4:00

interpretation of the data points of science

4:02

is right or off the mark. Either

4:04

way, there is no doubt the human

4:06

brain is bent toward the negative. Years

4:08

ago, I read an article by a

4:10

neuroscientist that said it takes just three

4:12

seconds for a negative memory to imprint

4:14

on the brain, but 14 seconds

4:16

for a positive one. He said

4:18

at the end of the article, your

4:20

brain is like fly paper for negativity and

4:23

Teflon for positivity. Since then, if

4:25

you ever... Come on, can I get a little bit of a

4:27

laugh? I know it's a really depressing... Like a

4:29

little bit. We're here together. We're still breathing.

4:31

Alright. Since then, if

4:33

you ever hang out with our family on the

4:35

Sabbath or on a hike in the summer or

4:38

on vacation, we do this weird thing we call

4:40

take an imprint. Wherever we're in

4:42

a good moment, a sunset or a

4:44

really good meal or a beautiful vista

4:46

on a hike, we pause and for

4:48

14 seconds we just hold

4:50

still all quiet and we look out and

4:52

we just try to be as present as

4:55

we can to the moment, to what's in

4:57

front of us, to our body, to what

4:59

we're feeling in our body and let it

5:01

imprint on our brain. That way, any time, a

5:03

year later, a decade later, when we call up

5:06

that memory at my understanding of the science, I'm

5:08

not a scientist, but my understanding is it

5:11

will release the same neurochemical happiness into

5:13

our body years later and it has

5:15

been our experience. All that to

5:17

say, our brains are bent to focus on all that is wrong

5:20

with the world. One of

5:22

many words for that is that we're not going to

5:24

be able to have

5:26

many words for that in the Bible is sin.

5:29

Add to that that we are living in a

5:31

world that is under assault from the three enemies

5:33

of the soul, the world, the flesh and the

5:36

devil. Add to that the 24-7

5:38

digital news cycle which is an economic

5:40

model built to profit off of our

5:42

inbuilt fear of predators on the horizon

5:44

and add to that the holidays which

5:46

are a mixed bag for a lot

5:48

of people. For some of you, it's

5:50

the most wonderful time of the year.

5:52

No, I'm not Christian. I'm not going

5:54

to sing. That's it. That's all you get

5:56

tonight. Alright, I am a Christian.

5:58

I'm not Christian. you're a part of our church, you

6:01

know what that means. But

6:03

for many of you, it is the most

6:05

wonderful time of the year. And for others,

6:07

it is a time where you feel the

6:09

acute pain of social isolation or of a

6:12

relational breakdown in your family or your marriage

6:14

or your life. My point

6:16

is, a lot of us are feeling

6:18

little to no joy this

6:20

Christmas. But listen to the

6:23

lyrics of this well-known Christian hymn that

6:25

is really more of a theological treatise

6:27

than it is a sentimental carol. Joy

6:30

to the world, the Lord

6:32

is come. Let earth receive

6:35

her king. Let

6:37

every heart prepare him room, and

6:39

heaven and nature sing. Joy to

6:41

the world, the Savior reigns. Let

6:44

men their songs employ, while fields

6:46

and floods, rocks, hills, and plains

6:48

repeat the sounding joy. No

6:51

more let sins and sorrows

6:53

grow, nor thorns infest

6:56

the ground. He comes to

6:58

make his blessings flow far

7:00

as the curse is found.

7:03

He rules the world with

7:05

truth and grace and

7:08

makes the nations prove the

7:11

light of his righteousness and

7:13

wonders of his love. Set

7:17

aside the Christmas sentiment for a

7:19

moment. What is this? Is

7:22

this denial? Is this

7:24

wishful thinking? Is this

7:26

escapism? Or is this

7:29

something else? Luke

7:31

chapter 2, please stand with me, those of you in the

7:33

room for the reading of scripture. And even if you're at

7:35

home, I invite you, if you're around the table or in

7:37

the living room, just to stand, to

7:40

honor God, and honor the text that we

7:42

are about to read, which is more than

7:44

a text. It is the

7:46

inspired scripture. Luke

7:48

chapter 2, verse 1. In

7:51

those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree

7:54

that his senses should be taken of the entire

7:56

Roman world. This was the first census that

7:58

took place while the Roman world Corinius was

8:00

governor of Syria, and everyone went

8:02

to their own town to register.

