Sermon: Fruits of the Spirit - JOY!
In the coming months, I will be using this platform to share sermons I have written and preached during my pastoral internship at Bethesda Lutheran Church in Ames, Iowa. I encourage you to follow the link to the recorded version, as the sermon is often different from what was written. Below is the text from my sermon September 29, 2019. The reading for the day was Mark 14:1-9. The recording is available here.
We are working through our Fruits of the Spirit Sermon series and I get to preach on JOY!!!! What a way to start for my first sermon at Bethesda.
How appropriate that the young people in Sunday Splash shared that very song with us this morning.
When you think of Joy, many of your minds (especially those of you with children and grandchildren) might think of the character from Disney’s Inside Out.
Certainly Joy is the kind of lighthearted, exuberant, persona we associate with this attitude of the spirit. If you know anything about the movie you also know the movie depicts how integral all our emotions are to a full experience of life. Joy without sadness is not better, in fact when Joy tries to stifle the other feelings it creates trouble and distress.
Another perspective on joy from heathpsychology.org, “Being joyful requires feeling connected to other people in life, with nature, by appreciating the arts, and it requires an acceptance of life, as it is, in the present. When someone experiences joyfulness, physiological and biochemical alterations occur that encourage a sense of well-being, completely altering the negative views of life. Joy is an attitude or a belief, which soothes even in the most sorrowful of situations.”
If we look at each of the other fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) they are all RELATIONAL. They all involve at least one other person.
And JOY is also like that. Just as we cannot have joy without sorrow, we cannot have joy in a vacuum.
The discussion of the fruits of the spirit comes in the fifth chapter of Galatians as a result of Pauls’ expounding on a very Lutheran concept, “Freedom of a Christian.”
Paul was directly confronting the notion that Gentiles needed to follow Jewish law (specifically needing to be circumcised in order to be free).
Paul says, “For you were called to freedom, siblings; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Our joy is directly bound up with that of our neighbor, be that our family and friends, the young people of the congregation, the elderly in our midst, the people served by the food pantry and clothes closet, the surrounding neighborhood, and those in our community, state, and world.
And loving our neighbor isn’t the easy road. We live in a world of fear and that fear seems more pervasive every day. We are more likely to be suspicious of our neighbor. We worry about having enough for those closest to us. Enough time. Enough money. Enough energy.
Perhaps you have thought, sure, I would love to be involved with _____ but there just isn’t enough time, or I’m not great at that, or I might be uncomfortable. OR, if we invest more time and resources in that ministry, we won’t have time for this ministry that is important to me.
But just as Paul said to the Galatians: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” and “through love we become slaves to one another.” We often think of passions and desires as “big deal” things like the Seven Deadly Sins. In reality they are simply the things that turn us inward toward ourselves instead of outward toward the neighbor.
If I am focused on the things that benefit me, the things I am attached to, the programs I can’t imaging parting with and a fear of scarcity of time and resources, I miss the gospel that points me to the reality of God’s abundance. It is not either/or …. ministries for us for ministries for them. True ministry is an exchange in relationship in which each experiences the presence of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Since we’re just getting to know each other, I’ll share how this has happened in my life two different times. My first career was as a high school English teacher. It ended quickly and I found myself moving back to Des Moines from California, working for a local temp agency, trying to figure out the next step.
I had a simple calendar on my desk with a Bible verse and devotion. As a result of that calendar a coworker asked me to help her study the Bible, which later led to baptism. I was simply present, in my current reality and I responded to a request and took a risk to share my time.
I could have easily said “I’m not qualified to help someone learn about the Bible.” At that time, I wasn’t particularly comfortable claiming my identity in Christ and I had no qualifications except my own experience growing up in the church and my love of my friend. Yet in risking that uncertainty, we both grew in relationship with one another and with God.
Ten years later I found myself serving as a guide being present with a small group of students in confirmation and leading a mom’s group. I took a risk beginning to work with the confirmation youth as my previous teaching experience had not been great. I had tried, first, to teach an elementary Sunday school class and been completely overwhelmed. But in this context, in a small group with junior high youth, for the first time in my life I experienced joy in my work, true vocation.
I shared my own journey of discernment with the Mom’s group, and how I was sensing a call to ordained ministry.
When I announced this internship via a Facebook post, a mom I have since lost touch with reminded me of when I first divulged this sense of call to the group and how they all felt they had journeyed with me through the discernment and my formation. Many of these women have gone on to ministries and leadership of their own.
