Joy is a surprise

Third Sunday of Advent

• December 15, 2013
• Isaiah 35:1-10
• Psalm 146:5-10 or Luke 1:46b-55
• James 5:7-10
• Matthew 11:2-11

What, exactly is joy? Joy and happiness are not the same thing. Happiness is elusive enough: is it a hedonistic "doing what feels good?" or an Aristotelian "a good man living a good life in a good society?" Joy is neither of these. Joy seems to have the added quality of being a surprise. Hedonists cannot be feeling joy when they satisfy their passions, for that what they set out to do. Neither can Stoics be experiencing joy in their intentional lifetime of doing good and noble things, for that is what they set out to do. Joy, on the other hand, like Grace, is not a thing we can force on ourselves. It comes from outside ourselves and surprises us when it comes.

In Isaiah there is much water imagery. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water;" By itself water does nothing, but life needs water. Provide water to the desert and crocuses will blossom. Dark places where jackals live become swampy places where reeds and rushes grow. Water is the much needed thing, but the response to water is life and living. Land becomes productive and the people of the Lord live no longer in fear, but "they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

In the Psalm, when we depend on God our hope is not disappointed and we receive our help as needed. To some, there may be an expectation of disappointment when we depend on others, but God is creator of heaven and earth, "who keeps faith forever." God does not disappoint. Even the poor, who too often do not get a fair shake from society, even the poor get justice.

Mary is surprised indeed to be blessed with a pregnancy considering she is a virgin. She is surprised to be chosen by God. She is surprised to be the vessel that brings joy to the world like much needed water. She knows how big and awesome and good God is, and she is surprised to be important and useful to God.

James knows the farmer's joy when the crops finally arrive. Steadfastness is rewarded with the miracle of growth and joy. James also knows that waiting for joy is not always easy. Patience is not easy and needs encouragement. So James encourages us and reminds us not to make it harder by grumbling against each other. If we're going to have to wait, make it easy on ourselves in the meantime and live reconciled to each other. What are we waiting for after all? We're waiting for that joyful judgement from God that leads to joyful, reconciled life. Since we're waiting for that judge, do nothing in the meantime to bring judgement on ourselves so that when the judge comes we can rejoice in the judgement.

Joy, of course is like babies. Joy is like the baby kicking in Elizabeth's womb. That baby grows up to be a prophet and prophets are not know for being terribly joyful. This prophet, John the Baptist raises up the low places and brings down the high places and makes everything ready to receive the Grace which is Christ. John lives to become imprisoned like so many prophets, but hears the rumors and sends messengers looking for joy. Prophets speak truth to power, but don't always expect to be listened to. John warned of the coming of the Lord, but what prophet expects their prophecy to come true in their own lifetime? Sure in that prison, John received from his messengers some news that would bring joy to the heart of any prophet. He was right; God was faithful; the Kingdom of Heaven was indeed at hand.

And what proof did John receive in prison? Jesus points out to John's messengers all the signs of the Kingdom that had been foretold before. All the signs of the promised joys of the coming of the Lord: the blind receive joy in sight, the lame receive joy in walking, the deaf receive joy in hearing the incarnate Word of God, those who were spiritually dead and those who were literally dead are alive and productive and giving praise to God, and the poor receive justice.

Martin Luther is famous for latching onto his baptism as a constant source of joy in his life. The Confession of 1967 says, “Baptism with water represents not only cleansing from sin, but a dying with Christ and a joyful rising with him to new life.” <”The Confession of 1967.” The Book of Confessions. Office of the General Assembly. Louisville, Ky. 2004. §9.51. p. 261.>. We can take joy when we realize we have grace from God and that our sins are forgiven. We can take joy like Luther when we remember the sign of that grace, our baptism. We can take joy when the waters of our baptism produce abundant life. We can take joy, being baptized, being grafted onto the body of Christ when we bring to reality the hopes of others and surprise them with the Grace of Christ and bring them joy in the Lord.

joy is like water in the desert
joy is depending on someone and not being disappointed
joy is like justice for those who don't expect it
joy is like being chosen
joy produces precious crops for the steadfast
joy is like a baby kicking
joy is like the a prophet who lives to see his prophecy
joy is like the blind seeing, the lame walking, the deaf hearing, the dead living
joy is like the poor receiving justice.
joy comes in realizing our grace
joy comes in remembering our baptism
joy comes in living in Christ

Hard to picture

Second Sunday of Advent

• Isaiah 11:1-10
• Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
• Romans 15:4-13
• Matthew 3:1-12

What will it look like when we will have peace? “The wolf will lie down with the lamb, the lion will eat grass with the cows, a child will play over an adder's den” It doesn't look very natural; that's why it's so hard to picture what it would look like. Bumper stickers are fond of saying "without justice there can be no peace." This vision of peace from Isaiah comes only after "He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked." Maybe it's hard for us to picture peace because it's hard for us to picture justice.

