A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

BE HAPPY

Psalm 100, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, April 13, 2008

A week before Christmas a man in his sixties went into a big toy shop and began looking around at the various displays. He returned several times to a counter that featured a train set. He was particularly fascinated by the great sounding whistle that came from the engine as the train chugged around its oval track. Finally, he said to the clerk who was demonstrating the toy: “I’ll take one.” Whereupon the clerk said, “Your grandson will love it.” “Oh, yeah. Then I’ll take two,” the man replied.

Our text is about being joyful, being happy, which we all want, all the time, basically. But being happy is not as easy as we thought it was going to be. When we are little, even when something goes bad it is only bad for a short time, and then we get up again and bounce on down the path of life and fun. But when we get a thinking, calculating head on our shoulders, learn algebra and become a statistician, we realize what the odds are supposedly of being happy. We get too smart for our own joy. And that’s a problem. It’s time to turn the clock back and unlearn ourselves to being joyful. Scripture tells us to “(b)e glad in the Lord.” Ps.32:11 It also says, “Happy is that people whose God is the Lord.” Ps.144:15

Happiness and living for God go hand in hand. Happiness and giving to God go hand and hand.

This is what our worship service is about today, which reminds me of the time Lucy asks Charlie Brown if he has ever known anybody who was really happy. Before she can finish her sentence, in comes Snoopy dancing on tip-toe into the frame, his nose high in the air. He dances and bounces his way across two frames of the cartoon strip. Finally, in the last frame, Lucy finishes her sentence: "Have you ever known anybody who was really happy … and was still in their right mind?" That’s us. You should be happy this morning. Being able to give, and you gave, then the joy should be yours. We don’t have more to prove today. In fact, I wish this morning we would all take a break from being doubting Thomas’. Let’s believe, really believe that God loves us, even when we have not lived perfectly. Today is about being a people, a church, whose God is the Lord, whose hearts seek the Lord, who should be rejoicing today. “Shout for joy, all you upright in heart,” because happy are the people who make the Lord their trust. So let go and get happy. Take a rest on calculating whether you have done enough or not enough, on whether you have gotten your dues. Let’s instead “(g)ive thanks to God (and) bless his name. For the Lord is good; God’s steadfast name endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”

What we want to see this morning is that happiness may be closer than we think.

The most basic confusion concerning this most important subject is one of math. We assume happiness is a problem that addition solves, when in fact it is formula that requires subtraction. Happiness is a product of subtracting wrong thoughts and habits that we have acquired over years of looking for it in wrong ways. We look for joy in ourselves and through others, and while this seems to have short term benefits, which causes us to ingrain this deeper into our habits, it is not the strategy that pans out in the long run. “Now wait a minute, pastor. That’s not what I’ve heard. I’ve heard it over and over again that nobody can make me happy but me. If I can’t do it then nobody can.” They say that only because they haven’t put God into the equation. The truth is we, on our own, will not be able to make ourselves happy. And here’s why: We aren’t built for that type of performance or pressure. You see, we need to remove all the layers of misinformation and misplaced hopes that have accumulated, and get down to how God formed us and for what God made us. That’s when the joy returns. This is how we get happy. Any other way is either a short trip to unhappiness or a longer one.

The unbending truth is this: We are made in the image of God and because of this we are happy when we imitate God’s nature, when we do as God would do, as Jesus would do, as the Holy Spirit leads us to do, when we trust in God and walk by faith, when we serve the Lord. In one word is the answer as to how we can get back our happiness or keep it: Serve. Serve the Lord. “Serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deut. 10:12 Take a look at why you’ve been doing what you’ve been doing, and see if the Lord is in it. We may do good things, but they will only really be glad things when they are God’s things. So don’t be afraid to set the bar a little higher on where you’re directing your life. The Lord can do wonderful things to and through those with a serving heart and dedicated mind.

There are two kinds of happiness:

There is the sit back and ask yourself “Am I happy right now?” kind. This is when you calculate your financial well-being or desperation, your general mood or whether you’re generally moody, and whether you seem to have received enough accolades and compliments recently to tell yourself that you’re somebody and not just nobody. Some would say a lot of our capacity for happiness in this arena comes from whether or not we had a happy childhood, good parents, and overcome challenges and found a path of recognizable success. Basic self-esteem or sense of self-worth issues. This is the kind of happiness which reminds me of questionnaires sent to fifty-two thousand subscribers of Psychology Today in an effort to determine what makes people happy. One subscriber wrote back and asked to see the results of the survey. "I think I am happy," he wrote. "But would you please verify?"

