Fullness of Joy: God’s Favor is Greater than our Failure

 April 7 2024

1 Peter 1:3-9; 4:12-15

         As the NFL draft is the cause of a lot of speculation right now, I couldn’t help but remember that the quarterback from Kentucky who was drafted by the Tennessee Titans last year, Will Levis, made headlines because he had the disgusting habit of putting mayonnaise in his coffee. That to me was just a shameful waste of coffee. I cannot even begin to understand why any one would put these two very differently tasting substances together. Maybe my feelings about mixing weird food groups together are too strong but you have to understand that one time I was at a lunch served by nice, little old church lady’s who you would think that they of all people would not put together two very different kind of foods, but they did. For desert at this church luncheon, I was given a nice big slice of orange Jell-O that had what looked like green grapes mixed into it. Now, green grapes already seemed a little weird, so imagine my surprise when I bit into one of those little green blobs and it turned out to be a green olive! I guarantee you that orange Jell-O and green olives do not go together, at least in the universe I live in. Needless to say, I have had trust issues with little, old church lady’s ever since.

         Thinking about two things that do not go together, much like orange Jell-O and green olives, or coffee and mayonnaise, is this strange pairing that can be found through out the New Testament, that of the putting together of suffering and joy. To me, whenever I read yet another passage about how we are to find joy while in the midst of suffering, I get this image of finding a jalapeño pepper in my morning oatmeal. I think you can kind of imagine joy being like this warm sweet, comfort food and all through the New Testament, you find people saying that a tangy, burning, jalapeño, something like the fiery trials of suffering, that it should be expected to have this painful experience right there in the middle of the sweet comfort of our joy. I mean, am I the only one who finds James just a bit annoying when he begins his letter by telling us that we should count it all joy my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds. Or as Paul says in the seventh chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians, that he is sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Or as Paul says much the same thing at the beginning of the fifth chapter of Romans, “…we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings…”. We can understand finding joy in the hope we have in the glory of God but seriously Paul, to you really expect us to find delight when we are hurting, when we are in the midst of a trial which is anything but fun. But just so we do not somehow believe that this odd pairing of suffering and joy is Paul or James’ idea, listen to what Jesus teaches us in the fifth chapter of Matthew, ‘Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets before you.” What Jesus describes to us seems like the greatest of impossibilities, doesn’t it? I mean, the norm is that happiness is found in the absence of suffering, that is what we hope our efforts of being happy ultimately will do, remove any remaining hurts, loss, or grief from our lives. In just putting our attempts at happiness like this though tells us that this pursuit of happiness is a constant struggle because in our world the hurts just keep coming, the losses just keep piling up, the grief seems to always find us, doesn’t it.

         Perhaps we need another image to help us understand this strange idea that suffering and joy belong together. Maybe we could think of our attempts at happiness like trying to start a fire in the rain. Even if you do somehow get a small, flickering flame it won’t be to long until the rain comes along and snuffs it out. But what if, in that same rainstorm, you saw a fire that did not go out, no matter how hard the rain poured and showered down upon the flame. You obviously would be intrigued, wouldn’t you? Of course. And this is, I believe, the reason why all through the New Testament joy is spoken of being in the presence of suffering, a continual flame in spite of the downpour. 

         You see, we need to never forget the importance of the joy that is offered to us as we decide to follow Jesus. How does God expect us to day by day, carry our cross, to extend mercy continually to those who may judge us as being unworthy of life? This is a pretty grim scenario, by and of itself. You have to wonder just what attracted people to follow Jesus when, as one theologian stated it, all Jesus does is to call people to come to him and die? If this all there was to following Jesus then I believe, it would be hard to make sense of what it means to be a Christian. No, what happened when people offered mercy in the face of opposition is there, in that moment which seemed so bleak, is that there a joy was found that could not be extinguished. There at the moment of greatest suffering they found a kind of happiness that the worst of this world could not wash away.

         No one seemed to know this better than Peter, at least this is how it appears when we read the beginning of his first letter. Now while we are told, in verse six of this first chapter, that we are to rejoice, this is a rather odd way of describing what we are actually told in the original Greek. If you do some study, you find that what Peter says here is, “In this you jump, and shout, and leap with excess….”. I wonder if the person who translated this verse was somewhat embarrassed by Peter’s over-the-top enthusiasm. Just for a moment imagine these big, burly, fishermen, there in the assembly of the faithful suddenly laughing and shouting, leaping and jumping around like someone had set them on fire. Not what we normally think of when we consider what joy might look like. 

