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Rejoice
in the Lord Ecclesiastes
2:25 August
12, 2007 Sisters
and brothers in Christ, grace and peace to you, in the name of God the
Father, Son (X)
and Holy Spirit. Amen.
With so much suffering in Christianity (Matthew 10:25; 1 Peter
2:21), you might think there wouldn’t be any joy at all. But that’s
not so. For even though Christians are called to deny themselves (Luke
9:23), that doesn’t wipe away all joy. And just because we’re to
renounce all things (Luke 14:33), that doesn’t mean doing away with
every kind of joy. And even though we’re to make “no provisions for
the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14), that still leaves
room for joy in our hearts. And just because we’re to take up “the
good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12), that doesn’t mean we’ll
have no time to rejoice. And because we stand against drunkenness,
fornication and adultery (Galatians 5:19-21; Matthew 5:27-28), that
doesn’t make us sourpusses. Nor does that happen because we’re
against “laying up treasures on earth” (Matthew 6:19). And just
because Jesus taught that our family isn’t necessarily our blood
relatives, but only those who “do the will of God” – whoever they
may be (Mark 3:33-35) – that doesn’t make us lonely and forsaken.
Williams Blake (1757-1827), therefore, doesn’t have the last word when
he writes these memorable, biting lines [Complete
Writings ( And
Priests in black gowns were
walking their rounds, And
binding with briars my
joys and desires. Joy Unparalleled No,
in spite of all these misgivings and concerns, Christians still are
joyous people – in spite of all their voluntary suffering and loss.
Christians, in fact, even believe that “apart from God”
(Ecclesiastes 2:25), there can be no true joy! And this is because
having everything we want doesn’t save us from “vanity and a
striving after wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11) – no, never. And
furthermore, there’s what has been called a “hedonistic paradox,”
which says, that the more we try to please ourselves, the less happy we
actually are [Henry Sidgwick, The
Methods of Ethics (1884, 1907, 1966) pp. 48, 136]! This paradox
makes the report especially pitiful, of a Janet Downes in Bellevue,
Nebraska, who married herself in front of her own mirror, with friends
looking on, because she was “happy with herself” (Newsweek,
June 29, 1998, p. 19). Now
this deep, gloomy impediment to human happiness is confirmed again and
again throughout the generations. So it’s worth noting, the somewhat
crude observation, that pornography
is a form of utopian literature and, like the advertising of desire, it
set a standard that brought on paralysis. When an erectifying drug was
put on the market [Viagra], the millions who rushed to obtain it
numbered the healthy young as well as the ailing old, and women at once
demanded its feminine equivalent. It was apparently not known that
desire must be damned up to be self-renewing [Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the
Present (2000) p. 790]. In
the face of this paradox, Christianity offers something else. Instead of
trampling down all joys, as the critics allege, Christianity offers a
durable joy that cannot be found elsewhere (John 6:68) – an
unparalleled joy from God himself. For he not only takes away (Luke
14:33), but also “lavishes” abundance upon us (Ephesians 1:8; John
10:10; Psalms 31:19, 36:8, 145:7). So even though the Christian life is
troubled over many things, Christians still are “always rejoicing”
(2 Corinthians 6:10). This is because Christians pray that they might
have their hearts “fixed where true joy is found,” namely in the
joys “that are eternal” [Lutheran
Book of Worship (1978) pp. 21-22]. So
being superficially happy isn’t enough because it doesn’t last long
– for whatever’s quickly acquired is hard to keep. We therefore want
something more durable and thorough – and we can find that only in a
life with God. This is better because it’s not subject to the