8:05

So Joseph also went up from the town

8:07

of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to

8:10

Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged

8:12

to the house and line of David. He

8:15

went there to register with Mary, who was

8:17

pledged to be married to him and was

8:19

expecting a child. While they

8:21

were there, the time came for the

8:23

baby to be born, and she gave

8:25

birth to her firstborn, a son. She

8:28

wrapped him in clothes and placed him

8:30

in a manger because there was no guest

8:32

room available for them. And

8:34

there were shepherds living out in

8:36

the fields nearby, keeping watch over

8:38

their flocks at night. An

8:41

angel of the Lord appeared to them,

8:43

and the glory of the Lord shone

8:45

round them, and they were terrified. But

8:48

the angel said to them, Do not

8:50

be afraid. I bring

8:52

you good news that will cause

8:55

great joy for all the people.

8:57

Today in the town of David, a Savior

9:00

has been born to you. He is the

9:02

Messiah of the Lord. This will be assigned

9:04

to you. You will find a baby wrapped

9:06

in clothes and lying in a manger. Suddenly,

9:09

a great company of the

9:11

heavenly hosts appeared with the angel, praising

9:14

God and saying, Glory

9:16

to God in the highest

9:18

heaven, and on earth peace

9:20

to those on whom his

9:23

favor rests. When

9:25

the angel had left them and

9:27

gone into heaven, the shepherd said to one

9:29

another, Let's go to Bethlehem and see this

9:31

thing that has happened, which the Lord has

9:33

told us about. So they hurried off and

9:36

found Mary and Joseph, and the baby was

9:38

lying in the manger. When they had seen

9:40

him, they spread the word concerning what had

9:42

been told them about this child, and all

9:44

who heard it were amazed at what the

9:46

shepherd said to them. But

9:48

Mary treasured up all these things

9:50

and pondered them in her heart.

9:53

The shepherds returned, glorifying and

9:55

praising God for all the

9:57

things they had heard and seen. which

10:00

were just as they had been told. Take

10:03

a seat. I

10:05

know that most of you are familiar with the

10:08

story we just read, but let's key

10:10

in on verse 10, which is really the

10:12

crux of the story. It is the message

10:14

at the center of it from heaven to

10:17

earth. Take a look again at verse 10.

10:19

But the angel

10:21

said to them, do not

10:23

be afraid. As we've

10:26

said all year long, this is

10:28

the most common command in all

10:30

of scripture. And by the way,

10:32

in the Christmas story, fear

10:34

is at the root of what has gone

10:36

wrong in the human condition. It is

10:38

in the writings of the New Testament,

10:41

the antithesis of love. One way to

10:43

frame the spiritual journey is as a

10:45

decline in fear and a rising

10:48

sense of trust and confidence

10:51

in God. Do not

10:53

be afraid. Next section

10:56

of the message, I bring you

10:58

good news that will cause great

11:00

joy for all the people. Now

11:02

the phrase good news is one word in

11:04

Greek, euangelion. Can you say that? You

11:08

went well done. You're here and

11:10

alive and awake. It's where we

11:13

get words like evangelism or evangelistic

11:15

from euangelion. It can also be

11:17

translated gospel in an older translation

11:19

or in the Christmas vernacular, glad

11:22

tidings. Now we think of

11:24

gospel as a kind of serious word,

11:26

as a theological word, but in the

11:28

first century, it was a happy, from

11:30

the first century, it was a happy

11:32

word and a political word. Whenever a

11:35

new king was born or a war

11:37

was won, the empire would send

11:39

out a preacher or a herald

11:41

to preach the gospel or to

11:43

spread all of the good news

11:45

or the glad tidings about the

11:47

birth of the king or the

11:49

defeat of an enemy. Hence the

11:51

next line, good news that will

11:53

cause great joy. No, not

11:56

just joy, but great joy. In fact, the

11:58

word great, the adjective in Greek, is

12:00

mega. You got to love that.

