Text: "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice." Philippians 4:4
Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon at Willowmeadows Methodist Church for the Southwest Houston Ministerial Alliance for the Thanksgiving Service on November 23, 2008
"Re" means to do something over again. "Re-search" means to search something out again. "Re-discover" means to discover something that has already been discovered. "Re-joice" means to have joy again. We have already rejoiced tonight as we have sung some beautiful music and listened to an inspired and talented choir. We rejoice in the hospitality of Westbury United Methodist Church who hosted this service on short notice. We especially rejoice in the devoted work of Randy Zercher and the staff of Westbury Methodist who produced this wonderful community Thanksgiving service this evening.
Some say they hear music even in the lyrics of a song. Words themselves have a certain musical quality. For instance, you may hear the difference in sound between the word "happiness" and the word "joy." Beyond the difference in sound, there is a difference in the experience of "joy" and "happiness." The difference in quality between "joy" and "happiness" has to do with with the direction of the energy that drives these words. Happiness is egocentonic which means it is directed toward me, myself and I. Joy is theocentonic which means it directed toward Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The difference between happiness and joy is in the direction of the energy pattern. If a positive energy pattern is directed back at myself, as if I were looking in a mirror and seeing my own reflection, that energy pattern is called happiness. Happiness is all about me: How I am feeling, how I am doing, whether I am having a bad hair day or a good hair day. If a positive energy pattern is directed from me toward God and is reflected from God back to me that energy pattern is called joy. Joy is all about God: Worshiping God, recognizing myself as an an adopted child of God, and devotion to God to the point of sacrifice.
One of the features of the religion of the elite down through the ages has been a fanatical belief in the necessity of maintaining a so-called pure blood line. You may have heard the term "blue bloods" to refer to the elite families of society. Some people do not realize that the current royal family in Britian are not really British, meaning they do not share the same ancestry as the common people of Great Britain. Rather, the British royal family trace their history back to Germany and they NEVER intermarry with the commoners of England. Charles Darwin married his cousin Emma Wedgewood as had been common practice in his family for generations for Darwins only married Wedgewoods so as to keep their blood line pure from those they considered to be riff raff. After Darwin's wife died, he married another Wedgewood, his mother's sister. Charles Darwin was practicing genetics in his own life and this practice goes back for thousands of years down through the royalty of the human race. Houston hosts a huge genetic industry and we may think that this is a new, new thing but it is really an old, old thing that goes back to elite breeding patterns.
Now, it is probably safe to say that no one in this room has married into the same family for generations. We are not royalty in that sense. We are not blue bloods by birth. Yet, according to the Bible we are better than blue bloods because we are children of the living God. We are sons and daughters of God. We Muslims, Jews and Christians have been adopted into the family of God and that is the basis of our joy. We have the joy of knowing that we have been adopted into God's family. We do have a place in this world. We deserve to be alive. We belong to a great family. We are spiritually high born. Our Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Our lineage is not of this world but is from heaven. Paul goes so far as to say that our citizenship is in heaven.
Now heaven is a word we don't hear much about these days. If you look into it, the word heaven comes from the word haven. You see, in the early days of the human race, way back in the mists of time, the priests lived high up in the mountains in caves, far above the common people who lived down in the valley below. Mountain caves served as havens where the priests were protected from the floods down below. Over time, the word haven became heaven and the idea of heaven expanded as well. Heaven became the place up there in the sky to which we all will go some day if we live good lives and keep the rules and especially if we keep ourselves morally pure. In days gone by, religious people practiced delayed gratification as a way get into heaven after we die. Heaven came to be understood as the place where God dwells and to which we may gain entrance by our good works. Now, in this post-Judeo-Christian, post-modern, post-moral age, the idea of heaven seems to lost some of its appeal. Preachers don't preach much about heaven these days. Instead of seeing heaven as somewhere we go to be with God after we die we seem more focused now on a haven, a tax haven. Our culture's idea of heaven today is a Swiss bank account full of millions of dollars of tax free money. We see money in our retirement account as the haven, the safe place, we are looking for. Rarely do we think beyond money when we think of happiness because that is our culture has trained us to view happiness. And that myopic view of happiness as money is being severely challenged as we enter into a financial downturn when stocks are way and thousands of people are losing their jobs.
