Joy Witnesses

Today’s Readings (Advent III, Year B): Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11;1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8,19-28; Psalm 126

How many of you have your outdoor lights up? I want to thank you. A few nights ago I drove in the dark for the first time in a long time. Seeing the twinkling lights against the vast night sky filled me with this important realization: we are going to have Christmas, COVID be darned. We will celebrate how our amazing and loving God fulfills the promises that are made throughout scripture- promises of good things, like healing, restoration, freedom, redemption, peace, justice, salvation!

We are going to celebrate Christmas because it is a celebration of this God who fulfills promises made to us and to those who came before us- promises of good things for us, for all of creation.

I may drive right by twinkling lights left on in the daytime and not really notice them. Twinkling lights during the daytime are not a joyful spectacle. It is the contrast of the night sky that highlights their shine, enhances the sparkle, fills me with a sense of wonder.

Seeing carloads of families come through the St. Nick Drive Thru yesterday filled me with joy. Against a vast backdrop of struggle and anxiety, online school and missing friends, frustration and fear - there were these people sharing their love, there was a child delighted by a little candy cane, sisters thrilled with the honor of being a donkey and a cow in the children’s pageant. There were wrapped gifts piled around carseats and festive Christmas masks. There were 33 carloads of people I know and have missed so much since our Sunday services were suspended, and 5 carloads of new friends who saw our signs on the road and joined in the celebration.

I was filled with joy - seeing these shiny, resilient, delightful people committed to celebrating Christmas- committed to celebrating the ways God keeps Gods promises by coming into the world in Jesus, and by coming into our lives still today through acts of love and goodness in the midst of a vast contrasting COVID experience.

Joy is that awareness of something deep in our soul shining God’s goodness, grabbing your attention in praise to God. Knowing joy does not mean that everything is perfect —that all of our problems are solved. Despite the challenges, a welling up of praise breaks through and grabs our awareness.

Joy can shine brightly against some pretty vast backdrops. We might be working for change in society and experience joy when a law is overturned or a public apology is offered, yet we know that there is even still so much more work to do. We might be consciously working to repair a broken relationship, and there is some beautiful moment of forgiveness, of anger falling away, and we know joy- even though there is yet more repair to do. We might hear the doctor say: “You are going home tomorrow” and feel great joy at leaving the hospital, although we know that the healing and physical therapy and discomfort will continue for a bit longer.

Joy may be expected, or unexpected. It may come along after hard work, or be a complete surprise. Joy is that reality within us that knows God is good, that knows God can be trusted, that knows God fulfills all of the promises of good things. Joy is not about getting what we want- Joy is about receiving the good things that God offers to us, and reveling in those good things with God. God offers us so many good things: healing, restoration, freedom, redemption, peace, justice, salvation.

There was once this man called John, who was a witness to how God fulfilled these promises for good things for God’s beloved people. This is the same John we call “the Baptizer,” and yet here he is functioning more in the role of “the Witness.” John the Witness. John the Witness to God making good on God’s promises. John who points us to the One who is fulfilling all the promises for us to live into those good things that God desires for us - healing, restoration, freedom, redemption, peace, justice, salvation.

John witnessed to the fulfillment that was about to shine fully against the vast contrast of human greed and human violence. He witnessed to the light that would illumine the vast space of suffering and confusion, and illumine for us the way to joy. The way to experience deep fulfillment. John is doing his best to convince a bunch of skeptical folks that God is fulfilling God’s promises — that fulfillment in human form is about to walk onto the scene, wearing sandals that John does not feel he is even qualified to untie. This fulfillment will be so wondrous, that John cannot imagine being worthy of even performing the most menial task for him- untying the thong of his dusty sandals. John is deeply humbled before this God who fulfills these promises. He is humbled that the Fulfillment will be right there, in front of him.

I’m not sure that the authorities questioning John feel humbled, or even excited about all of this fulfillment talk. Perhaps it had been so long since they had experienced God’s activity in their midst that they lost hope. It’s like they think God no longer takes action in their time. John is trying to tell them- you can dare to hope in God! You can be courageous enough to trust in God! God is going to make good on these promises! Perhaps they were not in relationship with God in such a way that they understood hope and joy and believed that God would do what God promised.

The founder of the Jesuit Order, Ignatius of Loyola, taught that when one has a relationship with God, one will witness the soul as it bursts with praise for God - and one will also witness when their soul loses hope, feels agitated and separated from God. Ignatius taught that when we sense that interior movement in which our soul shines brightly with praise for God’s goodness, we are experiencing consolation. We are doing things that align us with God in our very soul. And when we sense that the opposite is happening - that we are flat in our soul, disturbed and separated from God, we are experiencing desolation. We are moving away from God’s activity, away from connecting with God. (Learn more about consolation & desolation in the Ignatian tradition here.)

While we are all learning to cope and have likely reset our expectations during this time of COVID, we still have many opportunities to experience consolation, movement toward alignment with God —movement into a joyful awareness of God making good on all those promises to us.

Joy is a witness to us that what we are doing is aligned with how God is at work in our lives. “Joy the Witness” points us to ways of being in this world that participate in the good things God desires for us.

Let joy witness to you about how God is drawing you toward good things. Notice when and where you experience joy, notice what brings it. I urge you to be courageous and witness to someone else that you know what joy is- that you had an experience of deep and satisfying joy. Notice and witness during this season. Notice the joy, and let the joy witness to you about God’s goodness.

The vast night sky makes a beautiful backdrop for twinkling lights. Whatever vast expanse you are experiencing right now, look for the nearby twinkling brightness of God’s goodness shining out for your attention! Let your soul feel that joy, and move consciously, with full trust in God, into the joyful fulfillment of all the good things that God has in store for you.

Photo credits: Paul Green @pgreen1983