Leaping For Joy
Sermon
PROPHETS, PIONEERS AND POSSIBILITIES
Sermons for Pentecost [Last Third]
The scene was the Connecticut House of Representatives in Hartford. The date was May 19, 1780. About noon the skies began to darken and by midafternoon the sky was pitch black. Many people were struck with fear believing Judgment Day had come. Some of the representatives fell to their knees begging God to avert this catastrophe; others called for an immediate adjournment. Colonel Davenport, the Speaker of the House, rose to his feet and stated: “The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish, therefore, that candles may be brought.”1
How would you respond to the announcement that the end of the world had come? Would “the Day of Judgment” strike fear in your own heart?
Not a few so-called prophetic teachers of the Bible make a living out of feeding on fear of the end time. How tempting it is for prognosticators to pretend to know the exact date and to know the key figures involved when the day of the Lord will come. All my life I have heard predictions that the particular decade in which I happened to be living would be the one when Christ would return. The antichrist was supposed to be Hitler, then he was supposed to be Stalin. He became whomever the latest, most powerful dictator might be. Every time predictions of precise dates and the identification of specific personalities associated with the second coming have to be revised. Jesus stated explicitly that no one knows when all of these “last things” will take place, not even him, only the Father (Matthew 24:36). Despite that clear warning some people are still gullible and trust certain prophetic teachers to have esoteric knowledge that no one else possesses. They really are convinced that someone has the key that will unlock the mystery of the ages.
One of our church members handed me several sheets of paper that he said were attached to the front door of the church building. The pages consist of a series of disjointed Scripture quotations with the predominant theme of God’s impending judgment. The papers do not contain the scriptural emphasis upon God’s grace, peace and forgiveness.
Who would write such words? Perhaps they were written by someone who sincerely does believe the end of the world is at hand, or they were written by a discontented person who has soured on life. We will probably never know.
Might the one who placed those papers on the church door be someone who thought our young congregation was not taking our work seriously enough? What with all the times of fellowship and refreshment after worship, covered dish dinners and little and big parties here and there it could seem to someone that all we do is have a good time. I am not convinced that partying is a bad thing. After all, we have labored, struggled and sacrificed in order to see our new church take shape. It has been good for all of us to take time off periodically to laugh, to feast and to enjoy each other’s company.
Such thoughts bring us to our scriptural passage for the day in the book of Malachi. The prophet is speaking to his people who have become discouraged. They have begun to question the wisdom that other people who ignore or violate the law of Moses seem to prosper. Should they not soften their consciences and follow suit?
Malachi declares the word of the Lord admonishing his people to continue in their faithfulness to the law of Moses. The day of the Lord is coming. That great day will be preceded by the appearance of Elijah who personifies all true prophets in Israel. Furthermore, the day of the Lord will bring the conquest of evil and the triumph of God’s people who remain bound both to the law and the prophets.
Employing the imagery of the sun Malachi sees all those who have followed evil being burned up like stubble. The faithful, on the other hand, will receive from the same sun “with healing in its wings” wholeness and salvation. Malachi’s words are consistent with the main points of Hebrew prophecy regarding the end time.
The prophet also includes another enlightening image in his summary. I was struck by the vibrancy of the following words: “… you shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall (Malachi 4:2b).”
For those who believe the day of the Lord will be like calves, which having spent the night in their stalls, at daybreak go leaping about joyfully in the sunlight. Such will be the joy of the faithful in that day. The prophet’s exhortation to leap for joy is an even better response to “the Day of Judgment” than Colonel Davenport’s desire to do his duty.
Consider what practical implications for the journey of faith this fascinating simile suggests.
Leaping For Joy Implies Celebration
First of all, leaping for joy implies celebration.
The note of celebration is sounded throughout the pages of the Scriptures. As we have just noticed, Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, ends with celebration, like calves bursting forth from their stalls at daybreak. The book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, also ends with celebration, like the marriage supper of the Lamb.
