People: That’s why we can’t make things right; good and true can’t gain any ground on us. We look earnestly for a bright spot, but there isn’t even a glimmer of hope; it’s darkness all around. We are left to stumble along, grabbing at whatever seems solid, like the blind finding their way down a strange and threatening street.  In broad daylight—when we should have sight—we stumble and fall as in the dark. We are already like the dead among those brimming with health. We growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope that maybe, just maybe, it will all turn out right; But it doesn’t. We look for liberation, but it’s too far away.  

So far, it sounds a bit like complaining: “Do you see what you’ve given us to work with? This world is a hard and terrible place, and “we are left to stumble alone.”  But then there is a very important turn….  

For our wrongdoing runs too deep before You. Our sins stack up against us—sure evidence of our guilt. For our offenses are always with us; they are insidious and lasting, as You know. Our guilt says it all. We know it, too. We took You for nothing, and did just the opposite of Your commands. We broke our promises to You, ignored and rejected You.

We hatched up schemes to oppress others and rebel, to twist the truth for our gain while presenting it as honest-to-God fact. When justice calls, we turn it away. Righteousness knows to keep its distance, for truth stumbles in the public square, and honesty is not allowed to enter.  There is no truth-telling anymore, and anyone who tries to do right finds he is the next target.

Now, Isaiah steps out of the dialogue and makes an observation about how God responds to what started as a complaint and ends as a confession. I think this is key. What starts as self-justification – “God, listen, have you seen the kind of world you’ve given us?” turns into repentance: “Our sins stack up against us…we are the problem in the world.” 

It’s the only “if/then” scenario that has power. “If my people humble themselves and repent.” It’s not us fixing our brokenness. It’s us submitting to God’s work. back to Isaiah.

It’s true. The Eternal One saw it all and was understandably perturbed at the absence of justice. God looked long and hard, but there wasn’t a single person who tried to put a stop to the injustice and lies. So God took action. His own strong arm reached out and brought salvation. His own righteousness—good and pure—sustained Him.  But God’s equipment was that of no ordinary warrior: He strapped on righteousness as His breastplate, and put on the helmet of salvation. Wrapped in vengeance for clothing and passion as a cloak, God prepared for war.

Finally, God determined they must get what they’ve earned: fury to those who oppose Him, vengeance against those who are against Him. To the ends of the known world, God will go to render justice.  This is how people from east to west will come to respect the name and honor the glory of the Eternal. For He will come on like a torrential flood driven by the Eternal’s winds. The Redeemer will come to make Zion right again, to rescue those of Jacob’s holy line who turn their backs on wrongdoing. This is what the Eternal One declares.

Okay, that’s good news and bad news. The good news is that God is going to bring justice. The bad news is that His own people have been the problem. But…the good news is that He is going to rescue those who turn back to him – and He is going to orchestrate this.[2]

Eternal One:  This is My covenant promise to them: My Spirit, which rests on and moves in you, and My words, which I have placed within you, will continue to be spoken among you and move you to action. And not only you, but so it will be for your children and their children too.[3] And so on through the generations for all time.

And now we move into a classic paragraph that is often cited during Advent. 

Isaiah 60
Arise, shine (“be in the light”; “become light”), for your light[4] has broken through! The Eternal One’s brilliance has dawned upon you.  See truly; look carefully—darkness blankets the earth; people all over are cloaked in darkness. But God will rise and shine on you; the Eternal’s bright glory will shine on you, a light for all to see.

 It’s reminiscent of the end of Malachi: “ But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays.” (Malachi 4:2) 

* * * * * * * * * *

“When the prophet says that’ that light is come,‘ he… sees in vision the Messiah… as pouring the light of salvation on a darkened church and world.”  (Albert Barnes’ Notes On The Whole Bible) 

“In the midst of that distressing condition, Jehovah will arise upon Zion in the person of His Son; in Christ, the glory of God will be revealed.”  (Coffmana’s Commentary On The Bible)

Oh! This is fantastic news! God Himself will be the light in the darkness. 

