In the Season of Advent, This Sunday is the Celebration of Joy

 Dear Fellow Church Members,

Our passage for Sunday is Isaiah 35:  

"The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus ² it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and shouting. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. ³ Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. ⁴ Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

⁵ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened; ⁶ 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; ⁷ the burning sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp; the grass shall become reeds and rushes. ⁸ A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. ⁹ No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. ¹⁰ 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 sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

         This passage is subtitled a "sermon" by the translators and scholars of the Study Bible I prefer, that the chapter is the whole sermon. It opens with a good 'hook' into the power of Joy, with the land itself.  We are in Advent and this Sunday, we light the candle that represents ‘joy’.  Joy is at the heart of our passage.

          I find myself having one of those ‘chicken and egg’ disputes over this passage.  So, the wilderness, the dry land, the desert, all of this shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and shouting.  The dispute running in my head is whether joy is the cause or the effect.  Is the land blooming as a result of joy or is joy causing the land to bloom?

          On the face of it ‘the land blooming’ may not seem like such a big thing.  Now, this is the land of Judah, in the south the south, surrounding Jerusalem.  It is a borderland of feast or famine.  It all depends on the rain.  It is a big thing,

          A few verses later, Isaiah speaks of the glory of Lebanon, of Carmel and Sharon.  These regions are north of the line, in the 'feast' zone.  They are beautiful, well-watered regions.  But this land, it will bloom when the rain is just right-which often it is not.  It can be drought or flood, too much or too little.  There is a thin sweet line in-between.

          The rains down in Israel is thing in Jesus' bible; God's control of the rains being a reflection of the people's obedience to Him, but that's another sermon.

          But here’s the dispute for me.  The land is blooming to express God’s joy via the creation.  Is God doing that especially for this particular time in history?  When God wishes to express joy, does He trigger something supernaturally in the creation to make it happen?  Or is it something deeper?

          Is joy “built in” to creation?  Joy is ‘built in’ to us.  It is an emotional response to the glory of God expressed in Christ Jesus.  As with the shepherds, reacting to the choirs of angels at the moment of Jesus’ birth.  Or with Simon and with Anna when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to present him at the temple. 

          One response to this is “well, what’s the difference”?  Maybe there isn’t one.  But maybe there is.  Maybe all creation is linked together, humans to the very land itself.  All ‘hard-wired’, created for joy.  And what greater joy is there than the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ? 

 

In Jubilee,

Pastor Pete

 

Ever Feel A Bit Discontented at Christmas? We Have Jesus but the World is Trying to Like...Take Over the Holiday?

             “Now is the winter of our discontent!”  So speaks Richard, Duke of Gloucester at the beginning of Shakespeare’s play, “Richard III”.   If I have ever read or seen Richard III, I remember nothing.  Except this line (and a quick online search for context...)  From a trailer or a commercial or something.  But it has popped for me, at least a variation of it, in describing this season as the “Christmas of our discontent.”

            Ours?  Implies “we”, so...who are we?  Us of the church.  But its Christmas, what is there to be discontented about?  

            It is summed up well in a couple of bumper stickers, "Gen X memes" for those of us of a certain age...  "Jesus is the Reason for the Season”.  It is a polite reminder, hinting that other "reasons" for Christmas are sneaking in.  More to the point, “Keep Christ in Christmas.”  I feel like it should be written like this: "Keep Christ in Christmas".  This has more clarity to it.  If "Christmas" were a company, Christ is the founder and somewhere along the way the greedy Board of Directors is trying to show him the door.  

            Imagine the innkeeper showing up at the stable at about 3 o’clock in the morning to show Mary, Joseph, and Jesus the door, something about extra "manger rent" or something...

            This discontent exists.  I have felt it personally.  Christmas getting hijacked, everyone wanting a piece of it.  There is something about Jesus in the manger, his parents standing close by, the shepherds and animals surrounding him, the angels gathered overhead in a glorious choir.  There is something in their song, “Glory to God in the Highest and on earth, peace among those with whom the Lord is well-pleased.”

            There is light in the midst of darkness.  There is quiet in the midst of noise.  There is hope in the midst of pointlessness.  There is peace in the midst of anarchy.  There is God in the midst of godlessness.  There is a gift in the midst of greediness.  The world, sinful and broken, has latched onto Christmas like nothing else in our faith.  I do not believe it is malicious appropriation so much as unrecognized desperation.

            It is HERE that I believe we should be focused with discontent.  The world is desperate for something they see Christmas providing.  If I am so tied up with the conviction that the world has hijacked 'my' Christmas, how easy is it for me to keep the world, ‘them’, at arm’s length?  Devote myself to shielding ‘the real thing’ from the excesses of the popular cultural?  

            When this is the season where the 'world', and the sinful, broken people who live in it, are closer to the truth of Jesus Christ than maybe any other time of the year?  

            Yes, there is a veneer of overhyped sparkle that seems to get thicker over the celebration of Christmas every year.  But this is also the time of deepest depression, of highest suicide rates, of disconsolation and disconnection.  A Christmas of Overhyped Sparkle does not touch the soul, it cannot provide answer to the sadness.  But we know the truth, the Christmas of Jesus, it does.  And the devil has worked wonders to keep us, the faithful, from truly seeing that.

            Let us not be content to let that stand.  This is the Christmas of our Year of Jubilee, of our celebration of the gifts of Christ.  Let us share the wealth that can not be measured in any earthly terms. 

            Besides, Christmas is God's Holiday for us.  Can the world really be expected to take it over?  Or is the real truth that Christmas will take over the world?  The Christmas of Christ.  Our Christmas.  The gift that we can offer to make it everybody's true Christmas.

Pastor pete