From Fear to Joy

December 15, 2014

Yesterday, pastor Joe preached about joy. One of his Scriptures of choice came from 1 Thessalonians 5:18 where St. Paul commands (yes, his exhortation is in the form of a command) to "rejoice always." Those two little words got me to thinking, "Why is this commanded?" There may be many reasons, but an obvious one (to me) is that it is commanded because we aren't otherwise doing it. And why not? Well, one reason may be that we don't have any. And why is that? According to Scripture, it's because of misplaced priorities and loyalties, ie. Jesus isn't at the center of our lives. He himself told us in John's gospel that he spoke the things he said so we might have his own joy in us (15:11). I can certainly testify in my own experience of the rise and fall of joy according to my proximity to Christ and my obedience to him.

Pastor Joe didn't use this Scripture, but Luke's account of the birth of Christ tells us of the angelic visit to the shepherds with their announcement of "a great joy for all people." The progression of the story is interesting. The glory of the Lord shone around the shepherds, bringing great fear to them. That alone should catch our attention. Our usual depiction of angels is of cherubic or wispy female beings who wouldn't scare a toddler. I don't know what these angels actually looked like, but I'm guessing they are pretty ferocious-appearing, because in the Bible, whenever angelic visitations occur, those on the receiving end are usually in need of a change of undergarments before it's over. So here's the progression: glory causes fear, which leads to a command to "fear not." They are then told the reason they don't need to fear; it is the Good News of the birth of a Savior, Christ, the Lord, which replaces fear with great joy.

We are two millennia removed from this story, the intervening years of which have served to dull our amazement at the message. Everywhere we turn, people are afraid. Afraid that the economy will tank, that terrorists will get us, that we will contract Ebola (highly unlikely) or cancer (much more possible). We are afraid of the scourge of drugs, the endless overreach of our government, afraid of the precipitous decline in the prestige of Christianity in our culture. The list is almost endless, and one need not be paranoid to wonder and worry about it all. It's been this way since the beginning of history. Human life has always been precarious and unpredictable. No one knows what tomorrow may bring, so the message of the angels is as significant today as it was when first proclaimed to those poor shepherds. We need not fear, for we have a Savior. Savior from what? If the Gospel is to be believed, from sin's penalty and power first and foremost. But also from fear. We have a God who doesn't wade into life as some superhero, brandishing his superpowers. The mystery and miracle of our faith is that our God became flesh, entering human life in all its weakness and limitation, so that we might through faith alone, experience the power to live in THIS precarious and worrisome life with confidence and joy. The angelic appearance brought fear; the message of an infant Savior wrapped in swaddling clothes brought joy. It still does, and for that, this otherwise melancholic man, am grateful. Emmanuel: God is with us, and not only with us; he is for us!