In between, celebrations of one kind or another abound. Jesus in one of his parables tells of a man who accidentally stumbled upon a treasure while plowing in a field. Overcome with joy he goes and sells all that he has to buy that field. Jesus tells another parable about a merchant who searches the world for the pearl of great price. Once he finds it, he sells all that he has to purchase that one pearl. The kingdom of heaven is like that; it is worth abandoning everything else in order to obtain it.
If celebration is going to be characteristic of the great day of the Lord in the future, should we not be learning how to celebrate here and now?
When C. S. Lewis came to write his autobiography he titled it Surprised by Joy. How else could he explain what happened to him? God reached this skeptical Oxford University professor one day while he was riding a bus. He was so startled by the awareness of God’s loving presence that he could only describe the intervention by saying he was ‘‘surprised by joy.” Henceforth, he devoted the rest of his life to being “an apostle to the skeptics” seeking to convince disbelieving intellectuals that the Gospel was indeed a treasure of celebration.
Many people who enter the kingdom testify to the party-like atmosphere. Following the Lord is not drudgery. There is no room for long faces in the company of the redeemed. Despite its clear-cut demands Christian discipleship is deeply satisfying. There is a direct link between obedience and joy. We begin in obedience and end in joy. No one has more of a claim on celebration than the one who has been stirred by God’s amazing grace.
Even though the celebrative mood has a solid scriptural base, how often the upbeat, life-affirming person is suspect. One of my favorite Lincoln anecdotes is about the two Quaker ladies who were talking about the two leaders in the Civil War. The one woman insisted that Jefferson Davis and his cause would win. When challenged by the other woman to explain why, she said: “Because Jefferson Davis is a praying man.” The other replied: “Abraham Lincoln is a praying man, too.” “Yes,” retorted the first woman, “but the Lord will think Abraham is joking.”
There was something about Lincoln’s carefree, almost irreverent, manner that made many people question his sincerity. Lincoln, however, was a compassionate man who not only could laugh at others but could laugh at himself, too.
If we are to know something of the joy of the kingdom we must find out how to celebrate.
Leaping For Joy Implies Play
Second, leaping for joy not only implies celebration but it also implies play.
Surely, the calves in Malachi’s striking image were not only celebrating their release from the long night in their stalls, but also they undoubtedly lost little time in frolicking about with the exuberance of sheer play.
If there is going to be play in that great day of the Lord in the future, should we not be cultivating the art of play here and now.
Sparky Anderson is one of the best major league baseball managers of all time. He managed the Cincinnati Reds (“The Big Red Machine”) during their glory days in the 1970s and currently manages the Detroit Tigers. He is the only major league manager in history to win a World Series in both the National and the American Leagues. How does he approach his job? He contends that anyone who sees managing as a job is in the wrong business. In his own words: “This is not a job. This is fun.”2
What would an Olympic swimmer say about Sparky’s boundless enthusiasm? Betsy Mitchell from Marietta, Ohio, has won gold medals in the 1984 Olympics, the 1990 Goodwill Games and in other competition. She presently holds the American record for the 100 meter backstroke swimming event. Her mother started her swimming at an early age. By the time she was nine or 10 years old she was beginning to show signs of being a good swimmer. Her Marietta YMCA coach observed, however, that at that time many people thought Betsy fooled around too much. She did not take her sport seriously enough. On the other hand, perhaps it was her playful attitude toward swimming that actually made it possible for her later to become a champion swimmer.
Not just major league baseball managers and Olympic swimmers view life in terms of play, but other supposedly serious-minded people do, too. For instance, Annie Dillard, the perceptive essayist and nature writer, tells of doing research on a book during a summer at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia. Tired of reading one afternoon, she gazed out the library window and caught sight of a softball game in progress. Since she just happened to have her fielder’s glove with her, she went to see if she could join the game. As it turned out, the ball players were part of a music camp being held at the college for two weeks. She soon determined that the boys were musical wizards, but they were atrocious softball players. But, she did enjoy their jaunty banter. “All right Macdonald,” they jeered when one kid came to bat, “that pizzicato won’t help you now.” Dillard said she played with them every day, but she was always terrified that she “would bust a prodigy’s finger on a throw to first or the plate.”3
Whoever we are -- a manager, an athlete, a writer or someone else -- we need to learn how to play and not take life too seriously. What is play for you? Golf? Snorkeling? Walking? Running? Mountain climbing? Gardening? We all require some kind of diversion to give us a balanced life, and even more, to prepare us for playing in that great Day of the Lord.
