"Good news of great joy"

I am praying for joy this Season; joy to the world! There's so much sadness all around. Maybe I am just more aware of this than most because of my calling as a pastor. Almost everyday people with crises, big and small, enter my life. So many are like the man I'll call Sam, who stopped by my office on Saturday. I was just getting ready to go home and I heard a tentative knock on the door. I looked up to see a middle-aged man with obvious distress on his face. I opened my office and invited him in. He sat and it took a moment for him to compose himself, tears brimming in his eyes, hands wringing. "How can I help you, friend?" I asked and waited. Finally, in a quiet voice, he said, "I'm mentally ill, alone, and broke." The way that he said it was less a statement than a challenge, as he implied, 'what can you do to help with those kinds of situations?' No, he wasn't belligerent; more like desperate, I'd say. We talked for a few moments and I think the fact that someone treated him kindly, actually listening, meant as much to Sam as anything else. I promised we could help him from the church's food pantry and gave him $20 from my discretionary fund before he left. Ours was, hopefully, a conversation that will continue, because I want Sam, and the millions who are living with quiet little dramas just like him, to find the lasting joy that Jesus alone can give.

Christmas brings us a story that creates the possibility of joy; "for all the people!" With this phrase, "I bring you good news of great joy," the angel reassured a group of frightened men, shepherds who were seeing the strangest sight ever there in the field outside of Bethlehem! Shepherds of that day were not anywhere near the top of heap of society. They were a rough lot, earthy men. They were likely illiterate, almost certainly not well versed in the prophetic texts, or even all that observant of the Law. But God choose to make His announcement to them. Accidentally? Did the angels get lost on their way to the home of the mayor of Bethlehem? No, of course not. God's desire was to bring all people - shepherds from the field - and wise men from the East - to worship the Savior. And in that worship, they found joy.

My prayerful goal this Season is to bring people the joy of Jesus. I hope I can provide a little happiness this year, with some appropriate gifts. I hope that our family celebration brings us some cheerful moments. But, even more important to me is the sharing of the lasting joy of the Lord with those whose lives I touch. People like Sam, the man who stopped by my office, need more than a cheery moment or $20! They need to know God's love. Those who are working through loneliness or illness or dealing with the limitations brought on by aging, or the devastation visited on their well-being by their sins or the those who have sinned against them, won't be 'fixed' by a present or a happy song. Only in God can the find a reason for real joy, a hope that is bigger than any set of circumstances in this world.

I invite you to join me in this mission! "Hey, Jerry, we're no angels." Right you are! But we are ambassadors, God said so. We have the awesome privilege of leading others to Him, sharing with them the Hope we have found. The Bible says,

"All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.
God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them.
We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you. How? you say. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God. " (2 Corinthians 5:18-21, The Message)

Pray for opportunities to be a bringer of joy, a messenger of hope.

If you're reading this today and you do not have real joy (not to confused with transient happiness), let me point you to Jesus. He came to be our Savior, to close the gap between the Father and ourselves. He came to give us the gift of eternal life, which we can own now, while we wait for the Second Advent of our King. Tell Him your deepest need, yes, in your own words, your own way. Ask Him to help you. His answer may not come in the way you expect, but He will come to you. He promises!

_____________________________

Angels we have heard on high,
Sweetly singing o'er the plains;
And the mountains in reply,
Echoing their joyous strains.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?
Say what may the tidings be;
Which inspire your heav'nly song?
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

Come to Bethlehem and see,
Him whose birth the angels sing;
Come adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

Angels We Have Heard On High
Chadwick, James / Barnes, Edward Shippen
© Public Domain CCLI License No. 810055