Advent Lutheran Church

"Joy, God's Gift (Advent 4 Midweek)"

            Grace and peace to you from God the Creator and the Lord Jesus.  Amen.

            We’re almost there, just a couple of more days and we’ll gather for Christmas Eve.  One of the things we’ll do at that Christmas Eve worship is sing hymns.  A lot of hymns.  You might be here in this sanctuary, or you might be visiting family in far-flung places; but chances are that wherever you are on Christmas Eve the last hymn to be sung will be the same.  If I told you that the name of the hymn was “Happiness to the World!”, you’d think I’d had too much of the flavored eggnog, because the name of the hymn is “Joy to the World!”  The reason it’s called “Joy to the World!” and not “Happiness to the World” isn’t just that “Happiness to the World” sounds really weird; it’s because happiness is not what we will gather here to celebrate.  We will gather to celebrate joy, and joy and happiness are not the same.  Not even close.

            There’s nothing wrong with happiness, of course.  The Bible is filled with references to it; happiness is associated often with married life, the birth of children, successful and abundant harvests.  But joy is different; joy refers to God’s acts on behalf of the people, especially God’s past acts of deliverance from enemies.  So when the people look back to the Exodus, when God led the people from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land, they recalled the joy of that action.  In times of oppression, which was the context for this reading tonight from Isaiah, joy became anticipatory as the people looked ahead to the deliverance that they knew would come, and the joy that would be associated with it.

            The early Christians saw, just as we see, Jesus as the inbreaking of God’s final act of salvation for creation, so all future joy-filled expectation became localized in him.  That’s why the apostle Paul could write as he did.  Many of his letters that appear in the New Testament are brimming with joy; it almost bursts from the pages!  But Paul also wrote some of those letters while he was in prison, hardly a happy circumstance.  Joy and happiness are not the same.

            So the “flow” of the candles on our Advent wreath makes some sense.  On the first Sunday in Advent we lighted the prophecy candle, signifying the promise that one day, Messiah would come.  On the second Sunday we lighted the Bethlehem candle, signifying that the Prince of Peace was born in the City of Peace.  On the third Sunday we lighted the shepherds candle, signifying the announcement to common, ordinary people of the birth of Love itself.  And tonight we light the candle for Joy, the experience essentially connected to Jesus himself. 

            What’s remarkable about joy is that joy is not conditional, it isn’t determined by circumstance; we can’t generate it for ourselves or for someone else.  We can only receive it as a gift from God.  We can be in the midst of a very difficult situation and still be sustained by that joy that comes to us as gift.

            This is truly a joyous time of year.  It can also be a very hard time for people who are separated from their loved ones, separated either by distance or by death.  So tonight, on this the longest night of the year, we’re going to end this series of midweek Advent meditations by inviting anyone who would like to come forward, pick up a candle, light it from the Paschal Candle and place it in this manger filled with sand.  You might be missing someone from whom you are estranged, or separated in some way.  Light a candle in honor or memory of them.  Your heart might go out to our service men and women stationed far away from family.  Light a candle in affection for them.  Or maybe for you, life is wonderful tonight.  If so, I invite you to simply offer your prayers in support of those who do come forward.

            As we offer our prayers and our care, Tom will quietly play the melody of the song, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”  As I was thinking of tonight’s meditation a phrase from that song kept coming back to me: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”  This truly is the meeting place where the fears that we experience are enfolded and redeemed by the hope that comes from God.  Joy indeed.  Amen.