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Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Joy: The Christian's Open Secret
Philippians 4:1-14
Whenever Paul the Apostle got to a new town, he didn't look for a nice hotel. Instead, he'd ask for directions to the nearest jail -- since that's where he ended up more often than not. His "good news" about Christ's way of transforming lives was bad news for the social status quo. Before long, into the slammer he'd go.
So it's not surprising that he wrote his letter to the Christians in Philippi from a jail cell.
What is surprising, though, is his emphasis on joy in the midst of all kinds of circumstances. In chains, unsure of when or if he'll be released, Paul still encourages his free brothers and sisters to "rejoice in the Lord; again I say, rejoice!" What's up with that?
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I was a 40ish minister of the gospel, rounding out a decade of unconventional ministry in Berkeley. God had blessed our study-center work, first as part of the "counter-culture" in the 1970s, then more mainstream into the early 1980s.
Even so, I was restless and uncertain about my future. Truth be told, I was tired out emotionally and spiritually. More than I was aware. But a close friend, a member of our ministry's board of directors, understood -- and he gave me the greatest gift he could.
He sponsored me to a long-weekend's worth of spiritual retreat with about 40 other men.
But he wouldn't tell me much about it. So I grew more and more suspicious. Would I be expected to speak in tongues or something? "Trust me," he said. "Trust them. And above all, trust God."
So off I went into the spiritual unknown. And what a wonderful batch of holy surprises I found there.
The weekend focused on ten teaching times, where one or another man reviewed a basic ingredient of Christian belief and behavior -- all told in plain English and personal stories. We sang a lot, prayed a bit, shared Communion often, and played more than a few goofy games. It all added up to a joyous crash course in the gospel.
All the surprises were good. No spiritual tricks. No big secrets.
Here's the best surprise of all: Some 20 men had teamed up, about 8 weeks ahead of time, in a conspiracy to bless the lives of about 20 men like me. Team members spent that lead time in training to serve as cooks, table servers, dish washers, study table hosts, speakers, or spiritual directors.
That last category had to be filled by two ordained ministers. Everyone else was just a garden variety Christian, most of them the kind of guy you'd never even notice if you passed them on the street. But here they embodied the grace of God like angels in disguise.
One man summed up the experience for all of us when he said, "This weekend I discovered that I am loveable!"
A '70s bumper sticker put the same thought more crudely: "God don't make no junk!"
Either way, it's the gospel truth that every person on God's good earth is a unique unrepeatable miracle of God. No two of us are exactly alike. And each of us is worth loving and being loved by. The world would be diminished without every one of us present and accounted for.
I came home from that Cursillo weekend overflowing with joy, grinning ear to ear, in love with myself and the whole wide world in a wonderful new way.
And there's the great open secret of joy...
Unlike happiness, dependent as it is on good things happening, joy is rooted in knowing that you are absolutely loved just because you're you. Even when your present situation stinks to high heaven.
It's anything but accidental that Paul says "the fruit of the Spirit is love, then joy"! (See Galatians 5:22)
Any guy who was at that retreat would tell you, "Well, of course it is!"
posted by Jack Buckley at
3:40 PM
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