         Now in addition to giving us the phrase, “jumping for joy”, Peter also penned the phrase, “trial by fire”. These tough times that we go through, you know, the ones that cause us so much grief, these Peter tells us, are the way that our faith is tested to see if what we believe is the real deal. When Peter calls these testing times, fiery trials, he seems to be recalling what was written in the third chapter of the book of Malachi, where the prophet asks, “ Who will endure the day of the Lord’s coming? Who will be able to stand when the Lord appears? For God is like a refiners fire…, he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver…” As Peter teaches us, even though gold is refined by fire it nonetheless will perish, but our faith when refined by the trials we go through, this will keep us from perishing so that when Jesus returns, we will be there praising him glorifying and honoring Jesus our King.

         You see, Peter is emphatic about how important it is that we go through these so called trials by fire, because he would never forget the words that Jesus spoke to him on that dreadful night when Peter had denied knowing Jesus not once but three times. As recorded in the twenty-second chapter of Luke, Jesus turns to Peter after their last supper together, and he says, “Simon Peter, Simon Peter, behold Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, to put you in great tribulation, but I have prayed that your faith may not fail.” Then Jesus continues, “And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers and your sisters.” Now, for most of us when we consider how Simon Peter denied Jesus those three times on that night when Jesus was arrested, all that comes to mind is that Peter was a miserable failure. How else can you understand what Peter had done, as he saw his best friend for the past three years, and turned and acted like he had no clue who Jesus was, if you don’t somehow believe that Peter was nothing but a complete scandal? Yet, we must consider this, Jesus knew what Simon Peter was going to do, and even in spite of knowing this supposed failure, Jesus expressed his faith that Peter would turn and come home to the family. Jesus prayed for Peter, not that he would not deny him but rather, that the faith of Peter would still be there after his failure. What Jesus knew is that the Father’s favor is greater than anyone’s failure. It is the favor of the Father, the wide welcome of the one who loves us best, this is what Jesus hoped Peter would cling to in the aftermath of his betrayal.This assurance in the Father’s welcome for all who come back to him, this is what would cause Peter to turn and come back to the family, so that in his returning Peter could strengthen the faith of his brothers and sisters.

         So is it beginning to be clearer why Peter has a jumping, shouting, leaping kind of joy? He had found that it is not his failure that defines him in the eyes of God. No, instead Peter writes in this first section of his letter, he was one of those who understood that he was guarded over by the very power of God through faith for a salvation that was getting ready to be revealed. This is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, the very resurrection power that has caused us to be born again into a living hope. We can now know ourselves as being the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. This is how all of us who come to Jesus begin our life with him, hearing his word, this call to love and finding that through him we can love our Father fully, with all of our heart, our life, and our power. Right there in our beginning, when we know God as our Father, we also know that our Father has an inheritance waiting for us in the age to come. This treasure that is securely held for us in heaven, this wondrous gift will never perish, it will never be found to be polluted, and it will never lose its original glory. None of the ways that this world destroys what brings us happiness, none of these will be found in the age to come. This is our living hope because this hope is held securely in the hands of our living Jesus who reigns now, and forever.

         From our being born again until that time we receive our blessed inheritance at the end of the age, what we can be certain of is that God, in all of his power, watches intently over us. This is the favor of our Father, the one who always looks longingly toward us, this is what causes us to keep turning back to him when we lose our way. This welcome we find from the God whose eyes are ever upon us, this is where we must begin to understand about this joy that is stronger than our suffering. In the next several weeks we are going to look closer at this joy, this ecstatic, over-the-top, experience that can come over us even in the worst that this world has to offer. There in those times that threaten us, there is when that it is not our faith that anchors us but rather what we rest in is this certainty that our Heavenly Father has never left us out of his sight. When the ground beneath our feet seems to be slipping away, this is when we discover that our God has become the living hope which anchors our life and in this we rejoice. In the next few weeks, we are going to ponder just what did Jesus mean when he told his disciples on that fateful night when he was betrayed as recorded in the fifteenth chapter of John, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Have you ever considered that the reason that Jesus taught us all that he did was so that we might experience joy in exceeding, overflowing, abundance? I wonder if those who follow Jesus have really thought about this statement that he has made, that he has taught us everything that he did just so that we might have joy, not just a part time joy which shows up on sunny days, but a different type of happiness that can even be found in the hardest, most troubling experiences that life can throw at us. Truly in this joy is a fire that no driving rain of sorrow can extinguish. 

