Sunday, December 14, 2014 – 3rd
Sunday of Advent
“May our Homes be filled with
Dancing. May our streets be filled with
joy.” Jesus has come, salvation is
offered to all who repent and turn to him.
He promises to return and invite all who are his to inhabit the Eternal
Kingdom of Heaven as children of God.
Yes, dancing and joy; yes, that sounds right.
We heard it when Tim and Laura lit the candle and read Isaiah 61: I will greatly rejoice in
the Lord; my whole being shall exult in my God.
Mary,
the mother of Jesus: “My soul magnifies
the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
The Apostle
Paul writing to the Thessalonians:
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Our
songs, our scriptures, our reading, our ears – we are full of joy and we should
be. It is Jesus’ birthday. We are reminded that we have been born again
in Christ. At Christmas we celebrate our
birthday, our awakening to God, our receiving forgiveness, cleansing, and
eternal life.
Psalm
126 offers a beautiful expression of what we have in Christ. We are who we are because he is who he
is. “Our mouth was filled with laughter,
our tongue with shouts of joy. May those
who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.
We were like those who dream.”
That last line calls to mind the prophet Joel (Joel 2:28). You and I will dream. We will see the Kingdom of God.
The
tension comes when we take our eyes off Christmas and the magic and wonder, the
holiness and love, and we look around us. Reading Psalm 126 rubs against the
hard edge when we step out of the warm soft light of worship into the biting
winds of the world around us.
We
won’t let go joy. We won’t. We hold it, proclaim, live in it, and spread
it because of Jesus. However, we do this
with eyes wide open. We do this full of
compassion which demands that we have empathy for people whose experience of
life is different than our own. That
means we have to be joy carriers. We
have to carry joy to people who are having trouble seeing it right now.
America
has blown up in a 21st century version of racial strife. Much of the vitriol is spilled all over
Twitter and Facebook. These media can be
pathways where we share the Gospel. I
have participated in redemptive conversations on Facebook.
However,
there is no filter. So, people can
tweet, post, or email extremely insensitive thoughts. Readers see a message and respond with
aggressive words. Insults are thrown
back and forth and what started as a thoughtful even hopeful discourse is, in the
end, a hate-stained verbal battle ground.
Remember
the Psalm – our mouth was filled with
laughter, our tongue with shouts of joy.
We won’t let go of joy. We will
spread it. This is the feel-good
seasonal joy that can be reduced to a greeting card (not that I oppose
Hallmark, I don’t). No, we are here
talking about the deep joy of Heaven.
That is what we in Christ are called to share.
Michael
Brown’s family is having trouble with laughter.
Their son is dead.
Eric
Garner’s wife is not raising shouts of joy.
Her husband, a black man, died when a white officer used an illegal
choke hold to subdue him. Conservative
commentator Bill O’Reily condemned the actions that led to Garner’s death.
The
one that gets me is Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old child in Cleveland, Ohio who
was shot by police men because he had a BB gun.
My 12-year-old son runs through our neighborhood all the time playing
with his friends playing with pretend guns and swords and having fake
battles. Boys love BB guns. I don’t have to worry about my son being
confronted by police – he’s white.
But
my younger son is black. All my kids are
adopted and the younger two are black.
My neighborhood is mostly white we a few Chinese and Koreans also there. It is educated, middle class America. Is my neighbor going to call the police
because my black son is playing too aggressively? When my white son plays that way, it is “boys
will be boys.” Why doesn’t my black son
get the same space and grace? If my
neighbors call the police and they come and confront my black son for doing
what all his white playmates have done all around him all his life, then what
happens?
He’s
seven. He was listening as we had NPR on
recently. He asked my wife “Is it going
to be hard for me because I am black?”
She had to be honest and say, “Yes.
It might be.”
This is real. A few years
ago, someone in our neighborhood saw two black boys going door-to-door through
neighborhood. She emailed the
neighborhood list serve asking if she should call the police. They were football players from Chapel Hill
high school selling calendars to raise money for the team. Why didn’t she ask the same question a year
before? She didn’t ask because a year
before, the players who went door-to-door were white.
So just to be clear, parents of black boys have to teach their
kids not to play with BB guns – you might
get shot. Parents of black boys have
to teach their sons to be careful if you go through a neighborhood because your
football team needs money – someone might
call the police.
Our
mouth was filled with laughter, our tongue with shouts of joy. We cannot let it. We are of Christ. We are in Christ. We know what this season, why joy is the word
for it. Nor can we blithely proclaim joy
as if everything is alright. Everything
is not alright.
Much
of what I have said is toxic and divisive.
Some white people stand with their black brothers and sisters; other
white people decry aspects of black culture they find unappealing. Some people damn the police – all
police. Others rush to the defense of
the police.
I
read an impassioned appreciation shared by the daughter of a law enforcement
officer. I really could feel her heart
as she thanked her dad and all officers for his service in protecting the
public. The work the police do is essential
in keeping our society safe and ordered.