“fleeting pleasures” of earthly life, but rather dwells in a
“lasting city” (Hebrews 11:25, 13:14). And that city is our life
with the Almighty and Everlasting God. So when the vicissitudes of
history strike us, this joy won’t give way (Matthew 7:24-27). And when
the calamities of life befall us, it doesn’t cave in. Søren
Kierkegaard (1813-1855), therefore, rightly compares this stability to a
refreshing spring: Imagine
a solitary in the desert; almost scorched by the heat of the sun, dying
of thirst, he finds a spring. Ah, delicious coolness! Now I am provided
for, God be praised…. Your faithful coolness, O beloved spring, is not
subject to change. In the cold of winter, if it were to reach here, you
do not become colder but keep exactly the same coolness; the water of a
spring does not freeze! In the noonday heat of summer you keep exactly
your unchanged coolness; the water of a spring does not become
tepid!.... O God, you Changeless One, you, unchanged, are always to be
found and are always to be found unchanged…. No one strays so far away
that he cannot find his way back to you, you who are not only like a
spring that lets itself be found [but also] like a spring that even
searches for the thirsting, the straying (Kierkegaard’s
Writings 23:280-281). Joy Unrefined But
even this durable joy from the eternal God cannot turn life into a bowl
of cherries – where all we have is pure, refined, unmixed joy and
nothing more. No, even with this gift from God, tribulations remain
(John 16:33). For we still live in a crooked, perverse and adulterous
generation (Mark 8:38; Philippians 2:15) which saddens us. We know
we’re not safe here – being subject to roadside attacks, political
tyranny, and many other hazards (Luke 10:30; Acts 7:58, 8:1-3). And wars
still continue to erupt because we’re greedy (James 4:1-3). Demons
also attack us on every side (Ephesians 6:11-16; 1 John 5:19). In his Large
Catechism (1529) [The Book
of It
is unbelievable how the devil opposes us…. Like a furious foe, he
raves and rages with all his power and might…. He stirs up [our flesh
and the world], fanning and feeding the flames, in order to hinder us,
put us to flight, cut us down, and bring us at once more under his
power…. For this end he strives without rest day and night, using all
the arts, tricks, ways, and means that he can devise. Therefore we who
would be Christians must surely count on having the devil with all his
angels and the world as our enemies and must count on their inflicting
every possible misfortune and grief upon us…. Let nobody think that he
will have peace. And,
as if this were not enough, death itself pursues us as our final, worst
enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). Yet all this sadness cannot drown out the
light that brings us joy (John 1:5; Matthew 16:18).
So our joy is an unrefined, mixed bag, remaining riddled with
sorrows. For indeed, “Jesus Christ did not come to bring a design for
an ideal society, [by] making the kingdom of God come on earth by means
of our reforms and our political and social activity” [Jacques Ellul,
“On Christian Pessimism” (1954), in Sources
and Trajectories (1997) p. 106]. Wishing and imagining such
pessimism away, is only a dream born of spiritual blindness. And this
blindness leaves us looking delusory and silly. It flies in the face of
our Scriptural revelation. For there we learn that Jesus himself was
“consumed with a constant sorrow,” leaving him not “much joy
during His earthly sojourn” (Luther’s Works
22:236-237; Luke 19:41). So, even he, would have sounded silly, walking
the roads of Capernaum, whistling, say, Cole Porter’s “Anything
Goes” (1936), or George Bruns’ “That Happy Rag” (1957), or the
Beach Boys’ “Fun, Fun, Fun” (1964), or the Beatles’ “Ob-La-Di,
Ob-La-Da” (1968) – since “worldly gaiety” wasn’t his bag (LW
52:108). No, a far better song for him would have been the 17th century
German hymn, “Soul, Adorn Yourself With Gladness” (LBW, Hymn 224), sung to that sober tune of Schmücke dich.
