The first thing Scripture says about joy

"The first thing Scripture says about joy can be summed up in the beginning of the hymn Jesu meine Freude [Jesus, my joy][1]. This is the keynote of the biblical proclamation of the birth of Christ, of the advent of the kingdom of God in the fellowship of Jesus with his disciples, of his resurrection and ascension. (Lk 2:10; Mk 2:19; Lk 24:41,52; Joh 20:20). God wants to make us glad through Jesus Christ. He does not want to depress us or shoulder us with problems, he does not want to present us with insoluble problems, but he wants us to rejoice in Jesus Christ and his rule...This belongs to the simple things which we like to forget as we are engrossed in the difficult things, namely that we learn to be chuffed about Jesus like children. Is it not the worst case of ingratitude and obduracy of heart, if the one who came for our salvation, for deliverance, now becomes a burden to us? If our joy in Christ dwindles away, so does our love for him. Without joy in the Son of God who became man and rose from the dead we get into grumbling, dissent and sadness. But how do we find such joy? Only through the firm belief: Jesus lives! If it is really true that Jesus lives, that he testifies himself to us, guides and helps us, how can we be other than glad like the disciples when they saw him on Easter Day? (Joh 20:20)

Those who have found Christ walk their way with joy, in their joy they go and sell all that they have and buy the precious pearl (Mt 13:44 [cf. v.46]). Those who do not walk the way of Jesus become sorrowful like the rich young man (Mt 19:22). Those who commit themselves entirely to the way of Jesus will become glad in it. Such joy proves itself also in the suffering which this way can bring for us (Mt 5:12; 1. Pet 4:13ff; 2. Cor 6, 10; Phil 2:17; Col 1:24; Heb 10:24 et al.). The basis of all such joy is the nearness of Jesus (Phil 4:4). Ach, mein Herr Jesu, dein Nahesein... [My dear Lord Jesus, your closeness...][2]. At the same time there is the confidence that it is exactly in this way that the work of Jesus Christ on earth is fulfilled and completed (2 Tim 2:10). Thus the things that should bring us affliction and annihilation, by God’s wonderful grace, only strengthen our joy. If we remain in the proper joy, then it is really true: ‘No one will take your joy from you’ (Joh 16:22) because this joy will last into eternity (1 Pet 1:8).

The church is a fellowship of joy. All rejoice in the special grace received by one (1 Cor 12:26). John does not know a higher joy that seeing his children walk in the truth  (2 Joh 1:4; 3 Joh 1:4; cf 1. Cor 13:6). Paul invites his church to participate in the joy of his suffering for Jesus Christ (Phil 2:17). Jesus calls for joy with him over every sinner who repents. The whole of Lk 15 is governed by this call (15:6,9,23,32; cf 2 Cor 7:9f). Christians are a daily source of joy for one another (1 Thess 2:19; Phil 4:1). Those who have their eyes open for their fellow Christians can never lack a reason to be joyful. Isn’t it astonishing to know that not only Jesus is our joy but also our Christian brother or sister? Do we not have reason enough today to be filled with this joy?"

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Das erste was die Schrift über die Freude sagt

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[1] A hymn written by Johann Franck in 1650.

[2] The opening lines of a hymn written by Christian Gregor in 1767 which continues brings great peace into our hearts / and the sight of your grace makes us so blessed / that body and soul rejoice in it / and become grateful.

How Jesus Sends People Away

A Canaanite woman once came to Jesus and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ 

But he did not answer her at all, we are told in the Gospel according to Matthew.

When he does answer her, his words seem harsh: ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’

There is a lesson here about how we are to come to Jesus on which I have heard sermons and maybe preached myself. But I only noticed yesterday something about what intervened.

The disciples were rather bothered about the woman's shouting and urge Jesus to send her away to which he responds ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’

What sort of answer is this? ‘You're quite right. This pagan dog is a real nuisance. Let's send her on her way so that we can keep our focus on the lost sheep of Israel.’ No, that's not what Jesus said.

