Joy to the World 12/22/40

Scripture: John 15: 1-11

Text: John 15: 11b “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”

The first time I was allowed to drive the family car was a thrilling experience for me. I had ridden in the front seat beside my father for several years, had watched every move he made until I felt that I had it memorized in my own muscles. I had helped him warm up the first car we had, when it was necessary to pour a kettle full of hot water over the carburetor to get the motor started in winter. And I had helped crank it up in the days when we used “armstrong” starters and when it was necessary to take the proper “stance” to avoid a broken arm if the motor should “kick.”

It was the fulfillment of a wish long cherished, when my father finally stopped the car on a country road, during a leisurely Sunday afternoon drive, and invited me to try it for a while. I was not allowed, under his watchful eye, to crowd the speedometer over 20 miles per hour. And I know now that that was well, for Father’s first comment showed that I had a few important things yet to learn. As I steered the car up the winding country track, where there was no graded road, Father said, “I think you are watching the road too close to the front of the car. Look ahead farther!”

It was precisely what I needed in my first driving lesson. As soon as I lifted my eyes to the road farther ahead, my vision automatically took care of the details that came closer.

There is something essential to all of us in the “Lift of a Far View.” We can so easily become confused and bewildered, and a bit dizzy, at the details which crowd around us closely, like the road pouring under the radiator cap of an automobile. Our health and safety depend on a longer look ahead.

There may have been periods in history when people seem not to have been particularly disturbed by the course of life’s events, when everyone with a will to work could expect to get ahead, when people were not plagued with the threats of war, depression and general maladjustment. But our time is not one of those periods. We live amid uncertainty. War news and apprehensions are our daily diet. Crisis is a common word - in the view of some, we live in a time of great crisis, jumping meanwhile from one major or minor crisis to another.

Counsels of despair prevail among some. Civilization seems to them on the wane. Mankind is pictured as headed for destruction or a return to the darkness of the Middle Ages. In the midst of this there is a renewed emphasis among some on the end of a world. A baggage inspector pauses in his work, when he finds that the traveler is a Christian worker, to remark that “it looks as though the end were drawing near.” He thinks he sees the conditions of our time described in the Bible. Small religious magazines, devoted to the thesis that Christ will soon come again, and wipe out all this wickedness, appear in our mails. They always thrive among those whose minds can not bear the thought of the world’s continuing wickedness.

Now, I believe that all of this is a little like the bewildering rush of the road under the radiator cap of a moving motor car. It is a counsel of shortsightedness and despair over our world. It is dangerous in its lack of vision. It is very real. But what is needed is not the shutting of our eyes to the confusion, but the lift of a far view! Let’s try a moratorium on despair and pray instead for some vision! How may we go about declaring such a moratorium?

Not by “whistling in the dark” or wearing a “Pollyanna” smile alone. We shall have to grapple with living realities and wrestle with issues if we are to live, in any sense, triumphantly.

1) I would urge first, therefore, that we recognize that living is a struggle. This was clearly taught by Jesus. To his followers he said, “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” I do not think that he said this of war. (He refused to lead an armed rebellion in his day, he commanded his followers to love even their enemies, and he rebuked his faithful disciple, Peter, for actually drawing a sword in extreme emergency.) But he clearly taught that those who expect to speak the truth and do what is right must expect conflict. Again, he said, “I came to set a man against his father, the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” Did he thus set aside the fifth commandment to honor one’s parents? Not at all! But he did serve notice, in a sense, that he would be a trouble-maker! For his way of life is forever set against injustice and iniquity- against the godless paganism of this world!

Living in our day, then, is a struggle, as I suspect it has been in any day. The very fact that we are aware of it is hopeful. If men lived blissfully ignorant and uncaring in a world of wrong, then indeed the outlook would be dark! A fever in a sick body is evidence that the body is fighting the disease which would make short work of the body which put up no resistance. Life is a struggle.

2) Therefore, let us accept it and throw ourselves into it. One could multiply illustrations of the way in which enthusiastic struggle advances a cause. Very often, even after careful training, rehearsing of plays, and developing of team cooperation, it seems to be sheer enthusiasm which enables football players to put the ball ahead over stiff opposition.

Admiral Byrd’s party returned to the Antarctic regions again for months of hardship and dangerous living which those at home will not endure. Why? Because of the sheer enthusiasm of exploration that is greater than any threat of ice barriers, blizzards, stinging cold, distance from help, or other dangers.

Nehemiah and the builders of the walls of Jerusalem stuck to their job of reconstruction through danger of attack and attempts at trickery or betrayal, carried on by the enthusiasm of an important undertaking. We can accept our struggles in the same spirit and go ahead with enthusiasm.

3) More than that, we can do our work with joy. Indeed we had better, for sheer health’s sake. Worry and despondency is poisonous to the body as well as darkening to the soul. Simple joy is healthy. No man can afford a lasting grudge. We are unwise to continue in anger, or bitterness. Jesus told men not to try to worship God and seek personal well being, even in their offerings at the temple, until they had tried to get right with their fellows. Neither can any man afford continuous fear or despondency. “Fear not.” Laugh, therefore, freely; “sing joyously together” in the words of an old Christmas carol. For our Lord himself said that he was come that we might have joy and that our joy might be full.

4) We are in the midst of the joyous Christmastide again. Above life’s confusion, turmoil, and strife, let voices and hearts sing aloud in praise to God for the gift of Jesus Christ! Let your hearts go in gratitude! Be not ashamed of fine sentiment! Let the Prince of Peace be born again in our hearts and grow to maturity among us! Perhaps the Father will yet use us in further bringing forward His Kingdom on earth as in heaven. (end)

Wm. Auld says “Christmas is essentially the festival of childhood.” “Unto us a child is born”

(It is)

But the child was born to all mankind. “To you and all mankind --- is born a Savior.”

Let it again awaken your understanding, your deepest gratitude to the Eternal, your highest praise to the Father, your joy and hope in the mercies of God.

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dates and places delivered:

Pilgrim Church, Honolulu, December 17, 1939 AM

Wisconsin Rapids, December 22, 1940