         When I read of this great joy which is available to us, I am a little confused as to why it seems that so many followers of Jesus seem to be such a sad, unpleasant lot especially from what I find on social media. When I read this account found here in the first chapter of Peter’s first letter, I wonder just what has happened to the followers of Jesus who can’t help but jump, and leap and shout for joy because our God has made our happiness his concern. So often, we as followers of Jesus, act surprised at the hardships that come when we express our allegiance to Jesus and his cause. After our surprise, we then want to complain and cry about what we have to endure yet I wonder, when we do so, if we have not lost an occasion to witness to all those who are searching for an enduring happiness. It is in our hardships, this is when we must remember that all that Jesus has taught us is so that in the worst of times, we can still find joy, a fire that no amount of rain, no amount of suffering, can ever extinguish what Jesus has promised to us. 

         Peter, the one who had failed so miserably in his loyalty to Jesus, did not let his failure and the sorrow of that moment define him. Instead Peter discovered joy, the joy that came from the certainty that Jesus had that came from knowing that Peter had come to know of the great love that his Heavenly Father had for him. This is what gave Jesus the confidence to tell Peter that when he turned from that moment, not if you turn from that moment. What Jesus knew is that all Peter had to do is to remember that the favor of the Father is always greater than our failure. We are precious in the eyes of God, the same eyes which watched over Peter with holy love. When Peter turned back to his brothers and sisters just as Jesus knew that he would he was welcomed home with lavish kindness and in that moment of undeserved grace and favor, we should have no doubt that Peter experienced a greater joy than he had ever known. This is how, as we are told in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews, that Jesus endured the cross, because of the joy that was set before him. This is how we endure our trials, how we endure the cross we are called on to carry, because this same joy that guided Jesus home, this joy is ours as well. This is the joy that comes from the favor of our Father that is always greater than our failures. This is what guides us on our way until we arrive home in glory. Amen! 

Gospel Say, What?:All Hail the King

 March 31 2004

Mark 16:1-8,14-16, 19-20

         The Lord is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Jesus has risen from the grave and he is alive for evermore! Amen! Now we know that we have a living hope and his name is Jesus! As certain as we are today of the truth who is our risen Jesus, on that first Easter no one had a clue that on that Sunday morning the world had changed for good.  All anyone was thinking is how very foolish this Jesus had been, to respond to his unjust judgment with an act of mercy, to give to his enemies his very life to satisfy their very base desires. Jesus accepted the dishonor shown to him by turning and showing honor in return, honoring life by giving his life. And what did such thinking get this Jesus? It got him nailed to a tree, that’s what it got him. Imagine being one of those faithful eleven who had left their families, their work, their homes and their friends to tag along after this one called Jesus. These were the ones who just knew that here was one who was going to start a revolution and they could hardly wait. The world needed changing and Jesus seemed to be the one who had what it takes to turn the world upside down. Yet, as the months turned into years it began to be clear that this Jesus had some odd ideas about how the world is supposed to work.  Yes, we witnessed the power of God in his life yet this power was only used to eliminate fear not cause others to fear him. And even when we knew the greatness of the power Jesus wielded, you know, he never used that power to demand that we do what he commanded us to do. No, he used his power to place himself between us and whatever was trying to harm us. I mean, how could you not love someone who would do that for you? But as we got closer to Jerusalem, this Jesus, he began talking about crosses of all things. I mean, did he really forget when the Romans came in here and hung a thousand or so people of our country up on them spikes, lining the roads with them so we couldn’t help but have to see them every time we went up and down the road. And now, you say you are going to allow the Roman soldiers to do that to you? Say it isn’t so, Jesus? But it was so, that’s the crazy thing. And not only did he say that he was ready for the Romans to do their very worst to him but he also told us that we had best be getting ourselves ready as their was a cross for us to carry too. Now, what kept us following him after such weird ramblings is that he had said from the beginning that he was the king God had promised and we clung to this truth. But just how does this Jesus expect to rule using this scripture from out of Deuteronomy, you know the one that says that we are to worship God alone and him only are we to serve. Just what did he mean that to be great in his regime meant that one had to serve God by serving others all the way down to the lowest of the low. Instead of judging others to be unworthy to be among the living, Jesus had this idea that we are to honor every life for this is what brings honor to God. Like, I say, a lot of weird ways to change the world. In the end though, those ideas caught up with him. When he got to Jerusalem, no one was buying his plea for peace and they just wanted him to shut up in a, you know, more permanent manner. So they concocted some story about Jesus being a threat to Rome and that was all it took to get him on the fast track to carrying that cross he spoke so often about. And all of us who had just wasted the last three years of our life, got up and went home and tried to pretend that none of this ever happened. 

