Sermon: “More Joy” Sometimes they would take some scraps of lumber, and some nails and a hammer from one of their father’s garages – they’d take these into the woods and make ladders up the side of the trees. A few times they would walk all the way to the town dump where they’d find more scrape of woods – sometimes larger pieces – they’d use these to make a tree fort. Once they say a large piece of plywood near the gate of the dump, with some words spray-painted on it – something like “Dump Closed Today.” Since the dump was closed and no one else was around, they decided this piece of plywood would be nice for their tree fort so they took it – quickly – back through the woods and it became the floor for their tree fort. One day he noticed some new houses being built down the street – just the wood framing was up - so he went and explored these houses, and collected some more scraps of wood for the tree fort. Behind these houses there was also a lot of woods - woods he had never explored before. So he decided to do some exploring there. He walked in and many familiar sites and some new trees and rocks he had never seen before. There was no path in these woods – so he kept looking behind him so he would not loose his way back. He stayed a good while in these woods, exploring and investigating – even looking up to scope out new trees where maybe he and his friends could build another tree fort someday. When he’d explored enough he decided it was time to go – supper would soon be ready at home – so he started back out of the woods. But as he walked back he did not see anything familiar – and he had walked so far into the woods that he could not see the new framed houses. He looked down to see if he’d recognize where he’d walked before. A few more seconds when by and he started to get concerned – and then as he walked more, a bit panicked. He was lost, and he knew it. He started to run in what he thought was the right direction – but then something told him to slow down. If he kept running he could miss a sign or a familiar tree that he’d seen on the way into the woods, and he might get even more lost. Still he could not find his way out of the woods. And in a real panic he looked up to the sky and cried, out-loud, “Please help me – I’m lost.” And as his head came back down, in just that instant, he recognized something. And he looked at that angle again – and he noticed the position of the sun, and the way the shadows of the trees were laid out. It seemed familiar – like the way the sun and the trees looked in the woods he knew well – when he was on this way home from those woods. So he walked in that direction – and in a short while he saw in the distance the new framed houses – and his breathing deeper, his anxiety eased. Soon he emerged from the woods, saw those new houses, and he knew then he could find his way back home. And in those moments he felt such a sense of relief – his fear was gone – and he felt a deep sense of joy. When do you feel joy? Maybe you were lost in the woods like this boy, or lost in a shopping mall, and then you were found. Or maybe your child was lost like that – and after panic and fear had gripped you, you turned the corner and found your young child. Maybe joy comes for you when you are with your friends, or your family, at a party, or sharing a meal. Maybe it comes when you are with someone you really love. Maybe it’s your wedding day – or the day your child or your grandchild is born. Maybe joy comes with time on the beach, on a day like this – or water skiing or making that basket or that eagle on the golf course. I remember a picture - of Stephen DeSanto, now our sponsored young adult volunteer in mission, when he was still in college he studied for one semester in New Zealand. While there he went parachuting. Thankfully after the fact, that picture arrived by email – the plane flying in the background – and Stephen flying through the air – arms spread out wide – as the instructor took the picture. And the smile on his face – that I think was a picture of joy. We find the word joy all over the Bible – over 250 times. In the Psalms people are dancing and singing with joy. At the ascension of King Solomon, one of the great kings of Israel, we read “all the people went up following Solomon - playing on pipes and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth quaked at their noise” (I Kings 1:40) - the expression of joy causing an earthquake. Joy is, for the Apostle Paul, a gift of the Holy Spirit – what he calls the fruit of the Spirit, what is produced in us as we follow God’s ways in our lives – “love – joy – peace – patience – kindness – generosity – faithfulness – gentleness and self control. Joy comes to us as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives. In today’s reading from Luke, Jesus tells another parable to a group of people, people whom it seems know very little of joy in their lives – the scribes and the Pharisees. They were the good, upstanding, religious people of their day – the good, solid, dour Presbyterians of the day - but once again we find them grumbling over something Jesus is doing. It seems to me that if you are grumbling – and if you are dour and crabby – it’s hard to experience joy. Here they are again, complaining about Jesus – “this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them” – a sin in their eyes, something outside good religious behavior. Last week I mentioned how Jesus liked to eat? Last week he at with a Pharisee, and this week it’s with tax collectors and sinners. In response to this joy-less grumbling, Jesus tells two parables – one about a lost sheep, and another about a lost coin. You may have heard them before, and at first glance they sound reasonable enough – but there is a think something of a surprise, even a shock value to them. If I were a shepherd, with 100 sheep, and one of them was lost, my first thought would not be to leave the 99 “in the wilderness” and go looking for the lost one. The wilderness is a dangerous place. If I leave the 99 to go looking for the one lost sheep, the other 99 would be vulnerable. I might lose even more. Someone might come and steal them – or a wild animal might attack them if I left them all alone. I think I’d take the 1 percent loss and move on. But what does Jesus say? This shepherd leaves the 99 in the wilderness – not a very smart move really – and goes off to search for the lost one. And when he finds it, he brings it home on his shoulders - and then throws a party – with friends and neighbors – “party with me – for I have found the sheep that was lost.” Now the party, of course, would cost some money – food and drink has to be provided when you invite friends and neighbors over to celebrate. The party would have cost the shepherd more than the actual value of that one lost and found sheep. What a silly, frivolous, and risk-taking shepherd. And this woman – loses one of her ten silver coins – ten “drachmas” - each worth about a days pay. She loses one, and immediately she lights a lamp, sweeps up the whole house – sweeping on what was probably already a dirt floor – and searches carefully for the lost coin. Here was a 10 percent loss – more motivation maybe to recover that loss. When she finds it – what does she do? “Oh – thank God I found my lost coin – better put this one with the rest and find a safe place to keep them?” No! Like the risk-taking shepherd, she throws a party – inviting friends and neighbors – “rejoice with me, for I found the coin that I had lost.” Once again, the cost of entertaining those friends and neighbors probably cost her at least half - of not more - of the value of that coin. What an odd, frivolous woman, getting so excited about finding a lost coin that she spends most of it on a party instead of saving it – much like this silly, risk-taking shepherd, risking it all for the one lost sheep, and throwing a party and getting all wound up over one lost sheep. “You might think this silly and frivolous and risky,” Jesus says, “But you know something? That’s how God is - that’s how God is – and that’s how I am.” “That’s why I am here,” Jesus says, “To take the initiative, to take the risks in seeking and finding those who are separated somehow from God, who have somehow fallen by the wayside – to seek out the lost.” And when that happens – when the lost are found, then those separated from God and God’s ways are brought back to God and God’s ways for life – there is joy. Joy like a big ole party – a huge celebration – one that moves earth and heaven itself: “Just so, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, then over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.” “Just so, there is more joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” When we get lost – and we all do. When we lose our faith and our way and our hope - and even Mother Theresa, it has now come out – even she for a time lost her faith and her way. When we lose our way, God seeks us out – Jesus looks for us – the Holy Spirit – the presence of God here and now with us – comes looking for us, content to leave everything else behind for a time – just to look for and to find you and me. And when that happens, there is more joy – more joy for God – in God’s own being – and that joy and a way of trickling down also to us. There is this wonderful verse in the book of Nehemiah, “The joy of the Lord is my strength” (Neh. 8:10). God’s joy brings us strength – a strength and confidence that also opens us up to feel and experience joy. May you and I know this joy – this more joy – the joy that God feels when our hearts and our lives belong to God. And all God’s joyful people said. Amen. |