So Kierkegaard indeed had it right to see joy trembling with pain
– for only then is it truly Christian: Just
as Scripture says that faith and hope without love are only sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal, so also joy proclaimed without mentioning
the pain is only sounding brass and tinkling cymbal; unheeded, it
whistles past the ear of the suffering one; it sounds on the ear but it
does not resound in the heart; it agitates the ear but is not treasured
within. But the voice that quivers with pain and still proclaims joy –
yes, this forces its way in through his ear and descends into his heart
and is treasured there (Søren
Kierkegaard’s Journal &
Papers, Hong Edition, §2:2183). Joy Unbounded Christians
therefore are joyous – but they “let joy size, at God knows when, to
God knows what” [The Poems of
Gerard Manley Hopkins,
Fourth Edition (1918, 1970) p. 103]. That is to say, their joy isn’t
ordinary – it’s not bound by the usual ways of looking at happiness.
No, it rather conforms to God’s ways (Isaiah 55:8). So, like Christian
peace, which passes all understanding and isn’t of the worldly variety
(Philippians 4:7; John 14:27), Christian joy – which is another
offspring of that same divine Spirit (Galatians 5:22) – also
“marches to the beat of a different drummer” (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854). It, like Christian peace, is also unworldly and godly
– anything but ordinary. This
is because Christian joy has a different grounding. It doesn’t
fluctuate with the stock market or according to one’s health – for
they don’t determines its size, if you will. No, this joy is instead
determined by God – he is its source, its grounding, its origin. And
so we are famously told to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians
4:4). This is an exuberant joy that refreshes us always. Rejoice in the
Lord always, it says. In fact “a Christian, as a child of God, must
always rejoice, always sing, fear nothing, always be free from care, and
always glory in God” (LW
29:177). And that constancy makes our joy formidable – and us
“mettlesome” or brave (BC,
p. 553). It therefore can sustain you, whether you’re rich or poor,
sick or healthy, popular or rejected, lonely or busy. That is because
“adversity and good fortune” are “alike in us” (LW
4:149, 8:10), since our internal life with God is neither verified nor
falsified by what happens around us – externally. So we strive to be
“neither elated by praise nor cast down by insults” (LW
27:102). This gives us a “poise” that breeds joy (LW
44:77). So
without this joy, you’re in deep trouble, for the peace and hope that
it brings with it, will be lacking as well. And then fear will set in
and with it greed and selfishness, from which will follow cruelty and
violence. So Christian joy is not insubstantial. Rather it can change
lives mightily – making us strong by its presence or wretched by its
absence. For the same happens with Christ – being the stench of death
to unbelievers, but the sweet fragrance of hope for his followers (2
Corinthians 2:16). So “simply cleave to and cling to Christ…. If you
have that, you have all; but if you lose that, you have lost all” (LW
23:55). So
“set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on
earth… For your life is hid with Christ in God,” where this true joy
is found. Therefore “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”
(Colossians 3:2-3, 16). “Abide in the womb of the Word,” so that you
may think “in the way Scripture does’ (LW
17:93, 25:261). For Christ is the source of your joy, and that is why
you are to rejoice in him
always (Philippians 4:4). For “our real joy… is, that by means of
faith, our sins become no longer ours but Christ’s…. He took upon
himself our sins” (LW
31:190). So the
freedom with which Christ has set us free [is] not from some human
slavery or tyrannical authority, but from the eternal wrath of God….
This is a theological or spiritual freedom… that makes us unafraid of
the wrath to come (LW 27:4). So
Christ solves our biggest problem and thereby gives us a joy that sails
above all the fortunes and misfortunes of life – since they are
nothing compared with being damned in hell for all eternity. That’s
why he didn’t heal all the sick when he lived in Israel (Mark 1:32-39)
– for he had bigger fish to fry, namely, dying for the sins of the
world that all who believe in him might be set free from hell (John
3:36; 1 Timothy 1:15, 2:5-6; 1 John 2:1-2; 4:10; Hebrews 9:26; Romans
8:2-4; 1 Peter 3:18). For indeed, “only Christ, the mediator, can be
pitted against God’s wrath and judgment” (BC,
p. 136; Romans 5:9).
