Creekside Church Sermon of May 25, 2003 "My Joy, Your Joy, Our Joy" John 15:9-17	Rev. David Bibbee
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You may have heard about the dog owner who posted signs throughout the community with a picture and description of his beloved dog that had come up missing. The description read: "Lost; mixed-breed dog with three legs, a partial tail, blind, deaf in one ear, most of teeth are gone, has great difficulty walking because of arthritic condition and missing leg. Except for patches of brown and white, dog is furless from mange. Answers to the name, 'Lucky'."

Jesus gathered the disciples on the eve of his crucifixion for a summation of all he had taught them. "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. 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." It is not a soft, sweet love Jesus lifts up here. It is love that serves; love that sacrifices, love that is willing to pay the ultimate price of dying, if need be, for the sake of another. "Greater love has no one than this…" Jesus said. It's not loving with feelings but loving with one's all. It is the difference between what chickens and pigs bring to our breakfasts. Chickens offer contributions … eggs. Pigs offer dedications…bacon.

Love may be a many splendored thing, but it is not easy. The love with which Jesus loved us, and the love with which we are to love others is obedient, sacrificial, and willing to go to the limit. Like the pitiful dog that answers to "Lucky," Jesus tells us about the by-product from love which gives itself away. It is called…"joy." "These things I have spoken to you that my joy may in you and that your joy may be full," is how Jesus put it.

We don't consider the missing mutt lucky and those who give more than they get are not filled with joy. They are killjoys. Ask people what they want most out of life and near the top of the list will be "happiness." The preamble to the U.S. Constitution says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among them are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." We think happiness is an entitlement. We are free to pursue happiness, but the Preamble doesn't say we can attain it…at least not for long. There is nothing wrong with happiness, but happiness cannot be maintained. It comes and goes. It is subject to circumstance.

You can hardly wait to get home to tell your family the good news, "I got a promotion!" You burst into the kitchen to tell them how happy you are, but run into your wife holding your crying teenage daughter in her arms. On the table is an opened envelope and a rejection letter from the college she had her heart set on attending.

Happiness is a feeling, but joy is a condition. Happiness is fleeting. Joy is constant. "These things I have spoken unto you that my joy will remain with you," Jesus said. You can't whip it up like a cake…one part belief, one part will, two parts positive thinking baked in a moderately spiritual environment. Society would have us believe that joy comes when we live in the right place, associate with the right people, or drive the right car, and send our kids to the right schools, and stake our security in the right investments to ensure a carefree life untouched by the troubles that beset the world. But this has nothing to do with joy, and everything to do with escape from life.

One of the books I read during my sabbatical was "Soul Survivor" by Philip Yancy. It's the story of how the church nearly killed Yancy's faith and how the writings of thirteen people, among them, Martin Luther King, Jr., Henri Nouwen, Frederick Buechner, and C. Everett Koop, helped him to embrace faith in a new, more joyful, life-giving way. He calls them his spiritual directors. One is the renowned surgeon Dr. Paul Brand, the son of missionary parents, who lived most of his life in India. One of his specialties was surgery of the hand. In fact, hand surgery procedures were named in his honor. He agreed with Isaac Newton who said, "In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence."

But Paul Brand's international notoriety was based largely on his ground-breaking research and treatment of leprosy. He was the first to discover that leprosy does its damage by destroying nerve endings. Without the pain sensation, its victims are unaware of infections or injuries. Brand received numerous invitations to run the world's prestigious medical centers. Instead, he dedicated himself to working with the poor of India who were disproportionately affected by the disfiguring disease of leprosy.

Paul Brand's principle treatment however, wasn't surgery or medicine, but God's love. From his patients he learned that people cannot be loved in general. Love must be shared one person at a time. He learned that God isn't into statistics. "Love isn't mathematical. There are no formulas for calculating the greatest good equally applied to the world's poor." Because he practiced surgery in India, he never made much money. But looking back over his career and all his friends who were once patients who brought him all the wealth he needed, he said:
"I met people when they were suffering and in pain. As their
doctor, I share their pain. Now that I am old, it is their love and gratitude that illumines my pathway. Its strange - those of us who involved ourselves in places where there is the most suffering, look back in surprise to find that it was there we discovered the reality of joy."

