St. Pauls United Church Sunday, December 12, 2010

Defining Joy – Rev. David Mundy

Isaiah 35:1-4a, 10 Luke: 1 :46-55

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How would you define joy? Here is a dictionary definition which may or may not help:

1. a : the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires : delight

b : the expression or exhibition of such emotion

2. a state of happiness or felicity : bliss

Well, that is a definition all right, but it doesn’t exactly capture the spirit of joy, does it? Trying to define joy with words is a little like trying to describe the experience of doing a “cannon ball” jump into cool water on a scorching hot day. You really have to do it to “get it,” or at least have the memory of doing it!

What images and experiences of joy would help us to express the essence of joy? Perhaps the celebration around a big win for our favourite sports team would be a good example. Two weekends ago the Montreal Alouettes and their fans celebrated a Grey Cup win in a moment of elation. We got a glimpse of the players’ joy in the locker room after the game, as is the custom these days.

What about the ecstatic followers of this month’s flavour of music stars? We have heard about mobs of Justin Bieber fans who verge on riots when the mop-topped teen rolls into town. Not long ago, there was a television special on another entertainer, Beyonce, and they panned to the audience where grown men were crying!

Not all joy is expressed in boisterous and public ways though. Can we feel any deeper joy than when a child is born and arrives safely and in good health? The image of a contented mother and child speaks of a quiet joy.

I gave you a general definition of joy, but how would we define Christian joy, which we claim is both a gift from God and our response to God?

This is the Sunday of Joy as we make our Advent way toward the great, joyous celebration of Christmas. Advent is the season of expectation, of “Not-quite-yet” on our way to the fullness of God’s presence in the unlikely, helpless infant of Bethlehem.

In a way, scripture gives us our definition of joy, and it is certainly a recurring theme in the bible. There is a sense that the joy that comes from God and from our faith in Christ draws on a wellspring far deeper that the pools of joy which usually mark human existence. Our Isaiah passage today was remarkable in painting a picture of all God’s creation expressing its joy:

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 . . .

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,

and come to Zion with singing:

everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain joy and gladness

and sighing shall flee away.

Or course the imagery here is of a desert coming back to life with the return of the rains, but as people who live in a wintry climate we can imagine the return of Spring as the metaphor for joy.

In the New Testament nowhere is joy expressed more fully than in the gospel we heard from this morning, the gospel of Luke. Joy bubbles up again and again in both Luke and the other book scholars attribute to this writer, the Acts of the Apostles.

Our story this morning is one of anticipation, although it is about a young woman who has no reason to feel joyful because she has received troubling news about a pregnancy, her pregnancy. Even though the word gospel means “good news” this is definitely not good news for Mary, at least not in the beginning. Mary was probably a teen, but she is intelligent enough to know that in her culture the pregnancy of an unmarried woman was the source of shame rather than celebration. But Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth who is also “great with child” and according to Luke her unborn baby leaps for joy in her womb. How can you tell?

This is a turning point for Mary who offers up her song of joy, called the Magnificat, which celebrates all the possibilities for a different, hopeful, joyful world.

So how do we define joy as Christians this morning? Do we begin by asking what happens that we stop experiencing joy? We are often bumped and bruised by life in ways that seem to diminish our joy and it can begin early.

Our younger daughter, Emily, who is twenty-three, is doing a college field placement with a class of grade seven students, many of whom are “behaviourly challenged” to use the current term. She was asked recently to connect with a withdrawn 12-year-old boy to find out what was going on. In class he said nothing and rarely responded even when the teacher addressed him directly.

In the one-on-one conversation he was surprisingly open, telling Emily that earlier in the year his grandfather had died. He said that his grandfather had been his best friend and as he attempted to explain further his eyes filled up with tears and he had to stop. This child is not “behaviourly challenged” or sullen. He is in mourning, and circumstances beyond his control have robbed him of a relationship of trust, and with it his joy. It’s sad that he has experienced this at such a young age.

