Sermons

The Joy of January

Vista La Mesa Christian Church

December 30, 2018

This is my fourth winter at Vista La Mesa Christian Church, and the third time I have preached the Sunday after Christmas. Do you see a pattern here? Actually, this has also been true in other congregations where I have been a member; so, by now, I should have a whole folder of sermons for what is often called “Low Attendance Sunday”!

This, however, is a new one, inspired by Deborah’s children’s moment two weeks ago when she wrestled with the distinction between joy and happiness. Joy, as she pointed out, is a key theme of the Advent/Christmas season: “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” “And the angel said to them: ‘Be not afraid, for behold I bring you good news of great joy.’” “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy!” But is this, she asked, the same as being happy?

The same question is the motivation behind our annual “Longest Night” service, a very meaningful time of worship that I urge you all to attend when it comes around next year. Many people, because of pain or illness or a death in the family or whatever, feel out of sync with Christmas festivity. Pastor Rebecca noted that even the biblical story of Christmas includes Herod’s massacre of infants and toddlers in Bethlehem because what he heard from the wise men made him afraid. Joy to the world?!

This morning, I want to mention another dimension of this same tension: Many of us, I suspect, have, at one time or another, experienced a kind of letdown as the happiness associated with Christmas slips away. My stepfather, a psychiatrist, was always incredibly busy during December and January with what he called “Christmas anxiety” and “January blues.”

There is a poem by the famous British poet, W. H. Auden, that, I think, captures this feeling of nagging depression. You can find a passage from it on the back cover of the bulletin. Listen–and follow along, if you like–as Julie reads it aloud.  . . .

Businesses now begin preparing for Christmas soon after Halloween, which starts a season of buying presents, sending cards and gifts, decorating trees . . . . In church, we light special candles, sing special songs, have special programs and services–and then it’s over. The relatives leave–which may be a good thing, but there still is often a letdown. Another year gone. Back to school. Back to work. Back to the ordinary routine. My stepfather, of course, never talked about particular patients; but many of them, he once told me, say the same thing: “I wish I could hold on to the spirit of Christmas all year long.”

With all this in mind, let’s go back to Deborah’s question about the difference between joy and happiness. I want to see if we can define these a little more precisely, starting with a third term: pleasure.

Pleasure can be defined as a feeling of satisfaction, of gratification. An infant, before she or he ever knows happiness or joy, experiences pleasure when she is comfortable or fed or held and rocked. Pleasure is, of course, a temporary state since we inevitably feel pain, get hungry, experience loneliness. In fact, one of the roots of a desire for pleasure is the feeling of emptiness that often comes after a particular pleasure is gone. Christmas, for many people, is a pleasurable experience. We eat a big meal with relatives or friends, open presents. But once that’s over, there can be the nagging emptiness, the letdown, described in Auden’s poem.

As you know, there are persons in this society who contend that life should be a continuous search for pleasure. For those of my generation, Hugh Hefner comes to mind. But that’s not the way Christians see the world. All of us remember times, many of them, when we have sacrificed pleasures and taken on added burdens, even pain, for the sake of a cause, for the sake of our faith, for the sake of our church, for the sake of persons we love–and it leads to deeper emotions, including happiness.

Happiness, unlike pleasure, is not simply a state of gratification, but a state of mind that comes as a by-product of other activities. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, put it this way: “Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit and it leads us on a wild-goose chase and is never attained.” Animals can feel pleasure, but only humans seem to experience real happiness–which comes as an outgrowth of loving another, caring for another, serving another. I remember my daughter, Anna, when she was little, saying to me one Christmas, “You are happier with my presents than with yours!” That’s not just because I liked playing with her toys! It’s because there is pleasure in receiving, but real happiness in giving–a truth I suspect she understands more fully now that she has three kids.

Happiness, however, can be cut short by its opposite, which is sorrow. At times of death or tragedy, we feel a sorrow that precludes being happy. But the message of Christmas, if I understand it, is that even death and tragedy cannot take away real and lasting joy.

Joy, like happiness, is outward directed; it usually involves acting for the well-being of others. But, unlike happiness, joy is not a temporary state of mind. It is a quality of the spirit that is, at least potentially, permanent. It comes from the realization that we are loved, even when we aren’t lovable, that life is a pilgrimage with direction, not simply an aimless wandering. It comes from the knowledge that God is always with us (Emmanuel)–which, of course, is the message of Christmas.

Actually, this isn’t only a Christmas theme; it runs from the beginning to the end of scripture. The Psalms are filled with the call to serve God with rejoicing, to praise God with shouts of joy. Paul, in our wonderful reading from Philippians, urges us “to rejoice in the Lord always.” The Bible doesn’t say, “Don’t worry, be happy.” It says, “Be joyful!”

Joy is not the absence of pain–that’s pleasure. Joy is not the absence of sorrow–that’s happiness. Joy is the deep-seated conviction that life is a divine gift, which includes pain and sorrow even as it doesn’t give them the final word.

One of the most profound discussions of this in all of scripture is the passage we heard earlier from John’s gospel. Jesus is saying farewell to his disciples. You will weep and lament, he tells them. You will be sorrowful when I’m gone. But it will be like the sorrow and pain of a woman in childbirth who is also joyful because of the new life she delivers. These moments with his disciples are not happy moments. Jesus is preparing to leave, at least in the flesh, those with whom he has been closest. These are not pleasurable moments. He is about to undergo the terrible agony of crucifixion. They are, however, joyous moments in which he imparts the basic message of incarnation: God is with you! God is for you! “These things I have spoken to you,” he tells them in John 16, “that your joy may be complete. . . . No one can take your joy from you.”

I hope this attempt at definition has been useful. If not, remember it was Deborah’s idea! I will end by telling you why I decided to follow her lead and preach on this topic.

One reason is obvious: There is too much fear and anger, and too little joy, in our country, in our world. I suspect we agree that there are reasons to be fearful and angry; but Christians know there is also a reason to be joyful. This is our witness to the world!

Having said that, we also need to acknowledge that so much of the Christianity we read about in the papers seems pretty joyless. I’m not just talking about abusive priests, but about churches that spend lots of energy condemning the sins of others and declaring that Christians are more loved by God than other people. I, for one, am happy we aren’t that kind of church! Let’s make joy our hallmark!

Another reason to preach on this topic now is to remind us that we have an opportunity over the next two weeks to express our joy, and to experience the happiness that comes through service, by participating in Interfaith Shelter. Being shelter hosts is not just something we do for others; it is an outgrowth of what God has done for us. It is an expression of joy!

And, of course, I decided to preach on all of this in order to counter the January blues. Why do we lament that we can’t hold onto the spirit of Christmas? Because, at least in part, we think of Christmas in terms of pleasure and happiness. We take pleasure in presents, ornaments, and cookies. We are happy with the presence of family and neighbors. And then the January world closes back in. Five more months of school. Another year of sales quotas and boring meetings. Another flu season to get past. Continuing warfare in Syria and Yemen. People still living on the streets. Whatever happened to the promise of Christmas?

What I have tried to suggest is that joy, the real spirit of Christmas, is ours always–if we recognize and receive it. God is with us–always! Life is meaningful–always! We are loved–always! Death is not the end of existence–never!

Friends, don’t let go of that joy. Carry it with you in all circumstances. Nothing can take it away.