Gordon E. Ellis
January 1, 2006
HAPPINESS IS …
Until I had a Catholic secretary, I never REALIZED that New Year’s Day in the CATHOLIC church is considered a HOLY day of obligation, which means that Roman Catholics are REQUIRED to attend WORSHIP that day. I don’t know WHY, but it would never OCCUR to me to WORSHIP on New Year’s Day, UNLESS it fell on a SUNDAY, like THIS year. I guess I just never associate New Year’s Day with RELIGION. To ME, it’s always been a SECULAR holiday. And in the PAST, for ME, it’s either been a day to RECOVER from all the PARTYING the night before, OR a day to quietly settle down in front of a TELEVISION set for an 18-hour ORGY of PARADES and FOOTBALL games.
But SINCE I heard that it’s a holy day of obligation in the CATHOLIC church, I’ve been trying to figure out whether it could ever be a RELIGIOUS holiday for ME. And I’ve decided that it easily COULD be. And the REASON for that has to with the GREETING that has been ECHOING in our EARS for a couple of WEEKS now, and a greeting that will CONTINUE to echo in our ears for a couple MORE weeks. It’s the greeting, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Happy New Year! HAPPY? We HOPE so! After all: isn’t THAT what we all YEARN for: to be HAPPY? But, what IS happiness? I think that ONE of the reasons that I could easily celebrate New Year’s Day as a RELIGIOUS holiday is that I KNOW, deep down, that while PARTYING, parades and football games can ALL make me FEEL good – and HAPPY, at least for a LITTLE while – in REALITY, the happiness they OFFER is very SHORT-LIVED. And deep down, I KNOW that REAL happiness – true and LASTING happiness – is something FAR deeper, something much more MYSTERIOUS, than can be offered by ANY party, or ANY television show, EVEN parades and FOOTBALL! And I could celebrate New Year’s Day as a RELIGIOUS holiday because I yearn inside for a LASTING kind of happiness, which I THINK is more of a sense of JOY, which can NEVER be offered by THIS world and ITS values. Oh, I often catch GLIMPSES of it in out in the WORLD, usually in the LITTLE things, the things I don’t EXPECT, PLAN or DESERVE, but it ALWAYS slips away, and I end up wondering WHY it never LASTS….
And THEREFORE, I would come here on New Year’s Day each year like the WISE men. I would come here SEARCHING! AND, I would come like old SIMEONE. I would come WAITING expectantly! And WHY would I come HERE? I would come HERE because there is something LASTING and ETERNAL about the promises of GOD that are proclaimed HERE! I would come HERE because the beautiful STORY that is told HERE, over and over, is a never-ending LOVE story about God’s AMAZING grace and UNTIRING love. AND, I would come HERE hoping against HOPE that life is much MORE than football games and parties, AND that Jesus was NOT a LIAR when He promised: I have come that YOU may have LIFE, and have it in ALL it’s FULLNESS.
I would ALSO come HERE because somewhere deep WITHIN me, I REALIZE that the KEY to my HAPPINESS in life is a 3-PRONGED key. It’s not JUST the pleasures of the BODY that lead to happiness, as the ADVERTISERS would have us BELIEVE. And it’s not JUST the stimulation of the MIND that leads to happiness, as I was TOLD while I was growing UP. No, it’s ALSO the nurturing the SPIRIT that leads to happiness. And THIS place is one of the PRIMARY places where my SPIRIT gets CULTIVATED and CHALLENGED and NURTURED. I would come HERE because I BELIEVE that Jesus was telling us that ALL of us have been given a GIFT, that the SEED of God’s HOLY SPIRIT has been IMPLANTED within EACH and every ONE of us. And the CHURCH is where we can learn to be in TOUCH with that Spirit that is WITHIN us, and where we can learn to TOUCH the Spirit of God that is within OTHERS; where we can SHARE that Spirit with each other, AND where, TOGETHER, we can walk more and more CLOSELY with GOD and with one another as we journey through this earthly life.
