The angels at Christmas brought a message of ‘good news of great joy’ (Luke 2:10). Joy features so much in the Christmas narratives: Zechariah, when told of the impending birth of his son, is told he will be ‘a joy and delight to you and many will rejoice at his birth’ (Luke 1:14); when Elizabeth and Mary meet before the birth of their babies, Elizabeth says ‘as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.’ (Luke 1:44)

Jesus brings joy into the world. He who took on human flesh and walks with us through every trial and suffering of life because he shared in our humanity (see Heb 2:14-16, Heb 4:15-16) knew how to celebrate and rejoice. He spoke to His disciples of giving them his joy, praying they would know ‘the full measure of my joy within them.’ (John 17:23) Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit which God wants to grow in our lives as we focus on who God is and what He does. Christmas is always a time of reflection, of counting our blessings; it is a joyful season because God is there, in the midst. Outwardly the times during that first Christmas were not joyful: God’s people were living under Roman oppression and Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem when she was heavily pregnant just to be counted in a census. (Luke 2:1-3) Worse still, when they got to Bethlehem, there was no guest room available for them and so Jesus had to be born in a stable, having a manger or feeding trough for animals as his first bed. (Luke 2:4-7) Shortly after his birth, Herod heard about the news that a king had been born and so he went on the rampage, planning to kill any potential rival to the throne and murdering many innocent children in his bid to eliminate any other king. (Matt 2:3, 16) But despite the difficulties of the circumstances, still we think of Christmas predominantly as a time of joy and that’s because it is the time when we celebrate God’s indescribable gift to us. His presence, ‘Immanuel’, God with us, is the source of our joy now and always.

When we learn about shapes in school, we have lots of different names to learn! 3D shapes are those which have three dimensions (length, height and depth) and we have to learn about how many faces, vertices (corners) and edges they have. A shape with four faces is a tetrahedron (rather like this triangular pyramid) and the four themes of Advent (hope, peace, joy, love) are rather like that shape, giving us the opportunity to look at different themes which all come together to make one coherent whole.

In a similar way, the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) are like a nonahedron, a shape that has nine faces (see below.) We need all these fruit in our lives, but they form one whole.

When looking specifically at the subject of joy, joy is rather like a multi-faceted diamond which reflects God’s nature and character.

A diamond is an octahedron, a 3D shape with 8 faces, a bit like two square-based pyramids, one on top of the other. A gemmologist looks for different things when defining a diamond, known as the four Cs: carat (weight), cut (the symmetry and polish), colour and clarity (how pure is the diamond?) We too can see different aspects of joy as we read the Bible: how it is not dependent on circumstances but is found in God and received as a gift from God, how joy is centred on who God is and what He does and how joy is refined in us through the trials of life. (1 Pet 1:4-6, James 1:2-5) Joy is more than the happy feelings we have at happy times (like births, weddings, baptisms, promotions, moving into a new house and so on.) It is a spiritual gift which God wants us to unwrap not only at Christmas but every day of our lives!

This week’s Advent theme is joy. Joy is a multi-faceted thing often associated only with happy circumstances and bubbling personalities, but the Bible urges us to ‘rejoice always’ (1 Thess 5:16, Phil 4:4) and talks of the joy of the Lord being our strength (Neh 8:10). It is also categorical that joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22), part of that nonahedron of fruit which forms one whole and enables our character to reflect God’s nature.

Isaiah urged God’s people to draw water from the wells of salvation with joy (Is 12:3) and the Christmas message is one of good news of great joy. (Luke 2:1-12) Ultimately, we can know joy regardless of our circumstances because joy comes from God and is found in His presence. (1 Chron 16:27, Ps 16:11) It is His gift to us (John 15:11) and because joy is ultimately centred on who God is and what He does, there are always reasons for rejoicing. Joy is like a multi-faceted diamond which shimmers and glistens in the light of who God is (loving, faithful, patient, kind, a generous giver of gifts as James reminds us in James 1:17) and His marvellous works on our behalf (see Ps 118:15).

Dave spoke this morning on the subject of joy, taking as his text Isaiah 35:1-10. As Christmas draws nearer, our attitudes may vary: some may be excited; others apprehensive or even fearful about the prospect of the season. Many people endure Christmas rather than enjoy it, but Christians have every reason to be joyful, because this is the time when we see God’s plans fulfilled, when we celebrate His intervention in human history and understand that this means we can embrace eternal life even though we do not deserve it. Many people may ask what we have to smile about and the devil certainly challenges us when we are joyful, but God is able to give us His joy. As Isaiah says, sorrow and sighing will flee away as God’s joy fills our lives.

For many people, life is empty. Christmas is simply seen as the holiday shopping season, a period lasting from Black Friday through to Boxing Day sales, but gifts cannot fill the emptiness in our lives. Our world is fearful, just as the Israelites were fearful of invasion and exile (having feeble hands and weak knees.) Jesus came into the world to show us what God is like. He came not with pomp or majesty, but as a baby in an ordinary family, born into poverty. He cared enough to come into our world and His coming makes all the difference. Isaiah writes poetically of the beautiful cedar trees of Lebanon and the fertile mountains of Carmel and wild flowers of Sharon as symbols of the flourishing growth and joy that God can make in our everyday lives.

At Christmas, we sing that ‘the Lord is come.‘ We sing because Jesus, God with us, is here with us and that gives us something to smile about.

Here are some photos from the carol singing yesterday at the Christmas Sheep Celebration. We had to sing ‘While Shepherds Watched’ at a service about sheep! We also sang an ode about the knitted sheep (naming them all) to the tune of ‘On Ilkley Moor Baht ‘At’ and even the community police present at the service joined in the singing.

There were lots of crafts to get involved with, as well as crosswords, wordsearches and colouring sheets about Cecil the lost sheep. Our thanks to Sue for looking after these so well.

Here’s a picture of the wonderful puppets we borrowed from DIocese House in Rotherham as we practised beforehand:

It was lovely to see so many people enjoying themselves.

We were thrilled to be able to give out hamper prizes (donated by the Co-op in Bolton-on-Dearne) and a variety of other prizes (sheep cakes donated by PR Supplies) to people who took part in the Advent Sheep Trail running over the past two weeks.

Our thanks to the Salvation Army to hosting the event, to Alison and Karen for their planning and help with all activities, to all who participated and helped with the Advent Sheep Trail and to those who helped with setting up, helping and tidying away today.