Luke 2:8-12 The Gifts of Christmas: Joy
Connoisseurs of Joy
So there’s this phrase that’s been rattling around in my brain for the last few weeks: connoisseur of joy. That’s what I want to be. I want to be a connoisseur of joy.
The definition of connoisseur is someone who knows a lot about a particular subject. A connoisseur is someone who appreciates the finer details of something: usually art or food or wine. Well, I want to be a connoisseur of joy.
I want to be someone who is on the lookout for joy. Someone who collects and savors experiences of joy. I want to be an expert in joy.
Sometimes it happens that I become obsessed with a particular food. Lately, it’s been Ramen. When Ellie and I went down to the state volleyball championship last fall in Coralville, we found a Ramen shop right next to the arena, and it was fantastic. This big bowl of broth with noodles in it, and hunks of meat and a soft-boiled egg and raw vegetables like bean sprouts and seaweed chips. It’s fantastic. So many different flavors and textures, and it tastes fresh and even healthy.
I’ll tell you a secret, I don’t really mind that Ellie chose to go to Iowa instead of UNI, because whenever we go down there to see her it gives me an excuse to go to the Ramen shop. We ate there on the day of her campus visit. We ate there the day she moved in. I love it.
I’ve even started experimenting with making my own Ramen at home. You’re probably familiar with these cheap little Ramen packs. They’re great for college students and people on a tight budget. You can still get them for like 50 cents a pack. Well I’ve taken to jazzing mine up. I take packages of minute steak and cut them into strips, and then I cook them in Teriyaki sauce. Then I saute some onions and peppers and maybe take some slivers of carrot and a soft-boiled egg and then I make the Ramen according to the package and dump it all together. It’s not as good as the Ramen shop in Coralville, but it gets the job done.
Then, last week, Ellie and I went to Milwaukee for an NBA game (I’m a big UNI basketball fan. In all the history of Panther basketball, there’s only been one player to make it to the NBA, his name is AJ Green and he starts for the Bucks. So we went to watch him.) It was kind of a rainy day, so we ended up downtown at the Public Market, which is a big indoor space filled with specialty food shops and restaurants. We walked around it a couple of times trying to figure out what we would have for supper, and then I saw it. A barbeque restaurant that was offering a spicy, BBQ Ramen. They took big hunks of smoked brisket and caramelized them and then added them to the ramen noodles with a beef brisket and sweet corn with jalapenos and red onions and mushrooms and an egg. It was fantastic. I’ve been thinking about it all week, trying to figure out the next time we’ll go back to Milwaukee.
So anyway, I think I’m becoming a connoisseur of Ramen. I’ve become obsessed with it. I’m wondering what it would take to convince someone to open a Ramen shop in Allison.
And, in the same way, I think we should become connoisseurs of joy. That’s my goal for myself, my goal for this church. That we would be connoisseurs of joy. That we would seek joy out. Savor it. Never stop talking about it. I want us to be obsessed with joy.
Let me give you some quotes:
C.S. Lewis, the author who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia said: “Joy is the serious business of heaven.”
A preacher named Lewis Smedes said: “To miss out on joy is to miss out on the reason for your existence.”
And John Ortberg, a preacher and author from California, writes: “Joy is the heart of God’s plan for human beings.”
We were made for joy. The Bible commands joy. “Rejoice in the Lord always, I’ll say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4)
Jesus defined His mission in terms of joy, saying: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)
Joy is central to what it means to be a Christian. Joy encapsulates the mission of Jesus. I’d say that if there is one single idea that I want to give my life to, it is the idea that living for Jesus is the best possible life any of us can live. I want to be a part of a church that is filled with joy. Connoisseurs of joy.
Mega-Joy
And Christmas is all about joy. This Christmas season I’ve been talking about the gifts of Christmas. I’ve been talking about what Christmas creates in us. Things that are possible because Jesus came. You see the gifts up here: hope, compassion, generosity and servanthood.
Now, today, joy. Listen again to part of the Christmas story from Luke 2:
8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
The heart of the angel’s announcement—his description of the message he has been sent to deliver—is “good news of great joy.” The message of Christmas—the message of Christianity—is a message of joy.