It seems that the disciples and Jesus knew of only one possibility of sending the woman away - by dealing with her request. Jesus does not even contemplate the possibility of shooing off the woman empty-handed. This is why he speaks of his mission.

There is an amazing gracious truth hiding in these harsh words. We cannot approach Jesus as if we had any right to have our wishes and desires fulfilled by him but neither need we fear that he will send us away entirely empty-handed.

Am Morgen der Trauerfeier und Beerdigung

Jetzt brechen wir auf und machen uns auf die Reise dieses Tages.

Wir bitten um die Gegenwart Christi,

der diesen Weg vor uns gegangen ist.

 

Herr Jesus, Du hast uns den Weg zum Vater gezeigt:

Herr, erbarme dich.

Herr, erbarme dich.

 

Herr Jesus, Dein Wort ist ein Licht auf unserem Weg:

Christus, erbarme dich.

Christus, erbarme dich.

 

Herr Jesus, Du bist der gute Hirte, leite uns zum ewigen Leben:

Herr, erbarme dich.

Herr, erbarme dich.

 

Die Liebestreue des Herrn hört niemals auf,

seine Barmherzigkeit kommt nie zu Ende.

Neu ist sie an jedem Morgen;

groß ist deine Treue.

Der HERR ist mein Teil, spricht meine Seele;

darum will ich auf ihn hoffen.

Denn der HERR ist freundlich dem, der auf ihn harrt,

und dem Menschen, der nach ihm fragt.

Gut ist es, schweigend zu harren auf die Hilfe des Herrn...

Denn der HERR verstößt nicht ewig;

sondern er betrübt wohl und erbarmt sich wieder nach seiner großen Güte.

Denn nicht von Herzen plagt und betrübt er die Menschen.

 

Himmlischer Vater,

Du hast uns nicht für Dunkelheit und Tod erschaffen,

sondern zum ewigen Leben mit Dir.

Ohne Dich haben wir nichts, auf das wir hoffen können;

mit Dir haben wir nichts zu fürchten.

Sprich zu uns jetzt Deine Worte des ewigen Lebens.

Hebe uns aus Sorge und Schuld

zum Licht und Frieden Deiner Gegenwart,

und halte uns die Herrlichkeit Deiner Liebe vor Augen,

durch Jesus Christus unseren Herrn.

Amen.

 

On the Morning of the Funeral, aus Common Worship: Pastoral Services (2011)

 

 

 

Please Don't Say These Things at my Funeral

I am with Chad Bird. So, please don’t say at my funeral…

1. He was a good man. I don't believe that humanity divides into good and bad people. Good and bad run right through each one of us. In fact, given the good upbringing and many privileges I have enjoyed, you'd be appalled how much bad there still is, if only you knew.

2. Thomas this...Thomas that..."If anyone’s name comes up over and over, let it be the name that is above every name—Jesus. He is the one who has conquered death. He is the one in whose arms I will have died. He is the one, the only one, who gives hope to the bereaved. Let me decrease that Christ may increase."

3. God now has another angel. My death and resurrection are not going to make me less human. "In fact, once I am resurrected on the last day, I will be more human than ever before," free from the sin that has distorted my humanity.

4. We are not here to mourn Thomas' death, but to celebrate his life. If you think celebrating my life will do you good, go ahead, but not at the expense of a proper funeral. I am in agreement with Chad's earlier post on the tragic death of the funeral.

5. Thomas would not want us to weep. "There is a time for giving life and a time for dying...a time for weeping and a time for laughing..." (Ecclesiastes 3). That's all right. "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). If you don't feel like weeping, that's all right too.

6. What’s in that coffin is just the shell of Thomas. "What’s in that coffin is the body that was fearfully and wonderfully made ... in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13-14). What’s in that coffin is the body that Jesus baptized into His own body ... What’s in that coffin is the body that ate the saving body of Jesus, and drank His forgiving blood in the Supper, that I might consume the medicine of immortality." I don't know how this body will relate to my new embodied self but I trust the promise that the physical body has a future. Don't diss it.

