There is a very well know phrase, maybe you have heard it, maybe you haven’t, but you will hear it at some point in your life, and it goes like this: “Misery loves company.” That phrase has started to get into vogue right now in some popular music. Emilie Autumn has just included a song entitled Misery Loves Company. The Indie rock band from Nova Scotia, The Trews has a song called Misery Loves Company as well. We repeat that phrase over again, and it sounds cool in some ways.
“Misery loves company.” What does it mean? Well, it means that if you are feeling miserable, you actually feel better by being with people who are just as miserable as or more miserable than you are. In other words, you kind of feel good about your misery, because compared to the misery of the other people that are around you, you think that maybe it is not that bad after all: misery loves company! You hear it said over and over again.
Now, there is a point at which “misery loves company” has some truth to it. As Dr. Hunnisett will attest, in her grief group there are people who are suffering from grief talking to other people who are suffering from grief, and they can help one another. But usually, “misery loves company” is cynical, and it is dark. And you know, I have thought about this, because I think there are people in our world and in our society who think that the church is a gathering of people who are miserable who want the company of other miserable people.
Whenever I seem to talk about the church to people who have never been to church or don’t know what we believe in, they often think that it’s a series of heavy, oppressive laws and rules and regulations that are basically out to kill any sense of joy in the world that we can find, and that we enjoy meeting with other people who also want to kill all the joy that there is in the world. Actually, I think that seems to be one of the most popular misconceptions about the Church of Jesus Christ: we are Christians, we are miserable, and we love company!
However, when I look at the Scriptures, and when I look at today’s passage the exact opposite is true. It is the joyful who want to meet and have the company of the joyful. It is those who have experienced a great joy in their lives who want to share that joy with somebody else. And, from the very beginning of the Church, from its very earliest days in the Book of Acts, and the Acts are the stories of basically how the early church grew.
From the very earliest days, the people gathered together because they had this overwhelming sense of joy and celebration. Words like “care” and “praise” were part of the vocabulary that described the early Christian experience. Joy was a characteristic of those who had decided to commit their lives to Christ, and it was the joy-filled meeting the joy-filled. Even more than that, it was from that joy that they decided to share it with other people.
I think it is fair enough to say, and a lot of people agree, that giving gifts is a good thing – right? If you give a gift to somebody or if you give to somebody who is poor or who is in need, it is a good thing. But, the early Christians went beyond that. They went not only to giving but to sharing. In other words, they didn’t just hand something off to people; they actually invested themselves in the relationship of giving something to somebody else.
The early Christians were known for their sharing as well as their giving, of participating with each other, and not just handing something over. This was one of the great characteristics of the early Church, and there are two reasons why they were so joyful. The first is they were spiritually empowered. We read in the Book of Acts that the Holy Spirit moved upon the people, and when the Spirit moved upon them, they had great joy and they had praise.
It was the Spirit that created the Church; not the Church that created the Spirit. The Church – the people who first believed – believed because the power of the Spirit had been upon them and in their lives. They had experienced the power of the Spirit and all the joy that had come from that Spirit, and that is why we have learned, and you have learned as a Confirmation Class, The Apostles’ Creed. Don’t worry! I am not asking you to stand up and recite it, as we have talked about!
You have all learned it, and there is a great line in there, and you will notice it goes like this: “I believe in the Holy Spirit” and then what is the next? It is “the holy Catholic Church.” Look at the order: “I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the holy Catholic Church.” In other words, I believe that the Spirit was the first power, the first mover, the one who gave us the power and the joy, and then the Church came after that very power. But then, having that very power it decided to feed itself.
The power came through Baptism, the one sign that we are a Christian – and some adults will be baptized this morning. By the sharing and the breaking of bread, which is Communion and which is what we are going to do a little later on, by the teachings of the Apostles, by the teaching of The Word which is something that we have done and you have done over the last few weeks. In other words, all of these things are full of joy. They are full of the faith. And, we want others to know and to experience and to share that faith.
Don’t let anyone tell you that the church is a group that says “Misery loves company.” The church is a body that is joyful and that loves other joyful people in the faith. There is one other thing that they did, and it is that they shared, because they had a sense of social responsibility. I don’t know if you have noticed Confirmation Class, but I have only met with you twice, and yet on both occasions there was a meal. Now, that I think is great by the way, and any time any future Confirmation Class wants me to be there, food is the way to attract me – right!
But, I do have a beef, you know, with this Class in particular, because they were very generous and they shared their pizzas with me the first evening, but then they took a photograph of the event, and I was astounded to find that all the pizza boxes were in front of me – and nobody else! Well, this isn’t something they are going to put in the Church News people! I enjoyed sharing the food, but I don’t want everyone to think that I consumed it all. Why? It is because we were sharing, weren’t we? That was what we were doing.
The early church shared. They shared everything. If someone was poor, they helped you. If someone was hungry, they fed you. If there was a member of the church who didn’t have a home, they brought you into the home. The early church was not only full of joy, it had social responsibility: it cared for and nurtured one another. And my, in this world that we are in isn’t that needed!
According to World Vision, there are 800 million people who woke up in the world this morning hungry. There are 1.2 billion people who, when they work this week, will earn no more than $1 a day. There are 32 million people who have no house and no home. To be a Christian in this world is I think a joyful thing, but they must reach out to those who do experience misery, to be in company with them, not that they may stay there, but that they may be lifted up.
You and I have a huge responsibility. We start where we are. We start in the relationship that we have. We start in the congregation in which we find ourselves in, and we do what we can, when we can, whenever we can by the power of the Holy Spirit to share with those who are in misery and who are in need.
On Easter Sunday 1994, the very famous Nelson Mandela, preached at an AfricanZionistChurch in South Africa. It was the day when they were confirming new members, just like today. It was before the election, where he eventually came to power. At the end of his sermon, he had a challenge for the Confirmation Class and a challenge for the congregation. This is what Nelson Mandela said. I really think this is something we need to take to heart:
Let me close my message on a note of hope, appropriate to the festival we are marking of the Resurrection of Jesus. May this Easter bring with it the blessings of our Resurrected Lord and may his love shine upon our land and upon our people with joy. May the dawn of democracy bring what is the means to fulfill the prayers of our mothers and fathers, the means to realize the dreams of our daughters and our sons, the means to feed the millions who this night will sleep unfed, and the means to bring comfort to those this night who only know despair. May the Lord Almighty grant you your grace and wisdom to continue your great work to receive spiritual guidance, and you will remain in my prayers as surely as I will be in yours.
He said it all!
To be a Christian is to embrace that kind of joyous hope, that joyful delight in helping the world and being embraced by the power of the Holy Spirit. May you this day feel that in your heart. Amen.