Easter Season of “Joy?”

On the second Sunday of Easter, April 12th, I preached a sermon on 1 Peter 1:3-9. I talked about how happiness can be experienced by one person at a time and it is fleeting. Joy, on the other hand, is more than just an emotion and is experienced communally — together. Joy is something that we are commanded to have and indeed is one of the fruits of the Spirit:

"This is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalms 118:24).

"Rejoice in the Lord, always, and again I say, rejoice" (Philippians 4).

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:16).

22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another (Galatians 5:22-25 NRSVUE).

After preaching on this, Sunday April 12th, only a few hours later I was challenged by the devastating call that Larry Strother had just died! It is far easier to preach and teach about the ways of Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit, than it is to live them out in trust and faith. This is true for pastors (including me) as much as it is for others. Some have counseled pastors NOT to become friends with your congregation, but I am a failure in that regard. I have actually made some of the best friends of my life here in this congregation. So, my heart does become heavy!

That being said, I want to reflect some more on the Easter joy that we have in a crucified, dead, and yet risen Savior, one that called his followers “friends!”

Essayist Ross Gay connects sorrow, joy, and solidarity:

What happens if joy is not separate from pain? What if joy and pain are fundamentally tangled up with one another? Or even more to the point, what if joy is not only entangled with pain, or suffering, or sorrow, but is also what emerges from how we care for each other through those things? What if joy, instead of a refuge or relief from heartbreak, is what flows out from us as we help each other carry our heartbreaks?

Ross suggests that the joy that emerges from our coming alongside other(s) who are suffering, leads to solidarity (working and living and loving one another as a team rather than just rugged individualism). Then that newly experienced solidarity leads to more joy. Picture a seesaw. On one side of the seesaw is pain and suffering. But then on the other side is solidarity (people who come into someone else’s pain and suffering). That solidarity brings joy that doesn’t eliminate pain and suffering on the other side of the seesaw, but joins it, leading more to join in solidarity on the other side.

This is what happens when our church rallies around the spouse and family of loved ones when tragedy strikes. This is what happens when we send a team to rebuild structures and lives in Western NC after a hurricane ravages their world. This brings us together in a way that puts love, joy and peace… as a stronger reality than division, loss and isolation.

I want to highlight what God is doing in and through our church that so moves me… moves me to want more… to try with all of my mind, body, spirit and strength to be moving in and with the rhythm of Christ Jesus. God is moving with us! God’s presence did not go away when Jesus died! God was in the pain and suffering and yet God turns that which is meant for evil into good (see Joseph story in Genesis 50:20). Indeed, God can transform evil and tragedy in our lives into something that deepens our encounter with God’s unconditional love. We saw, and see, our promised future, which changes and transforms the way we live in the present. As He is (Jesus is), so shall we be (new body in an existence more than three dimensional — more than the limits of time, space and matter).

22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:22-23 NRSVUE).

There is joy when we worship, suffer and rejoice together along the way. We are called to stand, not in solitude throughout our lives, but in solidarity with God and other(s), especially when life becomes hard and tragic! Then may it be as Jesus desired:

1 If, then, there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…

In Christ!Dr. Fitzgerald

Ross Gay, Inciting Joy: Essays (Algonquin Books, 2022), 4, 9–10Philippians 2:1-5 NRSVUE