The Jealousy of Joy
the third gift of faith, and the third freedom.
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1/ Joy is Right (Luke 15:32)
It was right that we should make merry and be glad.
2/ Nietzsche on Christian Joy
Thanks to everyone who followed up on the Nietzsche quotation last week, “The Church lost the world when it lost its joy.”
Zachary wrote:
The closest I could find the Nietzsche quote is a passage by Alexander Schmemann in his book "For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy". I found the following passage on page 24.
"It is only as joy that the Church was victorious in the world, and it lost the world when it lost that joy and ceased to be a credible witness to it. Of all accusations against Christians, the most terrible one was uttered by Nietzsche when he said that Christians had no joy."
And the closest passage from Nietzsche I could find that relates to what Schmemann says is passage 21 in "The Anit-Christ" where Nietzsche says -
"Hatred of mind, of pride, courage, freedom, libertinage of mind is Christian; hatred of the senses, of the joy of the senses, of joy in general is Christian..."
These are the closest I could find. Thank you Pastor for these weekly emails, your books, and your videos. They have been so helpful to me in my faith. Thank you!
Zachary
I forwarded this to Pr. Weedon, who responded:
And here, in turn, is what I suspect Schmemann was likely paraphrasing:
The reverse side of Christian compassion for the suffering of one’s neighbor is a profound suspicion of all the joy of one’s neighbor, of his joy in all that he wants to do and can do. Daybreak 80.
Hence, the devastating accusation that Christians are joyless.
Very helpful.
3/ And Some More on Joy
Christian joy is an extension of the resurrection. We belong to the One who was crucified and is risen. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. The worst thing is the best thing, so we are able, but the Holy Spirit, to rejoice always.
And this Christian joy is a rebuke to the unbelieving world. It is a provoking sting to the unbelieving conscience.
It probably goes like this.
The devil argues: “If you do what you want, you will be happy. God’s Law stands in the way of you being happy. God’s Law is why your conscience hurts. So put away the Law. Chase your appetite, and you will be happy.”
This, of course, doesn’t work. The conscience still aches. Contentment seems farther away. And then a Christian walks by joyful. This stings the unbeliever.
It reminds me of Paul in Romans 11, the salvation of the Gentiles provokes Israel to jealousy.
It also reminds me of a certain atheist whom G. K. Chesterton refused to debate. (Argh, I can’t remember the name. If you know, please remind me in the comments.) This atheist had made it his life goal to be happy, and the presence of Chesterton was a rebuke. Chesterton never gave a thought to pursuing happiness, and yet was full of joy, happiness, and even jolliness. This particular atheist, on the other hand, was constantly chasing after happiness, but never even touched the hem of happiness’ garment.
You can’t hit happiness by gaining for it. You can’t find joy by looking for it.
4/ Joy is the Third Freedom
I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve been thinking of the Parable of the Prodigal Son in the terms of three slaveries and three freedoms.
First, the youngest son takes the inheritance and wastes it on his own lusts. This is the slavery of the belly, and freedom comes in contrition.
The second slavery is despair. This is the son returning to the father, “I’m not worthy to be called your son, make me a hired hand.” The second freedom is the father’s love, his running to the son, his embrace, the fatted calf and the ring.
The third slavery is pride. This is the older son in the field. “All these years I’ve kept your commands.” This is the trickiest of all, the one Jesus is after in the Pharisees when He tells the Parable. And here is the third freedom: joy in the mercy of God for others. “Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.”
5/ The Third Gift of Faith: Union with Christ
Speaking of thirds, here is the third gift of faith from Luther’s Freedom of a Christian:
The third incomparable grace of faith is this, that it unites the soul to Christ, as the wife to the husband; by which mystery, as the Apostle teaches, Christ and the soul are made one flesh.
Now if they are one flesh, and if a true marriage-- nay, by far the most perfect of all marriages--is accomplished between them (for human marriages are but feeble types of this one great marriage), then it follows that all they have becomes theirs in common, as well good things as evil things; so that whatsoever Christ possesses, that the believing soul may take to itself and boast of as its own, and whatever belongs to the soul, that Christ claims as his.
If we compare these possessions, we shall see how inestimable is the gain. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul is full of sin, death, and condemnation.
Let faith step in, and then sin, death, and hell will belong to Christ, and grace, life, and salvation to the soul. For, if He is a husband, He must needs take to himself that which is His wife's, and, at the same time, impart to His wife that which is His. For, in giving her His own body and himself, how can He but give her all that is His? And, in taking to himself the body of His wife, how can He but take to Himself all that is hers?
In this is displayed the delightful sight, not only of communion, but of a prosperous warfare, of victory, salvation, and redemption. For since Christ is God and man, and is such a person as neither has sinned, nor dies, nor is condemned,--nay, cannot sin, die, or be condemned; and since His righteousness, life, and salvation are invincible, eternal, and almighty; when, I say, such a person, by the wedding-ring of faith, takes a share in the sins, death, and hell of His wife, nay, makes them His own, and deals with them no otherwise than as if they were His, and as if He Himself had sinned; and when He suffers, dies, and descends to hell, that He may overcome all things, since sin, death, and hell cannot swallow Him up, they must needs be swallowed up by Him in stupendous conflict. For His righteousness rises above the sins of all men; His life is more powerful than all death; His salvation is more unconquerable than all hell.
Thus the believing soul, by the pledge of its faith in Christ, becomes free from all sin, fearless of death, safe from hell, and endowed with the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of its husband Christ. Thus He presents to himself a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word; that is, by faith in the word of life, righteousness, and salvation. Thus He betrothes her unto Himself "in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies" (Hosea 2:19, 20).
Who then can value highly enough these royal nuptials? Who can comprehend the riches of the glory of this grace?
Christ, that rich and pious husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious harlot, redeeming her from all her evils, and supplying her with all his good things. It is impossible now that her sins should destroy her, since they have been laid upon Christ and swallowed up in Him, and since she has in her husband Christ a righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which she can set up with confidence against all her sins, against death and hell, saying: "If I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe, has not sinned; all mine is His, and all His is mine;" as it is written, "My beloved is mine, and I am his (Song of Songs 2:16). This is what Paul says: "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ;" victory over sin and death, as he says: "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law." (1 Corinthians 15:56, 57).
(Download this text for free here.)
6/ Last Chance for Israel
March 20 is the last day to jump on The Flamme’s trip to Egypt and Israel. This is a huge trip: https://www.immanuelroswell.org/the-ultimate-holy-land-tour.
7/ Absolution Anthology
If you missed the announcement yesterday about the new book: An Absolution Anthology, learn more here. (It’s a free PDF download, and you can also purchase it from Lulu.)
Please add your own theological recommendations in the comments.
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Lord's Blessings, Pastor Wolfmueller
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
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“The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians--when they are sombre and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths. But, though it is just to condemn some Christians for these things, perhaps, after all, it is not just, though very easy, to condemn Christianity itself for them. Indeed, there are impressive indications that the positive quality of joy is in Christianity--and possibly nowhere else. If that were certain, it would be proof of a very high order”
Sheldon Vanauken "A Severe Mercy"
Wow, another amazing Wednesday Pastor.