Nelson Mandela could see what his country might look like in peace. He knew it was not natural for white South African racists to live in peace with black South Africans. He knew that the natural thing for black South Africans was to seek revenge on their previous oppressors. He knew that reconciliation was bigger and better than that. He knew that it would be hard work. Under his term as President of the African National Congress, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created. It was created so that peace would not be based on sweeping past crimes under the rug, but would be based on truth. It was not created for punishment of offenders, but amnesty, reparation and rehabilitation. I think God's justice transcends our sense of justice. I think when God issues judgement it is a joyful thing, not a depressing thing. Some might think that God's judgement will be a good thing because the bad guys will get theirs and the victims will be avenged; I am not talking about God's judgement being a good thing in this way. I believe that God's judgement will be like the truth in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It will help us reconcile with those who differ with us and not decide for one side or another, but find a better way where both can live into the peace we hope for.

John the Baptist was preaching a baptism of repentance. When the Pharisees and Saducees show on the scene you can almost tell that John tastes a little bile before nearly cursing them. "You brood of vipers," he calls them. The poison of these snakes is well know – they "tie up heavy burdens and lay them on the shoulders of others," the are cold-blooded hypocrites and "blind guides," they care more about outward appearances than inward cleanliness (Matthew 23). No one knowing what they are would let their little children play in the pit of these adders. Yet, to some extent the Parisees are caricatured. Their origins lie in the stories of Ezra and Nehemiah when the people returned from exile and rediscovered God's word and rebuilt their lives. After such a wonderful rediscovery, no wonder they work so hard to preserve God's law. This zeal cannot be all bad can it? The truth is more nuance than caricature. God's judgement is clear and the Pharisees and their kin, the Saducees, are clearly in the wrong. John, God's prophet, speaks God's judgement and something amazing happens: like the repentant people of Niniveh in the story of Jonah, some of them repent and take on the baptism of John. Perhaps he doesn't trust them. Perhaps, like Jonah, John is disappointed and in a foul mood because he was hoping for the vengeful God to pour gasoline down the snake holes and set the fields on fire. Still, there is room for Grace in what John says to them. Instead of cursing them, he holds them accountable to their new baptism: "Go and bear fruit worthy of repentance." If we are to live in the peaceable kingdom of Isaiah, then there have to be vipers still around, though granted they must be repentant vipers. The fruit of their repentance is that reconciled relationship with God where they enter the kingdom and help others into it, where they live reconciled relationships with those who they might have condemned.

Perhaps the Pharisees had forgotten something. Paul writes, "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope." During the days of Ezra and Nehemiah the written Word of God was rediscovered and it encouraged the people and gave them hope. After John the Baptist, the Word of God incarnate "became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy." The Pharisees thought that because they were descendants of Abraham and the patriarchs that they would be judges over all, but the promise given to the patriarchs was relationship with God for them and for the many nations that would be their descendants, both Jews and Gentiles. That relationship with God is not possible without reconciliation to God, and what God wants is reconciliation with each other. As we've seen, reconciliation is not easy to get; it is also hard to hold onto. That's why Paul emphasizes steadfastness and encouragement. Getting reconciled to one another is hard and requires truth and conviction-but-not-condmenation and repentance and hard work, and all that certainly requires encouragement. On the way and once we get there we have to be steadfast to hold onto that purpose and that relationship. It's hard to picture us doing it on our own, but the Good News is we don't have to. Our God, the God of hope, "fills [us] with all joy and peace in believing, so that [we] may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." With the power of the Holy Spirit and with Christ's encouragement and God's steadfastness, we can find the better way and live into the hope for peace that Isaiah pictured for us.

What Time is It?

First Sunday of Advent

• Isaiah 2:1-5
• Psalm 122
• Matthew 24:36-44
• Romans 13:11-14

The first Sunday in Advent is given the "word of the day" of Hope. Two questions come to mind when thinking of hope: "what are we hoping for?" and "why?"

