What is the secret to a JOY “FULL” Life? One source of joy is remembrance—looking back, never forgetting; remembering. Another source is anticipation. Whereas remembrance brings the past into the present; anticipation brings the future (what’s yet to be revealed) into the present. And there is joy in giving. This Christmas, we contemplate the joy of God, pouring himself out, giving of Himself so extravagantly, excessively, exceedingly far beyond anything humanly conceivable. Sending his Son Jesus into our world!
This morning, I want us to consider the joy of “belonging.” Forgive me for making such an obvious play on words, but one of the most obvious characteristics of human beings is that we always seem to “be” - “longing" for something. Sometimes, ever so desperately! To be human is to “desire, hunger, thirst, want, long…” In large part, Christmas is built upon gratifying our longings. For what do you most long this Christmas?
Most every child is encouraged to make a Christmas list. Whether we write it down or not, we've been making Christmas lists our whole life. When you were a child, you “longed” for some toy. Then as you grew older, your longings changed. In college, I longed for cash to pay tuition. And once married, to pay the light bill and student loans. We're always longing for something.
But eventually there is longing that begin to eclipse all others. At first, we take it for granted. But then over time it takes on incredibly greater weight. Our greatest longing is (our greatest joy) is that of belonging. For the joy of belonging you'd easily (gladly) give up everything else. Nothing else comes even close. The joy of knowing; being known by others. The joy of being surrounded by love. The joy of being rooted with others—your spouse! Your children. Parents. Friends.
The longer you live, the less you will take the joy of belonging for granted—in fact you will fight to hold on to it, and never let it go. What you wouldn’t freely give away to have for the joy of belonging. We'll sell even our soul just to belong.
Sadly, Christmas can be a time of profound sadness. Instead of this season being filled with the joy of belonging, it can be dominated with endless “longing.” Longing for what was, for what could have been… for what things have become. I say this sincerely. We so easily let people get away from us. We so easily let our love grow cold. Don’t let it be that you have to first lose something before you realize its infinite value.
How many of you are sitting there thinking, “If only I’d have tried harder in my marriage… if only I’d been more present as a parent… if only I’d not let that friendship wither… If only I’d returned that call… if only I’d forgiven and reconciled… if only I could talk to Dad or Mom one more time… the joy if I could have just one more moment, conversation, family picture, or family Christmas.”
Once we've lost the joy of belonging, we sometimes imagine it’s lost forever, that we'll never feel joy again. I sometimes wonder if that is how Job felt. We read about him in the Old Testament. There Job lived, happily, the envy of every man who ever lived. Job knew the “joy of belonging” as much as any man. Job 1:1-5, “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East. 4 His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.”
Aren’t animals a great comfort? You come through the door, they greet you so enthusiastically. They snuggle up next to you. Even farm animals. You walk in the yard and they come running. And the people you serve, or who help you, giving you that sense of livelihood. Your growing family. Your friends. Along comes Satan, the hater of joyful man. Satan comes to “steal, kill and destroy” joy.
“Things” that give us joy can be built again, purchased again, replaced. But Satan goes after Job’s sense of belonging. His family? His household. His animals. But despite his efforts to rob Job (even of the joy of belonging) Satan fails. Job 42:10-17 says, “10 . . . the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. 16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.”
In a profoundly, paradoxical way… Job 42 teaches us that the joy of belonging isn’t “finite.” The joy of belonging can be as infinite, as there is an infinite number of people. Just because you’ve lost belonging doesn’t mean you will never know joy of belonging again. Not only can the joy of belonging be restored, it can grow more and more. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.
At Christmas we maybe have one group taking the joy of belonging for granted. We maybe have another group thinking joy was stolen, and will never be tasted again. What would it look like for us to rediscover joy of belonging?
In the Gospels, Jesus spoke about a special kind of belonging. He said, “Wherever two or more people are gathered in my name, there I am…” In this statement are two compounding truths. The first truth is that wherever two or more gather, the joy of belonging can be felt. You might not be surprised to know, that right now, there are more people living on this earth than any “single” time. There are billions of people. But the math is even more shocking than that. There are more people living on this earth right now, than the sum total of “all” people across “all" time, “all” human history, and it isn’t even close.
Unless you’ve crashed so bad, and find yourself trapped on some remote island, with absolutely no one else except a volleyball to talk to… then let me say this to your comfort. You possess the joy of belonging again because you are not alone on this earth! It might look different, have a different circumstance, or address, or name—but the possibilities for belonging are as infinite as there are people living!
The Bible soberly reminds us there is a time to be born and to die, to plant and to uproot. You aren't the lone exception to that rule. In half of the word pairs in Ecclesiastes something positive gives way to something negative. A time to be born a time to die… to Plant and to Uproot… to Love and to Hate… to Embrace and to Refrain from embracing… to Search and to Give up searching… to Keep and to Throw away. In the other, something negative gives way to a positive: A time to Tear down and a to Build again… Weep and to Laugh… to Mourn and to Dance, to Scatter and to Gather… to Tear and to Mend… to Make peace. You can move from the positive to the negative all alone. You can die alone, uproot, kill, hate, refrain, give up, throw away, scatter, morn, weep…
But what do all the positives have in common? Being born, planting, loving, embracing, searching, laughing, dancing, gathering, making peace. The joys of life come with belonging. In book of Philippians, we find the Apostle Paul in a “season” of dying, imprisonment, being hated, being silenced. What does he do? He taps into the joy of belonging. He writes his Philippians friends from his dark cell. Philippians 1:3-8, “I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now ... It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus." In the darkest season of life, Paul derives strength and joy through belonging.
It wasn't first time Paul leaned deeply into joy of belonging to navigate hardship. In 1 Thessalonians 3:9-10 he writes his friends: “How can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we experience before our God because of you, as we pray very earnestly night and day to see you face to face and to complete what is lacking in your faith?”
The Joy of Belonging is as close as wherever two or more gather. And to this Jesus adds, “Wherever two or more or gathered in my name, there I am.” There is the joy of belonging, but an kind of exponential joy when God is put into the center of the relationship. For Job, he loved his family. But belonging with God was the longing of all longings. He sacrificed daily on behalf of all his family, in case they might have sinned. Why? That they not lose fellowship with God.
In Ecclesiastes 3:10-11, as takes us through all those word pairs, what does Solomon remind us? “I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart . .” It's not just belonging with one another, were wired to belong with God one another for eternity. And it’s this joy that is everlasting! In 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 Paul brings this dual sense of belonging together: “For who is our hope or joy or crown of boasting in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20 Indeed you are our glory and joy!”
The Joy of Belonging is that in Christ Jesus our joy of belonging is never ending, it’s just beginning. In the presence of God, we have our most profound longing fulfilled. We’re with Christ! We belong to be with God eternally! But doubly so, we retain the one thing (and only thing) God allows us to take into eternity – our hope and joy and crown – is it not one another? Indeed it is.
The Joy of Christmas is a joy of belonging first welling up in this life, and then, overflowing to the next.