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Today – gospel reading to the contrary – is Joy Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, pink candle Sunday – the third Sunday in Advent – the day to remember joy. Interesting that we have to remember joy, at all. I mean it’s the Christmas season – isn’t that how we’re supposed to feel all season long? Or is that maybe why the anxiety and the stress of the season feel stronger than they do at other times of the year – happiness becomes another thing we are “to do” on the list.
In our opening prayer we asked God to stir up God’s power and come among us. Can you imagine if that actually happened? What would that look like? I’ll bet all of us could imagine that happening in the world in big ways – if God stirred up God’s power – there would be no more war – no more hunger – no more injustice. Children would be cared for – people would be valued. The evil forces in this world that lead human beings to acts of violence and degradation would be wiped out, conquered. If God’s power was stirred up and came among us – well – the whole world would be set right.
In some ways – it’s easier for us to imagine God’s power being stirred up on that stage. But – Advent prepares us for a much more particular truth. God choose to come among us in a very individual way. God’s power was stirred up in the form of an infant – a particular person born to a particular family in a particular time and place. What if God came among you – among me – like that? What would God’s power being stirred up in your life today mean for you? Would it bring joy, sadness, both?
If something from today makes me long for God’s presence – it is the words from the prophet Zephaniah. Sing aloud and rejoice! There is nothing more joyful than being in a room filled with people who are signing their hearts out is there (Christmas carols are loved for a reason). Do not fear – this reading reminds us – God has taken away the judgments against you.
Just think of that – we who are so good at judging each other – judging ourselves. How wonderful it would be if that burden was lifted from our heads and hearts. It reads – that God will change our shame into praise. Those things done and left undone. Maybe things done years ago – maybe things left undone from just last week – God would take all of that. What are the particular burdens in your life you would bring to God this morning?
The picture the prophet paints is one of hope. In the Christian faith – hope is a belief in something we cannot see. A belief that all will be renewed – all will be restored – all will be reconciled and brought to fruition in complete wholeness. All will be well and all will be well. Hope is what allows us to know joy even in the midst of struggle and sadness.
When I preach at a funeral – sometimes I will point out that – when we lose someone we love – we experience hope in a most profound way. We find ourselves often laughing and crying at the same time – laughing at the memories of joy a person gave us – while tears stream down our face because our hearts hurt. Hope is what gives us faith that our hearts will know joy again. Hope is knowing that God will indeed restore all our fortunes before our eyes – not the fortunes we earn and save – but the fortunes that are priceless, intangible – the fill our hearts with joy.
Paul encourages us to know joy by being kind. Be gentle – with yourselves – with others. For that is joy-filled living. And then he casually adds – don’t worry about anything. Oh – that’s easy for you to say – St. Paul. But I don’t think he pens it casually or that it comes easy.
Paul wrote these words from a prison cell. As Saul he had gone around casting stones and judgments with the best of them. But after the tears were wiped from his eyes, after he gave his burdens over to God so that he might be renewed. Paul left condemning people behind. And through the struggle, the sadness of practicing gospel living – he embraced the joy that comes from building people up. It was the life’s work of that practice – which I imagine in his particular context brought a peace that allowed him to give the anxieties of his particular moment over to God.
I hope you won’t mind if I go from the theology of Paul to a storyline from an animated movie…but I wonder if any of you say Pixar’s movie “Inside Out” last summer? It’s the story of a girl 11 years old – who has to move – the way kids do, dependent as they are on their parents. But it’s not so much the story of the move - in that typical format of challenge presented and overcome – it’s the story of what is going on inside her head, and heart. How her emotions anger, disgust and fear and joy – all fight and struggle to protect her from the emotion they think is the worst of all – sadness. Joy in particular does everything she can to keep every memory and every moment – free from even a tinge of sorrow. Because that is what makes everything better right? If we’re happy all the time then how could we ever be sad – or scared – or angry?
But as joy comes to realize (and it’s a great movie) – there is no joy without sadness. That’s what I try and honor in my remarks at a funeral – the joy, the love – wouldn’t be as powerful, as meaningful – as joyful – if we didn’t allow ourselves feel the sadness too. There is full-throated singing more powerful and hopeful - than a room full of people sharing joy and sorrow through the singing of Amazing Grace, is there?
If there is one line from the John the Baptist story that I think connects with today’s theme, it’s not what he says – it’s what the people do. The crowds – always looking for “the answer” ask John – well what should we do to prepare for this good news? John answers pretty straightforwardly – share your stuff, be honest in your work and don’t get greedy. Stirring up God’s power within and amongst ourselves is really that simple at times. And upon hearing this – the crowds are not filled with hope in their own abilities – instead it says – they are filled with expectations. Expectations that maybe John is the one they’ve been waiting for – the one who will fix it all.
But expectations are precisely what the people will have to let go of. Our expectations of others – the writer Anne Lamott says – are resentments waiting to happen. And these people will be disappointed that John isn’t the Messiah. And they will be even more disappointed and resentful when Jesus fails at being the Messiah they expected. Which happens – I know has happened – with each of us in various ways – as our expectations of God in our particular lives are challenged – through the sadness that living brings.
The wisdom of the church is that we really do need to be reminded of joy in this season. A season where so many expectations are placed on us and everyone else. A season frought with “if only” – “I wish” and “should haves and could’ve’s” Because – the good news we prepare for isn’t some store bought Christmas-spirit. It is the life-saving joy offered to us each of us in our particular circumstances through Christ. A joy that holds us when we weep – a joy that is never ashamed of who we are – a joy that seeks only to gather us in – renew our spirits in hope – and lead us into the heart of God – which is our true home. Amen.
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