What is Christian Joy? 3rd Sunday of Advent

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I wonder what gives us the most joy in life. Is it a phone call from a friend: A letter through the post:  Winning something on the Lottery even if it’s Ten pounds. Most things that give us joy or happiness happen very quickly and are flitting.

And yet this weekend we wait in expectant hope and joy for the coming of the Lord: The Liturgy and the mood changes slightly this weekend. Notice that I am wearing Rose vestments which are only worn twice a year. The readings speak of the Joy of being a Christian and what that means. We have been baptized into the joy of God’s love and live in the joy of that love through our lives. St Paul tells us that he wants us to be happy in the Lord.

So our joy is complete in the Lord for he is the one that we love and trust.

So what is Christian joy? How do we live it? How is it different from the Joy we spoke about earlier? I have to say that if you looked around at Church sometimes you would not realise that the Joy of the Lord had penetrated anyone at all. In fact you may get the impression that it was the opposite if you look around the Church or came to be involved in the Church. It may be where the phrase comes from “Miserable as sin.” And there are a lot of people who live out this force message.
Having Christian joy is not being overly enthusiastic about everything and having that inane smile on your face that never comes off. One of the things that often give us this Christian joy is to try our best to live in the present moment: what we might call the sacrament of the present moment. What causes us most anxiety is worrying about the past or freighting about the future. And yet all we have is the here and now this present moment. This is the hardest place to live but, I believe it is here in the present moment that we find the happiness of being Christian. It meeting a person’s need as it comes sharing our gifts and talents with others. It is about seeing Christ in the person sitting next to us in the homeless person who asks for money or food, in our next door neighbour who plays their music far too loud in the person we meet struggling to get their shopping home.

What gives us Christian Joy then is living with Christ every moment of the day. And because we have recognized the person of Christ in those people then we help we give charity and do acts. It is denying one self and following the person of Christ in those we meet. 
So the secret of Christian joy is to look at the here and now see Christ in all those that we meet and in doing so being Christ to others.

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