KNOWING JOY; LIVING JOY

December 11, 2011
Advent 3
Isaiah 61:1-4
1st Thessalonians 5:16-24

(prayer)

In just a couple of weeks we will be exchanging the standard seasonal greeting: Merry Christmas. The word ‘merry’ is a very appropriate adjective for this season – it denotes a celebration and excitement that is special – enhanced beyond the norm.

I also like the British phraseology:

But I heard him exclaim,

‘ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all,

and to all a good-night!"

‘Happy Christmas’ engenders a different reaction in me than the North American ‘merry Christmas’. ‘Happy’ draws me more inward than ‘Merry’ does. When I hear merry, I think sharing the experience: the merriment of a Christmas party or the family together on Christmas morning. Whereas happy feels more like a state of being – a contentment, a sense of personal comfort and security that is not dependant on anything else that might be going on around me.

“[Have a] Merry Christmas”

is an invitation to celebrate.

“[Have a] Happy Christmas”

is an invitation to be content.

Both of these are valuable invitations, indeed.

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And yet…there is something lacking. Celebrations come and go. They are beyond the ordinary – they have their impact because they are not the norm.

And (I would suggest) that happiness is an experience of the moment as well. Happiness is tied to contentment – and not all moments of life are ‘happy’. We like happiness – we strive for as much as we can get. But it exists largely on the surface of life – easily displaced by hardship, frustration, worry and loss.

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The New Testament reading today invites us to a deeper version of merriment and happiness: “rejoice always!”

We can have our moments of ‘happy’, of ‘merry’, but what we really long for is “joy”.

The way I choose to use the word [joy] is to see it as deeply founded happiness. “Rejoicing” is merriment that comes from the depth of who we are.

It is one of the most desirable of emotional states and it is a significant theme of the Christmas season - JOY. And yet, it may be the most elusive thing at this time of the year.

Our world has become so short-term oriented: instant gratification. This has served humanity well throughout its evolution. If you are able to live in the moment, if you can react to what’s around you and get what you need as soon as possible, you stay alive.

The reality is that beyond these life and death, existence situations, instant gratification creates a shallow perspective on our existence. We aren’t able to appreciate the value of those moments when we are able to pause and wait and reflect on more than simple gratification – short-term happiness.

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Joy is more than happiness. It is deeper. And “deep” can be challenging. It takes time and effort to cultivate a state of joy in our lives. In a world that seems to be increasingly pressing in around us, does anyone have time to be truly joyful anymore?

Whereas experiences of happiness and merriment can simply present themselves in our lives and we can ride that train for a while, Joy requires effort. Joy requires vulnerability. The kind of joy our Bibles talk about open us up to the complexity of our mysterious relationship with God. To seek this kind of joy is to be vulnerable enough (humble enough) to allow the Spirit be active within us. Joy (in this way) is life approach – my whole being shall exult in my God. Joy comes to the surface from deep within us and the world can be changed.

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Last week I talks about the diverse authorship of the prophetic book of Isaiah: how the first 39 chapters may indeed be the work of Isaiah, son of Amoz, prophet to the pre-exilic kings of Judah, but that at chapter 40, we have the words of a later prophet who was among those people of Judah taken into exile – the prophet who spoke of a hope that the people’s exile would end with such wonderful words: “In the wilderness, prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

Today our reading comes from a third section of Isaiah, chapter 60 begins post-exilic words – the remnant of the exiles and their families born in exile have returned to a very different Judah and are beginning a time of restoration of their lives and a reclamation of the value of their faith in this land of promise.

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me;

he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.

The rejoicing of deep faith involve allowing the Spirit to be active – mending broken hearts, bringing dignity and liberty to those feeling bound. The prophet spoke to people grieving the loss of their history – the impact of seventy years of exile, while the symbols of their life in Judah were looted and laid in ruins. The prophet says that the spirit will comfort those who mourn these losses, not with traditional songs and symbols of lament (ashes and ripped tunics), but with symbols of life (flowers and mantles of praise).

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I love the forest imagery in Isaiah 61: They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations. They shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.

Mighty oaks – trees deeply rooted and symbols of a strong connection to the earth. It is God who gives the people this rootedness. And out of the depth of their relationship with God that the ‘restoration’ will be possible.

This is possible because “the spirit of Yahweh Elohim (the spirit of the LORD GOD) is upon me!”

