When did being a Christian become dry, boring, and lifeless? At some point it did. At some point, the case was made that following Jesus was a duty, a responsibility, an obligation. We were taught to come to church on Sunday morning because it was the “right” thing to do, and then church itself got stuffier, and stuffier, and stuffier. We learned the right way to dress, to sing, to respond, and to sit. Even more so than at school, we were taught to sit quietly and reverently without talking, laughing, clapping, moving around, or making any of those “middle school like” noises that might embarrass our parents. How many of you have received the elbow jab from a parental figure? How many of you have wished that wish some dull Sunday morning that you could be out fishing, at home reading, or teeing up on the golf course? Who here has been told that church “isn’t supposed to be fun?”

Well, a popular Baptist preacher, John Piper, who calls himself a self-proclaimed Christian hedonist, has argued that the demise of Christian joy came through the Kantian philosophy of the late 1700’s. Though I am sure there are many people to blame, from Kant all the way down to prudish Aunt Gertrude – Piper argues that Kant sapped the joy from biblical morality by publishing that “the moral value of an act decreases as we aim to derive any benefit from it.” “Acts are good,” Kant argued, “If the doer is disinterested.” Piper makes the point that biblical morality is quite the opposite. For example, Kant favored a disinterested giver; but God loves a cheerful giver. Joy and praise are all over scripture, from the freedom songs of Moses and Miriam to the poetic rhapsody of the psalms; from the grand visions of the prophets to the good news of the Gospel. Upon taking a closer look, biblical morality is not based on duty or obligation – but on joy. Based on the second Psalm, even God’s law is to be our delight, not some sort of punishment.

Though I’m not sure we’ll always agree it looks like I’m going to have to read more of John Piper’s work. In one way at least, I am seeing that we could be kindred spirits. I want to be a Christian hedonist too. In his definition of Christian hedonism, he says, “I do not mean that our happiness is the highest good.” Instead he says that, “…pursuing the highest good will always result in our greatest happiness in the end.” This isn’t new news. The Puritans, that’s right, I said the PURITANS, described the chief end of humanity as BOTH glorifying God AND enjoying God forever. The spiritual teachers that I find enlightening always get around to making this point. In one way or another, they remind me that connecting with God is indeed our greatest pleasure.

But in our culture, it still seems vaguely sacrilegious to be full of light and joy and still call oneself a Christian. It may be starting to get better, but we who have grown up in so-called traditional church settings with “wear your Sunday best” and “quit fidgeting in the pew” don’t always have kind words for those Christian communities that seem to be having too much of a good time. Perhaps it’s time for us to quit looking askance at our neighbors and instead look for more ways that we can celebrate our faith. Perhaps there are more ways for us to enjoy Sunday morning, or for that matter, to enjoy every moment of every day that God gives to us. John Piper makes the faith claim that, “The desire to be happy is a proper motive for every good deed, and if you abandon the pursuit of your own joy you cannot love man or please God – that’s what makes Christian Hedonism controversial.”

Amazingly it is controversial, and it seems just a little bit kooky, to angle up to our broken down and hurting world still possessing this tremendous joy that comes from trusting God fully, in mind, heart, and spirit. But then again, this isn’t new news either. All religions have this awful tendency toward calcification and crustiness, not just our own. As evidenced by scripture, we find that when times get tough, people start to rely on their own wherewithal, and that’s when they start getting into trouble. That’s when their world narrows, collapses in upon itself, and gets so small that any false move seems like it will break the whole thing. That’s when the holy laws once seen as a gracious gift become pure duty and obligation. That’s when religion becomes about the ones who make the rules with pursed lips and tightly guarded lives. Why do you think the Pharisees were so against Jesus? He was a joyful, God-loving, rule breaker. He was way too big to fit into their worldview. He was frequently accused of being a glutton and a drunkard. He spent a whole lot of time with his friends, and he talked often with those friends about the importance of their friendship. Did he even go to temple on Saturday? I’m not really sure, but he was certainly a zealous student of God’s word, and he will forever be known for offering us the gift of drinking deeply from the well of salvation.

The love of God is big, Big- Big. Just when we start to get stuffy, crusty, or impatient with the minutia of being the Church, remember that life is far more than Church and its churchiness. It helps to keep in mind the bigger picture, the understanding that God is behind it all, in it all, and working through it all. God alone is our salvation. In God we can trust and never be afraid. God is our strength and our might.

This Isaiah reading is full of the bigness of God and how the spirit rests on the chosen child with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. We get a full vision from this prophet of what it means to witness righteousness, such deep and enduring righteousness that even nature will bow to this vision of the holy mountain, God’s holy mountain where even sworn enemies can get along.

It is this vision of Advent, this “Joy to the World” spirit that I want to leave you with today. So much of what we do this time of year is out of duty, obligation, or simply the incessant filling up of the calendar. We get caught up in the “have-to” lists of Christmas. I have to write Christmas Cards. I have to finish the shopping. I have to get the oil changed in the car before we travel to see family. I have to make treats for the kids’ parties. No have-to’s required here. Enjoy God, enjoy each other. God is born into our world, and the holy child Jesus will be the one to teach us all we need to know about enjoying God forever. Amen.

Quotes by John Piper are from the Desiring God Website: www.desiringGod.org