Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10)Joy is something we are in short supply of. As a society we are unhappy. The Occupy Wall Street thing that was recently so in the news showed a strong undercurrent of unhappiness in people.
Road rage, going postal, fights at the grocery checkout counter – all look to a distinct lack of joy. After all, people that are joyful wouldn’t be doing these things.
Of course, there is a great deal of difference between joy and happiness. Although happiness would probably come as a result of joy.
But the angels in the verse above didn’t tell the shepherds that the Savior would come to make everybody smile real big and laugh a lot. Anybody that tells you Christians do that is full of religious beans.
He came to bring us internal satisfaction. And internal satisfaction – the knowledge that everything will be fine and that your life is not worthless – is joy.
It is something that people will see, of course. It sure shines from my wife’s face. I tend to be an overly analytical guy who thinks too much and carries too much around for it to show a lot, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.
It just doesn’t necessarily show itself in smiley lips.
The angels came to the shepherds when Jesus was born to tell them one thing. They came to say that ordinary people, just like those shepherds, would also have joy in life. Joy was not something you buy or inherit or get as a result of doing something.
It is an internal feeling, an internal knowledge, an internal satisfaction that someone loves you, that someone cares for you.
That is joy. And today is the Sunday of Joy in our Four Sundays of Advent.
Think about it. Get in touch with your inner self and feel and know that joy. If Jesus is in you, it is there. You may have to look for it, but it is there.
He gave it to you.
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