Let me read to you three sentences in the New Testament where the word joy is used. One is in the Gospel of John. In the Thursday night discourse, our Lord says this to his disciples, "You have sorrow now, but you will see me again. Your hearts will rejoice. No one may take your joy from you. Hitherto you ask nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full." That's the 16th Chapter of John.

Then James, the bishop of Jerusalem, writes in his remarkable Book of James, "Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet various trials, for you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and steadfastness, when it is complete, has its full effect and fulfills your life."

Finally, Paul in his Letter to the Philippians writes, "Therefore my brothers and sisters whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm thus in the Lord." And then a little later he says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice." In each case, this is the word joy. "Let all people know your forbearance, the Lord is nearby."

Now in each of these cases the word joy is used. Now what is the word and what does it mean? The word in Greek, chara, is the root word for another great word in the New Testament that the apostle Paul uses and as one of his love vocabulary words, charis, or as translated into English, grace. The word probably really means surprise gift. Then if you take the little eu, which is a prefix in Greek, and add it before the chara, it becomes another important word in the New Testament, thanksgiving -- eucharist. So here we have a very important word in the New Testament -- joy, grace, thanksgiving. They're all words that have their root from the word joy, surprise gift.

I think it's C. S. Lewis who helped me the most to understand the New Testament meaning of this word, and he did it in a remarkable little book he called, The Screwtape Letters. Actually, when Lewis wrote it, he created a kind of interesting satirical device. He has a senior devil named Screwtape writing to a junior devil named Wormwood and so you have to reverse some of the things that Screwtape says because he's writing from his point of view -- the enemy is God, and our father below is the Devil. But anyway, in writing to Wormwood, Screwtape makes some comments about joy. Let me read to you from this little book, The Screwtape Letters. As Screwtape is speaking to Wormwood, he says:

I divide the causes of human laughter into joy, fun, the joke proper and flippancy. You will see the first among friends and lovers reuniting on the eve of a holiday. Among adults some pretext in the way of jokes is usually provided, but the facility with which the smallest witticism produces laughter at such a time, shows that that's not the real cause. What the real cause is we do not know. Something like it is expressed in much of that detestable art which the humans call music, and something like it occurs in heaven.

And now here Screwtape gives his definition of joy, A meaningless acceleration in the rhythm of celestial experience, quite opaque to us. Then he goes on to explain that, Laughter of this kind does us no good and should always be discouraged. Besides the phenomena is of itself disgusting and a direct insult to the realism, dignity and austerity of hell.

This is Screwtape's definition, but listen, you have to reverse some of Screwtape's words. Screwtape calls it, a meaningless acceleration... That means the real definition of joy is it's a meaningful acceleration. In the eyes of evil, it's meaningless, but in the eyes of God it's a meaningful acceleration in the rhythm, Lewis calls it, of celestial experience. In the rhythm of our experience with God's character. That's what he means by that. It's quite opaque to the devil, quite opaque to evil. It can't understand it.

I think Lewis has helped us to understand joy. Joy is a meaningful acceleration in the rhythm of our relationship and our understanding of God. Well, let's think about that for a minute. I think his definition gets a hold of what we've seen in these three texts. Joy is a surprise gift. It's an experience of meaningful rhythmic acceleration. That's why there are strong feelings that go with joy. It's exuberant sometimes, but also profoundly quiet and peaceful. Notice they're both together. He calls it an acceleration that's rhythmic. Also, joy is a surprise gift given to us and in us as a taste of the experience we have with the character of God. He calls it a taste of what celestial experience will be like. It's an advance look of what heaven will be like. Joy, in other words, is an experience of God's character. And then three, evil cannot understand joy. It's a baffling experience to evil. Screwtape does not understand it. That's why he calls it this meaningless acceleration. He doesn't understand it. It's opaque to him. It's baffling to evil and evil cannot stop it, and this is what Lewis says.

Well, now, I have a question to ask. When is it that we experience this joy? Where are the places where we experience joy? Well, I would like to make three reflections on that. First, it happens in fellowship. In fact, Lewis began his whole definition of joy that way. He says, You will see joy on the eve of a reunion. It happens in fellowship with brothers and sisters who also have experienced joy, and from a Christian point of view, what Paul says in Philippians helps us to understand that kind of joy. He says to the Philippians -- I love the way he puts it -- Therefore my beloved, my brothers and sisters whom I love, who I long for, my joy and my crown. The word for crown that he uses here is the same word used for an athletic crown. It is like saying to the Philippians, you are my gold medal. You are the crown for me. You are a joy to me. And this is what joy is. It's an experience; it's a fellowship that we have with brothers and sisters.

Secondly, another thing about joy in the New Testament is that it happens at odd and awkward times. That's how I understand the James passage. James says, Count it all joy when you meet various trials because the trials of your life prove the durability and the faithfulness of God's goodness. James was one of the early martyrs in the Christian church and he knows about stress, and he is saying that in the midst of that stress, he experiences joy. It's an awkward time. It's a time when you wouldn't expect to have joy, and yet James is saying he has it because in that experience of trial he is discovering the faithfulness and the goodness of God. James is experiencing joy at an awkward time. I don't know if you have had that experience, a time when you wouldn't expect to have joy. You don't expect to have the meaningful acceleration you do when, in a time of stress, you discover that God is faithful and His faithfulness and durability is validated to you.