"I want the beginning of my funeral to be focused on Jesus, as well as the middle, as well as the end, as well as every point in between. I care about those who will attend. Let them hear the good news, especially in the context of this sobering reminder of mortality, that neither death, nor life, nor anything else in all creation, can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ, our Lord, for He is the resurrection and the life."

God and Pain

If I were God, I'd end all the Pain, says John Dickson in a book whose subtitle is Struggling with Evil, Suffering and Faith (Matthias Media 2001, rev. ed. 2002).

John Dickson loves to doubt (question) everything. This is how he introduces himself. "So, whatever else this book represents, at its heart it is a tribute to doubt."

The last one standing: John Dickson doesn't propose to settle the questions raised. He compares the perspective found in the Bible with alternative perspectives on suffering and suggests that the biblical is the most intriguing and beautiful one on offer.

The alternatives. In Hinduism suffering is a question of balance. Present suffering is pay-back for past evil, quite possibly evil committed in a previous life. It's intellectually satisfying. Everyone gets what they deserve until one's individual karma allows one to escape physical existence altogether and attain nirvana. Emotionally or existentially it is maybe less satisfying.

Buddhism proposes that suffering is an illusion. "Buddha came to believe that our experience of suffering was intimately related to our desire or affection for the things of the world." Remove the desire (e.g., for good health, for a better life) and the suffering (e.g., from bad health or poverty) is gone. "Philosophically, the Buddha's insight is profound. There is little question that our experience of suffering is related to desire. If I desire a full stomach, starvation will feel like suffering; if I desire human intimacy, being widowed will appear to be a tragedy; if I desire wealth, bankruptcy will look like a misfortune, and so on. Remove these desires, and all such feelings dissipate." But can I live this way?

Islamic thought puts emphasis on all events in history, including all suffering, as absolutely determined by the will of God for reasons unknowable, and indeed unquestionable, by us. For the Muslim "the cause of suffering is therefore not to be found in any factor external to God, such as the doctrine of karma in Hinduism or philosophizing about 'desire' in Buddhism, but in the personal activity of the Sovereign God. Suffering thus becomes an opportunity for the faithful to 'submit' (true to the meaning of Muslim) to Allah's indisputable will, and to reaffirm the central creed that Allah is the 'Cause of all causes'."

Within Atheism suffering is natural, "the unhappy by-product of a universe driven only by the random intersection of time and space. Everything that happens in the world - whether good or bad - happens without any design and without any thought of us at all." [The very use of value judgements like "good" or "bad" may be problematic in this view.] Can anyone really live consistently believing this?

Invitation to doubt. "One of the distinguishing things about the Good Book's approach is that it stops short of providing a single, all-governing answer such as that found in Hinduism ('balance') or in Atheism ('natural')." Especially in the Psalms, "the God of the Bible bids us to approach him with our doubts, our fears and our frustrations." It's personal engagement that matters.

The justice of God. A world without pain and suffering could have been created in the form of a Truman Show, God playing dolls-house with the world. "Much of the suffering we experience in the world is a direct result of [our] God-given independence being turned to ill effect, being turned into autonomy. And so we are able to say No to the ways of the Maker: No to justice and peace; No to marital faithfulness; No to sharing resources with the poor; No to equal rights for all; No to daily human kindness." But God pledges justice in a Day of Judgement at the end of history.

The renewal of all things. In the biblical story the disorder of nature is related to human sin, as we are intimately connected with our world and God pledges to renew "the creation damaged by our displacement of God" - the resurrection of Christ demonstrates that God means to renew the physical world.

