Sunday Messages

This Week’s Message

Joy's Rightful Place

We are meant to be a joyful people, to sing and laugh and dance and celebrate because we are Children of Joy. In the Christian Bible, when God made the world, every time God finished a part of creation, God said it was good. And when we hear those words, we are filled with an incredible joy because we know it is true.

Rumi, the great Sufi poet of Islam, tells us that joy comes when we are broken up. I was touched by that phrase – when we are broken up. To be broken is to be in pieces or to realize that we are not what we thought we were and pieces of us are laying all around us. To be joyful we have to give up worrying about what the other person might think about us. We have to give up worrying about our image, how we look when we laugh. We have to give up all the false ideas about what is happening. We come so fully into that Presence of Joy that there is no room for anything else.

I know you all have experienced the Presence of Joy. One of the most joyful times I remember was sitting on my bed one morning with my 3 children and some other friends who were visiting overnight, our legs stretched out in front of us and our backs against the wall looking at toes. Each toe was so different from the others on the foot and each foot so different from the other feet that we fell into joy over toes. It was a crazy moment in time, doing something we had never done before, not worrying about what other people might be thinking, we were all safe with friends and could let go of that silly thought. And we explored a new dimension of ourselves. Toes became quite fascinating. We saw toes in a new light. And we became joyful over toes, laughing and enjoying the preposterousness of it all.

Many people do not know how to be joyful. They spend all their lives in a very serious state. These people do not have happy faces or happy lives. They have forgotten how to break open their hearts and let the joy out.

Sark writes in the “Bodacious Book of Succulence” about micromovements. She claims to be a recovering procrastinator with a very short attention span, so she invented micromovements as a way to get things done. I think we can take her invention and apply it to learning to be more joyful in life. Micromovements are like tiny beads strung together, each lending a tiny piece to the whole. So to learn how to be more joyful, especially when we are in the midst of sad situations or feeling blue or the world seems like just too much, try this micromovement. Make only one corner of your mouth go up. Practice that for awhile. It’s amazing how focusing on that one little movement, albeit an unusual one, can start shifting you to joy. Then try the other side, alternating the sides then try both together. Before you know it you are smiling for no good reason.

Next think about laughing, just think about it. When was the last time you laughed? What did you laugh about? Recall that memory and make a little tiny sound as you feel the laughter coming up again. Practice making more sounds until all of a sudden you are really laughing. That’s the feeling of joy! You have broken open your heart a tiny bit and let some joy out.

If you are really shy, you can join a laughing club. We’ve had meetings here before the service on Sundays and I think we should have more of them. Let’s enjoy a sample of what we do in the laughing club. (Put your arms up and laugh.)

We are meant to be joyful! For joy is of God and life is good, no matter what we think we see. Singing and dancing and celebrating help us to break open and be in pieces all over everywhere, so Joy can come into its rightful place here and now.

Rumi wrote:

I am a tambourine. Don’t put me aside
Till the fast dancing starts.
Play me some all along.
Help me with these little sounds.

Joy is the tambourine. Don’t put joy aside until some “appropriate” moment. Be joyful all the time for in your joy, you will discover Who You Really Are and I might just see some of my Joy. Namaste.

Closing Prayer: In your journeys to and fro, God direct you; In your happiness and pleasure God bless you. In your joy and laughter, God sustain you. In your quiet and peace, God love you.