Joy, what it is and how to keep it

 

To be given at the LCJE AustralAsia conference

6 March 2023

Shalom friends. I’m glad I get to share with you about one of my favourite topics of all time. Joy. What it is and how to keep it. Especially considering the ministry we share with our Jewish people. 

I’ve been involved in ministry since 1971, since that Monday night when I got saved in May that year, under a full moon. I found something; I found eternal life. I hugged the woman who shared Yeshua with me. I left her and went back to my parents to tell them the good news that Yeshua was our Messiah. They were smart; they were Jewish; they were not academics in the Jewish religion, but surely, they would be interested. Right?

Not at all. I got the boot, and was kicked out of my family home after being born and raised there for 19 years.

Joy? You’ve got to be kidding. How do I talk about that when the rejection and pain were so severe? 

Now, for those in Kansas City, this year especially, it’s easy. After the victory of the Kansas City Chiefs over the equally good Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl that took place only a few weeks ago. Super Bowl 57 lived up to its hype and what made it especially fun for me is that my wife and I wore red and white, sat glued to the television coverage, and helped get our boys over the line for another victory. Joy. Celebration. Laughter. High fives. You get it. 

Sports often afford us the opportunity to celebrate. I remember the Sydney Swans, my chosen Aussie Rules football side, came within one game of winning the same coveted glory in last year’s Grand Final here in Melbourne. The team (which by the way also wears red and white) came up short and finished 2^nd in the end. OK, Geelong came in 1^st, and my Swans 2^nd… not bad. Joy? Didn’t really feel the same last October as after the Chiefs victory. 

Some Yiddish words speak to me about joy. For instance, kvel. To gush or swell with immense pride and pleasure, most commonly over the achievement of a child or another family member. That gives me joy just thinking aloud about that. And remembering my six grandsons and the joy they give me. Often.

Or the word simcha meaning a happy occasion, that which gives pleasure. Remember the story told by Leo Rosten in Joys of Yiddish. “It’s said that Hitler, disturbed by nightmares called in a soothsayer. The seer consulted a crystal ball and said, “Ah, mighty Fuhrer, it is foretold that you will die on a Jewish holiday.” “Which one” said Hitler with a scowl. The seer replied, “Any day that you die will be a Jewish holiday.” (page 376)

Nachas and kvel are similar. One rabbi likes to joke that Mondays and Thursdays on which the long tachanun prayer is usually said, but when that day coincides with a simcha, the tachanun is not said. That, the rabbi said is the epitome of yiddishe naches. The same goes for when one has eaten an entire meal to satisfaction but, because one has not eaten bread, is only required to say the short borey nefoshes as the concluding blessing. Ah, the joys of not having to say longer prayers. Funny, eh?

No matter the context, joy really matters, whether it’s due to your sports team, your grandchildren, or because you can get away with shorter prayers to the Almighty. 

Is that what I want to talk with you about today? Or is joy something more than that? 

In the book, The Book of Joy, penned by Jewish man Douglas Abrams but mostly the conversations of the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop Tutu of South Africa, the Dalai Lama said, “Joy is the reward, really, of seeking to give joy to others. When you show compassion, when you show caring, when you show love to others, do things for others, in a wonderful way you have a deep joy that you can get in no other way.”

In that same book Desmond Tutu said this, ““Discovering more joy does not save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily too. Perhaps we are just more alive. Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreaks without being broken.”

What is joy, in your definition? 

I remember Stuart Briscoe, a British minister who died in his chosen state in Wisconsin in the US last year, said something like this in a sermon given at Jesus ‘73, a three-day festival like Woodstock, but for the Jesus Generation, in Pennsylvania.  He was talking about the difference between joy and happiness. He said, “Happiness happens when happenings happen to happen the way you want them to happen.” I remember his smile when he said that to the multitudes that day. Contrast that with joy, which Briscoe called a God-given alternative, one that was not governed by happenings! He even called the Older Testament a case history. Even an O.T. story of God's dealings with His unhappy people.

For me, joy is finding satisfaction in my daily life, not based on random actions of my sport team, or of a horse running in a race, even one that stops the nation in November, but rather of taking life on life’s terms, and sharing my life with others, with those who cannot repay you, with the real and the nearby, the far and the phony. If you share God’s love with others, and this is my testimony, you will find joy, unspeakable and full of beauty. 

Over 200 times in the OT the word is used, most musically in Jeremiah when he predicted that the bride and the groom would have the voice of gladness and the voice of joy.  Then again another 100 references to joy are in the Newer Testament, the first time it is coupled with the birth of Yeshua and showcases the response of the magi, those Gentile kings from the Orient. “When the magi saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.” (Matthew 2.10)

The curse on the Jewish people in Deuteronomy’s tochacha is found in chapter 28. The cause of the curse, we read, “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything.” (Dt. 28.47)

As Jews we can read that and feel guilt and shame. We fall short. We fail. We can make ourselves crazy with intention and admission of dereliction of duty, but sisters and brothers here at LCJE, the reality is that we are also New Covenant people. And remember that one-ninth of the Fruit of the Spirit is joy, along with love and self-control and peace. That’s what God wants to grow in each of us. In me. In you. Do you believe this? Joy grows. 

How do we keep our joy after all these years? Every once in a while, look at the Bible. Look at the Messiah. “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, and the things of earth will go strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.” It’s not about what happens. It’s about what happened already. He came. He taught. He healed. He loved. He forgave. He still loves. He died and rose again. And one day he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

For that day we long and until that day, may you and I continue to find joy, for “the joy of the Lord is truly our strength.” (Neh. 8.10)