Joy Part Three

 

A few weeks ago, in worship, we sang, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”  This ancient Advent hymn is one our ancestors have sung for years.  And if you listen to the words, it has a wonderful tension built and baked into it.  The words name and notice all the brokenness – the sharp shards of life that can wound us – the hurts and harms.  The hymn sings out about exile, loneliness, pain, envy, strife and quarrels. 

 

You sing it and think, “Thanks for this uplifting thought, Eeyore.” 

 

But the refrain comes out of nowhere and we sing, “Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”

 

Um, what?  The hymn just described and defined all the good reasons why joy was distant and disconnected from our lives.  And now, we are supposed to rejoice?  Just like that?  What about all that stuff we just sang about pain and grief??

 

More importantly, how?  How can I be joy-filled when there is sorrow and separation and discrimination and pain that throbs and hearts that are broken?

 

Part of the reason why we struggle with joy is that we believe joy is exuberance or excitement or enthusiasm.  Joy as the life of the party.  Joy is the glass is half-full perspective. 

 

What if joy has a shy and silent side?  What if joy has a reserved and reverent side?  What if joy has a courageous side?  Or as one author says, “Rejoice -means to be in a rut of joy.”  This rut doesn’t mean we are always singing “The Sun will come out tomorrow.”  But we also hold softly that brokenness is never the last word.  It is knowing that more than the glass being half full or half empty, the glass can be refilled by God!! (Please re-read that)

 

We start Advent with the candle of “Hope” because this light will illuminate the places and people where God is still at work.  Hope will doggedly keep shining and searching and sharing that God isn’t finished yet.  We move to “Peace”, or shalom, well-being for all the world.  Hope and peace work together in tandem.  Hope says one step, Peace says in this direction.  Hope says God is here, Peace proclaims God is healing.  Hope nudges and Peace nourishes.  Joy comes alongside and sings, “Yes, this is true and can be trusted and needs to be shared.”  Joy invites others to be on the journey.  When these three: hope, peace, and joy throw a party or invite you on a journey, I encourage you to say, “Yes”.  Along the way, we will tend to the aches and pains.  We will notice the color purple out in the field (thank you to poet/prophetess Alice Walker).  We will laugh and cry and sometimes walk silently just being/breathing together.  That is what faith is; what the church is called to; our ministry and mission. 

 

We can take breaks along the way to rejoice, to remember the rut of joy, that can feed and fuel our lives now and every day in the coming year.  Alleluia and Amen.