Today has been a special day for all of us here, and especially for Davey and Carrie, as we baptized into the Christian faith their daughter Mia. And so my words today are for you, Mia, although it would be just fine if the rest of the congregation listens in as well.
Mia, you are so blessed to have been born to your parents, and in this time, and in this great nation. And as you go through life, your parents are going to do everything in their power to not only keep you safe and provide for your needs, but also to make you happy. Trying to make you happy is something that they want to do, because they love you, but it is also something that seems to be wired into our DNA, and, more than that, it seems to be in the air that surrounds us. After all, you will grow to learn that the very Founders of this country believed that our inalienable rights include not only life and liberty, but also the pursuit of happiness.
Mia, you will learn that there are many paths towards achieving happiness. For instance, we know that material things can make us happy, and that is why we give presents of material things to those we love at Christmas time. We find happiness through a neat toy or stuffed animal, through some fashionable clothes, through a large, flat-screen TV, or maybe through a new smart phone that can not only allow us to talk to others at great distances but also text, surf the web, send email, update Facebook status, take photographs, and even make double decaf iced frappacinnos on the go. (Okay, maybe not the frappacinnos, at least not yet!).
But we also find that we can be made happy by enjoying a sporting event, such as a convincing blow-out by of the New York Jets by Tom Brady and the Patriots, or by going to a movie or watching Dancing with the Stars on the television.
And when we cannot find happiness elsewhere or though other means, at times we can find happiness of a sort through alcohol or drugs.
Mia, don’t get me wrong. I like to be happy. I like it when something I do seems to make others happy. But the truth is, you have been born into a world where we have become addicted to happiness. And the reason that is something to be worried about, is that this addiction can rob you of the fullness of life we want for you, that Jesus came to give you, that God desires above all for you. Because happiness addiction can lead to sad lives.
You see Mia, happiness is always dependent on circumstances, on externalities, on the situation one finds oneself in. Happiness is conditional, it depends on good health, on achievement, on what others think of us, on the material good we covet, on the experience we desire to have. Patriots fans were happy Monday night, Jets fans were sad – the difference was the outcome of a professional football contest. On Christmas morning, some kids will be happy, and some will be sad, and that may in part depend on whether Santa delivers the goods they hoped for. December 15 is the day high school students across the country will learn whether or not they got into the Early Decision college choice, and you can bet that is a day many will, depending on the contents of those letters, be happy or sad. Tomorrow morning, some folk will visit their doctor and get the test results back, and you know that, depending on what the x-ray or CT scan or blood results say, some will be happy, and some will be sad.
Happiness depends on circumstances, but even when everything is going our way, happiness can still be not enough. Even with health, with security, with enough material goods to satisfy our desires, with everything that all totaled up should make for happiness, we can still fall prey to an emptiness, a sin-sickness, a wondering if there is anything more to life.
So Mia, bottom line, we want you to be happy, but we also don’t want you to settle for mere happiness. What we want for you is joy.
We want for you joy, because happiness is, at base, a mere echo of joy, bearing some of its marks, but just as an echo is a reflection of a human voice, happiness wears the mark of joy but cannot last. Joy, you see, is an inner quality that exists irrespective of external circumstances. As Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “The only condition for joy is the presence of God. Joy happens when God is present and people know it, which means that it can erupt in a depressed economy, in the middle of a war, in an intensive care waiting room.” (The Living Pulpit, Oct./Dec. 1996, p. 16).
Look at Mary, in our reading for today. With little reason to be happy, joy erupts as she greets her cousin Elizabeth, as she embraces the idea that God has chosen to turn the world upside down, and that great newness was going to begin with her, but not end there, that it was going to start the ball rolling towards the day when no one will lord it over anyone else, when no one will feast while others starve, when no longer will there be the lowly, the oppressed, the marginalized.
Happiness has nothing to do with denying one’s self, but joy is impossible without it. Happiness is about the pursuit of some thing; joy is about a depth of life that is all about serving and helping others. Jesus told those who would follow him, those who desired abundant life, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life from my sake will find it.” (Matt. 16:24-25)
Joy doesn’t happen when we get what we want, and it usually has nothing to do with what we want. Mary certainly did not want to be an unwed mother, and Mary certainly did not want to be the one to birth God into this world, and endure whatever that might come to mean. And yet she came to rejoice. And few among us want to grow old, and yet how many of us know folk who nevertheless exude joy, carrying with them a sparkle of delight in the blessings they have known and still known, and through that joy being a blessing to others, to family, to friends, and to the inevitable health care workers.
Joy happens when we finally figure out that God’s plans are so much better than our plans, that God has an uncanny way of opening doors when it seems all our paths are closed off to us, that even when it is clear as day that all our hopes are dead and buried, God will raise them, and us, to new life.
Mia, in the not too distant future, your parents will try to teach you this lesson by reading you a book, one which has come to be one of my favorites. It is called “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, by Dr. Seuss. Its principal character, the Grinch, wrongly believes that Christmas is all about happiness, and he thinks he knows just how to ruin Christmas – he will make all the Whos down in Whoville sad by stealing all their Christmas presents and all the food for the Christmas feast. And yet Christmas comes all the same, and the Whos greet Christmas by joining hands and singing out in joy.
Mia, on this festive day of celebration, on this day when you have been washed by the cleansing, renewing waters of baptism, we wish you all the happiness in the world, and hope that your pursuit of happiness will be a successful one.
But more than that, we pray that you will always be open to being surprised by joy.
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