|
|
|
|
|
"Sing a Song of Joy" We continue with our series, “Singing the Songs of Advent,” and today, we light the third candle, and proclaim that this week of our waiting, is a week centered on joy. Our waiting this Advent is a progression. First, hope, then peace, now joy. The shade of the candle we light today is lighter--to remind us of the approaching dawn. Joy. When I was first appointed to FUMC, I quickly recognized that on every publication, the web site, advertising, there was a phrase....First United Methodist Church... “a community of joy!” A community of joy. And I have been trying to determine these first few months, what that means, exactly. A community of joy! Is it evident, that we are a community of joy? What would one expect to see or experience if they were to enter into a community of joy? Could it be that some church folk have a difficult time declaring their joy? At a church conference in Nebraska once, people were handed helium-filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. It was a mainline protestant denomination, who didn’t feel free to say “Hallelujah” or “Praise the Lord.” It was felt that this would allow the group, which was more reserved, to quietly express their joy. Remember, they were to let go and release their balloon at any moment during the worship when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. All through the service balloons ascended, one by one. But when it was over a third of the balloons were still in the hands of those sitting in their seats! One surely must wonder--did they hang onto their balloons because they could not recognize any oy at all in their hearts? Or...did they hang onto their balloons the way some folks often do hang onto their joy, failing to let go in order to share their joy with another? I have become convinced that joy is something we experience less and less as we move from childhood into adulthood. When a 3 year old is happy, it shows! They dance, pump their little arms in the air, and laugh and giggle! Ask an adult if they are happy, and you get (deadpan: “oh yes, I’m happy. Very happy. Quite ecstatic, actually.”) People who count such things have determined that a child laughs more than 150 times in a single day, smiling as much as 400 times in a single day. Adults...laugh, on average, only 15 times a day, and smile perhaps 30 to 40 times in typical day. Just one-tenth as often as a child! Where is our joy? What happens to us as we mature and become adults? Is adulthood, by its very nature, joyless, or at least, less joyful? Well…to be sure, I have often longed to experience Christmas the way I experienced it as a child--a season of wonder, excitement, anticipation and giddiness. As an adult, I have learned to lower expectations, to temper joy with practicality, and to allow the burdens that must be carried in this world to crowd out happiness. There is little room for joy in the hubbub that has become the holiday of Christmas. The schedule and the expectations can be overwhelming. Add to that the additional burden of dealing with illness, or grief, hurt or injury in the midst of a season that the world tell us must be full of happiness, merriment and joy! Do you suppose that that’s the real reason Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol resonates with so many of us? Ebenezer Scrooge has been hurt too many times. He has learned to build up walls, to hold resentment, and to disallow any feelings of joy—for to feel joy is to feel. And feeling….feeling anything at all, is too risky for Ebenezer, indeed, too risky for many of us. But still, there is something inside of me that remembers joy—and longs to know it again.
Oh How does one find joy? How does a person discover the feelings of joy, or are we simply fated to sit and wait until it happens to find us? Wait until joy happens? Like shepherds watching their flocks by night, do we simply wait in the night until joy comes, like the song of an angel? “Don’t be afraid. This is a great joy,” the angel told the shepherds. “A great joy that will be for all people.” Or in our waiting, while we watch, is there something else that we might do? It is often said the darkest part of the night are the hours just before the light of dawn begins to spread across the sky. And so it is, perhaps, that joy is most necessary in the darkest moments of our living. Leo Buscaglia tells the story of the day his father came home and announced that his business was in bankruptcy because his business partner had stolen the company’s money and run away. They were broke. Leo’s mother went out and did a curious, but very courageous thing. She sold some of her jewelry, and bought the ingredients for a sumptuous feast, which she prepared and served. When other members of the family scolded her for what she had done, she told them, “the time for joy is now, when we have need of it most, not once things are better.” Buscaglia remained convinced that this courageous act of his mother, saved the family. Early on, I asked a question for which I posed no answer. I asked, “what is a community of joy?” Perhaps, a community of joy is one that has the courage to put into practice behaviors of joy, even when the feeling of joy--especially when the feelings of joy are not yet evident. To behave as though there is a joyful thing dawning upon our universe, even before that dawn can be seen. To act as though there is joy in our hearts before it has had a chance to take root and grow there. To light a pink candle that proclaims the truth that joy is on the way even when we are not sure ourselves when it may arrive. To be a community of joy is to know, and to behave as though joy indeed will come with the morning. While yet enveloped in the darkness of night…to know and trust that joy comes in the morning. That what is, is not what is to be. Joy comes in the morning. Weeping is only for the night, for joy comes in the morning.
For in the morning will come the redemption of this world, in the
morning will come our Lord, to push away all darkness, for in the morning, the
old ways will be no more! No That’s what we’re waiting on church! That’s what we’re watching for church! That’s what we’re counting on church! That’s what we’re holding out for, church! For the morning! We’re hanging in there ‘til morning! We’re helping each other get through ‘til the morning. For in the morning….JOY comes! In the morning, our Lord comes! In the morning, JOY comes! But until it comes….until the morning gets here….we’re going to behave as a community of joy…until the morning gets here, we’re going to behave as people who have joy in our hearts. We’re going to praise, we’re going to pray, and we’re going to treat each other with kindness as though our joy is complete. Until that morning comes, we’re going to be a people of joy, a community of joy. Until that morning comes, we’re going to sing… Joy to the world, the Lord is come. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing and heaven, and heaven and nature sing!
Thanks for dropping by: Guest #
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