So this joy in Christ cannot be found elsewhere, since only he
died for our sins. Trying to find lasting joy in nature, human
companionship or within ourselves is fruitless. These are all blind
alleys and dead end streets – born of sinful human flesh. So don’t
go barking up these wrong trees! Rather “suppress and cast out the
salvation, peace, life, and grace of the flesh” (LW
14:335). This is because this fleshly life is not a source of joy but
only of “vexation” (LW
8:114). So our joy “cannot be full until we see… God’s will alone
prevailing [in]… the life to come” (LW
24:399-401). Joy Unfolding Even
though this joy is embedded in our faith in Christ, it also has external
ramifications that must unfold – what Kierkegaard called its
“existential consequences” (Journals
& Papers, Hong §6:6726). For without these developments and
elaborations (2 Peter 1:5-11),
faith dies (James 2:26) and can no longer produce the joy that give us
our strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
1. Nature. So first, we must wean ourselves off of nature, for it
cannot give us a lasting joy. Gripped by the beauty of a sunset or the
glamour of a red rose or the majesty of a snow-peaked mountain, we might
think otherwise – but to no avail. For the Bible stops us cold in all
such ventures. In Genesis 3:18 we’re told that “thorns and
thistles” are the resilient earmarks of nature. This is in keeping
with Alfred Lord Tennyson great poem, In
Memoriam (1850), where he writes that nature is “red in tooth and
claw” (§56:4). So we mustn’t sanitize nature. We mustn’t overlook
storms (see David Laskin, Braving
the Elements: The Stormy History of American Weather, 1996), disease
(see Donald R. Hopkins, The
Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History, 2002), epidemics (Pete Davies,
The Devil’s Flu, 2000)
and parasites (Carl Zimmer, Parasite
Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature’s Most Dangerous Creatures,
2000). Our plant surely needs remaking (2 Peter 3:13)!
The Bible also keeps before us famines, floods and earthquakes.
Nature periodically erupts, thereby discouraging us from finding any
comfort in it. Take, for instance, Numbers 16:32, where “the earth
opened its mouth and swallowed” up people, households, and goods.
Nevertheless, as Gerhard O. Forde (1927-2005) explains (“Without a
Card,” It
is hard for us to learn the lesson of creation…. that there is just
the gift to be… cared for…. We [instead wrongfully] seek the secret
behind the scenes, to wrest from creation the answer to our agony. Russell
Banks, in his novel Cloudsplitter
(1998), helps disabuse us of such a Romantic view of nature: The
man was sick with insect bits – his face, neck, and hands were puffed
up like an adder. He and his companions appeared to have been stung a
thousand times by mosquitoes and by the wretched clouds of black flies
that populate the forests here. They swarm like a pestilence and are so
numerous as to madden and blind a deer and drive it into the water and
cause it to drown. If you don’t cover your skin with grease or carry a
smutch, they can cloud out the light of day, fill your nostrils and
ears, and swell up the flesh of your face until your eyes are forced
shut (p. 198).
2. Human Companionship. And secondly we cannot trust in others to give
us joy either (Jeremiah 17:5-6; John 2:24; LW
1:122, 2:301). In the end they’re just too fickle – despite what
they promise. So we sing (Lutheran
Book of Worship, Hymn 443): Watch
and see, you are free From
false friends who charm you While
they seek to harm you.
3. Ourselves. And finally we can’t even find joy in ourselves, since
we too are untrustworthy (Luke 17:10, 18:9) – “selfyeast of spirit a
dull dough sours” (The Poems of
Gerard Manley Hopkins, p. 101). This is because we are too distorted
by sin which has turned us in on ourselves – incurvatus
in se (LW 25:291).
So “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12), which
includes pitting the spirit against the flesh which opposes it
(Galatians 5:17). Call on God for help and he will see to it that you
prevail (Luke 11:13) for he wants you at work in his kingdom. Amen. (printed as preached but with some changes) |
