LOVE AND LIVE Vm wie

A Christian Suggestion About Happiness
Muskingum, Thursday afternoon

My proposal, in conclusion, is profoundly simpre | It
SS ay are ey

is so simple, in fact, that I_often wonder if I have not
ery ey —

misunderstood something terribly important\\ Have you ever
=e La aaa a a

9 . :
done that? \ Have you ever listened to a whole lecture in

the vague dis - ease that you missed the first and most
en SSS ae eee ES

fundamental premise? | sonetimes that is what I think when

—- =
I reflect on Christian faith and my life. \ yy proposal is
=o ee,
so simple that I'm almost ashamed to haul it out on a
SS eee TET SH

college campus.
awe

It is this.\ Christianity is about happiness. The fun-

damental, essential product of the exercise is happiness.
t isiamiiieiiele 2

There are times and places where other ideas are more
me Se Sars

prominent and more appropriate: }ideas like discipleship,
bl Sse o cop

Sere = ay SSS
faithfulness, sacrifice, commitment, persecution But in
—_=>_———O—OE— COE SSeS
all times and all places the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about
ee Eee
happiness. ]} "Blessed are the poor in spirit - blessed are
SSS Ss = fina
those who mourn, the meek, the hungry and thirsty'l,}.. "Blessed"
Sarr Leiba Se Seca

is too pious - too BOLO as in "Blessed sed Assurance, Jesus is

eee
(iapry are you when men revi ean and persecute you. ‘\ That's

more to the point. \ eer was Thomas Oden, I think, who
ey” Se

mused that the early Christians were absolutely fearless,
\ = a) SSS ea

Se ed *
mine", or "Blessed a Virgin" 1 e Greek really means happy:
w=

absurdly happy and always in trouble.
exes EREEEET™ ayy,

It is our secret - perhaps too well kept, but I invite
ary SSP

you to explore it with me now...A Christian Suggestion about
quessas==ny SST TS

Happiness...

( "There must be something more to life than having every-

a —

thing."{ That's what Jules Feiffer observes in a delightful

—

new book, Tantrum, a cartoon hovel about a forty-two year
ep

man who becomes two years old again and returns to total
Sie

self-induigence. | that, Feiffer says, - that return to almost
_ om septa xounncnnion
infantile self-indulgence is what is happening in American
culture.
ee
poy The English film director Blake Edwards has said the
er _ -
\ same thing in a devastating m tion picture, "10". | Edwards

i *
en \- has said it so cleverly that millions of Americans are
WO . .
\y laughing comedy -—- which is good, and ogling Derek
primes Ete oy um perme Dees
yw who has earned the Jabel "10", without ever hearing the funda-

mental and serious criticism of a culture which has decided

apparent ly that the pursuit aan is the most important

process and the noble

autiful young woman, is ultimately a

And cnat?\ Happiness according to American culture as a

new decade igen er it has four elements: youth,

You Wr On dollars to disguis i i é S_ which accompany

py person is a fifty year old who looks thirty;

aye Na sine. | A heppy p

shee
a forty— two year old in the middle of adql

scence.| Second,

his,

+ & yc affluence - we are told every day that "things" will produce

happiness: | rumiture, cars, clothes, gadgets - if we can
ean =a ean —

afford enough, accumulate enough we will be happy.
Poet eiee

Call

Historian Daniel Boorst¢n believes we are badly misled
Fe

a al a

by the cult of rising expectations. ..He writes: ("We expect

too much of the world. \We expect our house not only to

eel Pe]
shelter us, to keep us warm in the winter and cool in the
<< 2 ee
summer, but to relax us, to encompass us with soft music
ee, ee [eee

and interesting hobbies, to be a playground, a theater and
er Aree i

a bar.y..We expect anything and everything. \We expect the

contradictory and the impossible - far more than the world

can deliver.”

