St. Paul’s United Church
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Advent 3
A World of Joy – Rev. David Mundy
Isaiah 35:1-8a Luke
1:46b-55
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It’s over, except that it is just a beginning. During the past two weeks
10,000 delegates from 192 nations, along with an additional 2,000 journalists have gathered on the
lush island of Bali, Indonesia to consider what direction we will take to
ensure that this planet Earth will be liveable for this generation and
generations to come. Heads of state and environment ministers and scientists
were there. Former vice president of the United States, Al Gore, who recently
won the Nobel Peace Prize for his environmental work
was in attendance as well.
The United Nations sponsored this gathering and it was timely because it
came on the heels of yet another assessment by international scientists on the
state of the world’s environment. As you might expect from everything else we
have been told, it was bleak.
During the conference in Bali there have been lots of discussion and
debate and even angry recrimination about who is responsible for the destruction
of the Earth’s delicate balance. We have been reminded of the huge divide
between wealthy and poor nations and their unwillingness to work toward a
common cause. One group of 600 protesters gathered on a beach and created a map
of the world with the words “eleventh hour” as a reminder that we need to act
now, and together, rather than engage in vague talk about “aspirational
targets.”
It’s tempting to feel that there is more Grinch
than Santa in what we being told about what humans have done to the planet,
more scolding than encouragement. Perhaps we just stop listening, especially at
this time of year when we have so much to do in preparation for Christmas. And
besides, isn’t this when we should be expressing love and joy?
Joy. This is the Sunday of Joy in our Advent journey toward Christ’s
birth and don’t we want Good News today, rather than “gloom and doom?” Fortunately our scripture passages for this
day are filled with possibility and joy. One of our readings begins with the
promise that the day will come when for the earth itself will burst forth in
praise and celebration.
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom: like the crocus
it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing...Strengthen the
weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do
not fear!”
This is from the book of the prophet Isaiah which is in the older
testament, written long before Christ’s birth, but we read lots from Isaiah at
both Christmas and Easter. Someone has written a book called The Gospel According to Isaiah because from the very beginning the
Christian church has turned to this book so often for the imagery of
redemption.
Isaiah doesn’t always offer a hopeful, joyful message. In fact, he warns
God’s people that if they don’t change their “habits of the heart” they will
lose their familiar way of life and end up in exile. Yet even as he tells them
this he punctuates his prophecy with promises that God will not abandon those
he loves and that restoration is possible. And not only will this happen for
human beings, it is the promise for the beasts of the field and forest, as well
as the plants and flowers.
Earlier in Isaiah we hear that the wolf and the lamb will lie down
together and children will be able to play with poisonous snakes.
This may sound absurd or more like a fairy tale than anything remotely
possible. Yet biblical scholars remind us that the prophets wanted their
listeners to trust that while we may see around us “nature red in truth and
claw” God will act to rescue creation and rejoice when it is restored.
Frederick Gaiser calls theses passages from Isaiah
God’s “environmental impact statements.”
Is it possible for us to be co-creators with God of a world of joy and
hope? Jesus seemed to think so. According to the gospel of John, when an
influential man named Nicodemus came to Jesus and entered into a conversation
about things of the realm of God he was told about earthly things to help him understand
heavenly truths. Jesus invites Nicodemus into a new birth
In that conversation we find what may be the best-known verse in the New
Testament ”For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” It is
such a wonderful message because it says that God’s desire in Christ is for the
world’s salvation. It does not say anything about skin colour and even which
creatures are loved. God loves the world.
The challenge we face is that those many of us who claim to be Christ’s
disciples are the ones who tend to use more than our fair share of the planet’s
resources. I have shown you one image of Earth and here is another. It shows
what the continents
look like according to consumption. As you can see, North America
and Europe are huge, far out of proportion to other areas. Africa is a tiny,
deflated balloon. We could have all manner of facts and figures thrown our way
but this map is so graphic.
It’s been pointed out that only one creature has a thermostat in the
living room which can be adjusted for the optimum environment and of course it
is only a select few humans who can do this. All other animals and plants and
birds now depend on us to do the right thing to ensure that they can continue
to live and flourish. We are seeing more and more that our human activity is
altering habitats and migration patterns and populations for other species and
we must “have a care.”
We are called to justice and to balance and to joy, knowing that joy is
not just an emotional moment. It is a way of being which is
the way of God, even in those times when the emotion is absent. We have been told often lately that we are at
a pivotal moment in the history of this planet, and again we may have been
heard this so often that we have stopped listening, although I think it is
true.
Actually, in some way every generation has “eleventh hour” moments and every one
of us makes choices about how we will respond in this world. Will we choose
joy, even in those moments when it seems that the storm clouds have gathered
and life appears to be ominous rather than hopeful? Our biblical faith is not a
fairy tale, but it is filled with God’s visions in the difficult times.
Our other passage today which was the inspiration for the solo and our
gospel reading is attributed to a young woman named Miriam or Mary who is told
that she is pregnant. Unexpected and unwanted pregnancies have never been good
news. How will this young, unmarried woman respond?
Mary responds with her own song of justice and hope because she will
give birth to the Promised One, the Christ. Her voice has rung out through the
ages with the prophetic message that the weak and hungry shall be lifted up and
the haughty and proud will be laid low. All generations have called her
blessed. Perhaps we can listen to this song with new ears which appreciate that
as human beings we are the powerful whose imagination and practice can change
so that every creature is honoured.
From the prophet Isaiah and from Mary, the mother of Jesus, we hear the
encouragement to live beyond fear and to be co-creators of a world of joy. Before Mr. Gore went to Bali, he accepted his
Nobel Prize and during his acceptance speech he urged humans to make peace with
the planet. Gore, who is a Christian, is one of our modern-day prophets who is asking us not just to speak and sing “joy to the world”
but to actually live it. As we take another Advent step toward the birth of
Jesus we can ask ourselves whether we have ears to hear and hearts that can
respond to the message of a renewed and reborn creation.
There is one more image to help us consider the world of joy this
morning. It shows a melting planet in a human hand. It is meant to be a pessimistic assessment of
our influence on the Earth but why can’t it be a statement that as the
community of Mary’s baby and of the Christ who loves the world we will make a
difference.
We are the ones who will direct our governments to act with courage and
wisdom even when they are reluctant to do so. I feel that our Canadian
government failed miserably in Bali, showing no leadership whatsoever in a
moment when the affluent nations needed to be decisive. We need to tell
our elected officials that they must do better for the sake of our generation
and generations to come. I wrote a note to Environment Minister Baird this week
suggesting that he could do better. A lot better.
At the same time we have the God-given power of choice in our personal
lives. We are the ones who can develop the habits of simplicity and
creation-care which will turn us in a new and hopeful direction. We often speak
of New Year’s resolutions but how about a Christmas resolution which declares
that because Christ has come we truly are a “new creation.”
And always, even in the coldest, darkest days of winter we can look
around us and give thanks for the beauty of the earth. Falling snow has its own
special charm!
Every year on this Sunday we sing one of those truly inspired hymns of
the season, although it is not just a Christmas carol. Through it we declare
that the baby born in Bethlehem, who is the resurrected Christ, changes everything
and brings joy to all the Earth. We sang
Joy to the World last Sunday as part of our White Gift service but we
can sing it again today as a
prayer of joy in the midst of the darkness. Redemption is at hand
and we will live in a world of joy.
1 Joy to the world! the Lord is come:
let earth receive her King!
Let
every heart prepare him room,
and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing,
and heaven, and heaven and nature sing.