Leap for Joy

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, 2009 (December 20) at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Luke 1:39-56.

39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Mary's Song of Praise: The Magnificat

46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,and holy is his name.50 And his mercy is for those who fear himfrom generation to generation.51 He has shown strength with his arm;he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;52 he has brought down the mighty from their thronesand exalted those of humble estate;53 he has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich he has sent away empty.54 He has helped his servant Israel,in remembrance of his mercy,55 as he spoke to our fathers,to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. (ESV)

This past week I've been contemplating a number of disparate readings, events, music and film: The Gospel, The Copenhagen Summit, The Health Care machinations, The Christmas music of Sting, a current movie, and Mother Teresa's reflections on her Life for the Poor.

I've noticed a huge contrast in approach to the world's problems. Like the ill-fated builders of the tower of Babel, the nations of the world have met in Copenhagen to try to fix the global climate and Congress has been trying to hammer out a scheme to fix the ailing health care system. Their attempts to address the world's problems are desperate, filled with duplicity and greed, and blatant in their intention to micro-manage people's lives. There is anger and frustration with those who don't want to go along with the Grand Plan.

Everywhere, people observe what Stings sings about in his song, 'Lullaby for an Anxious Child":

"The world is broken now,
All in sorrow
Wise men hang their heads."

Sorrow, brokenness and despair are the natural conditions of the world. Joy is not its default setting.

But reading the Good News this week from Luke, we find this very thing: Joy!

In Chapter 1, vv39-41, after the angel Gabriel had announced to Mary that she was to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and bear a child called Jesus, we learn that she "arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb." In verse 44, Elizabeth explains that when the sound of Mary's greeting came to her ears, the baby in her womb leaped - for joy.

Unlike the world, the Christian default setting is indeed Joy.

The baby leaped for joy in Elizabeth's womb. (Remember, the baby was John the Baptist, the very same scary prophet that called the pharisees a brood of vipers.) John leaped for Joy when he sensed the presence of Jesus within Mary.

And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" (vv. 41, 42) She too was filled with Joy.

And then Mary gets into the act and sings, “My soul magnifies the Lord,and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...(v.47)

You see, Joy comes to us when we recognize and acknowledge the Presence of Jesus in our midst. And Advent is all about preparing for and acknowledging this wonderful Presence.

The pop singer Sting is a self-proclaimed agnostic, but he sings this wonderful traditional lullaby called "Balulalow":

"O my dear heart, young Jesu sweet,
Prepare thy credle in my spreit (sic)
And I shall rock thee in my heart
and never more from thee depart.

But I shall praise thee evermore
With sangis sweet unto thy glore
The knees of my heart shall I bow,
And sing that rich Balulalow."

Joy and Praise come in when we welcome Christ and bend the knees of our hearts to Him.
So, let me ask you some questions: Today, does your spirit rejoice and leap over Jesus? Do you know Him personally? Do you recognize Him in others? And does the joy of knowing Jesus in your heart cause you to serve him by serving others with Joy? I hope so, for the Leap of Joy is what makes life worthwhile and meaningful.

In the book of her collected sayings, 'My Life for the Poor," Mother Teresa describes the inner joy of Knowing Jesus:

"To me Jesus is my God.
Jesus is my Spouse.
Jesus is my Life.
Jesus is my only Love.
Jesus is my All in all.
Jesus is my Everything."

"A joyful heart is the normal result of a heart burning with love," she says (pg. 40). "Joy is prayer. Joy is strength. Joy is love."

The love of Jesus is what causes our hearts to leap with joy.

So let's ask the question again, "Has your heart ever leaped with joy in recognizing Jesus?"
It's possible that you may not have had a dramatic conversion experience where you went from night to day, despair to joy in a moment. Maybe the joy of Jesus grew within you gradually as your parents raised you in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

But maybe somewhere along the way, you have had other experiences of Joy which looked or felt like something else - namely a call to service.

When I drove past 1410 Charleston Avenue one August morning in 2006 and was arrested by that For Sale sign in the yard, it didn't really feel like Joy. Actually, it was profoundly troubling. My heart leaped in recognition, but it was more like and instant understanding that something had changed within me in a moment - that I was being called to something I could not fathom at the time. This too is Joy - but it's a call to give out the Joy we have been given.

When Cindy and I sat down with Tina Ward and Jasmine and watched little Kion throw a football like he was born to it - something leaped within my heart. I had a vision of him playing college football - it must have been God, because I saw him playing for WVU - and I'm a four-generation Marshall man! I saw a whole life of potential in a two year old and longed for that potential to be realized, not snuffed out like his uncle Donte's was, when he died in the driveway at 1410 Charleston Ave.

Maybe you felt it too when you picked an item from the Angel Tree. Is this not the recognition of Jesus? Yes, I believe it is. And the joy we give out has an impact upon the world. Mother Teresa again:

"Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls." (MLFP, Pg. 40).

