Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!
Luke 5:29-39
This week I had a number of strange and interesting things happen to me. And they all had one thing in common - joy.
The first one was last Sunday. In the English service, we had our Thanksgiving meal. And so, I though I'd do a sermon about joy and thanksgiving. However, that particular Sunday was a day on which I found it somewhat difficult to rejoice. The previous evening was so cold that I couldn't sleep. And on the Sunday itself, it rained heavily. I got to church late, still very tired and now very wet. And then I had to give a sermon about joy. I think God has a strange sense of humour. But then I thought about the many things that God had done for me, and gradually I was able to give thanks. After that, I really felt joy within me.
The second interesting thing happened at my language school. I've been reading a book about ecclesiology with my language school teacher. He's a pretty intelligent guy, and so I thought that reading such an academic book with him would be a good chance to evangelise. The bit we were reading was about the Japanese religious consciousness. According to the book, religion in Japan functions as a safety valve in this high-pressure Japanese society. And so at religious festivals, you see people doing all kinds of strange things. People get drunk, they ride on top of tree trunks rolling down hills and so on. What has this got to do with religion? Well, Japan is a country which emphasises the group over the individual, and so one has to surpress their own emotions for the sake of the group. At festival times, those surpressed emotions come bursting out. The role of Japanese religion is to provide space for people to express themselves.
Reading that, I thought, "Well, what about Christianity?" We don't have that kind of festival in Christianity. Part of the reason is due to a faulty interpretation of verse 35. The bridegroom Jesus is no longer on this earth, and so we should be fasting rather than feasting. But the early church met together with thanksgiving and joy, and they celebrated the great feast of the Eucharist together. The bridegroom may have been away from the disciples for a short time but, "Behold, I will be with you until the end of the age." Of course fasting is appropriate, but Christianity is not a religion devoid of joy.
And so I was really surprised by the third interesting thing this week. This week, one Christian came to me for advice. She was completely ground down and depressed in her Christian life. And she told me that she used to be a very cheerful person, but recently she had become very gloomy. When I asked why, she said that a missionary had told her "Christians are supposed to be serious and attentive people. Don't you think you're a bit too flippant?" When she met up with her friends, she felt guilty. To try to be attentive, she worked hard at prayer and Bible study. But in the midst of all that hard work, she lost the joy that God had given her. I thought this was a huge shame.
Please don't misunderstand me. I think it's obviously important to be serious in one's faith. It's important to have a serious relationship with God. I want to be someone who is more attentive in prayer. But if you just use words like "attentive" and "serious", then your relationship with God feels like it's all about hard work. Actually, your relationship with God is a close, loving, emotional relationship between a parent and a child. If you tell me of someone who has a fantastic Christian life but they are gloomy and boring, I'll tell you that there's something wrong. If you ask me why, I'll tell you it's because that sort of life is no kind of witness at all. Frankly, this world doesn't need any more boring Christians.
The sign that someone has been born again is their joy. People who have just become Christians feel this kind of joy. But I think a lot of them gradually lose this joy. The troubles of life or the heaviness caused by feeling that they're sticking out rob them of their Christian joy. But it doesn't have to be like that. Look at Pastor Takahashi. I think the best thing about Pastor Takahashi is that he's always smiling; he's someone who is overflowing with joy. I think that's great. Wouldn't it be great if we could all have that sort of joy?
And then last Friday, I was officiating at a wedding ceremony. I really didn't want to get into this kind of part-time work, but while Martin's away, I was asked if I'd do it just the once. So I said yes, just the once. And to be perfectly honest, I thought it would be quite fun to have that experience. The wedding hall was quite close to here. This kind of wedding hall is very popular these days, and they're building them all over the place. Most of them look like traditional chapels. What I noticed is that those fake churches see more opportunities for joy than our real churches. This is utterly unbelievable!
And then finally I read this week's passage. Jesus went to eat and drink at Levi's party. He hung around with tax collectors and sinners. And the disciples, rather than fasting, ate and drank. Wedding guests should rejoice rather than fast. The new wine has come. In the Bible, wine, and particularly new wine, is a simple of joy. In Psalm 4, David says "you have put joy in my heart, more than those who have grain and new wine." Jesus came so that we would have joy in our hearts.
So thinking about all of these interesting things, I realised that there are two types of joy. There's the old wine and the new wine. The first is the kind of joy which naturally bubbles up through our emotions. If the Hanshin Tigers hit a home run, we rejoice! (It doesn't happen that often, so when it does happen, we rejoice...) Just before the wedding service on Friday, I got a phone call. I was a bit fed up, I was stressed out before the wedding and I wanted them to go away but I took the call. In the event, it was from the police. They'd found my bike which was stolen a few weeks back. And so I could really rejoice as I took the wedding service! This is a human, natural kind of joy.
But there is another kind of joy. It's new joy just like the new wine. It's the joy that comes from giving thanks for what God has done for us. Those who have drunk the old wine may say that they don't need the new wine. It takes time to correct one's thoughts.
Three weeks ago, I was at a conference in Hakone where I was trained by a fanastic guy called Mitsuo Fukuda. In Rev Fukuda's churches, the first thing they teach to new Christians is to rejoice. "God made you, God saved you, God loves you. So rejoice!" I think that's absolutely right. Actually, I think Christians have a duty to rejoice. Jesus promised his disciples fullness of life. It's a fantastic testimony to live a full, non-boring life in front of others! And so, everyone, rejoice!
You could say "I don't feel like rejoicing so I can't rejoice." That's just wrong. The command to rejoice turns up so many times in the Bible. Jesus says to his disciples "Rejoice that your names are written in heaven." Paul writes to the Phillipians, "Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say rejoice!"
Jesus managed to always find the right balance. Not thinking about his image and reputation, he didn't shrink back from hanging out with sinners. But in associating with sinners, he didn't sin. That's model, isn't it? Jesus came into this world. According to verse 32, he came to this world precisely because it was sinful. We're not holier than Jesus. We should, with no holding back, get out from the safety of the church walls. And there I think we can hang out with those who need salvation and share with them this joy. Jesus, who turned up at the party of the tax collector, was more careful about what was right before God than about his own image. If we feel guilty it should be more about what God thinks about us than what others think about us.
Again, this is an area in which Jesus found exactly the right balance. He was serious in his relationship with his Father, but he didn't lead a boring life before men. In fact, if your Christian life is going right, then the Holy Spirit is working in your life. And that means that the fruit of the Spirit are bearing fruit in your life. Paul teaches that one aspect of that fruit is joy. How does this happen? The Holy Spirit works, and you remember things that God has done for you, and as you give thanks for those things, you find yourself rejoicing. You rejoice on remembering that God made you. You rejoice on remembering that God saved you. You rejoice on remembering that God loves you. If you feel this week that you have lost your joy, try out this exercise. Remember the things that God has done for you, and give thanks, and rejoice. I think it will completely change your Christian life.
Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!