Seeking Joy (for September 3, 2008)

September 3, 2008

Jude 1:24-25

“Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

The scene is powerful. Two men sit side by side on the brightest and sunniest of days peering out over the golden hues of the Egyptian pyramids. Their conversation moves to a holy point when the character played by Morgan Freeman poses the question, “What brought you joy today and to whom did you bring joy?

Jude understands that it is only God who can protect a community from falling victim to the evils that come its way and then only by the gift of God’s grace. He is a believer that God’s power is evidence for us in creation and in all that occurs among the order that is creation. But if God’s power is evidenced there, so is God’s judgment. As false teachers go, he is certain that they will one day stand before God in judgment and find themselves wishing that they had lived different lives—lives that would have brought honor and glory to God. So, to the true believers, he exhorts the community to live as if they were already standing before Christ.

Essentially, this is Morgan Freeman’s point to Jack Nicholson in “The Bucket List” movie. If we live our lives by simply asking those questions of ourselves each day—what brought you joy today and to whom did you bring joy?—maybe we would find that we would already be living as if we were standing before Christ.

So the questions rest before us today: What brought you joy today? To whom did you bring joy today? May our answers cause us to embrace the grace and glory of God and to stand without blemish in God’s presence! Amen.