We're hoping for nothing less than utopia: God's mountain is above all other mountains; God's city is secure and all the people in it; we learn directly from God's mouth and out of that same mouth comes judgement for the nations, not a judgement that shames or angers or punishes, but one that settles disputes so that people have no bad feelings and no ill will and no need for swords or spears or methods of war. We're hoping that when all that comes about that we'll be a part of it and our children will benefit from it and grow and flourish and their children for generations to come.

A brief diversion about learning: Isaiah says "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." We go to God's mountain so that we may learn and we learn so that we can do. My sister is a stage manager for the one-act play team at the high school where she teaches. She and the the director and the kids went to a conference to learn more about their crafts. The kids are much impressed with my sister and asked her "You don't need Stage Manager 101; Why are you going to that workshop?" She says, "That guy leading that workshop? He's THE stage manger for Wicked, on Broadway! I'm going to hear whatever he has to say because he really knows his stuff!" We are going up the mountain of the Lord to hear God teach us out of his very mouth. No one knows God's ways better than God himself and we are going to hear it straight from him! and after the conference we are going to use that knowledge and walk in his paths. That's going to be great! . . . better than learning stage management from a real Broadway stage manager!

Back to the topic at hand: Why do we hope? Hope is sort of a two-edged sword itself: we have confidence in this good thing coming to pass, but it hasn't come to pass yet. The question "why hope?" has a part of both edges in it. For the glass-is-half-empty types: we only hope because we are in this world that is not yet utopia; one day we will not have to hope when utopia has arrived. But the glass is also half full: we hope only because our God is an awesome and omnipotent god who cares for us and has promised us good things. On the one hand, we hope because hope keeps us from being depressed, but on the other, almost paradoxically, we also hope because our confidence enables us to hope.

At some point, though, do we give up hope? How long do we hope without having our hope fulfilled? At what point do we give up and give in to a sense of helplessness against the tides of history? At what point do we learn not to hope because of life's circumstance? Do we lose our enthusiasm after minutes or hours? after weeks? years? generations? Matthew advises vigilance in the night. Not knowing when the Lord is coming we should stay awake. We should not be swept away unawares as those in the days of Noah. We should be prepared for the unexpected hour.

Vigilance, however, breeds its own disease. It has a way of becoming an end unto itself. We don't know what time it is and we don't know when things are going to happen and that puts us on guard all the time. Not knowing makes us too careful sometimes, and that makes us put a burden on ourselves that God doesn't necessarily intend. While we should have vigilance, we don't need hyper-vigilance.

What is it we're hoping for again? Over here on this side of Pentecost, Paul has a word from the other edge of hope, the confidence edge. "You know what time it is." Jesus came, walked the earth as a man with dusty sandals and a bunch of imperfect followers. He came, he was betrayed, he died, he forgave us all, he was raised from the dead and sent his spirit to us and called us. He called us as individuals and he called us corporately to be his church. The kingdom may not yet be accomplished, but it has certainly come to us all. We know what time it is and we have no reason to wallow in self-pity. Nor do we have reason to be vigilant as though it is night; the night is far gone and it is time to live as in the day for dawn has come. We hope for utopia because we know that it is already given to us, and all that's left is to live into what we have already received. We don't need to live under hyper-vigilance, trying hard to be good and not evil. We only need to put on the armor of light, Jesus Christ himself and live according to the salvation we have already received.

A last word about the flood. In the days of Noah, no one knew anything until they were swept away by the flood. God said he would never destroy the earth in that way again, but just because destruction is not his plan for us does not mean that God's plan won't happen in a similar way. We will be eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, working in the field and grinding meal and one will be taken and one left and they will be swept away. This time, though, in a modern twist of idiom, I think it is those who get it that are swept away. This time it is the flood of the spirit that sweeps us away. The word of God proceeds from the mouth of God and we enthusiastically learn from it and are swept away by it. The word of judgement comes from mouth of God and we are convicted-but-not-condemned by it, and we see more clearly as in the light and we are reconciled to God and to one another and our response to judgement is not shame and resentment, but to live joyfully in that light, eating and drinking with one another and loving one another as God has loved us and enacting that utopia that we hope for in confidence because we have our savior and our salvation and because it is the day of the Lord.

What time is it? We know what time it is. It is daytime!