End of story, or was it? Was this Jesus who claimed to be king, really the king? Was the way of love and mercy just an embarrassing method of groveling before your enemies or was it really the true way God created us to live? You see, if there were no resurrection then, yes, we can have thoughts like these. Without the resurrection, this way of life that Jesus has laid out for us, looks like a bunch of nonsense, like offering mercy, forgiving others and giving extravagantly to them, this is just a soft and silly way to change the world. It is the resurrection though, that empty grave that shows deaths defeat, this shouts to the world of the power of life. Jesus our king, came on the scene ruling in the power of life and in the end it is the power of life which vindicated this claim of Jesus, so that as Paul exclaims at the start of his letter to Rome, “…concerning the Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus, God’s anointed and exalted king, our Lord.” The resurrection is a declaration to the world, that here, right here, is your king who reigns in the power of life, just as he always has said that this is who he is. And as Jesus reigns in the power of life he invites us to experience this power of life so that we too might reign in life through the power of life.

You see, we are called not just to place our faith in the resurrection but we are to go further and be united with Jesus in his resurrection life. This is why traditionally, Easter was a time in the life of the church when believers were baptized. It is in baptism that we go down into the water, an act of burial, an act of being laid in the tomb with Jesus, being forever united with him in death. Then out of this death, the believer is raised up out of the water, raised up from death into resurrection life, standing alive with the risen Jesus, as he rolls away the stone and we step out into the new creation.The death of Jesus has put to death our death and in its place we now walk in resurrection freedom and power, dead to sin but alive to God. This is what Paul tells us in the fifth chapter of Romans that those who have received an abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness are to reign in life through one man Jesus our King and our Lord. So as Jesus came as our king and he ruled through the power of life, now that he has been resurrected we too are invited not to just place our faith in the resurrection but to go further and experience the power of the resurrection for ourselves. This means that we reign as Jesus did by worshiping God and him only shall we serve. This means that as God found us worthy to receive his mercy and life we find God worthy of our life by offering life, acts of mercy, to everyone. This is the way that Jesus reigns in the power of life and this is the life that the risen Jesus offers to us, a life that reigns through the power of life.

You see, if we just remain on the outside of the resurrection event looking in, there is the real danger that our experience will be much the same as the disciples who knew that Jesus had been risen from the dead yet their only response was to go grab a bite to eat. As they sat there at the table eating their Easter dinner, Jesus shows up and he quickly dispenses with the holiday pleasantries. No, this Jesus gets in their face and he scolds them and insults them and rightfully so, because a man walking out of the grave deserves something more than a yawn. Their lackadaisical attitude proved that they had no faith, no trust in the power of life for their hearts were dry and hard like a crust of old bread. They not only needed to find faith in the resurrection but they needed more than anything to experience the resurrection, to discover how God could take their hearts so dead and lifeless and restore them so that they once again pulsated with life. Jesus, who is so often thought of as being mild and kind is here shown to be the one who rousts these dull and lifeless souls out of their doldrums. We can almost imagine that Jesus grabs these followers of his by the scruff of their necks, their Easter ham still stuck in their teeth, and he boots them out the door. Get going, he tells them. There is a great big world out their enslaved by sin and death that is just waiting for the great news that our God reigns! All of creation that has for so long been bound in terrible futility has now been set free for sin no longer reigns, death no longer rules, for Jesus lives and he reigns, and we reign, in the power of life. Get out there, shouts Jesus, the revolution has begun, go and show and tell everyone the news that the good has arrived and this good has the power to defeat evil. Run into the darkness of this hurting world and show them the light of your life, a life that lives to give life for this is what is meant when we reign in life.

