SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 1:3-9
TEXT: 8b you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, THEME: Joy is the happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens. INTRODUCTION I have a Jewish friend, who when I told him of a healing answer to a prayer, he responded by saying, “Blessed be God”. I hadn’t heard that phrase before. Used in this context, I had to think about it. I figured it was like saying “how great God is because of what God has done.” It is attributing the ability of healing to God, who answers prayer with wholeness. When we attribute amazing activities to God, Blessed be God. SCRIPTURE The letter of 1 Peter picks this up, as verse three begins with “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” It then continues with a litany of attributes of who God is; merciful, giver of new birth, the resurrector of Jesus from the dead and the giver of hope for eternal life. The activity of God that we see through Jesus witnesses God as blessed. When Patricia Dutcher-Walls, Professor at Vancouver School of Theology was here, at an ETCL event, she shared a grid for Studying the Bible that asks four things; 1) what does this text, say about who God is, 2) who humans are, 3) about our relationship with God and 4) our relationship with each other. We have already looked at what this passage has said about who God is. The next is to see what it says about ‘who we are’. All that God has done gives us reason to be people who have joy. We are loved, we are valued, we are gifted as heirs to the Kingdom of God. Blessed, adopted, and in relationship with the Creator of life as a Parent and child. Our relationship with God has eternal consequences to it. Next we see what this passage says about our living with each other. It isn’t always easy. Sometimes there is suffering, we have to move, we live apart from friends and family and all that we take with us is our trust in God. Verse 1 and 2 describe a dispersion where Christians have had to leave their homes to live in the surrounding countries. They take their faith with them to live in a foreign land. Sometimes having a Christ perspective, can makes us feel like a foreigner in our own land. There is suffering because humans don’t always treat those who are different from themselves or immigrants humanly. There is suffering because of evil. I just got an AARP newspaper where it highlighted scam artists preying on the senior members of our population, with schemes to separate them from their fortunes. They cause trials and testing to this cherished segment of our society. When evil befalls us, God is there to help and the community of God’s people are there to be a blessing. The last grid to look through, is to see what this passage says about our relationship with God. These second-generation Christians believe in God even though they have not seen Jesus. These second-generation Christians are like us, where we have faith in an invisible God. Faith opens our eyes to see what God is doing in our world. We love God, and we love Jesus. We live, trusting in God’s helps, to participate in God’s mission, being strengthened by the Holy Spirit to do good, we help the weak, feed the hungry and engage in God’s works of creation. We have an imaginative faith the calls us to a sense of purpose. Trust in God creates the foundation for us to live following God’s ways. In the midst of our suffering we can trust that God is with us to help, protect, guide and supply us with what we need. Knowing this, we rejoice as we live in relationship with God. Relationship with God is the salvation of our souls. APPLICATION The good news of Jesus’ life and resurrection from death, invites us to trust God with our lives. Trusting God daily, what is joy’s relationship with suffering and happiness? Joy and happiness are not the same thing. “We can be unhappy and yet, joyful. We don’t think of that, but there is a deep inner peace and joy in the midst of sadness.” This is what Brother David Steindl-Rast said about Joy, on an On Being, podcast interview with Krista Tippet. He calls joy “the happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” We can’t possibly be happy all of the time. Being happy all of the time would be exhausting. But we can have joy even while we are suffering or grieving or under trial or being tested. We may not be happy about what is happening to us, but with God’s presence and assurances, we have a sense of security and confidence that gives us joy. Joy is being in relationship with God. Joy is happiness in God. We cannot be thankful for everything that happens to us, but in every moment that happens we can be grateful. Joy is tied to an attitude of gratitude that we can have with God in our lives. Joy is in the moment. Jesuit Priest James Martin describes finding God in all things; in our daily lives, in our relationships, in our work, in the emotions that come up, in those moments that we see a sunset and we say, “My gosh that’s so beautiful. Why am I feeling like this?” Or we see an infant for the first time, and we say, “My gosh, where are these feelings coming from?” This is God communicating joy to us through our daily lives in all things. Joy is finding God in all things. CONCLUSION The way that we live, displays the attributes of God. We are God’s canvas, as our lives are transformed, as we live with hope, as our acts of charity are a blessing in the world, and our attitude of joy helps us in all situations. We are the canvas of God’s healing, the canvas of God’s creativity, the canvas of God’s handiwork. Happiness sparks our joy; Gratitude is a product of joy in all circumstances. God is real to others by the way we live. We live loving God. Our stories of the greatness of God show how Blessed be God. When Easter rolled around, the disciples were not stern or long faced but joy lit their lives. Now we are living in the face of Covid-19 but joy does not escape us. It is displays when the attributes of God are expressed. When we see God’s activity, breaking into our sheltering in, healing the sick, calming the fearful, in the courage of the health care professionals, in comforting the dying, and giving life beyond this world. We can have gratitude for God who is present in our world and joy in knowing blessed be our God.
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April 2024
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