12:02

Mega joy. Imagine that feeling you

12:04

get if you've ever had this

12:06

experience. When something that

12:09

you've been waiting for or wanting

12:11

out of the blue just comes

12:14

to pass. You fall in love or

12:17

you hear that your favorite author or

12:19

movie director is making a film you've

12:21

always wanted to see. What would you

12:24

feel if that were to happen in

12:26

a very hypothetical scenario? Yes, you

12:28

would feel mega joy. You

12:30

would feel it course through

12:33

your entire body. That's the

12:35

idea of the story. Here are these shepherds that

12:37

are sitting there and waiting. By the way, the

12:39

shepherds are most likely children. Have you ever been

12:41

to the Middle East? To this day, shepherds are

12:43

still about my kids age out here about

12:45

10, 11, 12

12:47

years old. It's why they're running all

12:49

around town being wild and telling everybody

12:51

because children can't suppress joy. It just

12:53

has to leak out and these shepherds

12:55

were waiting. Most likely a

12:58

lot of scholars argue the shepherds were

13:00

guarding over the flock that was right

13:02

around Bethlehem where all of the sheep

13:04

were raised for the Passover sacrifice in

13:06

Jerusalem. They literally, their job was to

13:09

raise sheep that were to look back

13:11

to the Passover and to the Exodus

13:13

and forward to the new Exodus and

13:16

the new Moses, the new deliverer on

13:18

the horizon prophesied about all through the

13:20

Old Testament. They were waiting for the

13:22

Messiah to come and here is good

13:25

news, a surprise out of

13:27

the blue. That feeling, that

13:29

is the idea that the

13:31

result of the gospel at

13:33

an emotional level is joy.

13:36

But also notice what is the gospel in

13:38

the story. Second half of the message, verse

13:40

11. Today in the town of David or in

13:45

Bethlehem, a savior

13:47

has been born to you.

13:51

He is the Messiah, the

13:53

Lord. That right there

13:56

is the gospel. Does that

13:58

sound like the gospel to you? Notice

14:00

that in the story the gospel is not, hey,

14:03

you can go to heaven when you die if

14:05

you pray this prayer. The gospel

14:07

is not, you can be justified by

14:09

grace through faith, not by works, not

14:11

by your own effort. The

14:14

gospel is not, you can be healthy

14:16

and wealthy. The gospel is

14:18

not, social justice is here for the

14:20

whole world. Not that any of

14:22

that stuff is bad, but that's just not the

14:24

gospel. That may or may not be the byproduct

14:26

of the gospel, but it's not the gospel. The

14:29

gospel is not about me or about you at all.

14:33

It's about the long awaited Messiah,

14:35

that He has been born in

14:38

Bethlehem, just like the prophet said

14:40

hundreds of years before, and that

14:42

He is a king, but He

14:44

is more than just a king,

14:46

He is the Lord. The Greek

14:49

word there is kyrios. It was

14:51

the Greek word used as a

14:53

title, transliteration of Yahweh in the

14:55

Old Testament, meaning this long awaited

14:57

king is more than just a

14:59

political leader. He is in some

15:01

mysterious incarnation, the embodiment of the

15:03

living God Himself. And

15:06

where there is a king, there is a

15:08

kingdom. To say the king has come is

15:10

another way of saying the kingdom has come.