Neither of these periods in my life were without struggle, and challenge. And both involved risk. But they were both an act of vocation. Because when we step into our joy, we risk disappointment. If we share our time in this way, we might not have enough for something else.
But we may find ourselves drawn into something beautiful. As our speaker at a synod event this week stated so well, “when we claim faith (the gift of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit), vocation forms.” And vocation is basically spreading good news right where we are planted.
Vocation is both giving of self away for the neighbor and growing in faith and love in the process when we set aside our fear of scarcity and trust the abundance that is found in giving ourselves for the sake of the world God so loves.
In our gospel message today Jesus said of the woman with alabaster jar, “Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
WHENEVER the gospel is preached throughout the world, HER story would be told. This story of this woman, who brought her alabaster jar of oil and anointed Jesus.
What is so revolutionary about this woman that she would be mentioned every time the good news is shared?
Perhaps, she is the good news. Perhaps kneeling at the feet of our neighbor and risking an extravagant gift of our resources is the good news.
If it is true that the good news disrupts or dilutes whatever is bad news for any particular person, then this woman brought good news to Jesus. For Jesus, who would be tortured, crucified and utterly abandoned, the good news was an act of compassion and presence. An act of love poured out to anoint a body and ready it for burial.
Jesus was not discounting service and gifts of resources to the poor and needy when he told the disciples to leave the woman alone after they rebuked her. Instead, he was directing them to not discount the Good News being demonstrated in their midst.
Yes, the good news is freedom from sin and death, freedom from all the separates us from God and one another, demonstrated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
AND the good news is reaching out to a family struggling with food insecurity to be present in their reality.
AND the good news is bypassing our table full of friends to sit with a stranger and seek to get to know them.
AND the good news is risking discomfort to spend time with young people in Sunday Splash and confirmation.
AND the good news is taking time to serve a meal at Food at First or simply showing up for the meal, sitting with those present and listening to their stories.
AND the good news is being named and claimed as a child of God, washed in the waters of baptism, sealed by the Holy Spirit, forgiven, and free.
You are free to receive the fruit of the spirit.
You are free to experience joy in vocation as you share the love of God with the world around you.
You are free from scarcity and fear and caught up in the abundance that is the love of God in Christ Jesus.
May you bear Christ to the world around you, and in doing so feel the joy of the Holy Spirit as you are swept up in the relational, reconciling, and redeeming work of God in Christ Jesus!
We are working through our Fruits of the Spirit Sermon series and I get to preach on JOY!!!! What a way to start for my first sermon at Bethesda.
How appropriate that the young people in Sunday Splash shared that very song with us this morning.
When you think of Joy, many of your minds (especially those of you with children and grandchildren) might think of the character from Disney’s Inside Out.
Certainly Joy is the kind of lighthearted, exuberant, persona we associate with this attitude of the spirit. If you know anything about the movie you also know the movie depicts how integral all our emotions are to a full experience of life. Joy without sadness is not better, in fact when Joy tries to stifle the other feelings it creates trouble and distress.
Another perspective on joy from heathpsychology.org, “Being joyful requires feeling connected to other people in life, with nature, by appreciating the arts, and it requires an acceptance of life, as it is, in the present. When someone experiences joyfulness, physiological and biochemical alterations occur that encourage a sense of well-being, completely altering the negative views of life. Joy is an attitude or a belief, which soothes even in the most sorrowful of situations.”
If we look at each of the other fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) they are all RELATIONAL. They all involve at least one other person.
And JOY is also like that. Just as we cannot have joy without sorrow, we cannot have joy in a vacuum.
The discussion of the fruits of the spirit comes in the fifth chapter of Galatians as a result of Pauls’ expounding on a very Lutheran concept, “Freedom of a Christian.”
Paul was directly confronting the notion that Gentiles needed to follow Jewish law (specifically needing to be circumcised in order to be free).
Paul says, “For you were called to freedom, siblings; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Our joy is directly bound up with that of our neighbor, be that our family and friends, the young people of the congregation, the elderly in our midst, the people served by the food pantry and clothes closet, the surrounding neighborhood, and those in our community, state, and world.
And loving our neighbor isn’t the easy road. We live in a world of fear and that fear seems more pervasive every day. We are more likely to be suspicious of our neighbor. We worry about having enough for those closest to us. Enough time. Enough money. Enough energy.