You see, those first disciples are a lot like us. They had doubts about this Jesus and his strange way of changing the world. How amazing it is that just knowing that Jesus has been raised from the dead was not enough to conquer their fears and their doubts. No, what Jesus knew that they needed is that they had to experience the resurrection for themselves. This is why Jesus insists that those who believed that there was a new way to live, a life trusting in our king Jesus who rules in the power of life, must go further, and be baptized, to be raised up themselves to stand on resurrection ground. How odd it is, that Jesus who came to stand against the judgment of others here tells us that those who do not believe, these are the ones who should consider themselves condemned. Yet, if we give this some thought, what Jesus says makes perfect sense. To believe in the risen Jesus is to believe in the power of life, the power found when we offer mercy just as Jesus took upon himself our condemnation upon the cross so that instead of judgment we might receive mercy. So, those who do not believe in the power of mercy will find that they have no need of mercy, the mercy that Jesus offers and in doing so will be found to stand under the very judgment that Jesus came to remove through his mercy. To believe in the risen Jesus is to believe that the way of mercy is the very way of life and if anyone refuses to believe in the risen Jesus, if they refuse to believe in the necessity and power of mercy then all that is left is to stand under the judgment of God.

Well, the disciples got the message. They left their Easter dinner sitting on the table and out they went telling anyone who would listen the good news, Jesus the king is alive and he rules in the power of life. What they found when they did so is that even though Jesus had been taken up to heaven to reign at the right hand of God, he was, through the Holy Spirit, very present with them. Heaven no longer seemed so far away. When the King is lifted up, this is when he comes down to move among us. And further, Mark tells us that when mercy is the message of our hearts this is when we find that we are walking on solid ground. In Hebrews we find something similar to this because at the end of the twelfth chapter, we are told that we are to be grateful for receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken. This is the sentiment that Mark is speaking about, that when we proclaim the gospel, the good news that King Jesus rules in the power of life, this is when we walk in the most secure place in the world for there we are walking in God’s unshakeable kingdom. There as we walk about in the kingdom, speaking about the power of mercy to change the world, Mark says that signs will accompany our work. A sign is something that points those who see it to a greater reality. This is what happens when we reign in life because then, through our actions, the hand of God will be seen, and the world will, through our reign of life, be pointed to our Heavenly Father who is the very source of all life. 

You see, as I watch the witness of those who profess to be followers of Jesus I am dismayed by their longing for some power to change the world. What this says, to me, is that these believers may have faith in the resurrection but they most likely have not experienced the power of the resurrection for themselves for if they had they would be absolutely convinced that the resurrection truly is a world transforming event. Perhaps, like so many who claim Jesus as their Savior, they only believe that the resurrection is about the next life, the life beyond our death, figuring that the resurrection has nothing to do whatsoever with life in the here and now; how tragically wrong is such thinking. When we just assume that the resurrection is about then and not now, this is when we will find ourselves hanging out with the disciples, enjoying our lunch, not even aware that the very faith that we say we have is slowly growing cold, our hearts becoming dry and brittle in the absence of living water. It is a quite impossible task to hold onto our faith in the resurrected Jesus for any length of time unless we go out and live in the power of the resurrection that Jesus invites us to join him in. If we don’t get out of our closed little lives and speak to all about our king Jesus who rules in the power of life, we are in real danger of being seduced by the very power of death which Jesus triumphed over. When this happens we will begin to pity those who are out there offering mercy to those in need. As Paul teaches us in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, “..if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people to be pitied.” But we know that there is more to the story then just the here and now. We are absolutely certain that the best is yet to come and this truth is something we can only be convinced of if we experience a taste of that life in the here and now. Those who lose their faith in the resurrection will become mesmerized by the ways of the world. They will see the power of death the means for real change yet the only real change the world has ever witnessed is when Jesus defeated death and stepped out of the grave. Does carrying a cross look like weakness? Does turning the other cheek seem like a fools way to live? Does giving food and drink to our enemies seem idiotic? Of course, right up and until Jesus stepped out of the grave. Now those actions that the world pities are shown to have power, world changing, revolutionary power which can turn our world upside down. Yet, you can only know this as a concrete fact if you are willing to go out of here and join Jesus in his resurrection and experience for yourself what real power is all about. Gospel Say, What? The Gospel says our king reigns in the power of life. Now is the time to repent and believe. Go forth and reign in this life, and the next !Amen!