15:13

Now, since we live in 21st century, kind

15:16

of in an American democracy, not in

15:18

a first century Jewish monarchy, the kingdom

15:20

of God is a bit of a

15:22

foreign concept to us. I'd continue to

15:24

wonder if the country of God is

15:26

better language for us, but

15:29

let me sketch out for you a biblical theology

15:31

of the gospel of kingdom in three very simple

15:34

parts. Give me two minutes. One, first

15:36

century Jews divided human history into

15:39

two ages, this age and the

15:41

age to come. This

15:43

age was marked by the rule of

15:46

Satan, sin and death. It was an

15:48

epoch of pain and of

15:50

suffering and of waiting for God

15:52

to come and put the world

15:54

to rights, to kind of set

15:56

the human project back on track

15:58

per Genesis 2. and

18:00

walk with him deeper into the inner

18:02

life of the trinity itself. Number

18:05

three, the kingdom of God is

18:07

now and it's not yet in

18:09

the language of a famous theologian,

18:11

George Elden Ladd. What

18:13

most Jews in the first century

18:15

were expecting was a clean, kind

18:17

of clear line of demarcation between

18:19

this age and the age to

18:21

come. But what actually

18:23

happened was a surprise, as it often is.

18:26

And Jesus' birth and his life

18:28

and his death and his resurrection

18:30

and his ascension dragged the

18:33

future into the present, the age

18:35

to come into this age. Jesus

18:39

opened up a portal to the

18:41

coming world, a way to live

18:44

under God's rule now as an advanced

18:46

sign of what is yet to come

18:49

for the whole world. That, by the

18:51

way, is the aim of the church,

18:53

the aim of us here together to

18:56

function as the vanguard of the social

18:58

order that is coming one day for

19:00

the whole world. But

19:02

don't veer into utopianism. We now

19:04

live in what theologians call the

19:06

time between the times, in this

19:08

kind of messy middle between

19:10

his first coming and his second, between

19:13

Jesus' first coming to inaugurate the kingdom

19:15

of God in the church and his

19:17

second to bring the kingdom of God

19:19

to its climax over the whole world.

19:22

Contrary to what you might think, and

19:24

this was news to me until not that

19:26

long ago, in church history, the Advent season

19:29

was less about Jesus' first coming, or what

19:31

we call Christmas. And the

19:33

focus was more on his second coming,

19:35

or what we call judgment, which in

19:37

a Hebrew mind is actually not a

19:40

bad word. It's a good word. We

19:42

want justice would be a more important

19:44

word for it, a coming day of

19:46

justice and of peace. Fleming

19:49

Rutledge in her magisterial Advent book,

19:51

thank you, Bethany, for that, writes about

19:54

how Advent isn't just the season in

19:56

the church calendar. It is the tone

19:58

and the timber of our in-house. ache

22:00

and the pang of isolation than ever

22:02

before. Why? Why is that if the

22:05

result of the gospel is in theory

22:07

at an emotional level great joy? Well,

22:09

one, it's just because we're human and

22:13

contingent and fragile and

22:15

vulnerable and we suffer

22:17

and in the end we die.

22:20

If you're not all chipper this Christmas

22:22

go easy on yourself. You are not

22:25

alone, but also because

22:27

joy is more than just an

22:29

emotion and the

22:31

same is true for the other

22:33

three advent themes of love and

22:36

peace and hope. All four,

22:38

if you think about those as emotions,

22:40

you miss the point and they will

22:42

never sink into you. All

22:44

four are more than just emotions.

22:47

They are the inner condition of

22:49

the heart of Jesus who

22:51

is loving and joyful and peaceful

22:54

and hopeful that we

22:56

take on in our own inner

22:58

woman or man as

23:00

we apprentice under Jesus over a

23:02

lifetime and God does His

23:04

work of healing and renewal

23:06

in our soul. But

23:09

herein lies a key idea. Our

23:11

relationship to joy isn't just

23:14

passive, it's also active. Joy

23:17

isn't just something we feel,

23:19

it's also something we choose.

