I remember a doctor who would ask "How are you going?" and then wait for a full account of your symptoms. There was a member of my father's congregation in that same town... You never asked him, "How are you going?" unless you were ready to get the lot! The chooks got out, the arthritis is playing up, the wife's not so good lately, someone ran over the cat the other day...
When I ask you this morning, it'll be a rhetorical question - I'm not looking for an individual spoken reply. But I am wanting us all to think about it...
How are you going? Has your week been exciting, or at least fulfilling? Or has life been frustrating or disappointing? Is your situation warm and secure? Or do you have a feeling of uncertainty and isolation? At the moment are you finding life good or bad? Basically, are you happy or sad?
What we call "happiness" tends to be very much related to what happens. In fact both words come for the Old Norse word "happ" meaning "luck". If what happens is good, we are happy. If what happens is difficult or frustrating, our happiness evaporates.
Imagine yourself a child on a beautiful clear day down on the beach with your best friend - togs on, sunscreen on... Right now you are eating an icecream before going for a swim. Just then a big kid throws a frisbee a bit close. You jump aside, and in the process the icecream goes "plop" into the sand. As you look sadly at it, you hear your friend's name being called. Oh no! Your friend has to go up - already? At that moment, you notice, behind those she-oaks on the foreshore, large black threatening clouds. So that's why your friend had to leave! That cloud is moving fast. Already its shadow is upon you! If you don't move now, you'll get wet! How do you feel? Not very happy at all!
Our theme today isn't "happiness" but "joy" - which is far deeper than happiness. It doesn't depend on what is happening to us.
In Philippians 4.4 we read Paul saying, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" In fact, Paul talks about joy, rejoicing and being glad some twenty times in this letter. A few years ago, we heard Charles Price speaking on Philippians. He suggested, "If you read these four chapters through, you might think that Paul was having a good time when he wrote this letter. He must have been on another missionary journey and ended up in Majorca where he is lying on the beach and writing this letter to the Philippian Christians. He's having such a nice time and he says, 'I'm so glad to be writing to you. I'm having such fun. It's so joyful - rejoice, again I say, rejoice! In all circumstances, rejoice, rejoice!' And they say to themselves, 'It's all right for you.' But you would be very wrong, because there are two things that keep coming through in Philippians - 'joy' is one of them, 'my chains' is the other (he mentions them four times in the first chapter). He is in prison. Why? Because there were Jewish Christians spreading an untrue rumour that Paul was preaching against Moses... Jewish unbelievers started a riot in the Temple. Paul was arrested and sent to jail in Caesarea for two years where Felix the governor waited for a bribe knowing that there was no real charge against him. Felix was replaced by Festus who came and wanted to hear Paul, but Paul appealed to Caesar and was sent on a boat to Rome. When he got to Rome, Caesar wasn't interested. Acts finishes with Paul in prison in Rome. Altogether about five of the prime years out of his life - all because of gossip that was spread about by Christians in Jerusalem..."
That is hardly the sort of stuff that happiness is made out of, is it? Yet Paul can say, "Rejoice! Be joyful!" In the midst of these circumstances, Paul has great joy - a deep underlying sense of well-being because of God and God's grace and the fact that his security is in Jesus. His joy isn't bound up with his circumstances at all, though in the midst of his circumstances he sees the evidence that God is at work - the guards are coming to know about Jesus. He is able to write, "All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesars household" (Phil. 4.22).
Of course, the Philippians knew at closer hand that Paul practised what he was saying here. It was while in Philippi that Paul and Silas, in prison for healing a sick woman, "were praying and singing hymns to God at about midnight" (Acts 16.25). An earthquake shook the prison, opened the doors - and a jailor and his family found salvation in Jesus. But this time - after all this time - no earthquake, no immediate acquittal and release, and yet - rejoice! sing for joy!
And that is the theme of our reading from Isaiah 12. The kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah will both be scattered and experience the judgment and anger of God. But they are going to return and know God's comfort.
"Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation" (v. 2). These are forward-looking words of prophecy. We remember what the angel said to Joseph, "You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins" (Mt. 1.21). God's comfort isn't a kind of let's-pretend-it-didn't-happen. Jesus would suffer and die for our sins. The God who has every right to be angry at us can comfort us because in his own Son he has taken our punishment. I will trust him and not be afraid.
"With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation " (v. 3). Now that we have power and strength, we are secure in him and can rejoice. Isn't that a beautiful picture of the refreshment that is available to us because of what Jesus has done?
But this joy is to overflow and reach out to all the nations of the world - "make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world" (vv. 4-5). We want everyone to know that Jesus is the Saviour and that Jesus is the Lord!
It's almost Christmas. We reflect on the angel's announcement, "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord" (Lk. 2.10-11).
So, how are you going? Happy? Sad? Joyful?
When Ezra read the Law to the Israelites who had returned from exile, the people began to cry, but Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites said to them, "This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength" (Neh.8.10b).
We are never promised a life of carefree days always filled with laughter, but we are promised joy. Deeply secure within, we can sing for joy, no matter what! And at Christmas time, with its strong reminders of the great gift of God in the coming of his Son, let that joy well up within us and overflow in songs of joy!
"Shout aloud and sing for joy…, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you" (Is. 12.6)
Back to Sermons