"THAT MY JOY MAY BE IN YOU."

May 23^rd, 2019: John 15: 9-17.

Was Jesus a joyful person? Or was he sad and serious? The gospels show us that he was both: serious, even sad, when that was appropriate; yet so filled with joy that he could say, in today=s gospel: AI have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.@

What gave Jesus joy? The beauties of nature, surely. And children. How Jesus rejoiced when little children climbed onto his lap. And what joy he felt when he healed people. 

The deepest source of Jesus= joy, however, was his relationship with his heavenly Father. Every day Jesus realized anew that wherever he might go that day, whatever he might do, he remained in his Father=s loving embrace. Not even Jesus= anguished cry on the cross, AMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?@ broke Jesus= awareness of his Father=s love and care. Jesus was speaking the first words of Psalm 22, an anguished prayer for help in suffering. The psalm concludes with an affirmation of faith in God: AYou who fear the Lord, praise him ... For he has not spurned ... the wretched man in his misery ... but when he cried out to him, he heard him...@ Even amid the pains of a horrible death, Jesus knew that his Father continued to care for him. 

Jesus= greatest joy of all came after his resurrection. Imagine the joy Jesus experienced at seeing the expressions of shocked disbelief on the faces of his frightened friends C soon turning to exultant jubilation as they realized it was truly the Master they had known and loved, gloriously alive again, victorious over our last enemy: death. 

Jesus wants us to have this joy too. He tells us this in today=s gospel: AI have told you this that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.@ And he adds: ARemain in my love.@

More than half a century ago a wise and holy Englishwoman named Evelyn Underhill wrote about joy as follows:

This is the secret of joy. We shall no longer strive for our own way; but commit ourselves, easily and simply, to God=s way, acquiesce in his will and in so doing find our peace. 

There are people here today who have experienced the truth of those words.  If you are not yet one of them, Jesus Christ is inviting you to begin C right now!