Living in the Spirit
June 8, 2020
Scripture Reading: Genesis 18:1-15
They said to him, ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ And he said, ‘There, in the tent.’ Then one said, ‘I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’ The Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.’ But Sarah denied, saying, ‘I did not laugh’; for she was afraid. He said, ‘Oh yes, you did laugh.’ –Genesis 18:9-15
C. S. Lewis, a seemingly committed bachelor, married a divorcee with a child when he was 47. Their relationship was the source for his book Surprised by Joy, which was her name. She died of cancer four years later. In that short time, she provided Lewis with the wonderful gift of understanding the theology of joy and how it relates to unconditional love. My guess is the birth of a child for barren Abraham and Sarah resulted in a similar experience.
Joy is an interesting word, we often link with happiness, but it goes much deeper than that. Merriam Webster defines joy as the emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good: pleasurable feelings or emotions caused by wellbeing, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one loves or desires*.
Our self-images, interpersonal relationships, and cultural expectations co-mingle as we struggle to follow the ways of God. God struggles to tug us out of the mire into the services we are best prepared to render, and that will be our most significant source of joy as part of God’s continuous development of a world blessed by love and full of joy.
All relationships are complicated and few more complicated than the story Abraham and Sarah, Sarah’s handmaiden Hagar, and Abraham’s sons: Ismael from Hagar and Isaac from Sarah. Their relationships could provide materials for any soap opera.
Our quest is to seek through our relationship with God to find pure joy unencumbered by the world so that we can go into the world and share that joy with everyone.
Prayer: Lord, we thank you for the fruit of the spirit that includes joy. Help us claim our joy as we serve you more nearly. Amen.
*https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/joy
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.