Leaping For Joy Implies Adventure
Leaping for joy not only implies celebration and play but it also implies adventure.
The leaping calves in Malachi’s delightful figure of speech suggest also that the calves were ready to explore their surroundings and to see what the new day might bring.
If that is the case in the future, should we not be looking for adventure in our lives here and how?
The Day of the Lord is not the end but rather the beginning of a fresh phase of our faith pilgrimage. Paul Tournier concludes his book, The Adventure of Living, by describing the life beyond life as “a new departure, a leap into a new adventure.”4
Yes, leaping for joy embraces “a leap into a new adventure.”
We are called to be pilgrims. Let us not get too settled in the place where we are. Octogenarian Malcom Muggeridge anticipates the future by exclaiming: “… the world itself only becomes the dear and habitable dwelling place it is when we who inhabit it know we are migrants, due when the time comes to fly away to other more commodious skies.”5
What a waste of time to be always speculating about the tantalizing details associated with the end time. David Redding in his book, God Is Up To Something, sums up the crucial matter “Hope thrives on the suspense of God’s next visit, whether or not it is his last.”
Are we ready to meet God in the next visit around the corner? God’s daily surprises are only a foretaste of what we will encounter some day. To live with a spirit of adventure now is to know in advance something of the ultimate joy which will be ours in that day.
An American woman while touring in Mexico one morning met a boy selling oranges. She thought to herself that an orange would be just the right thing to quench her thirst. Having compassion on the boy, she offered to buy the remaining six oranges he had left. The boy would only sell her three.
“Why won’t you sell me the other three?” she asked.
“What will I do in the afternoon?” he replied.6
The boy might not have been shrewd financially, but he did know something about the meaning of life. It is important that we have something to do in the afternoon.
You may be near mid-life. I say to you: What are you going to do in the afternoon? What are you going to do with the second half of your life? Will you be bored? Will you simply mark time? Will you dissipate your energies in aimlessness? What will you do with the second half of your life?
Malachi speaking the word of the Lord bids us to envision living out our days leaping for joy. Celebrating, playing, adventuring -- that is the way to prepare ourselves for the lifestyle that will prevail in that day.
How would you respond to the announcement that the end of the world had come? Would “the Day of Judgment” strike fear in your own heart?
Not a few so-called prophetic teachers of the Bible make a living out of feeding on fear of the end time. How tempting it is for prognosticators to pretend to know the exact date and to know the key figures involved when the day of the Lord will come. All my life I have heard predictions that the particular decade in which I happened to be living would be the one when Christ would return. The antichrist was supposed to be Hitler, then he was supposed to be Stalin. He became whomever the latest, most powerful dictator might be. Every time predictions of precise dates and the identification of specific personalities associated with the second coming have to be revised. Jesus stated explicitly that no one knows when all of these “last things” will take place, not even him, only the Father (Matthew 24:36). Despite that clear warning some people are still gullible and trust certain prophetic teachers to have esoteric knowledge that no one else possesses. They really are convinced that someone has the key that will unlock the mystery of the ages.
One of our church members handed me several sheets of paper that he said were attached to the front door of the church building. The pages consist of a series of disjointed Scripture quotations with the predominant theme of God’s impending judgment. The papers do not contain the scriptural emphasis upon God’s grace, peace and forgiveness.
Who would write such words? Perhaps they were written by someone who sincerely does believe the end of the world is at hand, or they were written by a discontented person who has soured on life. We will probably never know.
Might the one who placed those papers on the church door be someone who thought our young congregation was not taking our work seriously enough? What with all the times of fellowship and refreshment after worship, covered dish dinners and little and big parties here and there it could seem to someone that all we do is have a good time. I am not convinced that partying is a bad thing. After all, we have labored, struggled and sacrificed in order to see our new church take shape. It has been good for all of us to take time off periodically to laugh, to feast and to enjoy each other’s company.