23:22

It is a deliberate decision

23:24

we make to joy

23:26

in God or in the language of

23:28

the New Testament to rejoice. That word

23:30

rejoice is a English, we don't really

23:32

use that in Portland much, slash

23:35

at all. In the New Testament

23:37

it's the verb form of the

23:39

noun joy. To rejoice is to

23:42

joy in God. Henry Nouwen

23:44

said it this way, joy does not

23:46

simply happen to us, we have

23:49

to choose joy and keep choosing

23:51

it every day. Or here's Richard

23:53

Foster, the decision to set the

23:55

mind on the higher things of

23:57

life is an act of the

23:59

will. That is why

24:01

celebration is a discipline. It is

24:03

not something that falls on our heads.

24:05

It is the result of a consciously

24:08

chosen way of thinking and living. Or

24:10

take a look at this from Rick

24:12

Ho, whose book series on joy is

24:14

a hidden gem. If you're late in

24:16

your Christmas shopping, just Google Rick Ho,

24:18

H-O-W-E. It's a three-part book series you've

24:21

never heard of on joy that is

24:23

just water for the soul.

24:25

It's like my Sabbath reading. I love

24:27

it. He writes, emotions are the tip

24:29

of the iceberg. There is much more

24:32

beneath the surface. And when

24:34

we explore that territory, we

24:36

discover that we are active

24:38

participants and contributors to our

24:40

emotional states. Even if it

24:42

seems that we have little control over our feelings

24:44

per se, we do have

24:47

a say about their entourage

24:49

of values, beliefs, and desires.

24:52

We can affirm them or deny

24:54

them, embrace them or reject them,

24:56

cultivate them or put them in check. That is

24:58

what makes it possible for us

25:00

to school our emotions. Wisely

25:02

or foolishly, in healthy or

25:04

unhealthy ways, we all manage

25:06

our emotions. This in

25:09

turn plays an important role in the

25:11

formation of our character. And this makes

25:13

our emotions morally significant.

25:15

He goes on to write,

25:17

the pursuit of joy is

25:19

a moral obligation. How

25:21

good is that? It is a

25:23

moral obligation. Now, how do we

25:26

do this? How do we fulfill

25:28

our moral obligation to be happy

25:30

people as Jesus is happy? And

25:32

none of this distinction between joy

25:34

and happiness. I get the sentiment

25:36

of it. It is not biblical.

25:38

Do a simple word study. Joy,

25:40

happiness, pleasure, delight, all are

25:42

in the semantic domain together. It is the heart

25:44

of God. It's what the Trinity is like. More

25:46

on that in a few minutes. How do we

25:48

do this? As we live in

25:51

between the ages with a brain that

25:53

is hardwired to focus on the bad,

25:55

how do we move from fear like

25:57

the shepherds in the story to joy?

