Column for Dec. 9

This Sunday, in churches that have Advent candles, we light a pink candle. Tradition indicates it stands for joy. We move from some of the frightening specters of the readings of the end times that presage the Second Advent, the return of Christ. Now the readings in church shift toward the first Advent, Christmas. Forms of the word are in the early portions of Luke for the birth of John the Baptist, the reaction in the womb of Elizabeth in Elizabeth’s greeting of Mary, and the words of the angel to the shepherds of Bethlehem.

We hear the word, enjoy, far more than we hear, or use ourselves, the word joy. It is one element of the fruit of the spirit listed by Paul in Ga. 5:22. For many of us, it is a distant dream or hope. Surely at times, we may feel a trace of it. My grandmother saw life as a vale of tears. She feared anything approaching a feeling of joy as surely that would be an indicator of harder times to come. For some of us, a sense of joy and our interior lives are born strangers. I don’t think that joy can be imposed, as in the demands of a praise song. I do believe it is best shared. Mark Twain said “grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you need someone to divide it with.”

It may well be a good emotional and spiritual practice to make a chart of some of the events or times in life when you have felt, experienced joy. Who are people in your life who embody joy? Do they share any characteristics in common?

In examining yourself, do you sense or notice obstacles toward your feeling joy? What role do expectations play in your feeling or not feeling joy? For instance, we can set our sight so high that no human experience could ever reach them. We may not expect to feel joy, or even fear it, as did my grandmother. The sheer weight of this season on us can be burdensome. Few families resemble the glowing reports on Christmas letters or in commercials. The dramas often hit the mark of family life more closely, and there joy is often discovered through reconciliation.

In the Old Testament, joy often appears with a group of people, a nation, in the face of a great event. In the Christian faith virtues may be private treasure, but they are also shared treasures, ones enjoyed in concert with one another, and indeed with God.

Hymns are meant to be sung together in the congregation. Many Christmas services start with “O come all ye faithful/ joyful and triumphant.” So, Joy to World is especially appropriate then for Christmas. Isaac Watts wanted to move away from a psalms only style of congregational singing, and we sing his words from Handel’s musical arrangements. Not only do we sing of joy to the world, but ‘heaven and nature sings. Fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.” In Hark, the Herald Angels sing, whose title conveys its age, Charles Wesley intones: “joyful, all ye nations rise/join the triumph of the skies.” We sing Good Christian Men (Friends) Rejoice, why? “Now we hear of endless bliss/Jesus Christ was born for this…calls you one and calls you all/to gain the everlasting hall.”

My prayer for our Christmas season is one where we would feel compelled to sing out of the sheer joy of being together, in the face of our limitations. After all, Jesus did not come into a Christmas card world, but in makeshift shelter. There, in a rough manger, we see the joy of heaven in treasuring each one of us.