Such thoughts bring us to our scriptural passage for the day in the book of Malachi. The prophet is speaking to his people who have become discouraged. They have begun to question the wisdom that other people who ignore or violate the law of Moses seem to prosper. Should they not soften their consciences and follow suit?
Malachi declares the word of the Lord admonishing his people to continue in their faithfulness to the law of Moses. The day of the Lord is coming. That great day will be preceded by the appearance of Elijah who personifies all true prophets in Israel. Furthermore, the day of the Lord will bring the conquest of evil and the triumph of God’s people who remain bound both to the law and the prophets.
Employing the imagery of the sun Malachi sees all those who have followed evil being burned up like stubble. The faithful, on the other hand, will receive from the same sun “with healing in its wings” wholeness and salvation. Malachi’s words are consistent with the main points of Hebrew prophecy regarding the end time.
The prophet also includes another enlightening image in his summary. I was struck by the vibrancy of the following words: “… you shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall (Malachi 4:2b).”
For those who believe the day of the Lord will be like calves, which having spent the night in their stalls, at daybreak go leaping about joyfully in the sunlight. Such will be the joy of the faithful in that day. The prophet’s exhortation to leap for joy is an even better response to “the Day of Judgment” than Colonel Davenport’s desire to do his duty.
Consider what practical implications for the journey of faith this fascinating simile suggests.
Leaping For Joy Implies Celebration
First of all, leaping for joy implies celebration.
The note of celebration is sounded throughout the pages of the Scriptures. As we have just noticed, Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, ends with celebration, like calves bursting forth from their stalls at daybreak. The book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, also ends with celebration, like the marriage supper of the Lamb.
In between, celebrations of one kind or another abound. Jesus in one of his parables tells of a man who accidentally stumbled upon a treasure while plowing in a field. Overcome with joy he goes and sells all that he has to buy that field. Jesus tells another parable about a merchant who searches the world for the pearl of great price. Once he finds it, he sells all that he has to purchase that one pearl. The kingdom of heaven is like that; it is worth abandoning everything else in order to obtain it.
If celebration is going to be characteristic of the great day of the Lord in the future, should we not be learning how to celebrate here and now?
When C. S. Lewis came to write his autobiography he titled it Surprised by Joy. How else could he explain what happened to him? God reached this skeptical Oxford University professor one day while he was riding a bus. He was so startled by the awareness of God’s loving presence that he could only describe the intervention by saying he was ‘‘surprised by joy.” Henceforth, he devoted the rest of his life to being “an apostle to the skeptics” seeking to convince disbelieving intellectuals that the Gospel was indeed a treasure of celebration.
Many people who enter the kingdom testify to the party-like atmosphere. Following the Lord is not drudgery. There is no room for long faces in the company of the redeemed. Despite its clear-cut demands Christian discipleship is deeply satisfying. There is a direct link between obedience and joy. We begin in obedience and end in joy. No one has more of a claim on celebration than the one who has been stirred by God’s amazing grace.
Even though the celebrative mood has a solid scriptural base, how often the upbeat, life-affirming person is suspect. One of my favorite Lincoln anecdotes is about the two Quaker ladies who were talking about the two leaders in the Civil War. The one woman insisted that Jefferson Davis and his cause would win. When challenged by the other woman to explain why, she said: “Because Jefferson Davis is a praying man.” The other replied: “Abraham Lincoln is a praying man, too.” “Yes,” retorted the first woman, “but the Lord will think Abraham is joking.”
There was something about Lincoln’s carefree, almost irreverent, manner that made many people question his sincerity. Lincoln, however, was a compassionate man who not only could laugh at others but could laugh at himself, too.
If we are to know something of the joy of the kingdom we must find out how to celebrate.
Leaping For Joy Implies Play
Second, leaping for joy not only implies celebration but it also implies play.
Surely, the calves in Malachi’s striking image were not only celebrating their release from the long night in their stalls, but also they undoubtedly lost little time in frolicking about with the exuberance of sheer play.
If there is going to be play in that great day of the Lord in the future, should we not be cultivating the art of play here and now.