28:00

is near. Do not be

28:02

anxious about anything, but

28:05

in every situation by prayer and

28:07

petition with thanksgiving, present your requests

28:10

to God and the peace

28:12

of God which transcends all understanding

28:15

will guard your hearts and your minds

28:17

in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers

28:19

and sisters, whatever is true, whatever

28:21

is noble, whatever is right, whatever

28:24

is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever

28:26

is admirable, if anything is excellent

28:28

or praiseworthy, think about such

28:31

things. I read

28:33

that passage as kind of a tutorial

28:35

from Paul on joy. You could break

28:38

down Paul's tutorial into three basic

28:40

steps if you were to summarize and

28:42

simplify. Number one is just to give

28:45

thanks. Verse six, do

28:47

not be anxious about anything, but

28:50

in every situation by

28:53

prayer and petition with

28:55

thanksgiving. In Paul's

28:57

theology, the practice of gratitude

28:59

is how we grow in

29:01

our faith or our trust

29:03

in God, but gratitude

29:05

is a posture before

29:08

it's a practice. It's a

29:10

posture where we receive our life

29:12

as a gift from our loving

29:15

Creator rather than grasp for it

29:17

as a right of

29:19

the human condition. But

29:22

it's also a practice by which

29:24

we cultivate and become

29:26

people of greater joy

29:28

through both ritual and

29:30

redirection. Ritual, we find

29:32

ways to habituate gratitude into our

29:35

day and our week

29:37

and our year. For me, I

29:39

start every morning with a very

29:41

simple gratitude ritual. For our family,

29:43

we begin and end every Sabbath

29:45

and very common, just dinner

29:47

table around the table with a conversation

29:49

around what we are grateful for. And

29:52

then redirection, meaning when thoughts come

29:55

about how bad your life is

29:57

or hard your life is or

29:59

unfair, your life is and if you're

30:01

anything like me, those thoughts come a

30:03

lot. So you get plenty of

30:05

opportunity to practice on this one. When

30:08

those thoughts come, you just redirect

30:10

your mind, which is I think

30:12

best defined as directed attention to

30:15

what you are grateful for. So

30:17

when the thought comes to you as a native

30:20

Californian, this is a hypothetical scenario, I have a

30:22

friend who deals with this, and

30:24

the thought comes to you, what

30:26

a dark, cold, miserable day. There's

30:28

no way to be happy today.

30:31

You redirect to God,

30:33

Jaren here from Hawaii, you're like, I

30:35

feel your pain, bro. You redirect to

30:37

thank you God that I'm safe and

30:39

I'm warm and I'm dry and I have

30:42

a roof over my head and I

30:44

have a job and I have a,

30:46

or if I don't, I'm here and I'm

30:48

okay and I'm fed and I have

30:50

community around me to care for me, ritual

30:53

and redirection. You just do that

30:55

over a lifetime, not over weeks,

30:57

not over months, not even over

31:00

years, over a lifetime, and you

31:02

become joyful and we need gratitude

31:04

now more than ever before. We're coming

31:06

off Thanksgiving. Did you know that the

31:09

Thanksgiving holiday was made official during the

31:11

civil war under Lincoln, when our nation

31:13

was divided and torn

31:15

apart and suffering, when

31:18

our ancestors were more aware of

31:20

the human capacity for evil than

31:23

ever before and all

31:25

of the false promises of politics

31:27

and even a religion had fallen

31:29

by the wayside. The need to

31:31

focus on how good our life

31:33

is before God was then

31:35

and still is now key.

31:38

First off, give thanks. Secondly, draw

31:40

near to God in prayer, verse

31:43

five, the Lord is near. I

31:45

love that line. Therefore, do not

31:47

be anxious, but in

31:49

every situation by prayer, present your

31:52

request to God. God is near.

31:54

Go to God in prayer. Take

31:57

your anxiety to God. lost,

36:00

the mind is its own place

36:03

and in itself can make a heaven

36:05

of hell or a hell of heaven.

36:08

What we give our attention to, what

36:10

we think about on a regular basis,

36:12

what we fill our mind with, has

36:14

the potential to index our life toward

36:16

heaven or toward hell. As

36:18

disciples of Jesus we must discipline

36:21

our mind and our thought life

36:23

to focus on the goodness of

36:25

our life with Jesus in the

36:28

kingdom. But that's it,

36:30

it's so simple in Paul's mind. Just

36:32

slow down long enough, let

36:34

go of the life you wish you

36:36

had to receive as gift the life

36:39

you actually have and then just give

36:41

thanks, draw near

36:43

to God and curate what

36:46

you think about. Do this

36:48

over and over, year over year,

36:50

decade over decade and you will

36:52

in time experience what Paul calls

36:54

the renewal of your mind, what

36:56

scientists call neuroplasticity. You will become

36:58

a person with a new mind,

37:00

with the mind of Christ, a

37:02

person for whom joy is your

37:05

baseline, your quote foundational emotion. Other

37:07

emotions are there, yes, other emotions

37:09

come and go. No, you're not

37:11

happy all of the time. You're

37:13

human, you're fragile, you live in

37:15

a world that is full of

37:17

pain and sorrow and suffering.

37:19

But joy is the default setting

37:22

of the person you have become

37:24

in Christ. That is

37:26

what's possible as we apprentice under

37:28

Jesus into kingdom living.

