God-Inspired Joy
Speaker: Rev. Christina Fridel
Location: Whitney United Methodist Church
Date: July 12, 2009
I need you to use your imagination for a moment. Imagine a subway. This scene took place in the London subway but you can imagine any subway. Imagine what it is people are doing there. It is rush hour. The people are probably standing, listening to their iPods, reading a book, waiting for the subway train, not paying any attention to the person who is, literally, standing right next to them. They are waiting to get on a train so that they might go to work. Now imagine a bit of sound comes over the sound system and some people come out of that fray into the middle where there is nobody standing and start to dance. The then the music changes and they start dancing and choreographing to a different song, a little contemporary, a little Beethoven, a little of this, a little of that, and what happens to the people who are standing there only paying attention to their selves?
In the beginning they start looking, like, wow, what are they doing? And after a few minutes they watch people pull out their cell phones and call somebody. “Can you imagine? Look what’s happening in the subway. They’re dancing!” And after a few minutes people literally start joining them. Instead of just being uptight they’re excited. And after they’re finished there is this joy that became contagious and people indeed started cheering and talking to one another and sharing it over their cell phone. And that joy that started with just a few people wandered to all of these other people that were waiting to take the train. And when the train comes they get on and they go off to their various things. But those people who experienced that joy in that dancing that day I’m sure were not the same. I don’t think they went to work with that same sense of I’m just going to work. That joy became contagious and I suspect they shared that as they went in to the world.
Now imagine that same scene on a screen at Annual Conference. It was part of our worship experience, I believe on Saturday morning. I may be wrong about the day but it was one of the morning worship pieces and, you know, we’re coming in and we’re all a bit tired. It’s been a long time at Annual Conference and I know I was just kind of like; okay I need to wake up here. They showed that clip from You Tube which, on the internet, is a place where you can download and look at video. It actually is a commercial for T-Mobile the telephone company but they played it and the same thing happened at Annual Conference. Those of us who were sitting there kind of a little sleepy eyed went wow! What is that? And by the time they were done almost every one of us were kind of moving a little bit.
That joy that was up there on the screen became contagious to us sitting there. And then they played a song and, shoot, the name just ran out of my head. Um, David, help me. What….Ahh…shoot, I should have written it down. Well, anyway, we all danced to this, like, rock tune, you know. And many of the people at Annual Conference probably are older, and I’m sure that when that song first came on they all kind looked at who was leading us and thought, you’re crazy. But by the time we were done, almost every one of us were out of our chairs, dancing, praising God on a Saturday morning at Annual Conference because that joy became contagious. That joy of worshipping and being a part of God became contagious to everyone of us and we started dancing. And you know what happened? That joy that we experienced that morning continued through the rest of the day. You could not have begun the work we needed to do with a sour face on your face because that joy of God had been wrought within us.
That’s what I want us to celebrate this morning, that reminder that God is present with us and therefore we have that joy within us. No matter what is going on in the outside world or even what is going on in our own lives, that joy from God is present because God is present within us. That joy is not contingent upon the state of the stock market, it is not contingent on whether the sun is shining or not, it is not contingent on even whether we have health or any of those things before this we had to have to be happy. The joy of God comes because we believe in the Savior, who is present with us, who is come to be part of us and then come to help us live in the world. And that joy is contagious. That joy that comes from deep within us, that kind of bubbles up is contagious. And as we who feel it here this morning share it with our co-workers tomorrow or our neighbor this afternoon or even just in our family, they can feel that joy as well.
You know, in that story we heard this morning about David, you can feel that. David had that. David had that sense that God was so present within him and yet so present here in the Ark of the Covenant that what did he do? He started dancing. He couldn’t….he had to. It was kind of like, you know, that someone else was moving his feet. Now all of a sudden every one of this 30,000 people did it too. They started dancing because that joy was so deep within them that they didn’t have any choice. They needed to express this excitement they had.
And that is our call this morning that we live our life with that bit of joy and that just like in that subway system we move a bit, we dance a bit however that works for each of us. But that joy can be expressed to others, and I think part of that joy in church is to celebrate how God is at work, here. You know, in this week as I have talked to people and been amongst you, and even as I have talked to people before I was appointed, who either knew or had children who went here, who either had been here in the very not so distant past, or had been here years ago, they talked about how wonderful Whitney was, about that joy that they experienced here, and how much they loved worshipping at Whitney. You know, and that wasn’t just stories made up for my benefit as I’d experienced that this week, experienced is last week, experienced it this morning.
God is at work here and that joy continues as we do that work, and there is lots to celebrate here. Yes, there have been some tough times these last few months and yes, there is some things that we need to work on, but there are some things that celebrate here….a food program that brings people in that they might, indeed, have food this week. That is something to celebrate. That we feed children on Saturday, what a gift that is, that in the winter, someone can have a coat because people here care, that on Sunday we have a band that plays and a choir that sings and all of you here….there are things to celebrate because that joy of God is within every one of us.
But did you notice there was one part of that scripture that somebody didn’t get the message about joy? Did you catch that line? As the Ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out the window. She’s watching these 30,000 people dancing and she didn’t get the message that she was supposed to be excited too. She sees King David leaping and dancing in probably not a lot of clothes, a linen aphod is really kind of just a very short bit of cloth around the middle piece there. All she sees is him making a fool of himself. That’s what she sees. She looks out and she does not see joy, she does not see dancing, she does not see the ability to praise God. She sees King David making a fool of himself and she despises him in her heart. How sad that verse makes me because she could have looked out and let that joy come within her and she didn’t.
And you know there are some in this world who will do that to us. To those of us who follow Jesus they think we’re crazy. I’ve had people tell me I’m nuts, that that joy has nothing to do with God and how can you be happy and joyful when life is falling apart? How can you have joy when the economic peace in the world is crumbling amongst us? They don’t understand that joy comes from God not from us. And now God may we be able to share that joy with them a little bit.
I’m going to close this morning by reading the words that our band played as our anthem. The river of life, that river of God that is present amongst us, that flowing joy that comes from within, listen to what those words said. Down the mountain the river flows and it brings refreshing wherever it goes. Through the valleys and over the fields the river is rushing and the river, it heals. God is present so tthe river of God sets our feet to dancing. The river of God fills our hearts with tears. The river of God fills our mouths with laughter and we rejoice for the river is here. Amen. Thanks be to God. I invite us to, for just a moment, reflect on what that means for you, what does it mean that God’s joy is within you? And then we’re going to sing “Lord of the Dance” to give us a little chance to move our feet, so let us reflect for just a minute on that passage.
Oh God, thank you for your joy, for your presence, and, oh God, help us move our feet to dance and praise you and, oh God, may we share that joy just like in that subway system that others might experience that joy as well. In your name we pray. Amen