“I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)
Jesus speaks to his disciples about following his commandments and living in intentional connection with him. Before he discusses loving others as he has loved them, he specifically addresses the crucial role of joy in this call to discipleship.
If I’m honest with myself, I live in a state of tension with joy. Part of me acknowledges that I am a person of deep joy. It is one of the hallmarks of who I am and how I show up in the world, bearing witness to Christ. The other part of me struggles with joy because the world that we live in is so broken. I am fearful of showing up with the spiritual fruit of joy when the world is aching.
With that acknowledgement in mind, I was reading Psalm 95 today and was struck by the word ‘joyfully’. Let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. (Psalm 95:1).
From this scriptural perspective, I found myself wondering how often we actually live joyfully as a church. Yes, we may share our joys and concerns during prayer time—but most congregations I’ve visited or have been a part of have far more concerns than joys. Further, that is not the same as living joyfully.
I am the first to admit that we are living in a difficult age for the church. There are financial struggles for both individuals in the congregation and parishes as a whole. In many congregations, there aren’t as many people worshipping as in years past, and some of the defining ministries of local churches have historically disappeared. But the question is, can we have hope in the midst of this situation? Can we have joy that springs from hope eternal?
Maybe, just maybe, the reason people aren’t filling the pews and entering the doors is that we haven’t made a very compelling case to come. We haven’t gone out to people and shared the authentic joy we have in Christ with them. We haven’t sung joyfully to the Lord, and people outside the church know it.
We need a better witness – not just of our faith in Christ but of our joy in Christ. And that may look different for each of us. For some of us, it’s going to be a complete change in our way of thinking – looking for the blessings instead of the trials. For others, it means proclaiming that Christ is redeeming difficult situations. Still, for others, it means sharing what they are grateful for because of their relationship with Christ.
However, a word about what this witness is rooted in: joy is not turning a blind eye or pretending that everything is okay in the world. It is choosing to show up with joy, even and maybe especially when joy doesn’t make sense. But it is doing so with compassion for the moment that we find ourselves in. Not with a fake smile, but with an open heart. Not with claims that deny the current state of the world, but ones that testify to the fact that Jesus spoke about joy even when people were hurting as well. So, let us reflect on what it means to live joyfully as a church, that Christ may be proclaimed and that our God may be glorified.
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