37:30

That is good news.

37:34

To end, none of this is natural for me

37:36

at all. A lot of you know my story,

37:38

I don't want to rehash all of that. But

37:40

leading clinical psychologists argue, and there's debate on this,

37:42

but that 50% of happiness is genetic.

37:45

Meaning a massive factor in

37:48

how happy you are is just like whether

37:50

or not you won the genetic lottery. I

37:52

mean how God made you or whatever. It's

37:54

kind of just how your personality, right? By

37:57

personality, I am melancholy and

37:59

sensual. Many of you know

38:01

about my struggle with anxiety and depression and

38:03

obsession. Since my late teens,

38:05

it doesn't mean that I'm not joyful to I think

38:07

more and more. I am both. I

38:10

am joyful and I'm bent toward

38:13

anxiety and sadness. One

38:15

of the reasons I love Jesus and

38:17

honestly, one of the reasons that I

38:19

love prayer that is not just like

38:21

honest to God. Like I love

38:23

to get up in the morning and pray. I just

38:25

ache for I'm sad every morning when that time is

38:28

over. I know for a lot of you

38:30

that's not your experience yet. It feels

38:32

more like duty or discipline and delight stick

38:34

with it. It will change for me.

38:36

I think the reason that I love

38:38

it is not because I'm disciplined. It's

38:40

definitely not a virtue. It's because I'm

38:43

desperate because I am not happy by nature. Some

38:45

people can just get up in the morning, read the

38:47

news, chuckle at it and go about and have a

38:50

great day. I cannot. I am

38:52

not wired that way at all for me to

38:54

have any chance at a happy day. I

38:57

have to ground my mind,

38:59

my body, my thought life, the

39:01

orientation of my heart, the desire

39:03

of my inner man has to

39:05

be in the Trinitarian presence. And

39:09

when I sit with God morning by morning, the

39:11

evening by evening, as I fall asleep, what

39:14

I experience radiating at me from the

39:16

Trinity, who is not only all around

39:18

me, but who is inside me by

39:21

the Spirit of God, is I am in

39:23

Christ and Christ is in the Father and the

39:25

Father is in me. I

39:27

experience joy and love

39:29

and peace and hope.

39:32

But I'm also human. And then I check my

39:34

email 10 minutes later

39:36

and it's not so happy. That's not what's radiating from

39:38

my inbox at all. It's not love and joy and

39:40

peace and hope. A lot of other things in there.

39:43

And then I read the news and then disappointment

39:45

because something I've been waiting for does

39:48

not come to pass. And it's easy,

39:50

especially for those of us on the

39:52

underside of that 50 percent to give

39:54

into sorrow. But if we want to

39:56

enlarge our soul's capacity for joy, the

39:59

best. way is to open our heart

40:02

to suffering because suffering, none

40:04

of us want to hear this but it

40:06

is so true, it is you could argue

40:08

the primary way that God does

40:10

his work of stripping us of our

40:13

attachments of all the things we think

40:15

we need to live a happy life

40:17

but actually hold us back from God

40:19

and hold us back from

40:21

God's joy. If you want to become a

40:23

joyful person open your heart

40:25

wide to suffering and let God have

40:27

his way. Open your heart to God

40:30

right now right where you are in

40:32

this season with this pain

40:34

with this loss with this disappointment

40:36

with even death in your life.

