Moon Joy, Son Joy

1 Peter 1:3-9: 

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Transcript
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In the scripture we just read, it said that because we are believers, we have inexpressible and glorious joy. Now, I don't know about you, but every day is a Christian doesn't always feel like that. For instance, when it's a Sunday morning and I can't stop coughing, that that's not very joyful to me. Inexpressible and glorious joy. What does that even look like? I think about words like awe and wonder when I think about this kind of inexpressible joy. And I think it was maybe easier as children because everything's new. When my youngest was at Costco the last time, all she could do was stare at the fans. Amazing. They're huge. Just. Just astounding. She was filled with wonder because there were giant fans. Super cool. And we're just like, I'm just glad they're on. Or otherwise I'll be too hot. Little kids are great at showing us that you can have joy and wonder and awe and little things. One of my favorite stories that I don't remember myself, but my dad has told it so many times that I feel like I remember it. But one of my favorite childhood stories about me is when I was probably around my eldest's age, probably around four years old. My dad and I would go and look at the stars and we would go admire the stars. And just like I'm learning all children do at this age. I go, what's that? What's that? What's that, what's that, what's that, what's that, what's that, what's that? Which I'm learning more often than not. The answer to that is, I don't know, because there's just too many questions coming at the same time. And my dad's honest, he will say, I don't know, but he did not like that answer. And so he started learning about astronomy to the point that he bought like a a large telescope and just really got into astronomy. He loves astronomy, and partly because he and I love it because when we look up at the stars, we just see the fingerprints of God. And so I, I, like I said, I don't remember the story, but he's told me so many times and I do have so many memories of going out and looking at the stars with my dad that I can almost imagine me as a four year old filled with wonder at the stars. In fact, the picture here from this, this cover image is an image that was taken last week, Monday night, when the astronauts went to space and flew around the moon twice, I believe. I think it was I think it was two times they flew around the moon once or twice. Regardless, they flew to the moon. That's astounding. It's just amazing. And they're talking about this sense of joy. I love, um, this picture that I think most of the astronauts posted a picture like this. This one is of Christina Cook staring out at the earth from space. This was just a little bit into their mission. They were not very close to the moon at this point. But look at that. She is looking at the whole earth. I love their Easter messages. They were saying things like, we see all of you. Can see the whole planet all together. The term that has been used to describe it is called moon joy or earth joy. When we're watching these astronauts in space, they are, uh, they are talking about the earth rise and earth set. Or maybe I should say it backwards, Earth set and earth rise as relates to the moon and they are just amazed. Um, I, I by the end of this and I'll tell you more about why I know so much besides the fact that I've loved space since I was four. But one of the things I love so much about this is it seems like astronauts, they tend to be Christian. It seems like not all of them, but there's this one astronaut on this mission, Victor Glover, who was a Christian, and it was not lost on him that he was in space during Holy Week and Easter. That's exceptional. He says, we are so far from earth and looking back at the beauty of creation. I think for me, one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is that I can really see earth as one thing. When I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us, who who were created, you have this amazing place, this spaceship referring to the earth as a spaceship. By the way, you guys are talking to us because we're in a spaceship really far from earth. But you're on a spaceship called earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe. Like what? A sense of awe and wonder and what a unique perspective to have. And so we, we see stories like that and we're like, well, yeah, I think I'd have inexpressible joy too, if I was on my way to the moon and looking back at earth. What what an astounding experience. And so it made me ponder what makes it so joyful, what fills us with awe and wonder in those moments. And so I'm thinking about these astronauts, and I realize they, they experienced a dramatic change of perspective. Obviously, that's that's a dramatic change of perspective. They experienced a change of perspective. And then they looked with their eyes. They saw with their eyes. Change of perspective. And then they were looking for it. And so when I think about inexpressible joy as believers, I wonder, are we taking the opportunities God has given us for a change of perspective or appreciating the change of perspective God's already given us? And are we looking for what God is doing around us? Because the truth is as astounding as this is, and it is absolutely amazing, the fact that God came to earth to die for us and save us from our sins is even more amazing. With these astronauts were on a very precise trajectory to go around the moon and come back, and it went. Very few things in life go perfectly. It went about as perfectly as it could, down to like minutes perfectly and and where they expected them to land in the ocean perfectly. It was just it was it was amazing. We were not on a incredible trajectory when we were in our sins. The trajectory of sin is wherever God is not. The trajectory of sin is away from God. And God changed our trajectory to head towards him. That's what salvation is. It's a total change. It's not becoming a better person. It's a total change in trajectory from going to on a sinful route to one that heads towards God, a godless route towards one that heads towards God. Change in trajectory. Talk about a change in perspective. But then are we looking for it? We know that. We know that Jesus saved us. We've heard the gospel story before. You've heard it a lot from this pulpit. You know the gospel story. But I wonder if we're we're looking for it. I think sometimes we get so overwhelmed by the challenges in life that we miss the joy that God has given us