- Christmas Eve Service are at 7pm
- We are open for Quiet Prayer on Christmas Morning from 9-10am
- Advent at Home with Owen and Charlotte has begun for each week
- Enjoy the Recorded Reflection HERE
As we read this passage, it is helpful to recall that Paul (yes, that same Paul we’re talking about in Confirmation Studies) is said to describe God’s Peace as “like a watchman who stands guard over the community’s hearts and minds.” We are protected in and with peace, regardless of what’s happening around and with us.
It is a peace that surpasses all understanding. This, perhaps, reminds us that our human minds often cannot comprehend the bigger Mystery. There is so much that we do not, and cannot, know. Sometimes that is scary and stressful. Sometimes, it is a great gift. We do not need to know. We can simply…believe, trust, and have faith. Our choice.
The candle of Peace brings us to…the candle of Joy.
Hope is the first light in the darkness and we find a sense of peace when we accept things as they are and light the second candle without waiting for things to be perfect to settle into peace. Hope leads to peace and peace is part of hope. They shine together.
Then, with hope and peace we come to Joy.
Joy isn’t that nothing is going to go wrong. Again, it’s very different than happiness which is often contingent on outside forces. Joy is something deeper. Something Bigger. It is not a finally things are “perfect” or finally things are the way they are “supposed to be”. It’s that we have chosen to move through hope and peace into Joy. Remember also, that the previous candlelight does not go away. Hope and peace are not gone. They are a part of the light that also is Joy.
This is a joyous time and it is certainly not perfect. We have our own troubles. We have the troubles of those around us. We have the troubles of the world. Mary and Joseph are still on a scary journey. We shared with the kids this morning what is happening in this Advent Season…this season leading toward Christmas morning. It includes Joy, because of or despite, the struggles. The Joy is supported by Hope and Peace.
We don’t see faith or angels making the journey “easier” for Mary and Joseph. Or Elizabeth and Zechariah. Or John (the Baptizer). There is hope and choice and peace…despite the challenges…there is Joy.
As we read the Stories, there is nothing expected. The gospels stories are full of the unexpected, surprising, messy, the “What?”…. Things get really turned upside down.
The Stories aren’t meant to tell us what to do, they are meant to make us think. About ourselves. About our place in the world. About who we want to be. They invite us to think about other people…and how we tend to this world and the people in it. All the people—not just the ones we like or the ones who think like us. They guide us on our journey as people of God (Universe-Spirit)
Take John the Baptist, we don’t find the answers or hope in the expected. It is not found in the leaders, the powerful, the wealthy…it comes in the unlikeliest of individuals. The wild John of the forest, eating locusts and wearing camel hair. I have a friend who says that we need to ReWild our faith a bit. It’s gotten a bit too tame and we have forgotten the wild and messy parts that are also gloriously (and scarily) beautiful. We have begun to see the expected, the easy, and the obvious. We have started to see it the way we want to see it. We’ve started to use it to justify our actions instead of letting it truly lead our actions.
Jesus never does what’s expected…being Christ-like is a lifelong practice of forgetting and remembering. Forgetting the Stories that guide our life and then remembering the Stories that guide our life and lead us back to being Jesus-like (or Mary-like or Joseph-like) in this world. And I’ll just offer a quick reminder that no where does Jesus condone throwing stones, picking up the sword, or murdering. It’s one of the hardest and most incredible parts of following Jesus…Peace. Love. Trust. It’s easy to forget, but perhaps time to remember.
Back to John for a moment. It is John who calls out in the darkness and the wilderness that He is Coming. It is not the clean, tidy newspaper calling to us and telling us what we want to hear. It is the wild man in the trees calling us and telling us to do what is right and good. Do we listen? (BIG PAUSE–especially if our immediate answer is a slightly irritated yes tinged with distain for those who don’t listen to what we’re hearing).
Mary. Who expects a young unmarried woman to bear the son of God? We might turn this toward our own lives and the world around us. Do we tend to the young, struggling mother?
Joseph. Who expects a lowly carpenter from Bethlehem to be the protector of the son of God? Nazareth? That’s like choosing a leader from the slums of New York. That’s the back woods of the back woods. Are we gossiping about our neighbor and his pregnant wife (or girlfriend)? Or judging who’s “not good enough”? Or are we offering our support and generosity?
Elizabeth is so old that even Zechariah questions the Angel of God when he is told she will bear a child. Do we hold back our judgements of how it’s supposed to be? Are we stuck on what we (and others) are supposed to be doing when? Do we accept everyone? Do we listen to others living lives differently than our own?
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, expected in the Stories. And yet, they resonate so deeply with us. They feel so believable, because…they are people. People like us. Small. Meek. Humble. Wild. Questioning. Confused. Angry. Despairing. The people who are not accepted, judged, untended, ignored. We all feel these things. We all see these things in our world.
The egotistical, the proud, the greedy, the fearful. We feel these things. We see these things in the world around us. These stories are the story of the human journey. Who do we choose to be in this world? The stories guide us.
Hope and Peace and Joy lead us.
Joy is in the day to day. We don’t tend to remember the biggest things of our lives as the most precious. We remember the tender moments. The quiet ones. We remember the small smell of baked cookies. The little book that gets read every year on Christmas Eve. The twinkling lights against the dark. The shiny wrapping paper of a thoughtful gift (and sometimes not even the gift inside). The mug of cocoa. The comfort of a warm embrace.
We find joy when we offer gifts to those in need. When we share a gentle word or a small token of support. We find Joy in being Kind and Generous. I was told recently that the most meaningful gift is the uncostly gift on a random Tuesday morning over the expected (maybe expensive) gift at gifting-time–be like Jesus, give lovingly when it is least expected.
We find Peace when we are calm and well (and not anxious or driven by our fears). Finding peace is hard and it’s not ignoring the cares of the world. It is knowing the cares of the world and not letting them change the story or who we want to be in our stories. Being at peace leads to Joy. Joy leads us to tending to what is most precious in this world.
Yes, we have a destination together this month, it’s Christmas Morning. We have destinations (maybe goals) in our lives. But it is not the destination that we are living for. It is the journey on the Way. The long walk through the desert. The sunshine and the rain. The cookies and the gifts. The yes’s to one another.
Maybe these yes’s are Love Itself…
That’s Joy. It’s not perfection, but contentment on the journey…whatever is tossed our way. It is who we are on this journey and who we choose to be in this life with one another.
As we head toward the manger, we are reminded of the infinite Joys all around us. We are reminded to seek the Joy in our lives and with one another. In this coming week, actively notice the Joy and watch the interplay of Hope, Peace, and Joy leading to Love Itself.
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 