I know this first statement will be hard to believe, but one day a man from my church came up to me and he was really mad at me. I know it’s hard to believe. He was a rather somber person, and he felt that I did not take life seriously enough. His comment was, “All you ever want to do is have fun!” I paused for a moment and thought of several responses. I will not share the first couple that came to mind, but some others were “I take life very seriously, which is why I try to enjoy it, unlike you.” But I felt he might not understand that one. Another was, “I believe that laughter is our greatest prayer to God.” I do. My foundational belief about God is that God is love, and when you love someone as God loves us, there is a great sense of joy when you see the object of your affection truly enjoying their life. But finally I settled for what I believed to be a rather middle of the road statement which was, “No, not all I ever want to do is have fun, but I am convinced that all I do can be fun.”

I guess I would change the response a little today and say, “I believe that everything I do can be a source of joy for my life.” Often that means laughing and playing with others. Webster’s Dictionary defines joy as “a very glad feeling, happiness, great pleasure, and delight.” These are all thoughts that I connect with an outwardly jovial demeanor. And yet, I know they point me and all of us to something deeper in our lives. Judaic scholar, Rabbi Abraham Heschel says that true joy, a true sense of great pleasure and delight, is found in doing the work of God by being in service to others. This work may not always manifest itself in laughter and lightheartedness as the pleasurable feelings we experience.

For example, a couple of years ago at Annual Conference, Bishop Dew was sharing a story when he was a pastor in a local church. The youth group had just returned from a mission trip, so he went out to greet them and welcome them back. As in most trips, the youth had unloaded the vans and piled their belongings as they waited for their parents to come and pick them up. As he walked around he came up to one young man who had just kind of collapsed on his baggage. Trying to make conversation, Bishop Dew said, “Looks like you have had a tiring week?” The youth kind of opened one eye and said, “Yea, but it is the best kind of tired.” Joy was manifested in the weariness of his bones, which were the result of doing the work of God. He was wore out in joy by being a source of blessing to others.

Joy, as a meaningful response to doing the work of God can take on many feelings and responses in our lives. One of my favorite youth group stories is one from when I first entered the ministry. It has influenced not only how I approach youth ministry, but all ministry in general. The youth group was in a small church in a very small community. The leaders of the group believed that the youth needed to have a broad base of experiences, so along with fun and fellowship, they did a number of service projects. One of the service projects they chose was a skate-a-thon to raise money for a children’s hospital. Their goal had been $2500, but when they finished the number of laps they had skated and added up what they would receive from the pledges, they discovered that rather than the $2500 which was their goal, they had in fact raised $3000. When the leaders announced what the group had done, there was a lot of cheering and high fives. But a few minutes later, the leaders saw one of the senior high boys over in the corner all by himself. As they approached him, they could see that he was sobbing. Being concerned they asked him what was wrong. His response will tell you how long ago this story happened. “There is nothing wrong,” he replied. A little confused the leaders asked him why he was crying. He said, “It costs $1500 to buy an artificial leg, and so when our goal was $2500, we could only buy one leg. Now we can buy two.” He was so full of joy, all he could do was weep.

Sometimes real joy touches us so deeply it moves us beyond laughter, beyond warm fuzzies, beyond glad feelings and takes us to the depth of our hearts where we feel so deeply that only our tears can express what we are feeling. Sometimes this is the joy of doing the work of God.

These stories remind us of why it is important to follow Jesus in our lives. How a life of service and compassion are an integral part of being disciples, but also receiving the promise of Jesus that, “I came so you may have life and have it more abundantly.” But I am not sure they fully help us understand why it is joy that helps prepare us to receive the Christ into our lives. We said that Advent is a time for preparation, a time for making ready to receive the Christ child yet again into our lives and into the lives of the world.

I believe that joy reminds us of several important aspects of our faith that enable us to find the presence of Christ in our midst. The first thought is found in the words of Jesus where he says, “Wherever two or three of you are gathered in my name, there am I in your midst.” That we find the presence of Christ in relationships. I do not believe you can have a me and God relationship, and receive the Christ into your lives, at least not fully. Jesus, himself, tells us that you will find me, I am with you amongst you, present with you in the interfacing of one life with another. His great commandment, “You are to love your neighbor as you love yourself.” But he does not leave it there. He takes it even further. Jesus also says, “When you have done it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you have done it to me.”

As I read these words and try to internalize what they are saying, it sounds like Jesus is saying, “I come every time you enter into relationship with another, and see the one who you are reaching out to as my presence in your midst.” Advent Joy is a reminder that if Christ is to come again, we need to look for him where we can find him and experience him. In our relationships with all who need our presence, our love in their lives.

Today is my day for telling youth group stories. Several years ago, Nancy and I took a youth group to the barrios of Los Angeles to build Habitat for Humanity Homes. We were actually a part of a huge group that was trying to build nine homes in less than a month. The homes were being built on a lot that had been the central meeting place for drug deals in the community. So we loved the idea of transforming a place of death into a place for life. We were warned not to wear anything colorful, for if any gang members thought we were wearing the colors of another gang, we could get hurt. This was all brand new to our youth, who had all come from fairly well-off families who lived in nice communities. We would start each day with prayer and thank God we could do something meaningful, but it was all a little abstract as we simply knew we were putting up wood, mortar and paint. But, mid-week a real transformation happened. The Habitat Group sponsored a dinner so we could meet the families who would move into the homes. Several told us their stories. One told how she and her family were living in her brother’s garage just so they would not have to live on the streets. After the meal we were able to mingle with the families and talk with them. Family, after family, in tears would tell our group, “You are making my dream come true. I have always wanted a place of my own where I could raise my children, where they have a home to come to after school that is their own. Where there is a bed for them to sleep on, where there is a place they can call home in the real sense of knowing there is a place that is protective not only from the elements, but a place of safety from the elements that seek to undermine life.”

After that dinner, the atmosphere changed for us all. When we went to the building site, we no longer were simply pounding nails into boards or sawing wood or pouring concrete. We were building a child’s bedroom, a family room for the young couple we met, a home for those families whose dreams we were now building. The work was much more richly blessed with a genuine sense of joy. The youth then, and for months to follow kept talking about the reality that they had help make another’s dream come true. In developing a relationship, even one that was for a few short hours, we all connected more deeply with what our lives were accomplishing. That we truly met the sacredness of another’s life in our acts. I believe that is what Jesus is telling us when he asks us to enter into another’s life and meet him in the relationship. When you meet another, hear their story and know their lives, you connect in a deeply spiritual way with them that totally transforms us.

As we prepare to receive the Christ in the real essence of joy this Advent Season, may we prepare ourselves by recognizing that when we look into the eyes of another, we look into the eyes of the Christ. May we see the holiness and the sacredness of life that is before us. And when we do and reach out to another that Jesus says this is when he comes. For when two or more are gathered, there am I in your midst. Christ always comes again and again in joy, when we enter into the lives of each other, to be a blessing to each other. In joy, in the preparation to do God’s work, may we now prepare to receive the Christ who promises to come, who promises to be in our midst and with us every time we seek to be a blessing to those who lives God entrusts to us.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on December 11, 2005.