It’s not just God moving into the world, but God moving into our hearts. Advent is more than an ‘unveiling’ in world history; it’s an arrival in our hearts. It’s personal. This is a story about light dispelling darkness, and that while that has profound implications for world history, it also has profound implications for your history. We are all coming out of darkness; we have all contributed the sinful brokenness of the world. Our wrongdoing runs deep too. But…..

Arise, shine, your light has broken through. The Eternal One’s brilliance has dawned upon you. 2 See truly; look carefully—darkness blankets the earth; people all over are cloaked in darkness. But God will rise and shine on you; the Eternal’s bright glory will shine on you, a light for all to see.

This is the joy of the first Advent. That healing and hope is available to all of us. 

 * * * * * * * * * *

 But there is another part to it.

“…the church of God is… called upon to arise… [and] to shine forth in the exercise of grace and discharge of duty…and to diffuse this light to others…” John Gill’s Exposition On The Whole Bible) 

That summons ("Arise, shine!”) is the inevitable result of the dawning of the light. When God is felt to be near [people] in penitence, love, and prayer, [they are]… bound to reflect the glory which has risen in their heart; to bear witness of the light which has pierced and transformed their soul… The glory of the Lord manifests itself in life… It is because the ‘glory of the Lord has risen upon [them],’ that Christians are able to reflect the light which has entered their souls.” E. L. Hull, Sermons

After God was unveiled to the world in the incarnate Jesus, and unveiled in the hearts of those who repent and embrace him as Lord and King, God’s people are unveiled to the world. It’s not because we are amazing. Nothing changed in terms of our ability to light up the world with our righteousness. What changed was our identity. We are now children of God, temples for the Holy Spirit. I love how Thomas Coke, English clergyman, first bishop of the Methodist Church, phrased it: 

“Shew thy native beauty; suffer thyself to be so strongly illuminated by the glory of the Lord, that thou mayest be a light to others." [5]

I have this image of all the solar powered lights I have in my yard. They soak up the light during the day, so they can shine at night. And they don’t shine because they powered themselves up. They shine because the sun filled them with light. 

Do you see this? There is a third apocalypse, a third unveiling taking place between the birth of Jesus and His return. 

It’s his church.

Jesus is revealed through His church. “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and…..glorify your Father in heaven.”

So I am sobered and inspired this Advent season to think about how, between the first apocalypse in a manger that ushered in this present age, and a second that will wrap it up as Jesus is revealed as the Returning King, God plan was to have His Holy Spirit-filled followers be an apocalypse, an unveiling, that absorbs and points back to the light from the first one while shining and like illuminating signposts that point toward the second one. 

We have the light of joy because true joy entered the world through the birth of the incarnate Savior. We ambassadors, filled by God’s Spirit and nourished by God’s Word, soak up this joyful light until it lights the darkness with our words, our attitudes, our actions, our lives.  And we never stop telling everyone that He who has come will come again, and for those whom His light has filled, there will be joy unspeakable, and full of glory. 

Joy to the world. The Lord has come. Let every heart prepare Him room. 

THREE THINGS FOR PONDERING OR DISCUSSING

1. If seeing the darkness for what it is makes the light more glorious, take some time to reminisce on 2020 (and perhaps further back) and mourn the darkness. See it for what it is. Feel it. Don’t look away.

2. Now….what does Jesus offer? What is the hope in front of us? How do the first and second advents shine into the darkness? What is holding us back from ‘arising, and shining’?

3. Pray. There are times that seeing the light feels soooo elusive. “We look earnestly for a bright spot, but there isn’t even a glimmer of hope; it’s darkness all around.” If you are in a group, share stories of God’s faithfulness in your lives, times when the light that seemed so elusive did indeed break through.

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[1] Malachi highlights how much God disliked their sacrifices (Malachi 3).

[2] As Malachi 3: 6; 16-18. “Return to me, and I will return to you….  Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him.  And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

[3] Malachi says something very similar in the final verses of the Old Testament. God will eventually turn the hearts of the parents to the children, and the children to their parents.

[4] “I am the Light Of The World.” – Jesus, as recorded in John 8:12

[5] 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”