Come Speak in Joy Untamed and Wild

Don Friesen
December 16, 2007
Ottawa Mennonite Church

www.ottawamennonite.ca

A mother of eight children came home to find five of her youngest children huddled together in the living room, sitting in a circle around something that held intense interest for them. Curious about what was holding their attention, she slipped near them, looked over their shoulders, and could not believe her eyes! In the middle of the circle were five baby skunks! She screamed at the top of her voice, "Children, run!" And they did, each of them grabbing a skunk and exiting the living room just as fast as they could! Thank God for the innocence of children, who did not recognize that their mother was trying to rob them of their new-found joy.

Today is the third Sunday of Advent, another opportunity to examine one of the characteristics of life in the kingdom of God. The third Sunday of Advent has traditionally been called Gaudete Sunday, Gaudete being the Latin word for "rejoice". Earlier we lit the Candle of Joy, later we'll sing "Joy to the World," and we trust that the Christmas season will be a time of joy for us.

Seasonal Joy Busters

After all, it's a festive time! Too festive sometimes. It brings out the Scrooge in some of us. Too much joy, especially if forced, is annoying. I like the story told by a rabbi, who said that when it was announced that God was going to send a 30-foot-high tidal wave over the city of Tel Aviv because of its sins, the Muslims went to their mosques to pray for a speedy translation to Paradise, the Christians went to their churches to pray for the intercession of the saints, and the Jews went to the synagogues and prayed, "Lord, we think it's going to be rather difficult living under 30 feet of water!" (adapted from Rabbi Lionel Blue, Day Trips to Eternity, 1987)

We would like Christmas to be a festive, joyful time, but there are things that rob us of joy and prompt our complaints. This wasn't a particularly joyful week for the environmental movement or for anyone who cares for God's creation. The week began with serious criminal charges against three prominent people: a sports star, a corporate superstar, and our own mayor! Even the weather is lousy! "Okay, Lord, why don't you send us the 30 feet of water as well!"

It's difficult to rejoice when the joy busters of the season are busy discouraging us, when dire circumstances surround us, and when people discourage and bewilder us. It's difficult to rejoice when personal problems become overwhelming, when, for example, years of love and marriage become an arid and stressful relationship, or when severe illness taxes our enthusiasm for anything. Similarly, an accident can change a family's life inalterably. Loss of employment can make one feel desperate. Periods of loneliness and depression sap us of energy. The death of a loved one may lead one to conclude that is little reason for joy.

Isaiah 35: Walk through a Wasteland Rejoicing!

The people of Israel in Isaiah's day came to the same conclusion: There is not much reason for joy. Their land had been devastated by the Assyrians, and the local economy was in a shambles. Every family had lost someone in battle, and since the conquering armies had rendered the land infertile by seeding it with salt, there was widespread hunger and starvation. Then the people were deported, and when the Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem it seemed only a matter of time before Judah too would cease to exist.

There was not much reason for joy in Israel, and we might expect Isaiah to echo these sentiments in our Old Testament reading. Isaiah does not deny Israel's difficulties; our passage from Isaiah 35 begins with the wilderness and its diminished life (verse 1), and addresses those who live there in their diminished state. (verses 5-6) It speaks to those to whom the metaphors of wilderness and desert, burning sand and thirsty ground (verses 6-7) are more than literary images. Isaiah evokes a picture of deathly drought and of a humanity crushed, oppressed, disabled, filled with despair, and sapped of vitality.

It is into this deathly context, however, that Isaiah brings a promise of transformation and joy! "The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad," writes Isaiah, "the desert shall rejoice and blossom ...blossom abundantly... 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...." (Isaiah 35:1-2, 6-7) And speaking directly to those who feel dispirited, Isaiah says: "Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! ...God...will come and save you'... everlasting joy shall be upon (your) heads; (you) shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (35:3-4, 10)

What a wonderful passage! A wonderful promise of unbelievable transformation! Isaiah believed that into any context, however destitute, God will come with vitality and joy! When God comes among us we can expect weak hands to be strengthened, feeble knees made firm, the eyes of the blind opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped! Even the lame, says Isaiah, will leap like a deer!

Jesus was born into a similar context of despair, and when in our Gospel reading John the Baptist wonders whether Jesus is really the fulfilment of Old Testament hope, Jesus tells John's emissaries: "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them." (Matthew 11:5) And indeed, as Jesus moved among his contemporaries the transformation God had promised began to take place.

The Joy of Discovering Life's Delights

The Christian spirit of joy is not the same as happiness, which has more to do with what is happening to me. If people treat me well and things are going well in my life, I'm happy, but if things do not go well, I tend to be unhappy. Joy is a more profound quality of life that transcends nasty circumstances. Joy is less dependent on circumstances than is happiness. Consider, for example, the Apostle Paul, who wrote, "Rejoice in the Lord always" (Philippians 4:4), from a prison cell! A victim of circumstances that placed him in a Roman prison, Paul nonetheless wrote one of the most joy-filled letters in the New Testament! Chains could not shackle his joy.

It is a great paradox of our faith that our capacity for joy is often connected with suffering. It's the only perspective that helps to makes sense of James' words to persecuted Christians: "Consider it pure joy, ...whenever you face trials...." (James 1:2, NIV) Joy is fruit of God's Holy Spirit. It is a deep and abiding inner sense that depends, not on circumstances, but on trust in God's ultimate sovereignty.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), who brought us Treasure Island and other literary treasures, had poor health right from childhood and was in pain almost every day of his life. Stevenson died at the young age of forty-four, and one morning, toward the end of his life, when he was haemorrhaging so badly he could not even whisper, he wrote his wife and daughter a little note which read: "Mr. Dumbleigh presents his compliments and praises God that he is sick so [that] he has to be cared for by two tender, loving fairies. Was ever a man so blest?" And in the closing days of his life, Stevenson wrote a prayer which reads:

"We thank Thee for this place in which we dwell; for the love that unites us; for the peace accorded us this day; for the hope with which we expect the morrow; for the health, the work, the food and the bright skies that make our lives delightful.... Give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another."

("Vailima Prayers," cited in Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, by Elbert Hubbard, 1916)