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Thanks for listening, and thanks for your support. Without uttering a single Alleluia, this Christmas hymn, joy to the world, has become the Alleluia chorus for the Christmas season,

not only for the church, but in some ways even for the world. It embodies Christmas praise.

Greetings and welcome to issues et cetera on this Christmas day. I'm Todd Wilkin. Thanks for tuning us in. We'll be studying the

Christmas hymn, Joy to the World with Dr. Arthur Just, and then, and issues et cetera, encore,

holiday depression with clinical psychologist Dr. Beverly Yankee. Dr. Arthur Just is Professor of New

Testament at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, seasonal pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Naples, Florida,

author of the two-volume Concordia Commentary on Luke and the Book, Heaven on Earth, the Gifts of Christ, in the Divine Service.

Dr. Jess, welcome back.

Wonderful to be with you during this holy season.

How is it that this hymn joy to the world has taken on this iconic place in not only

Christian hymnody, but even in the culture's observation of Christmas? I believe one of the

reasons is that everybody is yearning for joy. I mean, we look for that in so many different ways.

If you really boil down the message of not just Christmas, but of Christianity,

you can see that one of the great themes is joy. As you know, I'm a Luke guy, and peace and joy are two of the great themes of

Luke's gospel. In fact, when I teach the prodigal son, one of my quiz questions is, what is the

major theme here? I always, in class, emphasize that it's the joy of the father, you know, the joy at the feast, that is really

what Luke is trying to portray in that wonderful parable of the prodigal son. And I think that's

...