I love the phrase the angel uses. “Good news of GREAT joy.” In the original language of the Bible—which is Greek—the word is actually one we’re familiar with. It’s the strongest possible superlative. It’s mega. The angels are announcing good news of MEGA joy.
Just moments earlier, when the angel first showed up, we’re told that the shepherds were terrified. The old King James Version says they were “sore afraid.” And believe me, if an angel suddenly appeared to you in the middle of the night, you’d be sore afraid too. The Greek word there is the same as in the angel’s announcement—mega. They were mega afraid. But now the angel is saying that the same level of intensity that marked their fear should also be attendant to their happiness.
Jesus’ birth is good news of MEGA joy. The angel is saying that this is the greatest good news ever. It’s a message of mega-gladness. It is a story of greatest possible happiness. It is good news of mega-joy.
And so, I want to invite you all to be connoisseurs of joy. Be joyful people. If we look at the angel’s statement, we’ll find three reasons for joy.
God On Earth
First, the angel says we can be joyful because the Lord has come. There can be great joy at Christmas because God has come to earth.
Here’s what the angel says:
11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
The angel is saying something very significant: Christ isn’t Jesus’ last name, it’s a title. It’s not “Jesus Christ” like it is “Russell Muilenburg.” Rather, it would be more proper to say “Jesus the Christ” like you would say “Russell the pastor.” To call Jesus the Christ is to say something profound.
Christ is the Greek way of saying “Messiah.” The people of Israel were waiting for the Messiah. They were waiting for a hero, a holy one, the long expected one—who would come and set Israel free from their captivity. When the angel says that this baby lying in a cattle stall down in King David’s city is the Christ, he’s saying that this is the one Israel has been hoping for. This is the hero that has been promised.
But there’s more: not only is He the “Christ”, He’s the Lord. That is to say: He’s God. Lord is the way the Old Testament talks about God. It’s the way the Israelites translated God’s name: YHWH. They didn’t dare say the name aloud, so they substituted the word for Lord.
So the angel is saying that this baby in the manger is actually God in human flesh. Christ the Lord has come into the world that He created and rules. The King has entered into the world of His subjects.
As the song says: “Joy to the World, the lord has come/Let earth receive her king.”
Interesting fact about that song: it wasn’t written to be a Christmas carol. It’s actually a paraphrase of a Psalm of David.
Isaac Watts, who wrote “Joy to the World”, lived in England at a time when only the Psalms were sung in church. Everybody wanted to be careful only to use Biblical language in worship. The problem was, many of these Psalms were rhymed so poorly and set to music so bad that they were virtually unsingable. Samuel Wesley, the father of the famous brothers John and Charles Wesley, called them “scandalous doggerel”. His opinion was shared by many.
The story goes that when Isaac Watts was 15 he went to a church service where the singing was particularly bad and complained about it afterward. A church deacon heard his complaint and challenged him: “Give us something better.” So he did. That night the church sang the first of what would be nearly 750 songs written by Isaac Watts.
His most famous song is probably “Joy to the World.” And, as I said, it wasn’t originally intended to be a Christmas song. It first appeared in a collection of music called Psalms of David Imitated in which Watts was trying to imitate David with New Testament language. Joy to the World is an paraphrase of Psalm 98:
Shout for joy before the Lord, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy;
9 let them sing before the Lord,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with equity.
The point, again: God has come to earth. We can rejoice that our king has joined us in human flesh.
Born that Man No More May Die
Second, the angel says we can be joyful because He is a Savior. There can be great joy at Christmas because God has acted to rescue us from our sins. Verse 11 again:
11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
Here’s where Israel’s expectation of a Messiah and what Jesus actually came to do diverge. For most Israelites, the hope was for a conquering hero, a mighty warrior who would throw off the jackboot of Roman oppression and lead a revival of military and economic success for the nation of Israel. But what the angel was pointing to was something quite different.
Jesus was born into this world to do something about mankind’s greatest problem, our biggest enemy. That wasn’t the Romans, or an enemy army. It wasn’t something outside of us. No, our greatest enemy comes from within us. Our greatest enemy is our sin.
You see, sin is the reason there is sickness and pain and sorrow. Sin is the reason that some of us are going to have empty chairs at our Christmas dinners tomorrow. Sin is the reason we die.
