The Cast of Christmas : The J.O.Y. in the Calling

The video version of this sermon can be viewed here.

Hello and welcome back to another week here on Making Waves! I’d like to thank you for coming back and joining us for our third week of our Advent series - The Cast of Christmas!

For those of you who haven’t been able to join us the first two sermons, we have been discussing the smaller characters in the Christmas story, the side characters, those who aren’t Jesus. The first Sunday we talked about Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. Zechariah had a heartbreaking story of doubt and his loss of hope. But Zechariah taught us that there is hope that can be found in the hopeless, thanks to Christ’s coming. Then last week, we took at look at the average Joe, father of Jesus. We saw how Joseph was able to trust in God through the many challenges and how that led to the peace that he needed to persevere.

Now, this week, we are going to be focusing on everyone’s favorite leading lady: Mary, Jesus’ mother. But before we get into her story any further, let’s dive into the Word. If you want, you should take a moment to watch the video version of the sermon, as I do this scripture reading a little different than most. If not, then you can read basically the same words from the scripture. Hear now these words.

Mary’s Song of Praise

46 And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
   from 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 powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
   in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
   to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
56 And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

-Luke 1:46-56

Will you pray with me? Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in Your presence, Father God. You are our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

So, before we dig into that juicy magnificat of praise of Mary there, let’s first take a step back and look at the big picture here. First things first, what even is Joy? We hear the word all the time, it’s actually my aunt’s name, and I think I have an ornament back at my dad’s house with the word etched into the side of it, but what is it really?

The modern english dictionary really doesn’t define the word in a way that really satisfies, it mostly talks about being happy or in a state of pleasure, maybe even euphoria. But that just doesn’t feel like quite enough does it? The word happy sometimes just doesn’t take the cake. I mean, happy covers such a wide span of things. You can be happy that your child just returned from military service and you can also be happy that you got a curly fry thrown in amongst your french fries, right? So, what is the difference with Joy?

John Piper, the founder of desiringgod.org, defines joy as, “a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the word and in the World.”

I love this definition, what a powerful phrase filled with so much depth! First off, it’s a good feeling, but not like the good feeling of like a nice Big Mac or rack of ribs, the good feeling that you get in your soul. So, we know that joy is something that is more than earthly good, it’s a feeling that we possess in our very soul.

Also, we can see it’s produced by the Holy Spirit. Okay, so that means it is in your soul and it is put there by the Holy Spirit inside of us. We know this because of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, right? Love, JOY, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control, woo!

Then, we see the beauty of Christ in the word, the Bible, and in the World around us. So, joy is a good feeling that we feel down to the very core of our soul, not just surface level happiness. It’s also a spiritual thing, not something of this earth, but an emotion from the Holy Spirit itself. And finally we receive these feelings of Joy when we witness the beauty of Christ, of Christ’s presence and work in the Bible and in the World around us.

Now, I don’t know about all of you, but at first glance, this feels pretty unattainable. I consider myself a pretty good person and I really try to experience God and joy, but it’s not very often that I really feel joy down all the way in my soul, y’know?

I think I experienced this more as a child. I always think of communion. Communion, to me, should a moment of incredible joy. Notice I didn’t say “happiness.” I’m not suggesting that we should be so tickled pink about remembering Jesus’ sacrifice that He made for our life, but I do think we should be incredibly joyful about the whole occasion because of the beauty of Christ in the work of the service. I can remember being a kid and being so excited to go up to the front of the church and receive a delicious piece of bread from my Dad, but I would look around and see the faces of my mentors - solemn, serious, somber. I grew up believing that if you wanted to take communion, then you had to do it with a frown. Then I grew up and learned more about what communion really was and I wanted to smile even more joyfully. It’s such an incredible blessing!

I’m not sure where we lose our joy. Maybe it’s lost in the words of a mentor who told us about the serious God, or maybe it comes from the stresses of life and it’s pressure on us, who knows? I’m not 100% sure where our joy goes, but I can tell that I believe I have figured out where it is that we can find our joy.

Let’s start by saying where we canNOT find our joy. We tend to always look for what we want in all the wrong places, so let’s make sure it’s clear what things will not bring you the joy that you are seeking.

Not in unbelief, Voltaire was an infidel of the most pronounced type. He wrote: “I wish I had never been born.”

Not in pleasure, Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure if anyone did. He wrote: “The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone.”

Not in money, Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said: “I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth.”

