Soul
Joy Is Found In God and God Alone!
Third
Sunday of Advent
Joy
Sunday
Discipleship
Questions for
Sunday December 14,
2008
Scripture
First
Psalm
Second
Gospel: Jn 1:6-8, 19-28
First
A reading from the Book of the Prophet
Isaiah
I rejoice heartily in the Lord.
The spirit of the Lord
GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed
me;
he has sent me to bring
glad tidings to the poor,
to heal the
brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to
the captives
and release to the
prisoners,
to announce a year of
favor from the LORD
and a day of vindication
by our God.
I rejoice heartily in
the LORD,
in my God is the joy of
my soul;
for he has clothed me
with a robe of salvation
and wrapped me in a
mantle of justice,
like a bridegroom adorned with
a diadem,
like a bride bedecked with
her jewels.
As the earth brings
forth its plants,
and a garden makes its
growth spring up,
so will the Lord GOD
make justice and praise
spring up before all the
nations.
Responsorial Psalm Lk 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54
(R.) My soul rejoices in my God.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the
Lord;
my spirit rejoices in
God my Savior,
for he has looked upon
his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
(R.) My soul rejoices in my God.
The Almighty has done great things for
me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
(R.) My soul rejoices in my God.
He has filled the hungry with good
things,
and the rich he has sent
away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
(R.) My soul rejoices in my
God.
Second Reading 1 Thes 5:16-24
A reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians
May you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless
for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters:
Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.
In all circumstances give thanks,
for this is the will of
God for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not despise prophetic utterances.
Test everything; retain what is good.
Refrain from every kind of evil.
May the God of peace make you perfectly holy
and may you entirely,
spirit, soul, and body,
be preserved blameless
for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful,
and he will also
accomplish it.
Gospel Jn 1:6-8, 19-28
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
There is one among you whom you do not recognize.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the
light,
so that all might
believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
And this is the testimony of John.
When the Jews from
and Levites to him
to ask him, “Who are
you?”
he admitted and did not
deny it,
but admitted, “I am not
the Christ.”
So they asked him,
“What are you then? Are you Elijah?”
And he said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
So they said to him,
“Who are you, so we can give an answer to
those who sent us?
What do you have to say for yourself?”
He said:
“I am the voice of one crying out in the
desert,
make straight the way of
the Lord,
as Isaiah the prophet
said.”
Some Pharisees were also sent.
They asked him,
“Why then do you baptize
if you are not the
Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?”
John answered them,
“I baptize with water;
but there is one among
you whom you do not recognize,
the one who is coming
after me,
whose sandal strap I am not
worthy to untie.”
This happened in
where John was baptizing.
Discipleship Questions:
1.
This is Gaudate Sunday – the Joy
Sunday. The season of Advent originated
as a fast of forty days in preparation for Christmas, commencing on the day
after the feast of St. Martin, whence it was often called “
2.
Please read the following and discuss: My compact Oxford English Dictionary
defines it this way:
Joy
a vivid emotion of pleasure arising from a sense of wellbeing or satisfaction;
the feeling or state of being highly pleased or delighted; exultation of
spirit; gladness, delight.
A pleasurable state or condition; a state of happiness or felicity; the
perfect bliss or beatitude of heaven; hence the place of bliss, paradise,
heaven.
Joy is an essential spiritual practice
growing out of faith, grace, gratitude, hope, and love. Joy is our elated
response to feelings of happiness, experiences of pleasure, and awareness of
abundance. It’s also the deep satisfaction we know when we are able to serve
others and be glad for their good fortune.
Hmmmmmm . . . Yep that’s joy. The Anchor Bible Commentary defines it this way
- the experience of deliverance and the
anticipation of salvation provide the most significant occasions for rejoicing
among the people of God in the OT. The coming of the Messiah, who delivers his
people and brings salvation becomes the basis for
rejoicing in the NT. The response of joy, gladness, or happiness is not only a
deep inward feeling, but is expressed in celebration when God’s people gather
together.
Not only do God’s
people rejoice, but God himself is represented as rejoicing “in his works” (Ps
104:31) and in his people (Deut 30:9; Ps 147:11; 149:4; Zeph
3:17).
Incidentally, joy
doesn’t always have religious connotations in the OT. Good wine can bring joy
(Ps 104:15; Judg 9:13), and so also should a birthday
(Job 3:7), and the years of one’s youth or old age (Eccl 11:8–9).
3.
Read Isaiah 61:10 – “in my God is the joy of my soul.” Please reflect upon this verse and discuss.
4.
Please read the following and Discuss: C.S. Lewis wrote about joy in his biography
entitled “Surprised By Joy” and in it he defines joy –
“not
mere pleasure but the sublime experience of the transcendent, the glimpse of
the eternal that is only fleetingly available in earthly loves and aesthetics.