Fortunately, God offers a way out. A new way of seeing things. An alternative vision of how things are and how things should be. The Bible challenges us to "Re-joice" or to have joy once again. Our text today is very explicit that we are to "re-joice in the Lord." Notice that the direction of this "joy sing" is toward the Lord. Our challenge is to change the direction in which we seek happiness from focusing on ourselves to focusing on God. Re-joice in the LORD! Not in your stocks, not in your bank account, not in your career, car or clothes. Find joy once again in the Lord. The term RE-joice means we've expereienced this before. There has been a time in our life when we were God directed more than me directed. We have had moments of grace when we experienced God's joy as we watched an exquisite sunset over the ocean, felt like we were melting into a tree in the forest, or lost our sense of ourselves as we gazed into the eyes of a lover or a newborn baby. We know the feeling of joy. It is the feeling we get when we are overwhelmed by a sense of God's presence in our lives at this moment. We re-joice by redirecting our energy from ourselves onto God and God beams God's loving energy back upon us.
The great classical composer, Ludwig Van Beethoven, started losing his hearing in his 20s, and was so depressed, he considered suicide. In October 1802, he wrote a moving letter about how deafness had left him angry and alone: "I was forced to set myself apart at an early age and to spend my life in solitude," he wrote. "And yet I was still unable to say to them: Speak more loudly, yell, for I am deaf."
A loud buzzing would fill his ears, and he'd stuff them with cotton. Ear trumpets - which in those days were hearing aids - helped at first, but not much.
By 1818, he was so deaf, visitors could communicate with him only by writing in small notebooks. He could no longer perform.
Still, he continued to hear wonderful music in his head and he wrote this music down on paper to create symphonies for orchestras; sonatas for piano, violin and other instruments; he wrote trios and quartets.
He believed in brotherhood and equality. He even dedicated a symphony - the "Eroica" - to Napoleon, only to rip up the dedication when Napoleon crowned himself emperor.
His last symphony, the Ninth, features an "Ode to Joy." Beethoven conducted it at its premiere, and when the last notes died away, someone turned him to face the audience. Only then did he realize they were applauding him.
He died in Vienna, Austria, on March 26, 1827, at age 56.
Ten thousand people turned out for his funeral.
Years later, a lock of his hair was analyzed and found to contain large amounts of lead - which may have accounted for his tantrums, stomachaches and deafness. We can still play the music he heard in his head. (Online: New York Post, Barbara Hoffman: Beethoven: Ode to Joy.)
Beethoven knew joy in the midst of suffering. Paul knew joy in suffering. Jesus knew joy in the midst of suffering. And so may we. This re-joy-sing (singing with joy to the LORD) is not something we do once a week when we go to church or synagogue. Our text today is that we are to "Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS." Re-joicing is to be a constant re-orientation of our energy from ourselves to God. ALWAYS means even in the difficult times. Even in the midst of a financial meltdown. Even when our pension fund is worth 40% less than it was a year ago. Even when a hurricane damages our house. Remember, Paul penned this text from prison. He was in chains when he wrote: "Re-joice in the Lord always." He kept his joy by directing his energy toward GOD even in difficult circumstances. Jesus also knew this secret. He endured the pain of the cross for the JOY that was set before him. There was no happiness in Jesus death but there was the JOY of knowing he was doing God's will even when it hurt, even when it was inconvenient, even when it meant denying his self to the point of death.
Since last we met our city, our community, and our congregations have struggled through Hurricane Ike. Some of our churches and homes are still in need of repair. For example, we were scheduled to have this service at Salem Lutheran Church but the hurricane damaged their brand new beautiful sanctuary and they couldn't host us. But Pastor David says they will host us next year! That is the re-joicing. Beethoven found joy in the midst of his personal tragedy because the energy of Beethoven's soul was directed into the beautiful music he heard in his mind and beyond his mind to the source of all those heavenly sounds, to God. Beethoven wrote "Ode to Joy" even in the midst of his suffering. Let's re-joice, let's show our solidarity with God and one another as we sing this great hymn to joy, written by a deaf composer who suffered from depression. Let us commit ourselves anew to re-joice (to again find JOY) in the LORD -- always -- even in the midst of suffering! We will use this Thanksgiving holiday to once again re-direct our energy from ourselves to God and so rediscover joy. "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice!
