Tony Campolo tells the story of a trip that he took to Hawaii. Jet lag kept him awake late into the night, and he went out for a walk on the streets of Honolulu. At two in the morning, he found himself in a doughnut shop. Sitting at the counter, he overheard several prostitutes who were sharing a booth. One of the girls, whose name was Agnes, mentioned that it was her birthday. 

After she had left, Tony turned to the cook and the other prostitutes and said, “Let’s throw a party for Agnes.” The other girls agreed to bring decorations, and the cook said that he would bake a cake. 

That night, they all gathered at the shop and when Agnes walked in, they brought out the cake and began to sing, “Happy Birthday.” Tears streamed down Agnes’ face, and when it came time to cut the cake, she just stood there. Finally she said, “Could I buy another cake and we’ll eat that one? I want to take this one home and show it to my mother.” 

With that, she took the cake and left. In the sudden silence that filled the shop after she left, Tony bowed his head and began to pray, “Lord we thank you for Agnes and for your love for her. You loved her enough to send your Son to die for her on the cross. We thank you for the best present of all—the present of your own Son. Amen.” When he raised his head, he saw that all of the prostitutes had their heads bowed and had been praying with him. 

The cook looked at him and said, “You’re a preacher!” When Tony admitted that he was, the cook asked, “What kind of church do you have?” In a sudden fl ash of insight, Tony replied, “The kind that throws parties for prostitutes and gives invitations to sinners” (Campolo, pp. 3-7). 

 Jesus likes parties. This is pretty obvious in the fifteenth chapter of Luke. Three parables. Three things lost: A lost sheep. A lost coin. A lost son. Each story ends up with a party. Each story has one person looking for friends and neighbors to share in the joy and celebration. This is the thread that connects all three. Look over these three parables. The object of attention is not the sheep or the coin or the son. The focus is on the one searching. Each of them finds what they are looking or waiting for, and they invite people to share in their joy and join in the party. 

Nothing brings God greater joy than when one sinner repents and is safely back in the fold. Lost people matter to God. It matters not why they are lost. Some who are lost are very close to home, even within the confines of the church. They, like the coin, are helpless and can do nothing on their own to help themselves. Others are lost due to their ignorance and waywardness. Like the sheep, they are vulnerable to danger and harm. Searching for them is a much wider adventure. As with the lost son, some are lost because of willful disobedience and sinful living. No matter the condition or the reason, lost people matter to God. 
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Jesus said, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” What amazes me about this statement is when He said it. He was facing death in the morning. How could He talk about joy? “Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame (Hebrews 12:2). What is that joy that was before Him? It is obeying the will of His Father. The joy of obedience. Beyond this, it is His joy of knowing that in the anguish of His soul, it may be well with our souls. 

Joy in this life almost always involves an attitude of “No matter what, I will rejoice.”  There is certain defiance, because we know that at the Cross “it is well with my soul.” When faith shall be sight, we know that joy will have the last word. For the sheer joy of knowing Him and for the joy of life itself, why not then celebrate the joy? 
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

In worship, we are reminded through the hymns that our celebration of joy can sometimes be found in the midst of great pain. Some of the most endearing celebrations of joy have been in the presence of much pain, for the joy is not found in life’s circumstances but in the joy of the Lord. 

Horatio Spafford stands witness to this so powerfully. Spafford was born in 1828 and lived much of his life in Chicago as a successful lawyer and businessman. He was deeply religious and active in his church. 

Beginning in 1870, a series of tragic events tested his faith greatly. In 1873, a doctor advised the Spaffords to take a vacation for the family’s well being. Hearing that a dear friend, Dwight L. Moody, would be preaching in England, the Spaffords decided to leave for a vacation there. Spafford’s wife and their four daughters set sail, and Horatio would follow after completing some business. On November 22, 1873, while enroute, their ship sunk. Mrs. Spafford survived, but the four daughters were lost. When she arrived in Wales, she cabled her husband with the news: “Saved alone.” 

Receiving the news, Spafford left immediately to join his wife. He asked the captain of the ship to notify him when they approached the approximate location of where his daughters’ ship went down. Notified that the area was near, Spafford went down into his cabin and wrote this hymn, which today we know as “When Peace Like A River,” or better known as “It is Well With My Soul”: 

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, 

When sorrows like sea billows roll; 

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, 

“It is well, it is well with my soul.” 

It is well with my soul. 

It is well, it is well with my soul. 

Though Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come, 

Let this blest assurance control, 

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, 

And hath shed His own blood for my soul. 

It is well with my soul. 

It is well, it is well with my soul. 

My sin . . . O, the bliss of this glorious thought, 

My sin, not in part but the whole, 

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. 

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

It is well with my soul. 

It is well, it is well with my soul. 

And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, 

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, 

The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend. 

“Even so” – it is well with my soul. 

It is well with my soul. 

