I want to give you some good news. It is good news anytime of the year, but especially so at Christmastime. Here is that good news: You were made for joy. You weren’t made to fret and worry and think dark thoughts. You were made for peace and love and light and joy.
The story is told of a woman who dreamed of traveling to England and riding a train through the English countryside. One day her dream came true. She flew from the U.S. to London and after a good night’s sleep she boarded a train. However, after a short time on her excursion she began fretting about the windows and the temperature. She complained about her seat assignment, rearranged her luggage, and so on. To her shock, she suddenly reached her journey’s end. With deep regret she said to the person meeting her, “If I’d known I was going to arrive so soon, I wouldn’t have wasted my time fretting so much.” (1)
That is the story of so many of us. We get to the end of our lives and realize that we spent time fretting over so many things, complaining about this and that yet life was passing by so quickly. So let me say it again: You were made for joy. You weren’t made to fret and worry and think dark thoughts. You were made for peace and love and light and joy.
Poet Carl Sandburg understood that. He once wrote about children:
You were made for joy, child.
The feet of you were carved for that.
The ankles of you run for that.
The rise of rain,
The shift of wind,
The drop of a red star on a far water rim . . .
An endless catalogue of shouts and laughters,
Silent contemplations
They made you from day to day for joy, child, for joy. (2)
St. Paul understood that. He writes in our lesson from Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
The amazing thing is that St. Paul wrote these words from prison while he was, in effect, on death row. We are told that when he penned this epistle he was literally chained to a Roman soldier and guarded day and night. And yet he could say, “Do not be anxious about anything . . .”
Wow! I think I would have been anxious under such circumstances. But not St. Paul. He tells us to rejoice. It takes a special kind of faith to proclaim joy in such dire circumstances the kind of faith that comes from living in the center of God’s will and love. You and I were made for such joy.
What is it that robs you of your joy? Is it worry about the future? That’s the root of much of our anxiety, isn’t it? We’re worried about our future.
We’re told that advice columnist Ann Landers used to get about 10,000 letters a month about people’s problems. She was asked, what is the number one problem that people have? She said the number one concern of most people is anxiety. She said people are afraid of losing their health, afraid of losing their wealth, afraid of losing loved ones. She said people are afraid of life itself.
A man was lying in bed one night. He found himself worrying. He thought to himself, “It is very strange. Here I am lying in bed, and I don’t have a worry in the world. Then the thought came, ‘That worries me.’”
Do you know of anyone like that someone who would worry about the fact that they didn’t have anything to worry about? You know who you are. Some of us fret over such minor things. As some unknown poet put it:
“It’s the little things that bother us and put us on the rack,
you can sit upon a mountain but you can’t sit on a tack.”
It is the little things that tie us up in knots, usually little things that are easily fixable with time. Is that what is robbing you of your joy anxiety about your future?
The insightful writer Isak Dinesen said, “God made the world round so that we would never be able to see too far down the road.” And that’s true. We can’t see down that road. That itself is the cause of anxiety for many of us. And sadly there is something within us that causes us to look down that road with fear rather than with faith.
Pastor John Ortberg tells us an interesting fact about the wonderful motion picture, It’s a Wonderful Life. Have you watched that film yet this Christmas season? Most of you know the story. It is about a young man, George Bailey, who dreams of doing great things such as traveling and making his father proud. But none of his dreams are realized. He ends up trapped in a small town with a two-bit savings and loan company, wondering whether his life is worth anything. Of course he discovers that his life is very valuable because of the impact he has had on others.
John Ortberg says he saw an article that said this movie is now much more popular than it was when it first came out. In 1946 its box-office performance was a bit of a disappointment. The writer of the article suggested that one reason for its resurgence is that it resonates with so many disappointed baby boomers who feel, like George Bailey, that life did not turn out the way they planned. They want to know that they matter, that what they have done is worthwhile after all. They want reassurance that when all is said and done, their overriding feeling will not be disappointment. (3)
Is that the source of your anxiety that your life will be a disappointment? Some people lose their joy because they are continually comparing their lives with others, and so they focus not on their blessings, but on their shortcomings.
Futurist Faith Popcorn says that one possible downside of the Internet is the development of what she calls Comparative Anxiety. She says the Internet has created a networked world that allows everybody to compare everything, instantly. How much money are you making compared to people your own age who graduated from the same college you did? How many words does your baby know versus millions of babies her exact age, around the world? She predicts that this ability to benchmark yourself in seconds with others will create an increasing epidemic of comparative anxiety a national wave of insecurity. (4)
Is that what is robbing you of your joy comparing yourself with others? There may be someone who is already worrying because a neighbor’s child will be getting more toys under the tree this Christmas than your child. Or that Uncle Bob will be able to give the family more treats than you can afford.
Comedian George Gobel found one way to deal with this particular anxiety. Some of the older members of our congregation will remember “Lonesome George” and his signature phrase, “Well, I’ll be a dirty bird.”
George Gobel lived across the street from Lou Costello of “Abbott and Costello” fame. Costello really got into Christmas each year, setting up an elaborate Christmas display with angels, music, reindeer, and many hundreds of Christmas lights. Gobel did nothing for Christmas except to put up a sign. The sign said, “See our display across the street.” (5)
That’s one way to deal with comparative anxiety at Christmastime with humor. Are those the sort of things that are keeping you from rejoicing fear about the future, fear that you do not measure up to others?
