{"id":45357,"date":"2008-11-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/inside-joy\/"},"modified":"2008-11-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-03T00:00:00","slug":"inside-joy","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/inside-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While attending a 2008 awards presentation at the Strathmore Music Center, a concert hall just outside of Washington, D.C., author Mark Gauvreau Judge witnessed what can only be described as unashamed joy&mdash;something we don&#39;t often get to see in a broken world, let alone the church. The scene was made all the more powerful because it included different people from different cultural backgrounds&mdash;a Nimiipuu Indian, a saddle maker from Idaho, a Brazilian street dancer, a leader of the music liturgy of the Ethiopian Christian church, an Iroquois choir, a bluegrass band, a master of Peruvian folk art, a quilter from Alabama, a Korean dancer from New York, and a jazz musician specializing in the traditional New Orleans style. Judge writes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>After almost three hours, it was time for a curtain call&mdash;one last bow to end the evening. As [the host of the event] reintroduced everyone, [the] featured jazz band played &quot;When the Saints Go Marching In.&quot; That&#39;s when something happened.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The audience at the Strathmore rose to its feet to acknowledge the fellowship winners&mdash;it seemed at the time like one last blast of applause before the exit. But as they&mdash;we&mdash;clapped in time to &quot;When the Saints Go Marching In,&quot; the performers onstage began to dance. &hellip; The jazz band, sensing something in the air, got louder, and kept playing. And playing. And playing. Onstage, the performers formed a conga line, led by one of the jazz musicians, then a circle, each person taking his or her turn in the center. The invisible line between performers and audience evaporated. It had turned into one big party&mdash;or revival meeting.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The spiritual writer Stephen Mitchell once described a holy joy &quot;so large that it is no longer inside of you, but you are inside of it.&quot; I used to work at a record store and wrote music reviews for newspapers and websites, and I&#39;ve been to hundreds of concerts over the years. I have never seen anything like what happened on that stage at the Strathmore. It was the most totally unselfconscious explosion of bliss I have ever seen in performance; the people onstage were not hamming for the crowd or blowing kisses. They were as lost in abandon as we were. I wouldn&#39;t be surprised if they had forgotten we were there. This was a spontaneous eruption of happiness. &hellip;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>After about thirty bars of saints marching in, [the host] shut things down. No one wanted to leave; I honestly believe the band could have played for an hour and no one would have moved for the exits. Staggering outside, I heard a woman say she was &quot;swimming in joy.&quot; I myself was speechless. Then I heard someone say, &quot;I hope there was someone from the media there.&quot; I thought of saying that I was in the media. But then I had the decency to admit there were times when language failed. Like everyone else, I just wanted to stay inside the joy.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p class=\"is-style-article-source\"> <\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3726,3838,4117,4303,4506,5053,5305],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-45357","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-earthly-joy","tax_ctp_tags-happiness","tax_ctp_tags-joy","tax_ctp_tags-music","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-joy","tax_ctp_tags-worship"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Inside the Joy - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/inside-joy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inside the Joy - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While attending a 2008 awards presentation at the Strathmore Music Center, a concert hall just outside of Washington, D.C., author Mark Gauvreau Judge witnessed what can only be described as unashamed joy&mdash;something we don&#039;t often get to see in a broken world, let alone the church. 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