Sparky Anderson is one of the best major league baseball managers of all time. He managed the Cincinnati Reds (“The Big Red Machine”) during their glory days in the 1970s and currently manages the Detroit Tigers. He is the only major league manager in history to win a World Series in both the National and the American Leagues. How does he approach his job? He contends that anyone who sees managing as a job is in the wrong business. In his own words: “This is not a job. This is fun.”2
What would an Olympic swimmer say about Sparky’s boundless enthusiasm? Betsy Mitchell from Marietta, Ohio, has won gold medals in the 1984 Olympics, the 1990 Goodwill Games and in other competition. She presently holds the American record for the 100 meter backstroke swimming event. Her mother started her swimming at an early age. By the time she was nine or 10 years old she was beginning to show signs of being a good swimmer. Her Marietta YMCA coach observed, however, that at that time many people thought Betsy fooled around too much. She did not take her sport seriously enough. On the other hand, perhaps it was her playful attitude toward swimming that actually made it possible for her later to become a champion swimmer.
Not just major league baseball managers and Olympic swimmers view life in terms of play, but other supposedly serious-minded people do, too. For instance, Annie Dillard, the perceptive essayist and nature writer, tells of doing research on a book during a summer at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia. Tired of reading one afternoon, she gazed out the library window and caught sight of a softball game in progress. Since she just happened to have her fielder’s glove with her, she went to see if she could join the game. As it turned out, the ball players were part of a music camp being held at the college for two weeks. She soon determined that the boys were musical wizards, but they were atrocious softball players. But, she did enjoy their jaunty banter. “All right Macdonald,” they jeered when one kid came to bat, “that pizzicato won’t help you now.” Dillard said she played with them every day, but she was always terrified that she “would bust a prodigy’s finger on a throw to first or the plate.”3
Whoever we are -- a manager, an athlete, a writer or someone else -- we need to learn how to play and not take life too seriously. What is play for you? Golf? Snorkeling? Walking? Running? Mountain climbing? Gardening? We all require some kind of diversion to give us a balanced life, and even more, to prepare us for playing in that great Day of the Lord.
Leaping For Joy Implies Adventure
Leaping for joy not only implies celebration and play but it also implies adventure.
The leaping calves in Malachi’s delightful figure of speech suggest also that the calves were ready to explore their surroundings and to see what the new day might bring.
If that is the case in the future, should we not be looking for adventure in our lives here and how?
The Day of the Lord is not the end but rather the beginning of a fresh phase of our faith pilgrimage. Paul Tournier concludes his book, The Adventure of Living, by describing the life beyond life as “a new departure, a leap into a new adventure.”4
Yes, leaping for joy embraces “a leap into a new adventure.”
We are called to be pilgrims. Let us not get too settled in the place where we are. Octogenarian Malcom Muggeridge anticipates the future by exclaiming: “… the world itself only becomes the dear and habitable dwelling place it is when we who inhabit it know we are migrants, due when the time comes to fly away to other more commodious skies.”5
What a waste of time to be always speculating about the tantalizing details associated with the end time. David Redding in his book, God Is Up To Something, sums up the crucial matter “Hope thrives on the suspense of God’s next visit, whether or not it is his last.”
Are we ready to meet God in the next visit around the corner? God’s daily surprises are only a foretaste of what we will encounter some day. To live with a spirit of adventure now is to know in advance something of the ultimate joy which will be ours in that day.
An American woman while touring in Mexico one morning met a boy selling oranges. She thought to herself that an orange would be just the right thing to quench her thirst. Having compassion on the boy, she offered to buy the remaining six oranges he had left. The boy would only sell her three.
“Why won’t you sell me the other three?” she asked.
“What will I do in the afternoon?” he replied.6
The boy might not have been shrewd financially, but he did know something about the meaning of life. It is important that we have something to do in the afternoon.
You may be near mid-life. I say to you: What are you going to do in the afternoon? What are you going to do with the second half of your life? Will you be bored? Will you simply mark time? Will you dissipate your energies in aimlessness? What will you do with the second half of your life?
Malachi speaking the word of the Lord bids us to envision living out our days leaping for joy. Celebrating, playing, adventuring -- that is the way to prepare ourselves for the lifestyle that will prevail in that day.
