In
fact, although I think that’s pretty funny, we light the rose candle because
today is Gaudete Sunday and Gaudete is the Latin word for rejoice. Today
we start rejoicing for the One who is coming into the world to bring…what is it
again? Oh yeah, joy to the world. As we heard from St. Paul this
morning:
Rejoice in the Lord
always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone.
The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the
peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and
your minds in Christ Jesus.
In
John 15:11, Jesus says: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be
in you and that your joy may be complete.” In the sacristy of this church (that’s
the room where the altar guild does their work) there is a print with one of my
very favorite sayings from one of the early church fathers, Irenaeus of Lyons.
It says this: “the glory of God is the human person fully alive.” I think that
joy is a key ingredient in being fully alive.
So
what is joy, exactly? Barbara Brown Taylor describes the experience of joy as
“almost irreverent.” She writes:
Joy has never had very much to do with what is
going on in the world at the time. This is what makes it different from
happiness, or pleasure, or fun. All those depend on positive conditions… The
only condition for joy is the presence of God… which means that it can erupt in
a depressed economy, in the middle of a war, or in an intensive care waiting
room… it is a gift…
She’s
right, you know. But it sounds so counter-cultural in a culture where we think
we can buy happiness which suggests that happiness is some kind of commodity.
But happiness is always conditional. We have happy and sad days, and sometimes
even weeks or seasons. December can bring out the sadness and unresolved grief
even among the most fortunate among us. I found when I was last a parish priest
that inevitably I’d have more funerals in December than any other month of the
year. And even when people die at another time of year, the holidays can be
especially hard. You all know this. I’m not telling you anything you don’t
already know. The point is that no one can be happy all the time.
The
only condition for joy, though, is the presence of God. We can feel joy even on
the most difficult of days. We don’t need to wait for December 24 to recall
that the truest name for Jesus is Immanuel: God with us. Through thick and
thin. So if God is present, there is joy.
Do
you all remember Debbie Downer from the old SNL skits? One of my favorites is
when the family is all gathered at Disney World and the server says that the
special of the day is steak and eggs with a Mickey waffle. Debbie says: “ever
since they found mad-cow disease in the US. I’m not taking any chances. It can
live in your body for years before it ravages your brain.” (Wha, wha…)
Most
of us know a Debbie Downer in our lives. And maybe some days we are even like
her. Maybe it’s their personality or maybe it’s because of old wounds and
sometimes it’s because of a chemical imbalance and they deserve our compassion,
not our judgement. But they can wear you down when they need for you to be as
unhappy as they are and that isn’t good for building up the Body of Christ.
On
the other end of the spectrum are the perennially cheery, quick to find
something happy even in the worst of circumstances. Maybe too quick, because we
also need space in our lives for grieving. If you are having a really hard day
the last thing we need to hear is to cheer up, don’t worry…
But joy is different. Joy isn’t contingent on whether or not the sun is
shining. So Jesus tells his friends, which includes us: I have told you this so that my joy may be in
you and that your joy may be complete. That is what the good news does in our lives as it takes hold. The
only condition needed for joy is the presence of God, even when the world
around us is a mess. It is a gift. It helps form disciples of Jesus who are
fully alive and this pleases God.
Now I have a question
for you to reflect on. How do we cultivate joy in our own lives and in our
homes and in this congregation. Let the world be for now, but how can we make
it so that we leave Church each week feeling more joyful and less troubled? I
often use the phrase, borrowed from the late Bishop of Newark, Bishop Spong, of
the “church alumni association.” Recently here in Bristol I heard almost these
same words from a local shopkeeper. I had my collar on and I told the person
where I work and they said, “oh, I’m an alum of St. Michael’s. My parents used
to take me there as a child, when Canon Tildsley was there…”
Why do people leave the
Church? In my experience there are two main reasons generally speaking:
conflict or boredom. Conflict burns hot sometimes. We get disappointed or hurt
or angry about something or someone whom it seems doesn’t behave like a “real”
Christian; and we may well have a legitimate gripe. Boredom runs cool to cold; we
just feel we’ve gotten all we need from a place as a kid and now we can move
on, the same way we move on from senior year of high school. We’ve graduated…
But the Church at its
best is in the business of forming disciples and that’s a lifelong
process. I’m preaching to the choir I know, by the way. You are all here on a
December morning when there are other places you could be. In the midst of a
busy month you’ve made it a priority to be here. There may be lots of reasons.
You may connect with my preaching or not. You may like the music or not. You
may feel the presence of the risen Christ at the Eucharist or not. But somehow
I hope that most weeks through these invitations and just by being in the
presence of other people who are seeking and serving Christ, you feel a little
more hopeful, a little more peaceful, a little more joyful. And even though we
have to wait until next week to light the fourth candle, a little more loving
as well.
So how do we cultivate
practices here at St. Michael’s that lead to people toward full and abundant
life, people who embrace joy even when facing sorrow? In my experience,
authenticity and laughter are prerequisites. We have to be real, not fake. And
our humor isn’t meant to be caustic or hurtful, but it does mean we hold things
lightly, I think.
This is part of what I
want for St. Michael’s in this season and beyond and I am praying for you all. I
am so grateful for the staff here who held things together from the time Canon
Michael left until I arrived. Loretta and Alexander and Steve and Betty are all
amazing people and as the new kid I am so grateful for their care in doing
their work. And you know, I hope, that the vestry has been working hard as
well. And now the vestry continues to deepen our commitment to serve Christ and
get ready for what will come next. The vestry covenant is more than
aspirational; it’s an extension of the Baptismal Covenant. It’s about how we
treat each other, how we disagree, how we stay open and curious. In all of this
I rejoice.
David Whyte has said
that joy is practiced generosity. I take that to
mean that we can always find something to be thankful for, and thankfulness
cultivates gratitude and gratitude is the path to abundant joy. And joy is a part of what it means to be fully alive
and aware of God’s presence in our lives. No. Matter. What.
No matter what life
brings, stay in the Spirit. Is that hard? Yes, some days. But we can do hard
things, friends. With God all things are possible.
O come, O come, Emmanuel. Rejoice. Rejoice. Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. O Bristol, too.