right now. We think, yes, I have the hope of heaven, and that's great. But right now, joy in the midst of the suffering, in the midst of this pain, really inexpressible joy. What does that even mean? And then on top of that, sometimes we we know we should be experiencing joy, but the feeling doesn't come. I don't know if you've ever suffered with depression. If you've ever dealt with or you've. I know many of you have had family members with dementia, and it doesn't really matter what's happening around you if you can't feel it. It almost feels like it's not happening. And so in those moments, where is joy? Where is joy in those moments? How do you experience joy? And remember, the trajectory that God changed for us was based on God's work in our life. It doesn't matter if we can feel it. God is still doing it. It doesn't matter if we have moments where we're like, God, I'm barely hanging on. God says, I'm hanging on to you. Keep going. Let's keep going. I, I set this trajectory. We're going to get there. It doesn't have to do with if you can feel it or not. This was especially encouraging to me, um, in seasons where I've struggled with depression. Because if you've again, if you've ever struggled with depression, you can look around you and be like, I've got, I've got a great job, I've got a great home, I've got a great family, and I don't feel any of it. Which means that joy is more than a feeling. It's an experience. It's that belief that even when I don't feel it, God still has me, even when I don't feel it. He is still guiding me. And it might not be a feeling, but it's just the sense of in the end, I know he's got me. That's how I would define joy. God has got me. So I'm talking a lot about this mission. It was the Artemis two mission on an Orion spacecraft that they named integrity. So I was not intending to watch all nine hours of the lunar flyby coverage, but it happened on Mondays. Mondays are my day off. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I had some ideas of maybe going and just going on a little adventure of some kind, going on an outing. But then when I saw what was happening today that they were about to fly by the moon for the first time in fifty three years. I don't want to do anything else. I just want to watch this. I sat and watched all nine hours of this coverage. I could not look away. I didn't want to look away. I didn't want to do anything else. I never sat down and watched TV for nine hours. To be clear, that's a long time. Nine hours. Because I could not look away. I was just amazed by every second. I was amazed by those in Mission Control and the astronauts who kept praising God. I don't think they could help it. I think it was all just so incredible that praises were pouring out of their mouths. They said even the rocks will cry out if we don't. But those of us who love God, it just it just comes out of us. It was amazing. And then. They had a moment where they got to watch the solar eclipse from the dark side of the moon, which is what's pictured here. This is a real image that they took, and they were actually in the midst of a blackout. So they had all these inspiring messages that they shared right before they went in a forty minute communication blackout, which is a long time. It was planned, but that's still a long time to not be able to communicate with earth. And when they came, when they reconnected on the other side of that forty minutes, they were like, okay, what was it like? They said one of them said, if what we have seen so far is amazing. But what we just saw during the eclipse was sci fi. It was almost unbelievable. It almost didn't seem real. They weren't expecting to be able to see that much light coming from behind the moon, and they really weren't expecting to be able to see immense details in the moon that they'd never seen human eyes had not seen before. But I'm starting to get really nerdy about the that's not the point of the sermon. I had to make a note in my sermon that this sermon is about First Peter one, not about the Artemis two mission. So let's come back. Their trajectory was set by a lot of people who were making sure they could have that moment right there, and it was more wonderful than they ever expected. And there's nothing that can take that away from them. Now think about our salvation. Peter says that it's imperishable, unspoiled, unfading. There's nothing that can take it away. Even if our bodies don't let us feel it, the experience of joy is still there. Our salvation is still there, even if we can't see it. That still exists. That eclipsed. Sorry, there's a TV in the back too. Um. It still exists. Even when we can't see it. It's still there. Because the truth is our bodies and our minds and our brains, they have trouble sometimes, don't we? It's hard to experience, to feel, to feel joy. And when our when our bodies are struggling. But that's why I like to remember that my salvation is held by God and not me. My salvation is held by God even when I don't feel it. My hope and my home in heaven is held by God even when I don't feel it. God's doing incredible things even when I don't see it. Which at the beginning I said, what was. What was it that changed for them? They had a change of perspective and they were looking for it. I don't know about you, but sometimes it's easy to miss what God is doing, either because we are moving too fast or we're just going through our normal life and we're not really looking around for what God is doing. I hear people when they start watching for what God's doing and they're like, wow, God really showed up this week. I'm like, yes, he did, just like he did every week. You're just paying attention. God is always doing incredible things. When we think about having joy when life is hard and it's hard to feel it. I think about Peter who wrote this letter. Think about Peter, the same Peter who was just bold with Jesus. I will never leave you, even if I have to die with you. And then he denies him three times. And then Jesus forgives him and restores him. Jesus goes back to heaven. And then Pentecost happens, and Peter begins to preach boldly to everyone. No apologies for what he did because he didn't need to. He had been commissioned by Jesus to go teach them. And so he did. That must have been an incredible moment. It must have been a bit of an eclipse moment for that early church. It must have been something like an eclipse moment for that early church. Just truly indescribable. But then Peter's life got more challenging. Peter was persecuted for his faith. Ultimately, he was killed for his faith. And yet here he says that we have an