Joy To The World!
by Rev. Jeff Marquardt
Advent 3 is the week for the pink candle. It is the time to read St. Paul’s dictum to rejoice. If the preceding weeks have a more somber tone from Scripture, here’s where Christmas light begins to filter through the shades of our world’s window. Joy!
And yet, there seem to be so many reasons not to rejoice. When we look around, or when we look inside ourselves, so many anti-joy forces are colluding and working overtime. Holiday stress, loneliness, and whatever we find in our news feeds; “there is no joy in Mudville,” so goes that classic line. It’s easy to forget that it’s “Joy TO the world!” We can get caught thinking our joy comes from something or someone other than its true Author.
One of my favorite examples of God’s brand of joy, of his sense of humor really, comes in the account of how Abraham and Sarah developed into parents.
I’ve always imagined Sarah’s laughter at the thought of becoming an octogenarian mom as a scoffing guffaw, a snort of a laugh. “That’s what you think,” sort of laughter.
And God, in his perfectly ironic self, laughing right back: “Yes, Sarah, that is what I think.” And God, always good to his word, makes the way for baby Isaac to be born. And the baby is named “he laughs.” Joy, delivered from on high, nestled now in the arms of long-expectant parents.
Was anyone laughing in Bethlehem at the time of another birth? Hard to tell. Perhaps that Joy was received very quietly. (Smiling as loudly as you can?) There was all that fanfare of shoddy shepherds, and later, richly robed dignitaries. Every one of them entirely and divinely focused on a Baby. Scenarios worth a solemn giggle or two, when you think about it?
This season, look for reasons to smile, maybe even chuckle out loud. You may find a smile watching the 2-year-old jumping up and down in excitement and anticipation. Or from the unexpected card in your box. A kindness in the checkout line. The phone call from a friend of years past. God is paying attention to you. Because of His Son, He smiles at you! He rejoices over you, his child.
It is, after all, joy TO the world. This is God’s gift to you. To each and every one of us. It is our joy, not because of our job, our family, our circumstances, our popularity or place in this world or any other factor. Joy is ours because God has given it to us. Joy is wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in that feeding trough.
If this season has not turned out as you expected, if you are long-expectant for some joy, abide with this word from your God who has all the joy you need and then some:
“On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
Zephaniah 3:16-17
Joy to the World! Christmas joy to you!