Do you remember what the first thing that the angel said to the shepherds watching over their flocks that first Christmas night? The first thing the angel said to them was, “Fear not.” That’s an important word for us as we approach this year’s celebration of the holy event. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid of the future with its uncertainties. God holds the future in His Almighty hands. God will not let you down. And don’t be afraid that somehow your life doesn’t measure up. God loves you just as you are.
Toward the end of the 15th century, all of Europe was caught in the lull of despair and hopelessness. There was such dismay that people widely believed that the end of the world was coming very soon.
In the year 1492 a German author produced a book titled The Nuremberg Chronicle. It was a compendium of all the calamities that had befallen the human family up to that moment. Then, with a climax of dejection, the author invited the reader to use blank pages at the end of the book to record any further catastrophes that would occur before the not‑too‑distant end of the world.
The next year there sailed into the harbor of Lisbon a battered little sailing ship. It had come through storms in the Atlantic. At the helm was a man whose story was too amazing to be true. He spoke, not about the end of the world, but about a new world of endless possibilities. Of course, you know his name‑‑Christopher Columbus. Just when things looked their worst, something happened which changed despair to hope. (6)
The first thing that the angel said to the shepherds was, “Fear not.” The second thing the angel said was, “For, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy . . .”
Christmas was never intended to be a season of anxiety, but of joy. That’s why St. Paul’s words from Philippians are so appropriate for the third Sunday of Advent, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
In his book Talking to Ducks, James A. Kitchens explains there are two major types of joy: internal joy and external joy. Internal joy comes from within, but external joy comes and goes with whatever is happening in our environment. It is extrinsic because it arises from the outside. When the circumstances change in one direction, joy comes. When fortune reverses, joy leaves. Internal joy stays with us regardless of our external circumstances. (7)
Pastor Anthony Evans tells about the night that darkness descended on New York City during the blackout of 2003. It was a chaotic night, you may remember. Evans happened to be there that night. Manhattan, including Wall Street and the United Nations, was completely shut down, as were all area airports and all rail transportation including the subway.
There was one exception to that darkness. Evans happened on a restaurant where people were lined up to get hot food. He reports that in this dark situation there was this one place with all this light and joy and music and laughter and excitement. He went over to the assistant manager and said, “Mister, I don’t understand. It’s dark everywhere. The airport is right over there and it’s dark. My hotel is right over yonder and it’s dark too. Everything is dark, and yet you are lit up like a Christmas tree. How can this be?”
The manager said, “It’s really fairly simple. When we built this [place], we built it with a gas generator. We’ve got power on the inside that is not determined by circumstances on the outside. Even though there’s nothing happening out there, there’s plenty happening in here.”
Anthony Evans goes on to say, “When you accepted Jesus Christ, He came into the inside. So what’s happening on the outside shouldn’t determine whether or not you’ve got a lighthouse on the inside. What’s happening out there shouldn’t determine your joy. God has given us a generator of life and liberty in our souls through our relationship with Jesus Christ. We don’t have to live our lives determined by life’s circumstances.” (8)
“Fear not,” said the angel to the shepherds, “For, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10-11)
Here is the reason we have light and hope during December’s darkness. Here is how we can have internal joy in the midst of external despair. A Savior has been born.
Do you know the story of Isaac Watts? Watts was one of the most prolific hymn writers of all time. He had a great internal peace in the midst of truly difficult external circumstances.
Isaac Watts was sickly as an infant. He barely survived childhood. His health was so frail throughout his life that he often could not stand. He became the pastor of a large independent chapel in London in his twenties because of his outstanding training and abilities. There he found himself in the position of helping trainee preachers, despite his poor health. His health began to fail seriously in his early thirties and during this time he developed a fever that shattered his constitution. His delicate condition frequently prevented him from serving his congregation as he wanted. Because he could not make pastoral calls as he wished, he wrote long, hope-filled letters to encourage the ill, bereaved, or discouraged members of his church.
Watts wrote hymns because he felt the church music of his day was mostly dull and depressing. He penned the words for over six hundred hymns and practically revolutionized church congregational singing. Isaac Watts had many reasons to be afraid, but he had a joy that never failed him. This season, we sing one of his most outstanding pieces, “Joy to the World, the Lord Is Come!” Some authorities maintain that this great hymn is the most widely sung of all Christmas carols. (9)
Isaac Watts’ example would be a good one for us to follow. “Fear not,” said the angel to the shepherds, “For, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)
Don’t worry about your future this Advent season. God is in control. Don’t worry about disappointing your family or your friends. Let them know you love them. That is the greatest gift you can give them. That is the gift God gave us in the stable of Bethlehem. In the words of St. Paul, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
1. http://preceptaustin.org/philippians_illustrations_4.htm
2. Rev. Scott W. Alexander, http://www.rruuc.org/index.php?id=191&sermon=070722.
3. John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of The Boat (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), p. 114.
4. With Adam Hanft, Dictionary of the Future (New York: Hyperion, 2001), p. 249.
5. Bob Thomas, Bud & Lou: The Abbott & Costello Story. Cited by David Bruce,
The Funniest People in Comedy (Kindle edition).
6. From a sermon by the Reverend David Rogne.
7. Rev. Dr. Benjamin Reaves, http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/reaves_4807.htm.
8. Tony Evans’ Book Of Illustrations (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009).
9. Tarbell’s KJV & NRSV Lesson Commentary (Colorado Springs: Cook Communications Ministries, 2003).