inexpressible joy knowing that God has our salvation, inexpressible joy. If Peter, who was killed for his faith, who betrayed Jesus on a level that would break most friendships but not his. If he can say a relationship with Jesus brings inexpressible joy, I'm inclined to believe him. Which is why I'm rethinking that. Joy isn't a feeling. Joy is an experience of a relationship with God, and God will bring us home. He will bring us to our eternal home. Those people who have gone on before us will bring us to our eternal home. When I think about ordinary ways that I experience awe and wonder and joy, I actually think about that cemetery right behind us. I like to go walking back there, even though I know I haven't met any of the people there. But you have. I love to walk back there and remember the stories you've told about these people that you love. And I think about the legacy that they left on this church. And it brings me a sense of awe. I took this picture in the prayer garden of a little angel and a bee in a flower. But it was on a walk to the cemetery. I love visiting that cemetery with all those people you love because you love them and God loves them. And someday we're going to get to heaven and they're going to start telling stories about you. So we are going to meet one day because God finishes what he starts. We gotta come back to the Artemis two, right? They finished what they started. They did come back to earth. You'd think that people who got to experience the moon would never want to come back home. And yet their spouses and their kids and their friends, they were all at home. They all wanted to come home. They wanted to go, but they were ready to come home. They were ready for the adventure to end so they could be home and not just be with their families. Although I know that's their top priority, but to share it with everybody. When they were talking about making sure everyone got back safely, well, if I remember correctly, one of them goes, yes, we have to get back safely because we have so much more data to share with everyone. I would have gone. It's important to go back safely because because you're a person, you know, we want to get back safe. No data. We gotta share this with everyone. This is amazing. This is good news. We have so much to share. We have so much to share, and there's been this joy amongst them. If you've watched any of the coverage, there's this joy in this connection that was among them that just it made me think, I think this is who we were meant to be. As people. I know that they're all sinful people, but I think they gave us a glimpse into what we were meant to be as people before sin, creative, curious, exploring the world that our God gave us. And that creates a sense of joy. When they came back down to earth, I was determined to watch that, even though it was shortly after my kid's bedtime. So we all stayed up late to watch them splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. And I'd been talking to Ellie about this all week. She was very excited. I was showing her the pictures. I was talking to her about the astronauts, especially the astronauts who love Jesus. And they're exploring for Jesus. And so when it was time for them to splash down, we had been talking about it. We had hyped it up, and we were sitting in a recliner together. She was sitting right next to me. And you kind of don't know what you're looking at at first, because it's just a pod that looks this big on the screen and blue, so you don't know what you're looking at at first. And so I'm watching them fall and I'm like, when are they going to hit the water falling? And then all of a sudden I see the splash and then it registers their home. And I, I, I yell and scream in joy. I was like, yes. And Ellie did too. And because we cheered, so did Savannah. We just cheered like their back, their home. It was just as amazing as the fact that they went around the moon. They finished what they started and God finishes that in us. And what I want to call that is I want to play off a term I heard them used, which was earth joy and moon joy. I'm going to play on that. I'm going to call it sun joy s o n sun joy. We know Jesus is going to finish what he started. Even when we can't feel it, shoot the G forces that those people experienced going into space and coming back, that could be called suffering. They knew it was worth it for what was going to happen. And we know that someday Jesus is going to come back. He's going to make it all right. And we have immense hope and yes, inexpressible joy in knowing that God finishes what he started. One day we're all going to splash down in heaven. And then I think we will be able to experience that feeling of joy that our broken bodies don't let us experience now. One last story for you. If you watched any of the coverage, you saw a little ball floating around the whole time. His name was rise. He was the mascot. I didn't know that ships had mascots. I apparently have a lot to learn. Um, and he was designed by a little boy. His name was rise. It was a moon with a hat that looks like earth. So it looks like earth rise coming out of his head. It was very cute. And rise is a reminder to to look up. And I think he could be a reminder for us to, to look up, look around for what God is doing around us, and experience the joy of knowing. Having an assurance that God is at work around us That he finishes what he starts. That we're going to splash down in heaven someday. But if we want to experience the joy, we're going to experience the salvation. But if we want to experience the joy now, we've got to look up and look around, see what God is doing. And that might take some courage. It certainly takes courage to get blasted off into space. It might take some courage. But God's with you. He set the trajectory and his timing is even more perfect than theirs. He will finish what he started and there is joy there. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you. That you made a whole universe For us. That's something that's been bringing me joy since I learned about it. But we all have moments where we're like, wow, God really did this. Help us look for those moments. Certainly the astounding moments like in space or in a new birth. Those are moments where we really experience your joy, but help us to look around just our regular daily lives and experience your joy in knowing that you finish what you start. You've set us on a trajectory. There is nothing that can take us away from that. So God, I praise you for the big reminders and the little reminders that you finish what you start. In Jesus name, Amen.