Perhaps you have thought, sure, I would love to be involved with _____ but there just isn’t enough time, or I’m not great at that, or I might be uncomfortable. OR, if we invest more time and resources in that ministry, we won’t have time for this ministry that is important to me.
But just as Paul said to the Galatians: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” and “through love we become slaves to one another.” We often think of passions and desires as “big deal” things like the Seven Deadly Sins. In reality they are simply the things that turn us inward toward ourselves instead of outward toward the neighbor.
If I am focused on the things that benefit me, the things I am attached to, the programs I can’t imaging parting with and a fear of scarcity of time and resources, I miss the gospel that points me to the reality of God’s abundance. It is not either/or …. ministries for us for ministries for them. True ministry is an exchange in relationship in which each experiences the presence of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Since we’re just getting to know each other, I’ll share how this has happened in my life two different times. My first career was as a high school English teacher. It ended quickly and I found myself moving back to Des Moines from California, working for a local temp agency, trying to figure out the next step.
I had a simple calendar on my desk with a Bible verse and devotion. As a result of that calendar a coworker asked me to help her study the Bible, which later led to baptism. I was simply present, in my current reality and I responded to a request and took a risk to share my time.
I could have easily said “I’m not qualified to help someone learn about the Bible.” At that time, I wasn’t particularly comfortable claiming my identity in Christ and I had no qualifications except my own experience growing up in the church and my love of my friend. Yet in risking that uncertainty, we both grew in relationship with one another and with God.
Ten years later I found myself serving as a guide being present with a small group of students in confirmation and leading a mom’s group. I took a risk beginning to work with the confirmation youth as my previous teaching experience had not been great. I had tried, first, to teach an elementary Sunday school class and been completely overwhelmed. But in this context, in a small group with junior high youth, for the first time in my life I experienced joy in my work, true vocation.
I shared my own journey of discernment with the Mom’s group, and how I was sensing a call to ordained ministry.
When I announced this internship via a Facebook post, a mom I have since lost touch with reminded me of when I first divulged this sense of call to the group and how they all felt they had journeyed with me through the discernment and my formation. Many of these women have gone on to ministries and leadership of their own.
Neither of these periods in my life were without struggle, and challenge. And both involved risk. But they were both an act of vocation. Because when we step into our joy, we risk disappointment. If we share our time in this way, we might not have enough for something else.
But we may find ourselves drawn into something beautiful. As our speaker at a synod event this week stated so well, “when we claim faith (the gift of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit), vocation forms.” And vocation is basically spreading good news right where we are planted.
Vocation is both giving of self away for the neighbor and growing in faith and love in the process when we set aside our fear of scarcity and trust the abundance that is found in giving ourselves for the sake of the world God so loves.
In our gospel message today Jesus said of the woman with alabaster jar, “Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
WHENEVER the gospel is preached throughout the world, HER story would be told. This story of this woman, who brought her alabaster jar of oil and anointed Jesus.
What is so revolutionary about this woman that she would be mentioned every time the good news is shared?
Perhaps, she is the good news. Perhaps kneeling at the feet of our neighbor and risking an extravagant gift of our resources is the good news.
If it is true that the good news disrupts or dilutes whatever is bad news for any particular person, then this woman brought good news to Jesus. For Jesus, who would be tortured, crucified and utterly abandoned, the good news was an act of compassion and presence. An act of love poured out to anoint a body and ready it for burial.
Jesus was not discounting service and gifts of resources to the poor and needy when he told the disciples to leave the woman alone after they rebuked her. Instead, he was directing them to not discount the Good News being demonstrated in their midst.
Yes, the good news is freedom from sin and death, freedom from all the separates us from God and one another, demonstrated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
AND the good news is reaching out to a family struggling with food insecurity to be present in their reality.
AND the good news is bypassing our table full of friends to sit with a stranger and seek to get to know them.
AND the good news is risking discomfort to spend time with young people in Sunday Splash and confirmation.
AND the good news is taking time to serve a meal at Food at First or simply showing up for the meal, sitting with those present and listening to their stories.
AND the good news is being named and claimed as a child of God, washed in the waters of baptism, sealed by the Holy Spirit, forgiven, and free.
You are free to receive the fruit of the spirit.
You are free to experience joy in vocation as you share the love of God with the world around you.
You are free from scarcity and fear and caught up in the abundance that is the love of God in Christ Jesus.
May you bear Christ to the world around you, and in doing so feel the joy of the Holy Spirit as you are swept up in the relational, reconciling, and redeeming work of God in Christ Jesus!
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