Centuries later, the Christian leader, Paul, would write: “Do not quench the spirit!” I see that as a call to allow the spirit to be active within the depth of who we are.

If we had read further in Isaiah 61, we would have heard the prophet go on to say in verse ten: I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God.

Paul’s version of that sentiment in First Thessalonians 5:23 was to say: May the God of peace…sanctify you entirely.

Deeply founded rejoicing.

Deeply founded joy.

Entire, Holy Joy.

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As we bask in the soft glow of our third candle in our advent wreath, we are challenged to let joy into the depth of who we are.

That sounds like a desirable thing, doesn’t it? So why is deep joy, so elusive?

I think because we can, sometimes be a bit afraid of digging deep into our psyches.

Real Joy is a deep emotion and deep emotions go together. Letting joy in can also involve us in the other deep emotions (grief, passion, utter disappointment, love).

Anyone who has known deep love knows what I am talking about. When we commit ourselves to loving another at the depth of our being – the highs can be so high, but the lows can be soul crushing. Do you know the experience of living through the death of someone you deeply and strongly loved? The pain of grief and loss is also deep and strong.

Maybe that is a deeper experience than you have had. Myself, I still think about two mentor I have had in my life.

One was someone I knew as a young adult working at camp. This person was old (probably in his thirties) and still had a passion for camp leadership. And the guy could play guitar – he seemed to be able to play anything. And he was so creative and handy – he could fix or make anything. I was like a starry-eyed puppy following him around. I admired him.

The other was a United Church minister who I met just after I was ordained. This person had such energy for church and ministry. He was innovative. We found ourselves working in the same area of Presbytery work. Right away, people started referring to me as a younger version of him. After all, we both had mustaches and played guitar. I admired him.

Both of these mentors, it turned out, had trouble keeping the ‘zippers shut’. They both destroyed their marriages with infidelity. And both of them used ‘sex’ as a tool of power and found themselves being drummed out of the roles I had met them in because of sexual harassment charges.

Admiration and awe became a distasteful disappointment. I let myself get in deep and I also got some deep pain.

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Think about those times in your life when a deep joy has been connected to a deep pain.

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As a people who are called to ‘rejoice always’ we are invited into a complex emotional state of being.

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In ten days, I will be offering a service that has become a tradition in my time at St. David’s. A number of different churches offer what can be called a “service of healing” or “a blue Christmas service”. I refer to ours as “the longest night service” and try to hold it as close to the winter solstice as possible. The Christmas season is a time when “joy” is front and centre. While some are singing “Joy to the World” others are gripped by a different deep emotion: grief (recent or lingering), worry, hardship (financial or emotional), fear, loneliness and many other expressions.

I know what it is like to feel the wonder and beauty of the depth of joy – expressed in love and trust; and I know what it is like to feel the grief and disappointment, if I had never loved or trusted in the first place.

Some choose to avoid the depth to avoid the pain.

Then again as Garth Brookes sang it:

Looking back on the memory of

The dance we shared beneath the stars above

For a moment all the world was right

How could I have known

you'd ever say goodbye

And now I'm glad I didn't know

The way it all would end the way it all would go

Our lives are better left to chance

I could have missed the pain

But I'd of had to miss the dance

In the bigger picture, many of us, most of us can look back and say that the depth was worth it when it comes to those significant relationships we know in this life.

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But there is one more layer to this discussion I want to offer this morning.

In both of our readings – Isaiah and First Thessalonians – the joy being offered to the people is coming at a time of struggle. The people of Isaiah’s time were returning back from a devastating exile; and the people of Paul’s time had first hand experiences with persecution.

Joy is more than a state of emotional being – it is a gift and a promise from God. To proclaim that I will rejoice always, that I will pray, that I will give thanks…is to not allow the struggle to define us. But rather to allow our lives to be defined by our spiritual relationship with God.

As the post-exilic prophet said: I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for the LORD has clothed me with the garments of salvation, the LORD has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up.



Knowing God is to know Joy.

Living Joy is to know God.

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This is where deep faith starts – by grabbing onto the promise and hope that God can be joyfully know and that we are not alone, no matter how elusive joy can sometime feel.

Let us pray:

Gracious God, our hearts are ready to be filled with joy. Let our joy shine brightly so that those cloaked by sadness may find their sorrow lifted. Amen.



#134MV “Dreaming Mary”