For the Sake of the Joy Hebrews 12 & Luke 12 12 Pentecost - August 19, 2007

The film The Painted Veil was recommended to us by my college roommate who is a literature buff.  Perhaps you’ve seen it too.  It’s based on a novel by Somerset Maugham.  Filmed along one of China ’s beautiful rivers, the photography itself is worth it.  What made it especially interesting to me was that it followed the work of a doctor in the 1920’s – a few years after my grandfather had returned from there having done similar work.  He died before I got to hear much of his experience so I enjoyed the film’s glimpses of what his life might have been like.

But besides those personal connections, something else caught me.  There was a convent of nuns who took care of children orphaned by the outbreak of cholera.  In one scene the Mother Superior shares with the doctor’s wife that she too had fallen in love once, at age 17, with God.  She describes herself as a foolish girl with romantic notions of the life of a religious, but her heart was passionate.  Over the years her feelings changed.  God had disappointed her; ignored her.  “But God knows I’ll never leave him. This is my duty,” she said. “But when love and duty are one, then grace is within you.” 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses the image of fire to name that coming together of duty (or calling) with love, passion, joy. Duty (or calling) is one thing, but when it meets passion and joy, then sparks fly – something powerful ignites – the world is set aflame.

We saw this at the Well Rescue Mission Dinner.  Everyone who spoke did so with passion and delight.  The common denominator in the speeches was gratitude for the help they have received.  If they felt it was a duty to serve God, duty took on joy when they have themselves fully to life.  Even the retired judge who was the keynote expressed gratitude for an alternative to prison for people who needed help, not incarceration.

Jesus had a duty to accomplish in his earthly life, but it was never just duty.  We never hear Jesus says, “Well, someone’s got to do it.”  I’ve never read that anywhere in the Bible!  Duty, passion, fire, love are one in Jesus and grace was within him for his calling. 

Today’s Hebrews reading says Jesus “endured the cross, disregarding its shame, for the sake of the joy that was set before him” not for the sake of the duty.  It is the necessity of joy that I want to reflect on this morning.  Without joy – we merely survive. 

Country-Western singer, Garth Brooks catches this in his song:

“Life is not tried, it is merely survived

If you’re standing outside the fire.

We call them fools

Who have to dance within the flame

Who chance the sorrow and the shame

That always comes with getting burned

But life is not tried, it is merely survived

If you’re standing outside the fire.”

Jesus didn’t stand outside the fire of God’s passion for the world.  He entered it fully.  He said of himself: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”  If Jesus had a coin to throw into a wishing well, or was going to blow out birthday candles and make a wish, or was going to wish upon a star, or make a wish list – Luke 12 tells us that his wish would be to see this fire kindled in other lives besides his. 

This passage is about urgency – the urgency of knowing the joy that is set before us.  Knowing the joy comes through discovery – discovering who Jesus is: God with us, engaging us, calling, equipping us for purposeful living, for making a difference with our lives.  Carol Anderson, Rector of All Saint’s Episcopal Church writes: “Once you have made up your mind that Jesus is who he claims to be, he will make a claim on your life and your life will not be the same.  It will change your life.” (Knowing Jesus in Your Life)

Our Visioning Team has been working to describe our Vision as a congregation in one sentence.  When we were working on this the other day, there was no hesitation about whether to include the word “joy”.  Deep joy is connected to what Jesus calls fire – being on fire, not just out of duty, but out of joyful participation in God’s mission.

We are in the draft stage of writing our Vision statement.  The Vision Team worked on it.  The Church Council is going to work on it next this Tuesday night.  So it’s in process, but so far it has something to do with “being valued as an inclusive, grace-centered community discovering, learning and deepening in the joy of being companions with Christ in bearing God’s love and delight of the world. 

That there is “joy” in this is as important as any part of it.  Without joy, the race overwhelms us.  Without joy, whatever has to be endured becomes too much.  Whatever needs to be disregarded is too difficult.  It was for the sake of the joy that was set before Jesus that he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.  If we get in touch with the joy, the fire, the passion, then the difficulty of whatever is asked of us won’t matter.  Without joy, we merely survive.  With joy, anything is possible.   

Today’s Gospel needs this reminder of joy.  The Gospel announces Jesus as being under great stress regarding what is asked of him: “what stress I am under until it is accomplished,” says Jesus.  Our Senior Ministry group is going to share their favorite Bible verses at their September meeting.  Now I will fall off my chair if any of them choose the verses from today’s Gospel.  The last thing any of us wants is to do is to follow a stressed out person. 

But stress itself is not the enemy.  Without stress, life is life-less; even unhealthy.  Like trying to pop popcorn in a microwave – without the stress the kernels in the form of electricity, they don’t pop.  Both body and mind need stress.  That’s why we go to the gym -- even 97 year old Leta goes to an exercise program to give healthy stress to her body.  Some of us walk dogs, which does the same thing.  That’s also why we do crossword puzzles. 

So one of the most important challenges before us in a Visioning Process is to pay attention to the joy – the delight – the healthy stress – the fire of love and passion in what it is God is calling us to.  If there’s no joy in it, no energy, no high delight, it may never get accomplished.  For the sake of the joy that was set before him, Jesus moved forward in spite of the costs. 

Looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, may our eyes be peeled for what tickles us deep down where joy is found!  If we get in touch with that joy, nothing can stop us.  Look at what is happening among us in our companionship with the Kagitumba Parish in Rwanda .  I haven’t heard one person say, “Oh, I suppose we ought to be companions, someone has to do it.”  We all count it a joy.  For the sake of the joy, we have entered into this ministry.  And so it is with our ministries with prayer and Bible Study and the Torres Shelter and children and youth and seniors.  Where there is joy, all things are possible.  As with God’s people of old:  we too “will run and not be weary.  We too will walk (or even dance) and not faint.” 

But we have to be paying attention regarding joy, for, as Frederick Buechner says, “Happiness turns up more or less where you’d expect it to….…  Joy, on the other hand, is as notoriously unpredictable as the one who bequeaths it.”  We can expect to be surprised by joy!  May we expect to be surprised!

Amen.

+Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory of God
Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, California