It is, for Lewis, only finally received in heavenly glory at the consummation
of the age, a joy to be found in the Creator who himself invented both world and word, person and personality. It is He alone
who redeems his fallen creation and provide them joy.”
Lewis goes on to write: "Joy, must be sharply distinguished
both from Happiness and Pleasure. Joy has indeed one characteristic, and
one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will
want it again...I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if
both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world.
But Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is."
Oswald Chambers
speaks about it like this: "A Life
of intimacy with God is Characterized by
Joy."
5. Please read the
following and discuss: Perhaps the most compelling scripture that I think about
when I ponder this is
Phil. 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to
all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not
be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Ah – joy comes with the nearness of our
God! Joy is not something that depends
upon the happenstance of any given situation.
It’s about nearness to the God of all God and the Lord of all Lords! Ultimately it’s about that exquisite sense of
nearness of the lover of your soul!
Imagine:
Just take a moment right now and try to imagine how you would look if
Jesus – I mean the real physical man from Galilee, came up to you and stood
right in front of you and said or did something that convinced you beyond the
shadow of a doubt that it really was Him?
Try to imagine what you would look like – what emotions would be
coursing through your mind? What
thoughts would be racing through your brain. Just
imagine now that that joy which we have been talking about suddenly came to
rest within you – what do you look like – what do you feel? What does joy feel like?
I suspect that some of us may be having some
real trouble with this little exercise perhaps because you have never
distinguished joy from happiness and perhaps because the experience of
closeness – I mean real intimacy – with our Lord – is a foreign experience to
you. I don’t know but I want to strongly
encourage you to believe that what we’re reflecting on here is a spiritual
reality that can and should be yours – sooner than later and right now the
Source of this Joy – Jesus Christ – Immanuel – God with us – is offering to
draw close to you and to bless you with this gift.
Yes, you can be happy, even content – even
emotionally well balanced but joyful?????? – that’s a
spiritual gift that comes with intimacy – closeness to God! And it’s not dependent at all upon outward
circumstances. People have been filled
with joy as they were martyred. Joy has
nothing to do with your current circumstances – outward circumstances that it –
but it has all to do with your spiritual condition – are you close to God or
not?
You can find a level of emotional groundedness with therapy but joy – ah! That will elude you until you come to terms
with the reality of God!
There are so many “joy” counterfeits. They try to imitate or impersonate joy but
they fail because joy – real joy - is a spiritual reality – a spiritual gift, that comes with our nearness to God!
And it’s so so
attractive – As Mother Theresa once said, “Joy is a net of love by which you
can catch souls.”
"What
is joy? According to a man called Sherwood Wirt from His book “Jesus Man of
Joy,” . . . “
It is the enjoyment of God and the good things that come from the hand
of God. If our new freedom in Christ is a piece of cake, joy is the
frosting. If the Bible gives us the wonderful words of life, joy supplies
the music. If the way to heaven turns out to be an arduous steep climb,
joy rigs up the chairlift. The fact is that joy is an attribute of God
Himself. It brings with it pleasure, gladness, and delight. Joy is merriment without frivolity, hilarity without raucousness,
and mirth without cruelty. Joy radiates
animation, sparkle, and buoyancy. It is more than fun, yet it has
fun. It expresses itself in laughter and elation, yet draws from a deep
spring that keeps flowing long after the laughter has died and the tears have
come. Even while those who mourn, it remains cheerful in a world that has
gone gray with grief and worry. Joy is not a sentimental word. It
has a clean tang and bite to it, the exhilaration of mountain air. It
blows away the dustiness of our days with a fresh breeze, and makes life more
carefree..."
6. Please read the following and
discuss: In his book called The
Book of Joy, Sherwood Wirt so excellently says
"The radiant joy of the Holy Spirit shining in the face of a
believer will pierce the religious fog in a friend's mind better than any
number of sermons from the pulpit. Without that joy, the Gospel of Jesus
Christ will never break down the resistance of our skeptical generation. All the ardor, the fervor, the devotion and the prayers of
the faithful may well fail to penetrate today's unbeliever unless the Gospel
message carries the same note of joy it had when it was first proclaimed. Fear
won't do it. Wrath won't do it. Arguing won't do it.
Pleading won't do it. JOY will do it. Because Satan is on a
rampage and the Christian faith is under deadly assault, many earnest
evangelicals are telling us that we must fight back. We must "defend
the Bible." But Charles Spurgeon retorts, "Defend the
Bible? I would as soon defend a lion." Righteous anger is not
the strongest weapon in God's armory. JOY is.