INTRODUCTION: Today’s Scripture readings come from various books of the Bible. The first two are from the Hebrew Scriptures. The third is from the New Testament--from the first chapter of Luke, after the angel announces to Mary that she will bear a son. The readings all focus on joy, which is traditionally the theme of the third Sunday of Advent. Let us listen for the Spirit speaking through these words.
Scripture:
Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10)
Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. (Psalm 126:5-6)
Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Luke 1:46-47)
Sermon: “The Gift of Joy”
Christians are expected to be joyful at this time of year—as we prepare to welcome and celebrate the presence of Christ in our lives. You hear it in our hymns, “Joy to the world! The Lord is Come!” and “Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel, has come to thee, o Israel…” But, I have to say, sometimes circumstances seem to conspire against us and, like a malevolent vacuum cleaner, they can suck the joy right out of us. You know what I’m talking about. Everyone who has lived through 2020 knows what I am talking about. On the lighter end, maybe your car breaks down in the rain when you were trying to get your Christmas presents mailed to out of state relatives whom you can’t see this year; or, on the heavier end, maybe your job has been “downsized” in this Covid pandemic; maybe someone you love has gotten sick or died; maybe you feel incredibly disheartened by the growing political divisions in our country and the injustice and the attacks on democracy we see and hear about daily in the news. And it’s just awful!!! And sometimes it's almost impossible to make even a joyful noise.
Our scripture verses for today recognize the reality that it’s not always easy to feel joyful. In fact, our first two scripture readings--from Nehemiah 8 and from Psalm 126-- speak of grief, tears, and weeping. The amazing thing is that the Scriptures actually link the chaos of grief with the grounding of joy. But here’s what the Scriptures don’t do. They don’t say that we can manufacture our own joy. They don’t say that we can will ourselves into feeling happy just because we want to. The Scriptures say that “the joy of the Lord” is our strength. To me this implies that joy is a gift from God. It is a gift that is given to us even in the chaos of grief, when our lives can feel “like an overturned waste basket.” (line from a poem by Kate Barnes.) It is a gift that is there if we open our eyes and hearts to it.
The late Yale Divinity School professor William Muehl told an amusing story of his four-year-old son's first Christmas pageant back in 1972. It was a chaotic mess. I’d like to share that story with you in hope that it will bring a smile to your face where ever you are on life’s journey--and, more importantly, in hope that this story can be a doorway into more fully accepting the gift of God’s joy in our own lives.
Professor Muehl wrote: [My son’s first Christmas pageant--at a Christian school] began with three virgin Marys coming onto the stage, coyly crowding around the creche and waving to their relatives in the audience. A vague uneasiness overcame [me, I was] fearful that [I] was about to witness the promulgation of a new dogma - group childbirth. [My] wife, however, was somewhat more sophisticated in such matters; she pointed out that the school had, over the course of the years, acquired three costumes for Mary. So, by the strange logic which seems to govern pageants, there had to be three virgins.
The three virgins were closely followed by two Josephs who took up sullen postures near the box of straw and stood there picking their noses. Next came the angels, twenty little girls dressed in diaphanous white gowns and sporting immense gauze wings. They deployed themselves with suspicious symmetry across the platform. Then the shepherds appeared, an equal number of small boys dressed in burlap sacks and clutching an assortment of saplings which purported to be shepherds’ crooks.
At this point an unfortunate discovery came to light. In order to be sure that the angels and shepherds would strike a pleasantly balanced array on stage, the drama coach had made a series of chalk-marks on the floor. A circle for each angel and a cross for each shepherd. She had urgently instructed the children that they were all to find and stand on appropriate symbols. But unwisely this marking had been done when the students were wearing their ordinary clothes. When the angels came on in their flowing robes, each of them covered not only her own circle but the adjacent cross as well.
The shepherds, [Professor Muehl wrote,] driven by God knows what demonic impulse to indiscreet obedience, began looking for their places. Angels were treated as they had never been treated before. At last [my] little 4 year old boy had suffered about all such nonsense that he could handle. He turned toward the wings [of the stage] where the teacher in charge was going quietly mad and announced angrily, "All the damned angels are fouling up this whole show! They've hidden all the crosses."
Isn’t that a great story?! Now, I must say that I find the professor’s story very amusing—but of course, that’s easy for me to say, because it wasn’t my child who made the pronouncement!!
Had it been my child, I imagine I might have been mortified—especially if everyone knew I was a professor at a Christian seminary! So, I was thinking that at this point, the divinity school professor and his wife could easily have grabbed their son and run out of the hall in shame and embarrassment. For not only had their four-year-old son gotten angry and messed up his lines as a shepherd, but he actually cursed in public—at a Christian school, no less. It would have been obvious to everyone that the child must have learned that language at home, from his parents, since of course the teachers at school didn’t regularly speak of “damned angels” (at least not in front of the children.)
But if the professor and his wife were tempted to run out in shame, the temptation only lasted for a moment. Amazingly, in the midst of the chaos and embarrassment, God’s gift of joy descended, and the whole auditorium erupted in laughter. The professor later reflected:
Christmas conspires to conceal the Christ. All the damned angels with their flapping wings and silvery songs, all the shepherds and parties and shopping and planning - all of it deflects attention from the Child himself. (And I would add: from the joy he brings when we open our hearts to him.)
My friends, when reflecting on the professor’s comments--written nearly 50 years ago, it occurs to me that this year’s Advent and Christmas season, where so many of our usual Christmas plans have been disrupted, may actually contain a gift for us. Because we are not able to travel and shop and attend parties and dinners like we usually do, we actually have more time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas and on our gratitude for the blessings in life that come to us even in the midst of grief. We have time to stop and pray and experience what the old slogan refers to as “the reason for the season.” I urge us all to use our time intentionally.
May we, for instance, do something that fellow church member Debbie Holleran suggested in an email to council this past week (Debbie gave me permission to share this idea)--may we take the time to stop and pray for the people for whom we are wrapping gifts, as she did this year. (Debbie said that rather than rushing through the wrapping, she took her time and stopped and prayed over each gift--and she said it really centered her and brought back joy at a time when she/we are missing so much of what’s normal for this time of year.) Whether the gifts are for our family members and friends--or for people we are helping through the giving tree or other charitable organizations, may we take the time to lift them all up into the loving presence of Christ.
And we may want to take this practice one step further--when we engage in our routines of daily living--doing our work, helping kids or grandkids with virtual homework, catching up with the daily news, may we keep our co-workers, our children and grandchildren, and our political leaders in our prayers as well. And may we pray that God continues to direct us how to move beyond prayer into loving action.
In this Advent and Christmas season, may we each open our hearts more fully to the Christ child, and as we do so, may we find ways to experience and share the gift of God’s joy—joy that comes to us in the midst of chaos and even grief. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA
Notes:
The Muehl Christmas pageant story was sent to me by Rev. M. Enid Watson.
An earlier version of this sermon was first written and preached by Marlayna on 12/8/08.