Homily

There are only a few people that Jesus brought back from the dead: His good friend Lazarus, the young girl, and this young man whom He sees being carried out for burial. He sees and understands the tragedy of this death, the widow who has now lost her only child, and He decides to act. He takes action and turns what was tragedy, grief and sorrow into a reality of great joy. I want to focus not on the sad elements but on the joy.

And if you will allow me, I want to use the word "joy" in my own special way. Happiness and joy are pretty much the same thing. But just for now I would like to give them somewhat different meanings. So let us think of happiness today as a reaction to something that pleases us and makes us feel good. You get an "A" on your test, a friend you haven't talked to for a long time gives you a phone call, you get a nice raise in pay at work, the sermon is only ten minutes long. But under my definition of happiness, let's say you could also be happy because you were able to shoplift and not get caught, you were able to buy some methamphetamines, a politician you do not like suddenly dies. In my way of speaking about this, happiness would mean anything that truly pleases me, whether or not it is actually good for me, and even if it is a bad thing for other people. If it pleases me then I am happy.

Now for the word joy, I would like to give it my own special meaning today. I would like you to think today about joy as an experience of something that is absolutely good, not just something that pleases me (because of course sin sometimes pleases me.) So if we think of joy as coming only from what is truly and actually good then joy is always somehow connected to God, Who is the source of all goodness. So in my way of looking at these words we could say the mother, the son and the whole funeral crowd may have experienced happiness at his revival from death, but they would also then have experienced joy because this extraordinary miracle was the direct work of the compassionate Lord. The miracle shows that His care, His love, His consideration and understanding were far beyond what we expect in this world and that they are not tied to what pleases me, because sometimes what pleases me is not good for me. Rather the Lord's care for us and His love for us are only expressed in what is good for us, genuinely good for us. That is something we cannot always see. We know that everything children want is not good for them. In fact most things children want are not good for them. Yet even as adults we have to admit we do not always know what is good for us. So when we experience in someway the goodness of the Lord, by putting ourselves in His presence, or realizing the gifts He has given to us and thinking about His goodness to us, or thanking Him for His kindness as I mentioned a few weeks ago, it is there that we can find joy. It's not necessarily an emotional joy, as happiness so often is. Instead it's a joy that points us toward heaven where there will be no pain, no mourning, but only life with God. Joy, in this sense, may not have us jumping up and down and screaming with delight but what it does do is put us in touch with what is truly good, it puts us in touch with Christ, as it did when the widow and her son looked at the Lord and I am sure they were moved with great joy.

Someone did something this past week that made me very angry. And because I was working on something that was not very distracting I kept thinking about it. "He blah, blah, blah -- and he argh, argh, argh -- and it's grr, grr, grr." I tried several times to stop myself but it just kept coming back again and again sneaking its way into my thoughts. You know what I mean. How strange it is that there are many times when we are frustrated, angry, disappointed, nervous, afraid, and regretful and we just can't seem to let it go. The thoughts which afflict us, bring us down and rob us of peace can sometimes punch away at us over and over again until you would think they would be so tired they would have to quit but they always seem to be able to gather enough energy to go another round.

Suddenly the Lord seemed to be speaking to me and He said, "You don't have enough room for joy." And that stopped my merry-go-round of anger. I think it's true I have room for joy but I certainly don't have enough room for joy. Just thinking about that knocked the anger and frustration away. I do not have enough room for joy and in that place where joy should be found, I have allowed unsatisfying and even harmful thoughts and emotions to fill that space where joy should be found. I leave the door open and nothing much good seems to enter in. The squeaky wheel keeps grinding away and I have no oil to quiet it down.

So I'm thinking maybe this might happen to some of you too. Maybe you also, sometimes, find yourselves going on and on in thoughts of anger, frustration, doubt, fear or any other negative train of thought that is leading to nothing good for you or anyone else. Are you leaving any room for joy, or does it have to beat its way into our lives? Because we do not look often enough, or well enough to He Who is Good in prayer, are we lacking in joy? And because we do not choose to see the good in our lives as much as the bad, are we missing opportunities for joy? And if I am not actively and daily giving thanks to God for all the good He has given to me, how can there be room for joy in my life? If I am so stuck only on life in this world without an active hope in the life that is yet to come, where will I find joy?

We ought to, we must, leave room for joy in our lives and that joy does not come from my own hard work, and it does not come from luck or fate or karma or the power of the universe. It comes from being in contact with Christ our Lord, and it's given freely to those who can receive it. Let's be sure that we are making room in our lives for joy.