We don’t have to go through traumatic experiences to have our joy diminished do we? As life progresses we may become more restrained and cautious in expressing our joy, for many reasons. Our older daughter, Jocelyn, is now twenty-five, but she still loves the anticipation of important events, and approaches them with childlike enthusiasm. She wants me to as well, so she will ask me “Dad, it’s almost your birthday – are you excited?” Or “you’re going away on your trip – are you excited?” Or “it’s almost Christmas – are you excited?” I tend to respond with truly boring comments such “Sure, I’m looking forward to it” although with birthdays that’s not really true. These bland responses are just not good enough for her “Yah, but are you excited!” She wants to see or hear my joy and I‘m just not delivering.

I end up wondering why I’m such a “stick in the mud,” why I’m not more exuberant and joyful. It’s as though I have made an agreement with myself that I will just limit the range of emotions, that if I don’t let myself experience the giddy highs of joy so that I won’t feel the rock-bottom lows of disappointment either. In the medical world this might be described as tranquillized! But this sort of wariness on my part isn’t necessarily spiritually healthy.

Maybe there isn’t a clear definition of Christian joy, but can we accept that God has made us for joy, to experience the fullness of life, rather than living cautiously and half-heartedly? There is always a certain risk to joy, the possibility of disappointment. Yet, when we listen to Mary’s song of praise there is a wonderful invitation to make the choices which will move us beyond our caution and pain. And for us, as Christians, joy will always centre on Jesus, the Christ.

As we listen to Mary’s song, we are also reminded that the joy which God brings to birth is not all about us. When Mary begins her song she quickly moves from gratitude for being personally chosen, to a vision of that world of justice and equality and truth. Those of you who are parents of school age children, are probably aware of the Me to We movement which encourages young people to think and act beyond themselves for the well-being of others. It is tied to Canadian Craig Kielburger, who fifteen years ago as a precocious 12-year-old began a campaign against child labour in other parts of the world. Now Kielburger is an ancient 27-year-old who is still encouraging kids and youth to find meaning in caring for others. Actually the movement is Me to We: Better Choices for a Better World. Well Mary understood “me to we” two thousand years ago and we still revisit this message every year. There is joy in living the vision of God’s love for the world we live in.

So, where does all of this leave us when it comes to our own joy? Is there ever a time, a tipping point when joy is no longer possible? The Good News of our faith is that joy can always be reborn in our lives.

If we have fearful or anxious hearts this morning, if we feel that there has been far too much sorrow and sighing in our lives, Christ can stir within us to restore joy. In the Isaiah passage it says that the ransomed of the Lord shall be restored to joy. Of course the people of Israel have literally been in captivity in the city state of Babylon and they are eventually allowed to return home.

We may feel that we are held captive, against our will, against our character, in a place where joy is locked out. This morning we can ask God to set us free from the prison of disappointment or sorrow to find our way back into joy once more and live life with freshened spirits. Every one of us can show and sing and shout and give our joy today and every day.

We are so close you know. Soon we will hear the Christmas story in Luke in which an angel scares the bejabbers out of a bunch of shepherds, then gives them the inside track on the greatest event imaginable:

Do not be afraid, for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:

to you is born this day . . . the Messiah, the Lord.

There is a wonderful poem called First Coming by the late Madeleine L’Engle who wrote award-winning children’s novels as well as other books. She was also a Christian who loved the mystery of the incarnation.

God did not wait till the world was ready,

till . . . nations were at peace.

God came when the Heavens were unsteady,

and prisoners cried out for release.

God did not wait for the perfect time.

God came when the need was deep and great.

God dined with sinners in all their grime,

turned water into wine. God did not wait

till hearts were pure, in joy God came

to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.

To a world like our, of anguished shame

God came, and God’s light would not go out.

God came to a world which did not mesh,

to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.

In the mystery of the Word made Flesh

the Maker of the stars was born.

We cannot wait till the world is sane

to raise our songs with joyful voice,

for to share our grief, to touch our pain,

God came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!