Joy

 Isaiah 35 December 11, 2022 Advent 3 – Joy

Christ Lutheran Preschool's
Christmas Play

 

When I was a child, one of my favorite things

was a box. It was big. I think it held some of those

big speakers that we used to need with our

giant stereo systems we had in the 1970s.

I don’t know for sure where it came from, but it

was big enough to sit in,

to put a blanket over,  I could pretend it was my house,

a car, a cave, I put my private things in it, my stuffed animals.

I could write on the walls, which I often got in trouble

for doing in the real house. I found joy in that box.

For weeks I woke up with joy because of that box,

until I moved onto something else that was my favorite thing.

 

Truth be told, I envy my younger self, I wish I could go back

and find such prolonged joy from such a simple object.

But too much has gotten in the way.

Too much life, and jobs, and family, money, and loss.

 

I see your children here and I am tickled by

the joy they find in the most mundane things like waving and saying hello

to me when we pass each other unexpectedly.

Of course I know they’re not joyful all the time,

but when children are joyful, it’s genuine and pure.

I wish I could recreate that pure joy in myself.

That’s why it’s so good to be around them.

Just to share in their moments of joy.

 

But finding joy in ourselves is not that easy.

As adults, we know we will never capture that same

innocent naïve joy that children have again. Although we try.

 
Are you happy? Do you feel joy? How can I get my joy back?

We ask these questions of ourselves and others a lot.

We take our emotional temperature often.

 

I think contemplating joy and pursuing joy are modern constructs.

Maybe just of the 21^st century.

I don’t know that this would have been

a question in the prophet Isaiah’s time.

It probably would have seemed foreign to everyone.

I mean people were joyful,  they felt and expressed joy,

it shows up in the scriptures all the time.

 

But  my guess is that they were more pragmatic about it.

The questions would have been:

Are you dead? are you hungry? are you in pain?
If not, then great, you have joy.

Kind of sounds like my grandmother when I think about it.

 

But now, joy seems to be a bit of an obsession,

at least with middle class people.

Once we have a place to live and

our basic needs met, then we want to know

Do I feel joy? and if not, how can I get it?

 

We try to buy joy, for ourselves and our children.

We try to obtain joy by having more things.

About 8 years ago, Sears had a Christmas

ad campaign that was “Real Joy Guaranteed”.

There is so much wrong with this, I’m not sure where to start.

 

Then we try to get joy by getting rid of our things.

Marie Kondo, the de-cluttering expert that seemed

all the rage a few years ago, wanted  us to look

at every item we own and say, “Does this bring me joy?”

and if not, her theory was we should get rid of it.

I don’t know if a box of band-aids gives me

joy, but I still think I should hold on to that.

 

Today we want to achieve joy,

to find it and keep it for ourselves,

we want to buy one thing, or get rid of one thing,

we want to have the right formula for joy and keep it in our life.

We want joy in our home life, family life, in our church

in our worship experience, we want to own joy, to be in control of it.

To turn it on when we want it.

 But I’m not sure that’s how joy works.

 

Now this week in Advent, our focus is joy.

They also call this Gaudete Sunday which means rejoice in Latin.

This joy Sunday has been the third Sunday in Advent

since the fifth or ninth century.

A long time in other words.

 

Isaiah’s vision of joy is this:

He tells the people that :

“The hopelessly dry land will be wet,

the desert will be in bloom with crocus.

Those who have weak hands and knees

will be strong again.

The blind will be able to see,

the deaf will be able to hear,

and those who can’t walk will be

running and leaping.”

These are definitely joyful images.

But this is not joy that can be bought,

or achieved, or even given to someone else.

The irony is that the joy that Isaiah describes

is the joy that has come out of pain and loss.

 

The water is amazing because it’s falling on dry ground.

The crocuses are so enormously beautiful

because they’re blooming in the dead land of the desert.

 

Imagine having the pain

and stiffness and other effects of aging

just taken away from you, your hands and feet strong again.

 

And seeing and hearing aren’t particularly joyful

things for most of us, but if you haven’t been able

to see or hear, those things would be amazing gifts.

 

And if one moment you couldn’t walk,

and then you could, even if you weren’t the leaping

kind, you would probably leap with joy.

Pure and genuine joy. That is joy that comes from God.

 

The joy that comes from God is not joy that

can be pursued or bought or found.

And it’s not joy that can be forced on us,

or that we can force on ourselves.

It’s joy that comes out of our pain.

 

This is the real joy of the good news of Jesus.

This is the story of the cross of Jesus.

The life and death and resurrection of our savior.

This time of year, we celebrate the birth of a child.

A child who was born into the world to save the world.

Who felt our pain and sorrow, who felt the pain of those

those around him, and who suffered on the cross.

But out of that cross came resurrection.

New life. The salvation of the world.

Real joy for all of us.

 

So if you are not feeling the joy of the season

right now, if this time of year makes you sad,

if things aren’t going as well as you want it to,

if you have depression, if you’ve suffered loss,

if you’re missing someone, if your health is bad,

if you can’t do the things you used to do,

or you are sad for others who are suffering.

That is okay. Know that Christ is with you.

Christ is with us.

 

And God’s favorite job is making new life out of old.

Bringing joy out of sorrow. We are waiting for joy.

God’s joy will find us again.

 

And if you are feeling joy now this season, cherish it.

Give thanks to God for it every moment that you do.

 

And let us all cherish the joy of the children here now

and all the children around us.

For a moment, let’s see the world through their eyes.

And experience the innocent and pure joy

of just simply being alive.

 

Through the infant Jesus and through the

the wonder of young people:

A  little child will lead us to find real joy.