40:39

As we read in the vision series

40:41

not that long ago consider it pure

40:43

joy when you face trials of many

40:46

kinds remember that word consider is a

40:48

accounting term it's mathematical add up the

40:50

factor of your life and realize that

40:52

the good in a sense will outweigh

40:55

the bad the joy will outweigh the

40:57

sorrow because you are through all of

40:59

this becoming a person of love and

41:02

of joy and of peace and of

41:04

hope as you consent to the work of God

41:06

in your soul in this time. To

41:09

end Bono once said joy is

41:11

an act of defiance you gotta

41:13

love that. To rejoice is an

41:15

act of defiance it is a guerrilla insurgency

41:17

against the three enemies of the soul the

41:19

world the flesh and the devil the world

41:22

in a city like Portland joy is a

41:24

sign that you are living in another kingdom

41:26

if you're happy right now you are living

41:28

in another kingdom the flesh

41:30

over a millennia ago Aquinas said

41:32

no one can live without delight

41:35

and that is why a man deprived

41:38

of spiritual joy goes over to carnal

41:40

pleasures. Morality as

41:42

a form of duty is a stoic idea

41:44

it is not a Christian one there

41:47

is a place for duty and discipleship

41:49

but it is a place for the

41:51

immature not for the mature it is

41:54

a holdover until we mature to become

41:56

more like Jesus as discipleship itself is

41:58

about the journey from morality as

42:00

duty and discipline to morality as

42:02

delight and joy in God. And

42:05

the devil, we all know the devil is

42:07

anti-joy. Martin Luther at

42:09

a lifelong struggle with depression

42:11

said the devil quote, cannot

42:14

stand gaiety. He cannot stand

42:16

joy. As we wrap up, take

42:18

a look at this beautiful poem. I just have to read

42:20

a little poetry. I'm just sorry. I tried. I know poetry

42:22

is not most of your thing, but I just have to

42:24

read this to you. I'm thinking about it all week long.

42:26

It's so good. I have it in my little prayer journal.

42:28

I read it on a regular basis. Jack Gilbert.

42:31

If we deny our happiness, resist

42:34

our satisfaction, we lessen

42:37

the importance of their

42:39

deprivation. We must risk

42:41

delight. We can do

42:43

without pleasure, but not delight, not

42:46

enjoyment. We must have

42:48

the stubbornness to accept

42:51

our gladness in the

42:53

ruthless furnace of this

42:55

world. Here's the line. To

42:58

make injustice, the only measure of

43:00

our attention is to praise the

43:02

devil. If

43:04

the locomotive of the Lord

43:07

runs us down, we should

43:09

give thanks that the end

43:11

had magnitude. We must

43:13

admit that there will be

43:15

music despite everything. That's

43:18

why I read a poem every night before bed

43:20

right there. They're not all that good, unfortunately,

43:22

but that's a good one. Again,

43:25

this doesn't mean that we don't grieve

43:28

over the pain and suffering. Doesn't

43:30

mean that we do not work and

43:32

take an active stand against evil and

43:34

injustice. We do. And it doesn't mean

43:36

that we don't feel sorrow. Again, we

43:38

do. It just means we don't take

43:40

that as the whole measure of reality.

43:42

That's not all we give our attention

43:44

to. I think of Paul's

43:46

line in two Corinthians as

43:48

sorrowful, yet always

43:50

rejoicing. Again, not

43:53

sorrow or joy, sorrow

43:56

and joy, sorrow over

43:58

whatever pain you are feeling now

44:01

in your body itself and

44:03

joy over the fact that

44:06

we are living in the kingdom of

44:08

God with Jesus made open and available

44:10

to all of us through Jesus and

44:13

it's good and it's here and it's

44:15

coming in full. May you live in

44:17

the joy of the gospel. Thanks

44:23

for listening. This podcast is a production of

44:26

Practicing the Way, a simple

44:28

beautiful way to integrate formation

44:30

into your church or group. All

44:32

of our resources are completely free thanks

44:34

to the generosity of the circle, a

44:37

community of monthly givers who partner with

44:39

us to see spiritual formation integrated into

44:41

the church at large. Special

44:46

thanks for today's episode goes to Autumn

44:48

from Austin, Texas, Joshua from

44:50

Shreveport, Louisiana, Holly from Meridian,

44:52

Idaho, Derek from Portland,

44:54

Oregon, and Kaden from Sacsay, Texas.

44:56

Thank you all so much. To

45:01

join the circle or to learn more about

45:03

running a practice in your church or

45:05

community visit practicingtheway.org