"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, Rejoice."

 

         A few years ago on a missions trip to Monterrey, Mexico, our group attended worship at a large evangelical church. The service was held in a concrete building with a metal roof, a building that had originally been a car repair garage. When the worship team got up to sing, I counted nine trumpets, two full drum sets and the usual complement of electric guitars. I thought to myself, "This could get a little loud."

         Does turning up the volume bring joy to our worship? Is rejoicing always done at high decibel levels? It certainly creates energy, but that might not be the same thing as joy. After the service some in the group said they felt great joy in the worship, and others in the group didn't hear my question.

         We are instructed to rejoice in the Lord. What does that mean? You can feel joy quietly. Oftentimes a place of quiet brings joy to us. But rejoicing is expressive, it is energetic, it is out loud. Rejoicing is a particular kind of worship. It is something you do before the Lord.

         Christmas carols are songs of joy. They came into the life of the church in the 14^th and 15^th centuries as a way to allow people to rejoice, to express joy, to sing a new song where Gregorian chant was perhaps too uniformly quiet, or where traditional hymns were dull. Christmas carols were actually secular dancing songs. A "carola" was a ring dance, and they were popular as street dances. The church took these secular songs and put new words to them, words of joy over the birth of Jesus Christ, and they became new expressions of rejoicing for Christians.

         There seems to be a need in the church to renew its music from time to time, to continually rediscover rejoicing as a vital part of worship. North Park University has just put out a new CD which was recorded at one of the Sunday evening student-led worship services. It includes selections from the gospel choir and the praise team. As you listen to it, it is very clear that these students are rejoicing before the Lord. They are discovering something about worship, again.

         When you consider the great variety of rejoicing music, you discover it is music that is very close to people's hearts and culture. There is joyful Latin music, African American music, Scandinavian music, English music, all very different, but all close to culture, all with a sense that "the Lord is near." There does not seem to be a question of right or wrong about it, or a need to have everyone agree on which is the one best way to rejoice before the Lord. Rather there seems to be something in the human spirit that desires to express joy in relation to God. There is something significant that happens to us when we worship joyfully.

This is not dependant on our circumstances. It is not, "When I feel joy in my life, then I will rejoice in worship." Rather the rejoicing comes in relation to God. So often people who have very difficult lives enter most fully into a public rejoicing before God. The church in Africa, with all its great suffering, worships joyfully. Churches in Mexico, where there is great poverty, generally sing much more loudly than American churches. Black Gospel music, which comes out the experience of oppression and prejudice, is very joyful and expressive.

         The Biblical Song of Hope is a joyful song, and it is to be sung by Gods people with rejoicing. In worship, in prayer and in service we are to express joy, a joy that is not dependant upon our own prosperity, but a joy that is dependant upon God.

         "The Lord, the Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation." To say "the Lord is my song" is different from saying "I will make up a song for the Lord" or even "the Lord has given me a song to sing." But the Lord himself is our song, so when life is difficult and its pleasures and our emotions do not give us a song, we have the strong presence of God and He is our song.

         "Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you." We are able to sing the song of Joy when we come to experience the nearness of the Lord. In the gift of Jesus, we have received Emmanuel, God with Us. In the return of Christ, we will move into a future of kingdom blessing. The Lord is near.

         "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again! Rejoice." 

         There are three words in Greek that are translated as "joy." The words become interchangeable by New Testament times, but originally carried separate meanings. So one word speaks of physical comfort and well being. Joy is the feeling that comes from health and happiness.

The next word is the joy of the banquet, the communal celebrations. It is the feeling that comes from festivals and feasts. We would call it the joy of the Christmas season.

The third word is the joy that is expressed in worship, the people of God expressing gratitude and trust for Gods salvation and for the hope of the coming kingdom. Christ enters into all three. He is the one who brings healing. He invites us to his table. He is the Messiah, who has conquered sin and death and will return in triumph.

         So, for the Christian, rejoicing is grounded in the person of Jesus Christ. The Lord himself, risen, present and returning, is the basis for all our joy. The Christmas message is a message of joy. This message is that in Jesus God has visited and redeemed his people, he has taken care of the lost, has shown good will toward men.

         But how do we rejoice? How do we move from a busy season when sometimes the joy feels imposed, to a life of welcoming Jesus, the bridegroom, and of expressing a worship that truly rejoices before God? The songs of joy we read today, from Isaiah 12 and Philippians 4, come with some instruction. There is not only the promise of the gift of joy, but a call to rejoice in the Lord. To rejoice in the Lord is to make a commitment to God. It is to honestly look at what you are currently trying to rejoice in, whether money or possessions, or pleasures or pride, and to leave those behind, and begin instead to rejoice in the Lord. That means to trust God with your life. "Surely God is my salvation." "The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song."

         Paul writes, "Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all" and "do not be anxious about anything." Gentleness is defined as an attitude of kindness expressed in a situation where the expected response would be one of retaliation. Anxiety is being unduly concerned about your life, and is especially used where persecution is the issue. Because the Lord is near, we have the faith and strength to deal with our anger and also to bring our fears to God in prayer. Then we will know the peace of God, and joy will come to our hearts.

         In Isaiah we read, "Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid." Trust is faith leaning into the future. The historical context for that word was King Ahaz, who when he got caught up in fear of the hostile reaction of some of the little surrounding countries, could not believe that God was with him, and so he made an alliance with his true enemy, the Assyrians. Trusting God and releasing our fear to him leads to joy.

         Finally Isaiah gives three instructions that can be summarized with the words, "Go for it":

         "Make known among the nations what the Lord has done."

         "Sing to the Lord."

         "Shout aloud and sing for joy."

         This means confronting our quietness, our love of comfort, our desire for safety. I was in an early morning prayer group a number of years ago. Early morning prayer meetings can be a little sleepy and dull. It takes an effort to get up and pray for an hour. So we came to feel that we should sing in our praying. None of us could carry a tune or play a note, but there was no one around to hear us, so we began to sing, and we sang loudly, as loud as we could sing, we sang to God. And it was really awful singing, so that sometimes we would have to stop and laugh before we could continue praying. But, the Lord began to work in that group, and he brought a strength and gladness to us.

         Sometimes you just have to go for it.

         "Rejoice in the Lord always. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

         Amen.