And Jesus came to do something about our sin. I love the line that we just sang from “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”:
Mild He lays His glory by;
Born that man no more may die.
That’s what the angel means when he calls this little baby a savior. You can’t talk about Christmas without talking about the cross. Jesus’ purpose in coming was always about His death. It was by going to the cross and shouldering the guilt our sins had earned that Jesus was going to save us. It was the only way.
And, by the way, since I quoted from it, let me tell you an interesting story about “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” It was written by Charles Wesley, who wrote over 6,000 hymns during his life (you thought Isaac Watts was impressive at 750). Wesley seemed to write songs constantly. Stories are told of him stopping his horse and running up to the houses of strangers to ask for “pen and ink” so that he could record a line or two.
The thing is: Wesley didn’t like people tinkering with his songs. In those days, copyright law wasn’t that strong, so it wasn’t unusual for printers to borrow songs to fill out their hymnals. This happened to Wesley a lot. At one point he even printed a little disclaimer at the beginning of one of his hymnals saying:
Many gentlemen have done my brother and me (though without naming us) the honor to reprint many of our hymns. Now they are perfectly welcome to do so, provided they print them just as they are. But I desire they would not attempt to mend them, for they are really not able. None of them is able to mend either the sense or the verse.
Charles seems a bit fussy. And I love his confidence that nobody can make his songs better than they already are.
And yet, somebody did tinker with “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, and we can be grateful for it. In its original form the song actually read:
Hark, how all the welkin rings
“Glory to the King of kings;”
Welkin was an old English term for “vault of heaven.” It’s probably not a song we’d be singing today if that’s the way it was still worded. It was actually a friend of Charles Wesley—George Whitefield—who mended the lyrics. And we can be glad for it. Though I read that Wesley refused to sing this version of the song through the rest of his life.
Broken Organs
So: two reasons we can be joyful: Because the Lord has come, and because He is a Savior. Now, third: He is for all people. This good news of great joy is for everybody. Verse 10:
10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
It’s significant that the angels were sent to shepherds. The first people to receive the announcement of the Savior’s birth were not exactly the elite of society. Shepherds were considered to be low class, untrustworthy, dirty.
God seems to be making a point. Jesus didn’t just come for people who had it all together. Jesus didn’t come just for the rich or the powerful. He came for all the people. And that includes you.
Let me tell you one more Christmas carol story. The year was 1818 in the tiny village of Oberndorf, Austria. Father Joseph Mohr was the assistant parish priest at St. Nicholas church. Franz Gruber was the organist. And on this particular Christmas Eve, there was a problem: the church organ was broken. They tried everything they could think of to fix it, but with no success.
So Father Joseph went to make some parish calls while the organist was left to pace and try to figure out how to have a Christmas Eve service without any music. While Father Joseph was doing his visiting, he visited a home where a young baby had just been born. As he left the small house, he was struck by the beauty of the mountain evening and imagined that things must have looked a lot like this on the night Jesus was born. So he started to compose a song: “Stille nacht, heilig nacht.”
When he got back to the church he found a guitar and handed it and the words to Franz Gruber, his organist. Gruber said: “What am I supposed to do with this? I’m an organist.” Father Joseph said: “Well, surely you know some chords…” “Well, I know three…” “Then write a tune with three chords and if nothing else the people of our church will be able to say they heard a duet sung by their pastor and musician.”
And so, that’s what they did.
And think, if it hadn’t been for a broken pipe organ the world would never have heard the song: “Silent Night, Holy Night/All is calm/all is bright.”
God has the ability to take broken organs and make beautiful music out of them.
In a way, we are all like broken organs. We all have our flaws and our failures. We’ve all made mistakes. We’ve all come up short.
I don’t know what your story is, or what brought you here tonight. Maybe you’re here because you’re with family. Maybe you’re here because going to church is what you do on Christmas Eve. Maybe you’re here because you are feeling lost and distant from God.
Maybe joy is the farthest thing from your mind right now. Maybe you feel like a broken pipe organ.
But I want you to know that the message of Christmas is a message of good news of great joy for all people. And that includes you. Jesus came so He could be Savior of your life. He wants to be your Lord.