The other kind of happiness is when you aren’t sitting back at all but you’re getting up and going; you’re doing something, you’re working on something you feel is important. Perhaps you’re working with good colleagues, your spouse, children or grandchildren, in the garden, at home, in the office, and you’re experiencing that certain hum of body, mind and spirit. You’re happy, and you know it, but you might not be clapping your hands, though you probably should be.

Now neither kind is better than the other, though I bet the introspective, calculating kind is a bit more difficult to gauge, sort of like a shark that stops moving in water; not its natural state. But when we are working on something we often forget to realize “hey, look at me, I’m happy.” We think about what still has to get done or how difficult this is, or what isn’t exactly right, and so forth, which reminds me of a pilot who always looked down intently on a certain valley. "What's so interesting about that spot?" asked a fellow pilot. "See that stream? Well, when I was a kid, I used to sit down there on a log, fishing. Every time an airplane flew over, I would look up and wish I were flying. Now I look down and wish I were fishing." It’s tough to be happy when things haven’t turned out right in the past, are not quite right now, and will undoubtedly be difficult in the future. But you know we just shouldn’t give in or give up. Instead recognize how good you have it and have had it. Look at what is right with you, not what’s wrong. Stop doubting whether or not you’ve done enough to deserve to be happy or whether someone else is keeping up their end of the bargain, because we probably aren’t as good as we think we should have been so we probably haven’t messed up as much as we think we have. And the same goes for that someone you’re waiting on before you can find your pot of joy at the end of his or her rainbow.

Our scripture doesn’t say: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth,” when you get your act together; “Worship the Lord with gladness,” when you’re finally happy; “Come into his presence with singing” when you’ve got something to sing about. These are imperatives. It doesn’t matter how you calculate your overall score on a self-diagnosed happiness meter. You and I are supposed to get up and make some noise; to bring the gladness, and to sing the song. The joy is here because God is here. The worship is here because God is good. The song is here because God deserves thanks and praise, from you, from me, from the Lord’s church and his people. So let the praise out. Be happy. Unlock the treasure chest of joy inside you. See the bright side of things; find the silver lining; and serve the Lord.

It was just after Ben Franklin's kite flying days, when figuring out what electricity was all about. Some French scientists were experimenting with electricity and they wanted to know how fast it moves. The abbot of a large monastery volunteered his monks for an experiment; and those poor monks had no choice since they had taken a vow of obedience. A thousand monks lined up, each holding the hand of the ones on either side. Then the electric current was applied to the first man in line, and according to an account of this experiment, every one of those 1,000 monks jumped into the air precisely at the same moment. That must have been quite a sight. We can draw three conclusions from this story: first, electricity moves with astonishing speed; second, abbots in French monasteries in the eighteenth century had tremendous authority over their monks; and third, wouldn't it be wonderful if a thousand people in the church today could get excited enough to jump into the air at the same time! Dr. Leslie Borsay

Jesus said, "I have come that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." Jn 15:11 Jesus came that we might be, in a word, happy. But unlike the monk who couldn’t choose, but were zapped, we can’t be zapped, but only choose. Jesus himself never counted it a crime to be happy. In fact, it appears he was very much at home at a wedding feast, and knew how to sit down and enjoy the company, lamb shank and wine goblet in front of him. He knew from early on what was coming “some day.” He could have doubted what would happen afterward, and disbelieved that anything good would come from all of this. Perhaps he even did, for a moment or two. But whereas a lesser person, a much lesser person, would have given in to the sadness and coming clouds, Christ didn’t. The truth is, some people bring joy wherever they go; and others people bring joy whenever they go.

Make happiness your constant companion. Work joyfully at bringing out the good news in even the darker hours. Don’t be afraid to be a step slow and not count out the happy ending. With God, it seems nothing is impossible. Today, above all, let us believe in the happy ending, and the joy of giving. If ever we are to have worship here with eyes closed and hearts wide open, today is the day. If we are ever to have the glad fellowship of back slapping and the loud laughter, today is the day. So let the party begin because today we have become like God, by giving and believing as God has asked us. Let’s above all be happy.  

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