The wounds of God. Unlike the Aristotelian and Islamic 'Unmoved-Mover' the God presented in the Bible is a 'Deeply-Moved-Mover' who has himself wounds." The God who is in control of all things, who acts behind the scenes in all things, is also the God who willingly suffers. He is the one I can shout at, cry with and find comfort in. His heart, if not all his ways, is clear to me because on the cross he wore it on his sleeve for all to see."

"Christ's death is more than an identification with us. The Bible makes clear it is a substitution for us." From it springs the invitation to mercy through which I can experience the forgiveness of sins now and the renewal of all things then.

Aquinas on Happiness

Chapter 4 of Ellen T. Charry’s God and the Art of Happiness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010) on Saint Thomas Aquinas includes a review of Aristotle’s teaching on happiness. “Happiness is not a matter of acquiring something outside us, but of adopting a particular way of life….Happiness is being an excellent person, and that is demanding; learning to “do” one’s life excellently takes time…The path to happiness sis unflinchingly social, not private, because it takes place in the context of interpersonal and public relationships and behaviors. One must know what behaviors to cultivate, and this knowledge comes from a good upbringing that inculcates moral discipline and good priorities, as well as from a keen intellect that practices good judgment.”

“Thomas is especially interested in knowing God, and, though he does not always call it happiness, life’s goal is to know God perfectly…Perfect knowledge of God is perfect happiness for Aquinas.”

“Aquinas is unique among theologians in that mixed in with his eschatological vision is a temporal construal of happiness that is experiential. He is the first Christian theologian to embrace temporal flourishing in this life by enjoying material goods – though it is a minor theme, one inspired by Aristotle.”

“Happiness…is knowledge and not physical well-being. It is an intellectual activity that is completed by delight in loving what we desire….Ultimate happiness is a spiritual activity: it is seeking our ultimate good, which is, of course, God. Complete happiness is knowing God utterly…Knowing God is not information about God but an intimacy with divinity itself (the divine mind, essence, or nature) that satisfies the soul’s deepest desire; it is simultaneously intellectual and emotional joy, in which love infuses knowledge.”

“Since happiness is knowing the divine mind, we are hamstrung using our mind alone because our little minds cannot grasp the divine mind.” “By becoming spiritually adept, one becomes emotionally secure and less needful of external sources of gratification. This benefit is lost on those who miss the signs of God in this world that would enable them to understand the true source of goodness.”

“Divine illumination is the foundation of Aquinas’s doctrine of happiness: God is both the means and the object of human happiness.”

All things are purposeful and God uses secondary means to make creatures flourish in fulfillment of their God-given purpose. “Acting on things for their good advances their purpose, and as this happens we are also improving: enhancing the flourishing of others enhances our own. This is enjoying ourselves and being happy in this life.”

“Virtue is necessary but not sufficient for temporal happiness. This is a deep break with Christian Stoicism and Neo-Platonism. Even if it is an intellectual pleasure, enjoyment is embodied and the body contributes to happiness (art. 5). Happiness needs a healthy body because poor health can impede virtue and thus impede the correct orientation or will toward selecting appropriate desires. At the same time, ‘happiness of soul overflows into body which drinks of the fullness of the soul’ (art. 5). Physical and spiritual pleasures work together because soul and body are an indivisible unity.”

“Thomas made two contributions to the developments of the Christian doctrine of happiness. First, he integrated Augustine’s notion of happiness residing in the enjoyment of God with divine illuminations, the beatific vision, and immortal life. These were all Augustinian themes, but the bishop did not unify them. Aquinas incorporated Aristotles’ valorizing of personal well-being into Augustinian theology to create a genuine if limited Christian doctrine of terrestrial happiness while sustaining central interest in eschatological happiness.