Third, power ~ control are, in a sense, the derivatives
bey Ee

of wealth. | Our culture seems to say that we are a failure
nee ERS Fal

nationally if we can't control the behavior and im of the

are masters of our eee we call the shots and are

sat of control, even

control. ‘\ When things:

and very mbappy \ And fourth,
Dre aad

that's where it all comes to rest
De

young people rather than T conse guing gasoline. oe seem almost

Youth, after all, is a temporary condition. \ anyone whose

happiness is tied to it is going tc be unhappy for most of

and begin to think about much more modest life styles. | Some

economists are talking about scarcity within decades and

| wrote recently,

"We must learn to live simply so that others may simply live."

cas
Emerging in the new world of the 1980's is the idea that
=e. =o
we are not a totally independent nation, in control always,
— a ee paren

that our destiny is inevitably tied up with the rest of the
Epa ee

human family, like it or not \ Columnist Michael Novak wrote

emer

in an editorial, |For generations peasants in Venezuela and

ae

Peru have plodded in poverty shipping goods and commodities
tne

so that Americans could grow wealthy and healthy: \ oil, coffee,

——

bananas, copper, zine. \The world has for a long time been
ce

interdependent even though that word is oniy now becoming

——-

fashionable." (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 10/26/74)

Our lives, personally, follow much the same roaer | None
[a

we were conceived in

someone else's love and born in someone else's pain and
eoreters

danger. i None of us made ourselves into what we are toda

there are no self-made peopie. \ ror better or worse we are

who we are in relationship with parents, brothers and sisters
eS wee ETI

and a whole host of people who were prese nt to us and influen-
SERA ey

tial in very formative ways. leven the orphan, abandoned at
bn] om

Li

The Gospel of Jesus Christ suggests there is another

Lt nsinininil

happiness.\ Tt is so altogether different that it requires

a conversion to experience it.\ You won't stumble into it

a

watching television commercials.\ You won't even see much of

=,

it on religious TV programs .\ But to follow Jesus Christ

very far is to begin to discover it,\ It requires a kind of
iin a —

single minded obedience. \ We have to keep our eyes on hin,

de

or we will slip back and start believing that a new car or
Fl

ee

a new sexual conquest or a new job really is the key to our

Sd

happiness. \ The Christian faith maintains that there is ancther
ee eto Saree

happiness available to anyone who decides to follow Jesus
emi TE

Christ.] I don't know anyone who has thrown_himself or herself
Se er, eee

into it and is miserable. \: don't know anyone who works very

a a

hard for others who is unappy | That is to say, it works | It

ee

is the truth. ] It is borne out in experience.
Fatal

This other happiness - is letting go of power and
meiner ean

influence and the need to manipulate in the knowledge that
, eT a

whatever power we may think we have is at best very short

term: | that God alone is in control.—§ It is releasing our

grip on our things a bit, acknowledging that none of it is

permanent;| that the most precious possessions of all are
a aa

our gifts, given to us by other people, ultimately given to
Ee Dd

us by God ninseit.\ tis happiness is in the remarkable dis-
—_— Pd

f f 1f:
covery of our true_self the moment we forget about se

he findi if losi ife: iving 3

the finding of life by losing life \ recetuia in the very

act of giving, Living by loving
Oe i ol

Leena

*

D8 |

\ Robert Frost caught it, I

think, in a poem, To Earthward,

12

"T had the swirl and ache

From sprays of honeysuckle

That when they're gathered shake
Dew on the knuckle. }

I craved strong sweets, but those
seemed strong when I was young;
The petal of the rose

It was that stung, |

Now no joy but lacks salt
That is not dashed with pain
And weariness and fault; |

I crave the stain .

Of tears, the aftermark
Of almost toc much love,
The sweet of bitter bark
And burning clove. |

When stiff and sore and scarred
I take away my hand

From leaning on it hard

In grass and sand,

The hurt is not enough:|

I long for weight and strength
To feel the earth as rough

To all my length,