It is well, it is well with my soul.”
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

God understands our basic need and desire to celebrate. He knows that our delight in Him needs a chance to express itself in community. This is one of the great joys of worshipping with other Christians. The Old Testament places a lot of emphasis on the feast days. 50 Days Ablaze - Celebrate 167 These days of feasting were to be as influential as were the strict regulations of fasting and sacrifices. The Book of Leviticus has the reputation for being a book of laws and regulations. It has a fair share in its pages. But it also has a lot to say about celebrating among the community of believers. 

God is pleased when His people gather to celebrate in His name—celebrating His victories, His faithfulness and grace. This is what rests at the very heart and center of worship—the celebration of God’s goodness and glory. So often we want to make worship about us. We look for hymns that move us in certain ways; messages that help us with “real life” problems; worship time that helps us to experience His presence. I rejoice when this is the result of worship, but these are secondary. First and foremost, our worship celebrates Him. He alone is worthy to receive our praise and honor. This is reflected so well in the hymn of praise, “This is the Feast”: 

This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia. 

Worthy is Christ, the Lamb who was slain, 

Whose blood set us free to be people of God.

Power and riches and wisdom and strength 

And honor and blessing and glory are his. 

This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia. 

Sing with all the people of God, 

And join in the hymn of all creation: 

Blessing and honor and glory and might 

Be to God and the Lamb forever. Amen. 

This is the feast of victory for our God, 

For the Lamb who was slain has begun his reign. Alleluia, alleluia. 

(Lutheran Worship. pp. 182-183) 

When worship is carried out in spirit and truth as Jesus taught (John 4:23), all of worship is a feast—a feast on the love and faithfulness of God. The highpoint of this feast is the celebration of Holy Communion. What a great way to refer to this meal—the celebration of Holy Communion. That is precisely what it is—a celebration. God is victorious. He rules. He alone is worthy. 

Worship is nothing less than offering Him the praise He deserves in a rhythm that echoes our daily walk with Him.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

Joy in the life of a believer is not only fun; it is a necessity. Take to heart the words of Nehemiah: “. . . for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (8:10). 

For all those times I know the joy of the Lord through His body and blood, which I receive at His altar, or through the comforting presence of His Spirit, I ditto what Nehemiah said: “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” In times of trouble, joy gives strength. In times of temptation, joy gives strength. It is the absence of joy that makes us weak. 

 “Celebration heartily done makes our deprivations and sorrows seem small, and we find in it great strength to do the will of our God because his goodness becomes so real to us” (Willard, p. 181). 

It is very basic when we delight in God as our greatest joy. Sinful actions are not as appealing or attractive. There is strength in that joy. Don’t get me wrong. Temptations are still attractive. They are just not as attractive. It only follows that where there is a heart of joy, it will seek the opportunity to celebrate. 
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Laughter is a good thing in life. It refl ects joy in the heart. Joy is a good thing. It must be, because there are over 800 passages in the Bible that deal with “joy.” God must like the word. Even more than liking the word in the Bible, God loves it when there is joy in life.

Jesus entered into His public ministry talking about joy. As He began His public ministry, some of His first words were regarding joy. He stood before the people in His hometown and read the words of Isaiah: 

 “The spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). 

 Is it only coincidence that the text for His message is tied into the Old Testament celebration of the Year of Jubilee? As He entered ministry with a festal shout, so He prepared to end His days talking about joy: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15: 11). Amazing, when you think about it—on a night when Jesus is faced with deep anguish, He talks about joy. 

Martin Luther once said, “God is not a God of sadness, but the devil is. Christ is a God of joy. It is pleasing to the dear God whenever you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart.”
 

At a time when Jesus shared some difficult teaching (some of it regarding obedience to His command to love as He has loved), He followed it with these words, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” He does not give us His commands because we are too happy and He wants to make us more serious. He gives us the command to love one another because He believes that we are not joyous enough. There is no one in the entire universe who is happier or more joyous than God! He wants that joy to be in you and me.
 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

There are many times in our lives that the expectations and needs of other people will tug at our hearts. What is the guiding principle that determines what we say yes to and what we turn away? The answer rests in living our lives before an audience of One. 

 The demands of a hurting and hungry world were always before Jesus. How did He know when to say yes and when to say no? Henri Nouwen offers this thought: 

“In the lonely place Jesus finds the courage to follow God’s will and not his own; to speak God’s words and not his own; to do God’s work and not his own. He reminds us constantly, ‘I can do nothing by myself . . . my aim is to do not my own will, but the will of him who sent me’ (John 5:30). And again, ‘The words I say to you I do not speak as from myself; it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work’ (John 14:10)” (1974, p.14)
 

I am under His command to make disciples as I go along my way. I do this in obedience to Him and with love for those to whom I give witness. Even more important, though, is that my witness flows out of my first love for Him. This, in the end, will be the most winsome part of my witness. People will sense and see this, just as they will hear the witness I offer. 
 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish