JOY-PERSONAL THOUGHTS

JOY-PERSONAL THOUGHTS last sermon MABC

SERMON

December 24, 2006

Well, today, this 4th Sunday in Advent we’re going to focus on the 4th panel in our Christmas banner, the panel on JOY.

As some of you know, this has been a trying month for Jeri and me, so I had to work a little harder on our subject for the day.

But as most of you know JOY is a God given thing….it’s planted deep down in our souls…so that even if sometimes it seems covered over…it’s still there.

I started to work on my sermon on Friday and was very tired and sad, and then I received a call from the church’s old friend Carmine Ruggiero who was calling up here from Florida to wish all of us a Merry Christmas. We had a long talk and said our goodbyes.

Then I began to think about his days with us a church sexton.

Elaborate about Carmine…calling his home…allergic to dust, getting on ladders, the smell of paint…but in short he was a gentle, sweet good man.

So, as I said, Carmine and I stopped talking, and I found myself smiling and feeling some real joy inside because of my experiences with this good man.

There’s this drawing that Jeri and I saw once in a wonderful arts and crafts shop in Manhattan Beach CA.

It’s a drawing by   ?

Describe the drawing and read the writing on it.

God knows most of us have so many wonderful experiences and developments in our lives.

We know what it is to win sometimes and to stand on the mountain top.

But I don’t need to tell you that there is a cold and harsh side of life….and that if we’re not careful, we can allow the rigors of living….the disappointments and the losses….to drum our God given JOY right out of us.

We have to guard our JOY.

We have to hang on to it.

We have to be intentional and resolve that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, not height, nor depth, nor any thing else in creation will be able to separate us from the JOY that God has placed deep within us.

Well, some of you might be saying, Pastor, how can you talk about JOY when your beautiful Grandson, little Cray Holdsworth, died just one week ago today?

It might not be as hard as some of you think.

Most of you met Cray on one of his visits here in the past.

He was a beautiful child and just by looking at him, especially when he was younger, one couldn’t tell that he was profoundly disabled.

Describe his disabilities

Describe his smile…his word “aboo”…..

The times he almost died…..

Last Saturday…taken to hospital….sent home

His quiet, gentle death

His Memorial Service

So how can I speak about JOY today.

Because that precious little boy, in just five years,  gave to us enough joy to last us the rest of our earthly lives.

And he made us dig down into that God given JOY planted in our hearts and souls.

One final thought about JOY.

It’s about the great JOY that I feel because I was allowed to work with you in this place.

I was ordained in 1964 in the First Baptist Church of Newburyport Mass…and since then served as Pastor of that 400 member church….served as a Cadet Chaplain at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point where we had almost always 1500 worshippers in Chapel on Sundays….served in a suburban Washington DC church with several hundred members….but my time with you has been the very best of my vocational life.

It has brought me great JOY to worship with you all of these years.

It has brought me great JOY to work in your ministries of compassion. (Shelter…Sams…Aids…Kid’s Clubhouse….the Flemister House)

It has brought me great JOY to be a part of a church which is attempting to be truly inclusive, racially, in regard to gender, in regard to sexual orientation, in regard to the poor and dis-enfranchised.

It has brought me great JOY to work in the Student Ministry program here.

It has brought me great JOY to work with you individually on boards, committees, projects, etc, etc.

And not only to work with you like this,  but to be called into your lives and into your families to be with you in the times of some of your greatest joys.

I was allowed to be with you at baptisms and weddings and parties and picnics and celebrations.

I was allowed to be with you in hospitals and at gravesides.

A pastor is called upon to be with the people in some of the most intimate times of their lives.

What a JOY to me that you have allowed me to be there with you. 

You will always be in my heart and always be in Jeri’s heart. 

We give thanks for you.

We will always pray for you.

We will always remember you with JOY.

And the people said….AMEN