Easter 6 / Year B
Jesus said to his disciples, “I have
said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be
complete.”
At last Tuesday’s clergy day with
the bishop at Chanco, our presenter asked us this: What is the greatest source of
joy in your life? On the surface it appears
to be a relatively simple, straightforward question. What gives you great joy? Think about this for a moment. How many of you are like me… you don’t have
an answer? And, as you think about it,
how many of you, like me, are not even quite sure what joy is? What does it say that Jesus tells his
followers and friends everything about what he has said and done is driven by
his desire they share in his joy. So let’s
spend a few moments this morning thinking about joy – what it is, what it
isn’t, and how live into it.
First, let’s acknowledge joy and
happiness are not the same thing.
Happiness, it seems to me, depends on what happens. It is a response to something you deem
positive. Your team wins the championship. The teacher gives your paper an A. The new recipe turns out to be
delicious. Your $1 raffle ticket pays
off and you get a brand-new car.
Happiness is an emotional response when something positive happens.
Joy does not depend on circumstances. In fact, joy is often present in situations
not likely to foster happiness. The
apostle James begins his letter by writing, “Count it all joy when you
experience various kinds of trial.”
Funerals, while times of deep grief and sorrow, often are permeated with
joy. And while happiness rises and falls
like the tide, joy seems to be more of a constant. It emanates from a place deep below the
surface and is not easily impacted by the storms of life.
Our clergy day speaker defined hope as
believing in a promise for the future and living today as if it is going to
happen. Joy, I think, is like this
too. It is believing God has created this
world, infused it with goodness, beauty, and abundance, and then living into this
reality in spite of the presence of cruelty, ugliness, and scarcity. It is living in the light of the Resurrection
even though the pall of death remains.
Joy is an attitude. It is a choice. It is something we can cultivate. Richard Hanson, a psychologist, holds
evolutionary development has hardwired us to focus on the negative as part of
our survival instinct. “The brain,” he
says, “is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive
ones.” Think about that. There is a reason why we humans have a developed
panic response, but lack the ability to purr.
Still, you can cultivate joy by
adding a few tools to your life’s work kit:
§
Mindfulness:
being attentive; constantly on the lookout for God’s goodness, beauty, and
abundance.
§
Openness:
knowing you will find God’s goodness, beauty, and abundance in people, places,
and things where you might not expect them to be.
§
Acceptance:
no how small the object or the moment, believing it is a sign of God’s presence
in the world.
§
Contentment:
allowing life to be what it is and not demanding anything more of it.
§
Appreciation:
holding everything comes to us as a gift from a generous and loving God.
§
Gratitude:
a constant posture of being thankful for what is.
Dr. Pamela King teaches in the
School of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary. She has done a deep dive into the study of
joy in order to learn more about its complexities. She says it “involves our thoughts, feelings,
and actions in response to what matters most in our lives.” “Joy,” she says, “is an enduring, deep
delight in what holds the most significance for us.”
Dr. King’s research revealed three
areas which deeply influence the experience of enduring joy:
§
Growing
in authenticity and living more into one’s strengths.
§
Growing
in depth of relationships and contributing to others.
§
Living
more aligned with one’s ethical and spiritual ideals.
Her findings suggest the more you
are able to use your gifts to do what you love, build reciprocal relationships
with others, and live with “moral coherency” the more likely you are to
experience joy.
Her insights help me to identify why
I feel so much joy by being here at St. Paul’s.
This is a place where I can share my gifts and have them be valued. My relationships here are marked by giving
and receiving – everything from a listening ear to a cookie to a Lenten program
about the metaphysical poets. When I am
here I have a sense I am living into God’s dream for all people. I suspect many of you share in the joy of our
faith community. This is a place where
we experience the joy Jesus offers as we see life as he saw it and live life as
he lived it.
