Bringing Joy

I just watched the service for Hope, Healing and Reconciliation of the Presbyterian Church in Canada that was recorded on December 3rd. This time of worship was an identified need through work done to listen to stories of racism amongst non-white congregations and members of our denomination.

As well as being moved by the wide ethnic diversity in leadership and attendance at the service, it was wonderful to see the arc of what happened. Beginning with introductions and singing, it moved from confession and repentance to the Word read and preached and ended with worshipers of diverse backgrounds singing with joy and arms linked. What began as a somber acknowledgement of wrongs done for decades led to people coming forward with handwritten messages indicating what they will do to be part of the solution and healing. There were many joyful faces and voices as the worship time transitioned into fellowship.

I’ve written before about how we can look at the themes of Advent and expect, like children, to hold out our hands and be offered hope, peace, joy and love. We perhaps feel we are owed these gifts for how we serve Jesus or the tough situations we find ourselves in. We often want God to bring these things to us.

This Sunday I’m preaching about Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56). They are both miraculously pregnant through divine intervention and they each are the only person to truly understand the other’s situation. Mary, facing the possibility of being stoned for seemingly breaking her engagement contract to Joseph, travels to Elizabeth as a lifeline. Gabriel had told her about her cousin’s pregnancy in old age. For a likely young teen, she is very wise. This trip is exactly what she needs. Many pictures show these two women embracing each other after John the Baptist leaps with joy in utero at the sound of Mary’s voice.

The joy in this story comes because these women said yes - yes to being God-bearers in a very physical way. Their yes means discomfort, sacrifices, being ostracized and gossiped about and even risk of death. Their yes also means that God allows them to be a support to each other as they fulfil this sacred calling. If either had said no, the story would quite possibly never have happened, or certainly it would have been very different.

I preached last weekend about being open to God’s messengers asking important things of us and to being willing to bring peace where it is needed. This next part of the story leading up to Christmas reminds us that our yes is so important. Saying yes doesn’t mean it will all be rosy, but God will provide a way and in that way we will find joy.

Maybe you, like me, are already tired of all the glitz and overdone lawn decorations and ads for extravagant gifts right now. Maybe you’ve had it with commercialism and are stunned that it still is taking a front row seat when the Holy Land is in chaos. Last night as I watched video filmed years ago in Bethlehem and Jerusalem I wondered how different these places and the surrounding area look now after the violence that has come.

Will we find joy in the midst of all that we face in our personal lives and the resurgence of Covid cases and where the international COP 28 climate summit was overrun by oil and gas executives and watered down agreements? Will we find joy as lineups at food banks get longer and longer and infrastructure crumbles while the rich get richer?

To find joy, I think, is at least somewhat dependent on our willingness to say yes to God in spite of it all, and to find those who can walk with us who understand our ministry and what we perceive our calling to be, both day to day and long-term. If we find that community and soul friends that are ready to bring about a yes to God’s plans where we find ourselves, I believe that as we recognize the divine at work in each of us we will find true joy. As we see the Spirit clearly present because we are faithful to what God asks of us, we will realize that we are part of bringing about the healing and hope so desperately needed.

I want to find joy that runs deeper than old Christmas movies with favourite snacks or even get-togethers with family and friends. I want to find it in realizing that I have purpose and am part of the call to action to bring about shalom and the kin-dom of God. That is exciting and life-changing and worth my best effort.

May you find joy in your own calling and may you see joy around you in others who also recognize what God is asking of them for the glory of Christ. And may you find soul friends that God has placed on your journey who will embrace you with joy because your willingness to serve is so evident.