After his speech, Kennedy turned to Maury Maverick, a local politician, and said, "Maury, let's get out of here. Where's the back door?"

Maury replied, "Senator, if there had been a back door to the Alamo, there wouldn't have been any heroes."

There are times when we would all like to slip out the back door, get away from the crowd, let up on the pressure of responsibility. There are times when I am tempted to find a back door, give up and run . . . Praise God, there is no back door for the Christian.

Last week we spoke of John the Baptist and of Jesus as outspoken critics of the status quo. It was their harsh condemnation of injustice and the evils of their time that got John beheaded and Jesus crucified.

It has been the lot of all the prophets who were faithful to the call of God to be forsaken by their friends and followers, and to suffer for faithfulness. John was, according to Jesus, the greatest of the prophets. "No man ever born has been greater than John," Jesus said.

John criticized the king, so he was imprisoned. He was lonely and alone, wondering whether he had been faithful to the call of God. Had God really commissioned him to say the caustic things he had said?

His few remaining friends came and talked with him thru the prison bars. They reported that Jesus was feasting with sinners, hanging around with tax collectors, publicans, prostitutes! That wasn't exactly what John had expected and prophesied of the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, the Savior of the world!

He sent his disciples to ask Jesus, "Are you the one for whom we look, or shall we expect someone else?"

Jesus told them to stand aside and watch awhile. Then he said, "Go, tell John what you have seen."

I don't know just what John's reaction was, but I'm sure the Holy Spirit enlightened his mind so that he understood. My Dad used to quote John, "Brothers, that's all I want to know!"

The point is that John stood fast in the face of overwhelming disappointment and depression. There was no back door for the man of God!

My Dad had a friend, Charles Bellah, who retired from the Seventh-day Adventist ministry. Instead of finding a comfortable home in Florida or California, he moved to Fredricktown, a small town in the hills of Missouri. He had some cards printed, went to the funeral directors and the police station and introduced himself. He told them he would be available to help anyone who needed help in any way at any time.

Brother Bellah lived in that town until he died, serving anyone who needed or wanted help. No comfortable retirement. No leisure days. No back door!

Albert Schweitzer had a doctor's degree in theology, a doctor's degree in philosophy, and still another in music. When he got to be about 30 years old he felt he should repay God and society for all his advantages and blessings. So he earned still another doctor's degree, this time in medicine.

He asked the mission board in Paris to send him to Africa. Because his theology was too liberal to suit them, they refused. The London mission board took the same attitude.

Schweitzer refused to give up, to go thru the back door! He gave lectures and organ concerts. When he had earned enough money, he went to Africa and set up his clinic. No back door for a man like Schweitzer!

Jesus, of course, is the ultimate example of accepting the challenge of serving when serving becomes costly. There were times when Jesus was weary, needed rest, but when the people needed him, he responded. There was no back door when he was needed.

The crux of the matter is that Christians live and love and serve on the basis of principle, not emotions. Most of us do what we want to do if and when we feel like doing it. How long would you keep a job if you went to work only when you feel like it?

As Christians we have accepted the responsibility to minister, to serve in the name of Jesus. Anything less is pseudo-commitment. And if we want to keep our "jobs" as Christians, we will base both our decisions and our behavior on the principles of his Kingdom, not on our feelings.

The principles are clear and immutable. The problem is in applying them. Senator Dan Coats of Indiana, in a commencement address at Wheaton College, pointed out that sometimes in the real world, one principle seems to be set against another. We face many moral challenges in this time, this age, this land. As a country, and as individuals, we have to decide what moral principles apply in the matter of abortion, business ethics, animal research, genetics, poverty, hunger, nuclear proliferation, corporal punishment, capital punishment, physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, and especially at this time, war.

There is a back door for us, of course. We can simply walk out, shrug our shoulders, let someone else study the issues, discuss them and make the decisions. That is what most people do, don't they! But they aren't the heroes!

I don't mean to make this sound simple, or easy. It is not. We walk in unfamiliar territory, with few landmarks. To be obedient to our morals and our values, especially when our obedience is misunderstood or even criticized, demands courage. It demands that we not walk out the back door!

In times of war, we talk much and hear much about military personnel as heroes. Surely, those who become fighters because they believe they are fighting for a just cause, are indeed heroes.

But please don't forget that war protesters, pacifists, or those who refuse to fight because they consider, or any particular war unjust, are just as surely heroes. Do you think Jesus would volunteer to fight in the present conflict?

Senator Coats noted that many people don't want to struggle with moral questions; they want an alibi. An alibi almost always comes masked as rationale, which is usually an excuse for what we don't want to do. He says, "After the facts are collected, after the principles are defined, after the prayers are offered, a decision is required. Those who make them carefully are left drained of self-righteousness. Moral choice begins with surrender. It completes itself in humility."