The joy we receive from God through Christ propels us out "into the world to love and serve Him" by ministering to the lost, the broken and lonely one soul at a time.

Unlike the kingdoms of this world, which scheme on a global level, trying to change the masses, we Christians are called to love our neighbors as individuals, one at a time, often in obscurity and seeming insignificance.

For some reason, God actually seems to enjoy obscurity. Mary, lived in an obscure town in an obscure country. She said yes to bearing one child - and her child was born in still more obscure stable. He lived an obscure life. But this Child named Jesus went on to change the world!

Last night, Cindy and I went to see the movie "The Blind Side" a true story about a wealthy white Christian family that adopts a young black man and helps him go on to become a football hero. There's a moment in the film, where Leanne, the mother, comes face to face with the knowledge that Michael has never had his own bed in all his almost 18 years of life. Leanne is profoundly affected by this stark fact and has to go into the other room and sit down. I believe it is at that moment that her heart leaped - and she realized that she would have to really 'prepare a credle in her heart' for Michael and so welcome him -as if he were Christ in distressing disguise, as Mother Teresa puts it.

One family welcomed one young man into their hearts. Did they change the world?

In another scene from the Blind Side, we hear Leanne's voice talking and see the newspaper clippings about all the young men she had read about in the newspaper who had had wonderful athletic talent and potential, but whose lives were cut short by gang and drug related violence. At the end of the sequence, she comments that she had taken in one such young man - and he didn't die. Instead he reached his potential - and is going on to affect many lives himself. Can there be any doubt that Leanne and her family changed the course of history?

'What we do is nothing but a drop in the ocean. but if we don't do it, the ocean would be one drop less", says Teresa. When we serve as if we are 'doing it to Jesus' we profoundly change the world. We can even win souls.

"Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls", says Mother Teresa.

She goes on to tell how an atheist came to the Home for the Dying in Calcutta and watched a sister care for a dying man covered with maggots.

"The [atheist] stood there, watching the sister and then he returned and said, "I came here godless. I came here full of hatred. I am going full of God. I have seen god's love in action. I have seen that through those hands of that sister, through her face, through her tenderness, so full of love for that man. Now I believe." (Pg. 42). The atheist's heart leaped for joy when he saw Jesus in action.

As did the heart of a Hindu man who came to the Home for the Dying and said, "Your religion must be true. Christ must be true if he helps you to do what you're doing."

Joyful service is a silent apologetic for the Gospel. It helps people encounter Jesus.

But as always, it's easier to hear inspiring service than to practice it. It's easier to love a million people in Africa than it is to love one cranky neighbor next door. The challenge is always to start where you are right here and now. That's why in our Advent meditations we have emphasized listening to what God may be leading us to do in our own neighborhoods and circles of acquaintance.

During our Wednesday evening devotions, we have heard a number of inspiring testimonies about how God has directed some of us into service opportunities such as adopting a Muslim child, having lunch with a group of friends and praying for an agnostic at work. I believe that, even now, He is leading us to reach out to the un-churched, the spiritually confused, the lonely and the poor - right around us.

As I have announced previously, to give us more time to discern and follow his leading, we will suspend our 8th Day Life Groups between Christmas and Lent. As we do this, who knows how our hearts will leap in response to Jesus?!

I urge you to open yourselves to recognize the presence of Christ in our midst - personified in one another, in the reading and hearing of the Logos, in the bread and wine, and in the face of the poor around us, whether they be financially or emotionally poor. Let the Holy Spirit cause your heart to leap, and then rejoice that the Mighty One will do great things in you, just as he did for Mary.

I'd like to have us close now by saying responsively a sort of litany adapted from My Life for the Poor, entitled This is Jesus to Me:

Jesus is:
The Word - to be spoken
The Truth - to be told.
The Way - to be walked.
The Light - to be lit.
The Life - to be lived.
The Love-to be loved.
The Joy- to be shared
The Sacrifice- to be offered.
The Peace- to be given.
The Bread of life-to be eaten
The Hungry - to be fed.
The Thirsty - to b satiated.
The Naked - to be clothed.
The Homeless - to be taken in.
The Sick - to be healed.
The Lonely - to be loved.
The unwanted-to be wanted.
The Leper-to wash his wounds.
The Beggar-to give him a smile.
The Drunkard - to listen to him.
The Mental-to protect him.
The Little One - to embrace him.
The Blind-to lead him.
The Dumb- to speak for him.
The Crippled - to walk with him.
The Drug Addict-to befriend him.
The Prostitute - to remove from danger and befriend her.
The Prisoner - to be visited.
The Old - to be served.

May God give us the grace of His Holy Spirit to receive Jesus and allow our spirits to Leap with Joy. AMEN.