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. These things I have spoken unto you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full."

The longer Christ dwells within a person, the more their lives become reordered. When Jesus gains a foothold in your life, the more you will discover joy in the strangest places and circumstances.

On Thursday Evelyn Miller was told she has cancer. Surgery was recommended. The outcome, unclear. Evelyn requested the anointing service. Those of us who were to share the sacrament gathered outside her room, wondering what state we would find her in. The best way to describe it is to say she was in an "Evelyn state" - reflective, pondering, and as always, grateful for all that was being done for her. Her deep faith was helping her take today and trust tomorrow.

Being in a hospital room with someone diagnosed with cancer and facing an involved surgical procedure is not where most people would want to be. Too sad, depressing. A real downer. Well, I say its too bad for them! Evelyn said to her family and church friends, "This is really something. I wish I could gather you all in my arms at once to let you know what this means to me." It was NOT a happy moment. It was a joyous moment. When you have joy, you are never satisfied with happiness.

A joyless Christian is a contradiction. Joy is that winsome quality of living that attracts others. Jonathan Edwards said there was a way to tell authentic religious experience from the bogus, smoke and mirrors variety. he said that joy was the dead giveaway. In the Roman Catholic Church there are stringent criterion applied to those being considered for sainthood. A canidate must meet all requirements, and the absence of one thing would riddle the consideration with holes-- the absence of joy.

It wasn't easy to be a follower of Jesus in the early years of the church. Christians were hunted down. They were persecuted. They were killed for the entertainment of the masses in the Roman Coliseum. But there was something remarkable about the first Christians. They had "something" the world had never seen before. The were so filled with "trust in" and the "love of" the resurrected Christ that they faced the prospect of death not just courageously, but with joy, knowing that because of God's love for them in Jesus, nothing could touch them.

Its not enough for Christians to be nice. As important as it is for us to be warm, welcoming, and hospitable, this isn't enough. The people who check us out should expect something different from us. There is a lot of pseudo-joy in the world... orchestrated experiences that feel fine in the moment, but are only a flash in the pan. People want to see "authentic" joy and know its source.

Last Monday we drove (and drove), to Pennsylvania for Samantha's graduation from Lehigh University. Talk about a pride and joy experience for all the parents crowded into the football stadium. The commencement speaker was Tim Russert, the chief political analyst for NBC News, the recipient of numerous journalistic awards who said he would rather be known as a good father. To the graduates of this prestigious school who had visions of successful careers and dollar signs dancing in their heads, Tim Russert's thesis was this: "Fix your focus on someone beside yourselves!"

His words had a familiar ring: "Look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others."" Those who save their lives will lose their lives, but those who lose their lives for the sake of the gospel will find them." "Abide in my love.... this is my commandment-- love one another as I have loved you. These things I have spoken unto you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full."

This is the joy that is mine, yours, and ours. Thinking about this joy I remembered the scene at the end of the film, Driving Miss Daisy. Hoak was a good-natured, good-humored black man of infinite patience whose job was to drive Miss Daisy wherever she needed to go. She was an aging, dependent woman who let it be known that she didn't want or need the help her son had arranged for her. At first she barely acknowledged Hoak. She resented his presence, but slowly, ever sooooo slowly, she softened.

No longer able to live alone, Miss Daisy was placed in a nursing home. Hoak and her son paid a visit one day. Hoak himself was showing his age. His shoulders were stooped and he walked with a shuffle. In the final scene Hoak is seated at a table with Miss Daisy in the dining hall. Unable to feed herself, Hoak picks up a fork and with gentle affection feeds Miss Daisy a piece of pie. They exchanged smiles which needed no interpretation.

The dessert symbolized the goodness of their friendship. The black servant feeds a prim and proper, aristocratic, Jewish, Southern lady. Daisy knows that Hoak is no servant. He is the best friend she ever had. Life was hard for both of them now, but in the midst of their difficulties they each received a gift.

This "gift" is something we can receive as well. This gift comes to those who abide in the shelter of the most high. This gift comes to those who are willing to forget themselves and minister to the needs of others with no other motivation than to abide in the eternal love of God given to us through Jesus.

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