Not in position and fame, Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: “Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”

Not in military glory, Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent because, he said, “There are no more worlds to conquer.”

The list could go on and on, joy is not going to be found in our worldly endeavors.

When I was a young child, I can remember my Dad explaining during a Children’s Sermon that, in order to understand the word joy, we had to realize that was actually an acronym… meaning each letter stood for something. J.O.Y. He explained to me that it was the order of who we should think about in our decisions that we make and how we spend our time. The area you should spending most of your time with is the “J” or Jesus. Then, you should next spend your time doing good for “O” or Others. And, finally, you can spend the leftover time with the “Y” or you, as in yourself.

Now, odds are, if I asked everyone who read this blog post if they had heard that acronym, then they would say that they had heard it as a kid. But, maybe we’ve never put the real thought into this idea of Jesus, Others, then You. I would guarantee that if I asked that same pool of people if they had lived perfectly joyful lives since that very moment, there would be a slim chance that 100% of those people would give a wholehearted “Yes!”

So, what is holding us back? Let’s take a look at Mary and this song that she shares and see what it might be that this scripture is trying to tell us today about what it means to experience joy. First, some background: this takes place after Mary’s visit with Elizabeth, and after she has already met with the angel and discovered her true calling from God. Most people would likely be freaking out here, right? Instead Mary has a different reaction. She cries out this song to the Lord,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

Remember that definition of joy? Mary’s soul is magnified by the Lord. She has experienced this feeling, but not just any feeling, a feeling that takes place in Mary’s soul. Let’s continue on.

47      and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.”

Mary has found out that she is pregnant with the Son of God, a man who has come to forgive the sins of all of mankind, without really giving her consent. She had a plan for her life, but God had his own plan, and her response is a spirit of rejoicing! She is exuberant that God has shown her favor, despite being a lowly servant.

   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name.

What sets Mary apart here, folks? What is it that she is doing in this song that we would be caught short of? Let me give you an example, let’s say… Jiminy Cricket is sitting in his house one night, a cold winter night, and he is cuddling up in his favorite blanket when he receives a call from his good friend Geppetto asking him to cover his shift ringing the bell with the Salvation Army. What do you think Jiminy Cricket might do? I can say that if I were Jiminy, I would come up some excuse, or say that it’s too last minute, or too short notice, etc. I’m willing to give of my time, when it’s convenient for me. I’m fine with doing things for God, but only to a certain extent.

Another example, let’s say tonight you have this incredibly vivid dream where an angel comes to visit you and says to you that you need to quit your job tomorrow, take your wife or husband and move over to Zimbabwe to sew clothes together for orphans from a small village. The only problem here is that you just got promoted, your husband or wife is top  of the line in their work and incredibly content, and you have never sewn anything in your entire life. Naturally, most of us would say this is all a silly dream and would continue on our happy way and not follow these orders, but Mary would follow wholeheartedly after the call of God, AND she was rejoicing in it.

Let’s go back to that acronym, J.O.Y., Mary really followed the idea of putting Jesus first and then others, and then finally herself. But in our earlier two examples, we ordered them as Y.O.J. or maybe as Y.J.O. Some of the best of us can even manage J.Y.O. But, it’s hard to obtain that perfect mix of J.O.Y. Where do we find that level of J.O.Y.? Right where Mary found it: obedience. When we hear the call of God and respond with an obedient heart then we find true joy.

George Bernard Shaw says it best, “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one: the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap, and being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

If we hope to achieve true joy, then we find it in the obedient heart of Mary. In closing, one final story. A story of two husbands, two wives and a laundromat.

The story is told about two wives who were doing their laundry in a laundry mat. They were both mending their husband’s pants, and, as wives do, they began to chat and catch up.

One wife said to the other, “My husband is so miserable. Nothing goes right at work, and he can’t find anything good on television, even with 500 channels. Our home is a place of despair. When we go to church, the song leader is terrible and the pastor is an idiot. I don’t agree with anything he says and he never dresses right.”

The other wife said “My husband is so excited. He can’t wait to go to church. He loves the sermons. We laugh all the time and enjoy our family.”

It got very quiet in the laundry room as the women continued sewing the pants. One was patching the seat of the pants, and the other was patching the knees.

If we hope to achieve joy, true joy that Mary sings of so beautifully, then instead of wearing out our mouths and hind-ends, let’s wear out our shoes and our knees in prayer and obedience.