Calvary Presbyterian Church
The Rev. Debra May Cerra
May 17, 2009

Psalms 98:1-9 (NRSV)
O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory. 2 The Lord has made known his victory; he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations. 3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. 4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises. 5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. 6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. 7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it. 8 Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy 9 at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

John 15:9-17 (NRSV)
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

My Joy

I have been accused of being someone who always sees the glass half full; who always has a happy disposition; whose life is virtuous and pristine. Let me tell – it is not true!
            There are times that I can’t see the positive impact of a situation. There are times that I am sad or lonely or angry. There are times that my actions may not be noble and, believe it or not, I am far from perfect!
            I have lived through good times – graduations, holidays, vacations. I have experienced wonderful blessings – my son, my family, my friends. But I have also lived through some tough times – the death of my grandparents, the diagnosis of breast cancer for my mom and pancreatic cancer for my dad and their untimely deaths, the dissolution of my marriage.
            So why is it that people see me as a happy person? What in my life makes the positive surpass the negative; the good outweigh the bad; the brightness outshine the darkness? When asked, my answer is always the same: “I am NOT always happy – ask my son! But I do always have the joy of the Lord in my life.”
            This morning our Gospel reading talks about the joy of the Lord. But first, Jesus says, “I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done – kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love.” (9-10)
Jesus calls us to abide in His love – to make our home in Him. Last week we talked about abiding in Jesus. As we abide in Christ, we take time to learn about Him; we spend time in prayer with Him; we seek His guidance and listen to Him. The outcome of abiding in Jesus is that His ways become our ways.
For a few of us, abiding in Christ will be a mystical experience that goes beyond words. For most of us, though, abiding in Jesus will mean having a continual contact with Him. It may be as simple as a prayer offered at the start of the day – that moment which connects us with the Holy; the Word that applies antiseptic to the bumps and grinds of daily living. No matter what we do or how we do it, we must have a relationship with Jesus. We must take deliberate steps to abide in Him. We need to be “at home in Christ’s love.”
Jesus goes on to say, “I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature.” The joy of the Lord is something that is deeper than happiness. That is not to say that happiness is not important. It is. But happiness can also be fleeting. Happiness is directly dependent on our state of mind – about a situation, about our family, about our health. If things are good, we are happy. But when things get tough, our happiness ebbs.
Unlike happiness, joy is something that remains. Joy is a kind of being; joy is a quality. Joy is the sense of security that things are going to be all right in the long run, however painful they might be now. Joy is directly related to who God is in our lives.
At a Presbyterian church in Omaha, people were given helium filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. Since they were Presbyterians, they weren’t comfortable saying "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord" so balloons were the next best thing. Throughout the service balloons ascended, but when worship was over 1/3 of the balloons were still unreleased. What a sad day, when 1/3 of the people at Church are not free enough to express the joy they received by being in the presence of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ desire is that, as we live for Him, our lives should be spontaneous and joyful rather than burdensome and boring. There is a great difference between observing happiness in the lives of others and being a person whose life is filled with joy. Joy is within. If joy is not within us, it is nowhere. Joy is something that remains with us when we have Jesus in our lives. Happiness ebbs and flows; the joy of the Lord abides.
There was a woman who was going through some very difficult and trying circumstances. She had experienced major distress in her marriage and her job was unfulfilling. She was distraught so over her situation that she wanted to give up. She felt lonely, dejected and isolated. Finally the woman came to the point of exhaustion and felt there would never be any more joy in her life.
One day, as the woman was sitting at her kitchen table weeping, she noticed that a small sparrow had somehow gotten into the room. She opened the backdoor so the sparrow could fly out but, to her surprise, the sparrow repeatedly flew into the closed window above the door. Each time the sparrow would collide into glass of the window, it became weaker and weaker. The woman watched as the sparrow continued to hit the window lower and lower until it got so weak that it couldn’t even fly. All it could do was walk. And so, very slowly, the sparrow simply walked through the open door to freedom. Once outside, the sparrow regained its strength and flew off into the air.
It was as though God literally opened this woman’s spiritual eyes. She realized that she was behaving just like that sparrow. She had ignored her relationship with Jesus and had not called on Him for strength or guidance.  Instead, in her own way and on her own steam, she was trying to get out of the confining situations she was in, each time being knocked down in defeat. In reacting harshly to her family members - knocked down! Not giving her best at work - knocked down! Paying back evil for evil done to her - knocked down! Saying and doing things she knew were wrong - knocked down! She finally understood that what she needed to do was to humbly walk in the power of God’s grace and mercy, allowing God to work through her heartaches and difficulties. She needed the joy of knowing Jesus Christ, a joy that would bring her into His abiding love.
As God’s children, we are chosen to receive the joy of the Lord. No matter how difficult our Christian journey is, the joy is there. A gloomy Christian is a contradiction in terms, and nothing in all religious history has done Christianity more harm than its connection with black clothes and long faces.
The good news of the Gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ – is that we are all sinner, but redeemed sinners; and therein lies the joy. This joy comes only from above; a joy that satisfies our dry and thirsty soul.
Brothers and sisters, do you want that kind of joy? Is it lacking in your life? You can’t produce it, so there’s no use trying. The kind of joy for which your soul longs can only be found in Jesus Christ.
When we abide in Jesus and He abides in us, we have the amazing capacity to find joy in the midst of difficult situations. We find love even in those places of heartache and pain. When we have Jesus, we may not always be happy, but we will always have the joy of the Lord in our lives. Friends, when we align ourselves with Jesus, we will experience the fullness of His joy.