And FINALLY, I would come HERE on New Year’s Day because I’m SMART enough to REALIZE that we LIVE on very SMALL planet, so that what happens to ONE person, or one PEOPLE, GREATLY affects the REST. And therefore, IF my sisters and brothers – if God’s OTHER children ALL around the globe – are NOT happy, then I will NOT be happy EITHER, at least NOT for very LONG. And as far as I’M concerned, the CHURCH offers me the WAY and the MEANS and the REASON to SERVE the NEEDS of, my sisters and brothers EVERYWHERE; AND to stand UP for what is GOOD and RIGHT and JUST, regardless of what it might COST me; AND to live AS IF I were not the ONLY one, and MY family not the ONLY family, and MY country not the ONLY country, that MATTERS in this world, because we are ALL God’s children, EVERYWHERE!
Yes friends: THAT’S why I would come HERE on New Year’s Day. But quite frankly, I don’t NEED to worship HERE each and every New Year’s Day, because THESE are SAME reasons why I come here ALL year long, EACH and every Sunday! I COME because HAPPINESS and FULLNESS of life for me are DEEPLY tied to the PROMISES and STORIES that I find HERE -- IN these sacred and holy SCRIPTURES -- which the church OPENS and ILLUMINATES for me. AND, I come because happiness and fullness of LIFE for me are DEEPLY tied to being PART of a COMMUNITY of people who are SEARCHING and HOPEFUL, LOVING and FAITHFUL, people who LOVE me, people who CARE for me, people who CHALLENGE me, and people who walk BESIDE me on the JOURNEY of life and faith, OVER the highest of mountains and THROUGH the deepest of valleys. AND, I come because happiness and fullness of LIFE for me are DEEPLY tied to growing CLOSER and CLOSER to GOD and to God’s entire CREATION, which this COMMUNITY helps me do, AND FINALLY, because happiness and fullness of LIFE for me are DEEPLY tied to what we CALL the WORK of Christmas, which of course, CONTINUES on ALL year long! And the WORK of Christmas is a good TITLE for it. It was named by the great preacher, Howard Thurman, who once wrote THESE words:
When the song of the ANGELS is STILLED, when the STAR in the sky is GONE,
When the kings and princes are HOME, when the shepherds are BACK with their FLOCK,
THEN, the WORK of Christmas begins:
To FIND the LOST, to HEAL the BROKEN,
To FEED the HUNGRY, to RELEASE the PRISONER,
To REBUILD the NATIONS, to bring PEACE among ALL people,
AND, to make MUSIC in the heart.
To me, THAT’S one of the most BEAUTIFUL and FAITHFUL Christmas messages EVER written. And it’s SO true! Personally, after searching MANY ways, I have found that THAT is where my TRUE happiness LIES. It lies in doing the WORK of Christmas ALL year long. Friends, THAT’S what it’s all ABOUT! The great Albert Schweitzer learned that truth and said finally, after much searching: The ONLY things that MATTER in life are the IMPRINTS of LOVE we leave BEHIND us after we are GONE. Let me say it again: The ONLY things that MATTER in life are the IMPRINTS of LOVE we leave BEHIND us after we are GONE. Well, friends, the WORK of Christmas ALWAYS leaves behind IMPRINTS of love! And those IMPRINTS are LIVING signs, living REMINDERS, of GOD’S love. And GOD’S love is what offers us what we TRULY mean by the word, HAPPINESS. It’s a DEEP sense of JOY that comes from having the PEACE of Christ in our hearts, the peace and contentment of knowing that EVEN in the face of PAIN and struggle, EVEN when we are enduring a CRUCIFIXION of sorts, GOD is WITH us, and GOD is at WORK; and FROM that crucifixion, GOD will weave SOME kind of NEW life, SOME kind of RESURRECTION. And KNOWING that truth is REAL happiness because it gives us a JOY, a deep and LASTING joy that TRANSCENDS our day-to-day CIRCUMSTANCES.
SO, friends: whether we are in CHURCH or NOT on any given New Year’s Day, AS we HEAR the greeting, Happy New Year, echoing around us, and as we hope and PRAY that it WILL be a HAPPY one: let us give THANKS, as old SIMEONE did, for we TOO have had our prayers ANSWERED! We TOO have SEEN our salvation! And THAT’S because we TOO understand WHERE happiness LIES! It LIES in growing EVER closer to GOD and God’s creation, in TRUSTING God to be at WORK in ALL the circumstances of our lives, AND in doing the WORK of Christmas ALL year long. THOSE three things will bring us PEACE, contentment and JOY. And isn’t THAT what we MEAN when we say, HAPPY New Year? Isn’t THAT what HAPPINESS is? Think and PRAY about it, my friends. Amen.