        His second contribution is that he recognized that terrestrial happiness prepares one for eternal bliss. Augustine did not emphasize the continuity between material and spiritual happiness, which Aquinas appreciated more. For his part, Boethius tried to wean us from relying on good fortune and the ability to accumulate wealth, power, fame, and reputation; Aquinas, by contrast, valued mundane happiness because he saw continuity between temporal and eternal bliss: temporal happiness is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, and enables us to anticipate and yearn for eschatological fulfillment even more. To the degree that achieving this goal requires good attitudes, a well-disposed mind and body, and friends, divine grace enables us to be happy in this life. Thomas viewed the great river of time and space that we occupy as the arena in which the desire to celebrate our life in the goodness of God’s creation, however imperfectly, enables us to develop knowledge of God and hope for eternal bliss.”

“Illumination is the gift of loving and wanting to know God utterly; it gives unifying purpose to life.”

Boethius on Happiness

The consolation genre of ancient literature was not designed to comfort but to exhort readers to get on with life rather than wallow in self-pity. The Consolation of Philosophy by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 482-c. 525) is more confrontational than other works of that genre and “unusual in that the author exhorts himself” as Boethius is in prison facing execution for a political offense he did not commit. Most commentators agree that “it is a Neo-Platonic exhortation…to embrace God as the means to overcome sentimental self-pity.” Its Christian character is rather less obvious.

Boethius suggests that “perhaps only ill fortune will capture our attention so that we can focus on the source of true happiness. Shifting reliance from fortune to God is the wake-up call of the work.”

“Ill fortune is a blessing in disguise. In addition to helping us see ourselves more clearly, it enables us better to distinguish true from false sources of happiness by stripping us of pride in our cleverness and virtue.”

“True happiness is the realization that only one “substance” is self-sufficient, powerful, honorable, famous, and even pleasurable. The good that people seek piecemeal in so many different temporal goods is, it turns out, one simple “substance”: goodness itself. Those who seek happiness in wealth, office, reputation, and bodily pleasure are grasping at pieces of goodness, for wanting them is to desire the good. Seeking the good in objects rather than activities is misplaced. Happiness can never be attained in this way because it is not to be had when enjoying any of these goods. The seeker who looks there confuses the pleasure these objects bring with genuine happiness that is enjoying goodness itself even when that brings no external reward and even misfortune.”

“The issue is that we do not know what true happiness is because we do not know what is truly worth wanting.” Material pleasure is insufficient, we must acquire divinity. “That is, when we realize that we partake of the ordered beauty and goodness that is God, enjoying that goodness becomes the basis on which we enjoy the world and find the power, riches, and wealth that we were looking for in their material expressions.”

In suffering we must not think of ourselves as “victims of fate” but “beneficiaries of divine providence.” “The suffering of the just enables us to discover our strengths and to exercise virtue. They give others examples to follow, and unjust death brings posthumous renown.”

“Happiness is commonly thought of experientially; Boethius rejects that notion because experience is unreliable…Happiness is an outlook arising from a staunch commitment to divine omnipotence and goodness in the face of contradictory experience…Believing that one’s misfortunes are part of a larger invisible divine plan for the well-ordered functioning of the cosmos should enable the sufferer to be content that his suffering is not pointless or that it damages the divine reputation…Ultimately, happiness is participating in divine intelligence wherein all makes sense.”

Notes from Ellen T. Charry, God and the Art of Happiness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010) who comments further “This is a hard teaching. Happiness is enjoying being part of the divine plan. While there is nothing in Boethius’s presentation that departs from Christian theism…the redemptive dimension of Christian theology that gives hope is missing. His notion of happiness is tinged with despair about the need to be ever striving for intellectual perfection and vigilant against feels of dejection, anger, and defeat. Boethius offers only the power of unremitting strength, unqualified by relaxed joy…Because Augustine compassionately gave credence to suffering, he could not take the hard line that Boethius did. Augustine’s future eschatology offers hope of reward while counseling endurance now. Boethius offers a realized eschatology, at the expense of succor for the suffering in this life. That being said, Boethius does believe he is succoring sufferers, only not in the way they might hope. Succor is the strength not to be brought low by experience but to rise above it and to exercise one’s dignity by doing so.”