A sermon preached at Nashotah House Theological Seminary on May 7, 2015
Joy Davidman, whose husband was C. S. Lewis, wrote a book, Smoke on the Mountain, An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments. Toward the beginning of the book
she shares this story. Though the language is a bit dated and Euro-centric, the
main point remains pertinent::
There is a tale told of a
missionary in a dark corner of Africa where the men had a habit of filing their
teeth to sharp points. He was hard at work trying to convert a native chief.
Now the chief was very old, and the missionary was very Old Testament – his
version of Christianity leaned heavily on thou-shalt-nots. The chief listened
patiently.
“I do not understand,” he said
at last. “You tell me that I must not take my neighbor’s wife.”
“That’s right,” said the
missionary.
“Or his ivory or his oxen.”
“Quite right.”
“And I must not dance the war
dance and then ambush him on the trail and kill him.”
“Absolutely right!”
“But I cannot do any of these
things!” said the chief respectfully. “I am too old. To be old and to be
Christian, they are the same thing!”
Davidman continues:
Not a very funny story,
perhaps; there is too bitter a point in the laugh. For, if all the truth were
told, how many of us in our hearts, share the chief’s confusion?
How many thousands picture
Christianity as something old, sapless, joyless, mumbling in the chimney corner
and casting sour looks at the young people’s fun? How many think of religion as
the enemy of life and the flesh and the pleasures of the flesh; a foe to all
love and all delight? How many unconsciously conceive of God as rather like
that famous lady who said, “Find out what the baby’s doing and make him stop”?
That is, how many of us both
inside the Church and out have reduced the good news out of Nazareth to a list
of thou-shalt-nots?
[...]
We are in danger of forgetting
that God is not only a comfort but a joy. He is the source of all pleasure; he
is fun and laughter, and we are meant to enjoy him. Otherwise our Christianity
is no better than [the chief’s impression of it].
God is "the source of all pleasure; he is fun and
laughter,
and we are meant to enjoy
him."
Christians believe that at the heart of all
there is the Joy that is the
Trinity.
We believe the world – and each of us – was created for joy.
We believe that the story of creation ends in resurrection
joy.
As that contemporary theologian, Bono of U2, writes,
“Laughter
is eternity if joy is real.”
To be a Christian is to believe that joy is real.
But, too often we come across as insecure,
cramped moralists, and
political scolds.
There are "conservative" and "liberal"
versions
of this rather joyless
presentation.
But, the Good News we have received is
"of a great joy which
will come to all people."
And
our Lord came into our midst that
"my
joy may be in you,
and
that your joy may be complete".
We are meant to be agents of that joy in the world around
us.
The mission of the Church is to live in expectation and anticipation
of the joy of God's kingdom.
Our mission is to smuggle some of that joy into a world
that is often all too joyless.
But, too often Christians appear to be just as joyless,
just as anxious,
just
as angry
as
anyone else –
sometimes
even more so.
That is a scandal and a
betrayal of the Gospel
If we abide in the love of Jesus
our joy should be evident and
infectious.
If we abide in the love of Jesus,
we will know ourselves and the
world around us
to be
the delight of God.
If we abide in the love of Jesus,
we will know God’s mercy
washing over us
and
soaking us through and through.
If we abide in the love of Jesus
we will
know that nothing – nothing –
can
separate us from the love of God.
If we abide in the love of Jesus
there is nothing to fear or be
anxious about.
If we abide in the love of Jesus
We can
resist the fear-mongering of cable news,
social
media
and
advertising.
If I abide in the love of Jesus
there is nothing I need to
prove.
I do not need to prove my worthiness to God
or anyone else.
I can ignore all the naysaying voices in the back of my
head:
Who do you think you are?
Today is the day they will
discover what a poser you are.
Today your incompetence will
be revealed.
Today is the day they will
find out that you aren’t really that smart.
Today they will discover some
of the internal ugliness
you
try so hard to cover up.
Am I the only one here who has those voices in the back of
his head?
I didn’t
think so.
I’ve got some bad news for you.
Getting a seminary degree won’t
quiet those voices.
Being ordained a priest in God’s
church won’t quiet those voices.
Becoming a seminary professor
won’t quiet those voices.
I can tell you that being made
a bishop doesn’t quiet those voices.
The good news is that
abiding in the love of Jesus
does silence
those worries
or at
least it reduces them to whispers
that
are more easily ignored.
An abiding in Jesus frees us from imposing such anxieties
onto others.
It
frees us from worrying about whether or not
others
get it the way we think they should get it.
I encourage you to abide in the love of Jesus and his joy –
especially
once you are ordained
and serving and representing the
Church.
Make time for prayer and devotional reading every day.
There is nothing more deadly
to the Church
than joyless clergy.
What if Christians acted among themselves
and in the world
such hat
those who heard our words
and
witnessed our behavior
looked
on with surprise
at our
freedom from such anxieties
and
wonderment at our joy?
That doesn't mean we should live in "blissed out"
denial
of the difficult realities of
our lives and those of others.
Nor does it mean that we never ask difficult
or awkward questions,
that
we do not persist in resisting evil
or
renouncing the evil powers of this world
which
corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.
Nor does it mean we should not be serious about obeying
Jesus
But, even then, if it is not clear that our words and
actions
are born of and lead to joy,
we will
appear to those around us
like
the missionary appears in Joy Davidman's story
and
risk reducing the Good News out of Nazareth
to a
list of thou-shalts and thou-shalt-nots.
That will not so if we abide in the love of Jesus
and allow his joy to complete
ours.
If God is indeed the source of all pleasure;
if God is fun and laughter,
and if
we are meant to enjoy him;
shouldn’t we desire to abide him and
his joy?
And
shouldn’t the church be known for its joy?
And
might we see part of our mission
to be smugglers
of that joy
into
the world around us?
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