And also there is a third. It happens, I suppose, in the profoundest sense, when I discover the faithfulness of Jesus Christ myself, and His fellowship with me, and that's how I understand the John 16 passage. This is in the Thursday night of Holy Week and Jesus Christ is saying to His disciples that, Now you have sorrow, but you will experience joy and the joy comes with my fellowship with you. You're with me and no one can take that joy away from you. It's your experience. It's an experience that I give to you and no one can take it from you. And so we experience joy, joy as an exuberance. That's how I understand this use of the word acceleration. It's an exuberance. We have strong feelings about our joy, and yet there is a sense of peacefulness about it. I love the way Paul completes that great 4th Chapter of Philippians when he says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let all people know your forbearance -- actually the Greek word here, epikas, means mellowness, your gentleness -- the Lord is nearby. Then he goes on to say, Have no anxiety about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will garrison (or guard) your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And so we see this peaceful kind of joy as an acceleration, and yet it's a peacefulness. It's a joy that happens because of reunion, of fellowship. It's a joy that happens at awkward times and it's a joy that happens because we're in the presence of God, in the presence of Christ in His faithfulness.

That third one intrigues me the most. When I discover that God's love for me is there and I can count on it, that He cares for me, and that that is a bedrock fact of my life, then I experience joy.

Imagine you're going to a party. Have you ever been to a party where you look around the room and see all the various foods they have? Maybe over here at a table you see some of your very favorite foods. Some shrimp? That's something I like. Maybe in a nice display around ice, and then maybe some smoked salmon and then, of course, all the other things are in this great buffet. And you walk in. Have you ever had that experience where you kind of look around the room and see all the things that are there?

Over on the dessert table you see one of your very favorite things, Siberian peach pie. You decide to skip the carrots and the celery and the potato chips and make a beeline. They only have a small plate, so you go over to the shrimp table and start taking the shrimp right away because you want to get them before all the greedy people come. You take some shrimp, and you're eating them while you're standing there, piling them up on your plate. You go over to the salmon, skipping all those other things, cauliflower and all that, and then maybe run over to the pie and get that before others get it, and you're just filling your plate.

And now something surprising happens. The hostess comes up to you and says, "Ah, you came to the party. I'm so glad you came to the party. I wanted you to come to this party so much, and oh, by the way, Earl, I know that you love shrimp. That's why I had them at the party. I know you love them, and I know you like salmon. It is one of the reasons I had salmon here today. I know you like it. Oh, and look at over there, Siberian peach pie. Your very favorite. Earl, when you leave today, would you go by the kitchen? I have had them put aside a whole plateful of shrimp, and there is also some salmon there, and I've got a whole Siberian peach pie for you when you leave. Be sure to stop by and get it would you, Earl?"

Now let me ask you a question, when this hostess has said that to you, now what do you do at the party? You walk over to the celery, you get some celery, some carrots. You say to other people, "Hey, you must try this shrimp. They're marvelous. Be sure to try the Siberian peach pie." I mean, you feel so generous. It's a generosity that has happened in your life. Why is it? It could be described as a joy that has come to your life. Why? Because you discovered that the hostess really cares about your fulfillment, cares about your joy and I think that's what the disciples are discovering in the 16th Chapter. Jesus says, I know you're having sorrow now, but you are going to have joy. No one can take it from you because I'm going to be with you. And when that occurs to me, when I realize that, it sets me free and that freedom in the New Testament is called joy.

Bud Knoedler: Earl, thank you for being with us today. I especially enjoyed your references to C. S. Lewis. He is a household word these days with the Hollywood film "Shadowlands" having been recently given to us. As you understand C. S. Lewis, and I know he's one of your favorites, what would C. S. Lewis have to say today, Earl, to our Western culture and its frequent reliance on sex and drugs and alcohol in this search for joy that you talked about.

Earl Palmer: Well, joy is a very big word for Lewis. When he wrote his autobiography of the shape of his early life, he called it "Surprised By Joy." That was the big discovery, one of the tremendous big discoveries of Lewis's life. He was very interested also in our intoxication or addiction to, you might say, false searches. He had an interesting line. He said, "The modern man/woman has had an ever-increasing appetite for ever-decreasing pleasure." That's the way he described the problem of filling our lives with things that don't really substantially meet the need and the search we have for joy. There is a universal search for joy.

Another great Lewis quote is that "Joy is the serious business of heaven. It's the grand truth. It's the surprise that happens when we discover God's love." And so Lewis there's a sense in which he's always trying to focus us on the great truth, the great center of God's love revealed in Christ, and I guess that would be the answer to the person that is tempted to try to find other things to fill that void.

Knoedler: Earl, we just have a half a minute left, and I know you have been ministering to university students all around the country and around the world. What message today reaches the university student?

Palmer: Well I think students today are open to a thoughtful message. They're certainly experimenting and trying things out and they need to know what is true, and I think they're searching for something that is faithful and true.