All those factors, in total, are the requirement for courage not to walk out the back door!

In the final analysis, you and I must make all our moral decisions for ourselves. Each of us must face the core of his own being, honestly answer to his own conscience . . . and then live with the results of our decisions.

During this holy season, as we praise and worship Jesus -- as a baby, as a man, as an example -- let us remember that the life he lived and the death he died was for us. The call he made, the commission he gave was to go, follow his example, shine as lights to the world.

By accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, our Redeemer, we implicitly accept his priorities, his principles, his perceptions. That is a challenge.

Probably the most challenging aspect of Christian living is that for the really converted, radical, born-again Christian, there is no back door! It is made even more challenging as we remember that this third week of Advent is the week of Joy!

Our Old Testament reading for today is a poem of joy, quite different from the stern judgments and warnings from preceding chapters: "The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy."

"Joy is the first desire imposed upon us by nature, and the only one that never leaves us," said Rousseau.

Voltaire, who didn't agree with Rousseau on much of anything else, did agree here. He said, "Joy is the object, the duty and the goal of all sensible people."

Tough-minded Samuel Johnson made the pursuit of happiness the theme of his novel, Rasselas.

Still another Englishman, Alexander Pope, spoke in his Essay on Man about "happiness, our being's end and aim, for which we bear to live, or dare to die."

Even dour John Adams admitted that "all philosophers were agreed that the happiness of society is the end [purpose] of government and the happiness of the individual is the end [purpose] of man." When he wrote the constitution for Massachusetts Adams used "happiness" five times!

Thomas Jefferson used the phrase "the pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence, and also in his first inaugural address.

Why then are there so many unhappy people? There is a spate of "How to be Happy" books, which attest to our hunger for joy. Is joy a mirage?

Joy, happiness sometimes seems to be right around the corner, dangling just out of reach.

Lucy asks Linus, "Why do you suppose people are here, anyway?"

Linus answers, "Every person is on earth to make someone else happy."

Lucy ponders that for a moment, then screams out, "Then somebody's not doing his job!" Some of you may identify with that!

You all remember Barbara Hutton, known as the "poor little rich girl." Her mother died when she was five. She said, "Though I had millions of dollars, I had no mother and no home." She married seven times, three of them made her a princess. She died in 1979, at age 66. The news reported, "Barbara Hutton died unmarried and alone, a symbol of the cliche that money doesn't buy happiness."

Let's take another look at the Old Testament, in juxtaposition to Jesus -- the reason for this season.

When Jesus began his ministry in his hometown synagogue, he announced "good news to the poor . . . the captives . . . the blind . . . the oppressed . . ." Those are the same emphases we read in Isaiah. I hope you noticed that Isaiah's lame don't just walk, they "leap like a deer." And the speechless don't just croak, they sing!

When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus whether he was the one they were expecting, Jesus spoke of the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, the poor.

The difference between the joy sought and specified by the famous people we quoted, and the joy proclaimed by Jesus, is that Jesus enjoyed and exuded joy by serving, by sharing, by giving. The blind received joy because they were healed. Jesus had the greater joy because he healed them.

Mark Twain said, "Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy, you must have somebody to divide it with." Jesus made people happy because he himself was happy, obviously enjoying his ministry. He divided his joy with others.

Consider Dorothy Day, in contrast with Barbara Hutton. Known as "the mother of the faceless poor and of the city's offspring," she was convinced that she existed for a special purpose. She established farm communes and hospices. She went to prison as a suffragist and a pacifist. Her ministry still blesses the poor. She died in 1980 at age 83. Time magazine called her a "secular saint."

Hannus von Yannuah was asked the secret of his 102 years. He said, "When I get out of bed every morning I have a choice -- to be happy or unhappy. I always choose to be happy."

Philosopher Will Durant searched for happiness in knowledge. He found only disillusionment. He tried travel, but found weariness. His wealth brought him only discord and worry.

One day he saw a woman sitting in a car with a tiny baby in her arms. Then a man got off the train, went to the car, kissed the woman and the baby, and they drove off. Ah! Will Durant realized that he saw something of the nature of pure joy.

So it is, dear saints, specifically at this season, joy surrounds a baby. Happiness is found in refusing to go out the back door. Happiness is found in serving the poor, the lame, the oppressed, in the name and in the ministry style of the Christ-child whose birth we are celebrating.

Let us pray . . .

Lord, we have come to worship the happiest one who ever lived. We pray that we, like he, will find true happiness and joy in serving others, in making others happy, in making this a better, happier world.

Teach us to realize the joy of our salvation. Teach us to understand the real meaning of happiness. Teach us to share our joy with the world.

"Lord Jesus Christ, you are the light of the world. Fill our souls with your peace, fill our minds with your truth; fill our hearts with your love."