JOY FOR THE JOURNEY

Scripture: Psalm 30:1-5; Colossians 1:9-14

INTRODUCTION

With Christmas just behind us, and another new year dawning upon us, it’s a good time for all of us to think about the journey which lies ahead of us. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that although “we don’t know what the future holds, we do know Who holds the future.” And it is with that same sense of hope and trust and great expectation that I have chosen the text for this communion meditation from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, chapter 1, verses 11 and 12:

May you be strengthened with all power, according to God’s glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

We know, because biblical scholars tell us so, that Paul was near the end of his own journey. He was a prisoner in Rome, he suffered from poor health and he sensed that sometime, probably sooner than later, he would be put to death as a martyr for the Christian faith (see Colossians 4:10, 18 and II Timothy 4:6-8).

And yet, the apostle was not full of gloom and doom, wallowing in self-pity and shaking his fist toward heaven, asking God the question “Why me?” To the contrary, he wrote to the Christians in Colossae about endurance, patience, gratitude and joy. Joy! Can you imagine how Paul could have been full of joy and elation in that dark and difficult and dismal situation?

Well, that is exactly what I hope all of us can imagine, not only about the apostle long ago, but also for each and every one of us here today – how we can find Joy for the Journey, as we trust God to show us the way into this New Year.

Now it’s unlikely that many of us have listed joy as one of our resolutions for 2002. Most of us resolve to give up bad habits like smoking, or to take on new disciplines such as dieting, and we know from experience that sticking to those resolutions is never easy.

An overweight businessperson decided to shed some excess pounds at the beginning of the year. He took the new diet seriously and intentionally changed his driving route to avoid his favorite bakery. But one morning, he arrived at work carrying a large coffee cake, and the office staff scolded him roundly, although he promised to share it with all of them.

The man smiled and gave his explanation. He said, “This is a very special coffee cake. Accidentally, I drove by the bakery this morning and there in the window were all of these goodies. I felt this might be providential, so I prayed ‘Lord, if you want me to have one of those coffee cakes, then let me find a parking place directly in front of the bakery.’ And sure enough, on the eighth time around the block, there it was!”

You see, most of us make resolutions to improve our health, to pay off our debts and increase our wealth, to spend more time with family and friends, or to be on time for meetings and appointments. However, I can’t remember a time when anyone said to me they had included joy on their new year’s list of priorities.

That may be so because perhaps, deep down in our souls we know that joy, real joy, is not something we can produce or achieve. It is, rather, a gift which we receive from God. The Greek word that Paul used for joy was chara, describing a state of gladness, contentment and inner peace. It is closely related to the definition of grace – in the Greek, charis – which means the unmerited and undeserved favor and blessing of God.

If you put all of that together, Paul was trying to tell the Colossians and all of us today that joy, just like grace, is a gift that comes to us and flows through us, even when we don’t expect it. In fact, joy often surprises us in the midst of the darkness, when we walk through the valley of the shadow and don’t know where the journey will lead us. And it is precisely at that moment, if we will open our hearts to the presence of Jesus, that He will guide us every step of the way.

Our friend Barbara Brown Taylor, the Episcopal priest and author from North Georgia, describes the experience with these profound words:

“…Joy seems almost irreverent in a world where so much is going wrong. Who can be joyful when babies starve and teenagers shoot each other and whole tribes of people try to wipe each other off the face of the earth? It’s hard to get jump-up-and-down joyful about any of that. Except joy has never had very much to do with what is going on in the world at the time. That is what makes it different from happiness, or pleasure or fun. All of those depend on positive conditions – good health, good job, happy family, lots of toys. The only condition for joy is the presence of God. Joy happens when God is present and people know it, which means that it can erupt in a depressed economy, in the middle of a war, or in an intensive care waiting room…It is a gift, not a just dessert, so all we can really do is want it, believe in it, and oh yes, stop doing those things that get in its way.” (From an article “Surprised By Joy,” written by Barbara Brown Taylor for The Living Pulpit, October-December, 1998, pages 16-17).

II.

If that is so, then maybe it’s time for us to develop a different kind of New Year’s resolution. I’m not talking now about the usual laundry list of do’s and don’ts which are often broken and forgotten before the end of January. Instead, I’m thinking about making a promise to God that we will take down the barriers and open the gates to allow His gift of joy to flow into our lives, to flourish in this church and to guide our journey as a community of grace. Christian friends: that may be the very promise that the Lord is waiting for you to make today.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer made that promise, and during the early years of his life, he walked faithfully and joyfully in his journey with Jesus Christ. He was an ordained pastor in Germany and became a well-known and highly respected preacher, theologian and biblical scholar.

But when war broke out in Europe, Bonhoeffer realized that the time had come for him to walk directly into the valley of the shadow of death. He was only 36 years old, but he became a leader of the Confessing Church in Germany, which had the courage to stand up against the Nazi government. Bonhoeffer joined the resistance movement and was finally arrested for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler.

In 1944, the Gestapo moved him to a concentration camp in Flossenburg, and an English officer imprisoned there named Payne Best, remembered Bonhoeffer as a man who “always seemed…to diffuse an atmosphere of…joy in every smallest event…and deep gratitude for the mere fact that he was alive.”

It was at Flossenburg that Bonhoeffer wrote one of his best known books, “Letters and Papers From Prison,” including this poem, dated January 1, 1945:

“With every power for good to stay and guide me, comforted and inspired beyond all fear,

I’ll live these days with you in thought beside me, and pass, with you, into the coming year…

Should it be ours to drain the cup of grieving even to the dregs of pain, at thy command, we will not falter, thankfully receiving all that is given by thy loving hand.

But should it be thy will once more to release us, to life’s enjoyment and its good sunshine, that which we’ve learned from sorrow shall increase us, and all our life be dedicated as thine.

Today, let candles shed their radiant greeting:

Lo, on our darkness are they not thy light leading us, joyfully, to our longed-for meeting?

Thou canst illumine even our darkest night.

While all the powers of good aid and attend us, boldly we’ll face the future, be it what may.

At even and at morn, God will befriend us, and oh, most surely on each New Year’s Day!”

Four months later, on the 9^th of April 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed, and with joy in his heart, joined the church triumphant. (From “Letters and Papers from Prison,” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, edited by Eberhard Bethge, The MacMillan Company, 1953)

CONCLUSION

That poem, which came from the soul of a courageous and joyful Christian, reminds us of what King David wrote in the 30^th Psalm many centuries before: Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning (Psalm 30:5). And it leads us back to our text for today at the dawn of this new year, written by another prisoner named Paul, who gave all that he had and hoped to be to Jesus Christ, and received from Him the one gift that he needed the most – Joy for the Journey.

If anyone has come here today, feeling locked in by bitterness or resentment, sorrow or pain, then Jesus Christ wants you to know that it doesn’t have to be that way. All that we need to do is to open our hearts to Him, and He has promised to come in and to join us in the journey. And He offers to you and to me today the gift of Joy.

So said Paul: May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The sermon distribution fund has been established by the Session of First Presbyterian Church to enable friends and groups to make contributions for the printing of the Sunday sermons. Sermon leaflets will be printed from time to time, as they are requested and as funds are available. Please designate your gift for Sermon Distribution Fund. Thank you for your support.