When you are listening to K-Love or another radio station and the public
service announcement comes on calling for thanks and prayer for those in the
armed forces, also say a prayer of thanks for police officers and fire fighters. We need the people who do these tough
jobs.
My
only question is this. Could a black
woman offer the same word of appreciation to the police? Or would her experiences of police pulling
her son over to ask why someone like him was driving such a nice car lead her
to a different statement? Does she feel
forced to plead with the officials to give her son the same grace and guidance and
protection they white boys? That such a
question even warrants asking shows the complexity and difficulty in our
culture.
We have to name it. We have
to insert ourselves into tension and carry the joy of Jesus into it. As I said, I understand the appreciation for
policemen and women I read this week.
That makes sense. I think I
understand that groups of people are fearful of the police. That also makes sense.
Many times in recent weeks, reading about Ferguson and Staten
Island and grand juries, I have been at a loss for what to say. This morning,
with the light of Christmas filling my heart and the even brighter light of
Christ illuminating all of life, I know what we have to do. We have to carry joy to people whose hearts are
soaked with tears so that the Holy Spirit can give laughter to those who need
it most. How do we do this? I have a few thoughts.
First, we listen. I urge
Christ followers to find people whose perspective is different than our own and
hear what they have to say. We listen
without judgment and without condition.
Just see the whole picture from their perspective. Feel their pain. We listen to them and with them and we do so
with compassion and understanding. You
don’t have to agree with everything they say.
Just stand with them and offer compassionate embrace. It will be uncomfortable, and awkward. Accept that and go there.
Second, we pray. We pray
before we listen. We pray as we
listen. And we pray as we watch. You turn on the news, find out the grand jury
is not going to indict and the rioting and looting starts. Before we post on Facebook how evil rioting
is, we turn our hearts to Heaven and think about with Jesus. Imagine simply sitting – you and Jesus
together – thinking together. Why does
someone see the death of a teenager as an occasion to rob stores? Because that person, that looter, does not
know the joy of Jesus. He is so lost,
his great joy this Christmas will be the TV he stole from a Ferguson
store. You and I want to rant and rave
about how stupid looting (and it is). Is
Jesus joining us in our indignation?
Or do we see this from Jesus’ view? Yes, Jesus hates sin. Jesus also weeps when a child dies. Are we weeping with Him? Yes, looting is a sign of how broken the
world is. When Jesus rode into
Jerusalem, another broken place, he wept (Luke 19:41). Into Jerusalem, into Ferguson, into
Cleveland, are we flicking our tongues in disgust or weeping alongside
Jesus? When our hearts are where Jesus
is then we are poised to have our tears turned into laughter. Only when Jesus has done this in us are we
ready to carry his joy to another.
Third, seek. Seek out good
stories amidst the not so good. In
Richmond California, the chief of police led the protest march against police
abuses of power. His message to the
community was I see with you that something is broken and my intent is to be
part of the solution. It can be wearing
to constantly hear stories of more deaths, angry rants, and divisive
rhetoric. It is tempting to turn it all
off and stick to schmaltzy Christmas movies. We are in Christ. We cannot just stick to safe, nice
things. Jesus does not do that. We have to go where Jesus is. The media magnifies tragedy because bad news
sells. The media buries positive
stories. But those positives are out
there. We seek the good as we pray for
all and listen to those whose perspectives differ from ours..
A fourth thought I have is to hold on. Hold on to joy. We cannot carry it and share it if we drop it
because our hearts are full of other things – anger, irritation, judgment. Let’s drop those things and hold onto joy.
If we listen, we see the other, whoever the other is – black,
Asian, police gay, immigrant – we see the other as human. Joy comes when human hearts join with each
other. Our differences become beautiful
variety and likenesses are signs that we are all made in the image of God and in
Christ adopted as children of God.
If we pray, we submit ourselves to Jesus. We let go of everything. He sets the agenda. We have already seen in the scriptures that
God fills us with laughter and joy.
If we seek the good, we are inclined toward the light and without
realizing it the light of God shines through us. We gravitate toward stories of hope and
people are pulled along with us.
If we hold onto joy, we release other thing, negative emotions,
hateful words. We are all of limited
capacity. We can only carry so
much. Let joy be what we carry.
I have not mentioned protest – Christians participating in
peaceful demonstrations like ‘die-ins’ and other things like that. I don’t feel I understand protest movements
enough to give thoughtful comment. But I
think if we commit to listening, praying, seeking the good, and holding tightly
to joy, we will be equipped to be people of the light of Jesus if participate
in protests. If we choose not to
participate, we are at least ready to love those who do. Jesus calls us to love.
When the Lord restores [our]
fortunes, we will be those who dream.
2 Then our mouth will be filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said of us, “The Lord has done great
things for them.”
Healing
the world is God’s work, which began with the coming of Jesus. In the age of the church, we bear witness to
Him. In His perfect time, he will return
to complete the work of the cross and resurrection. This is God’s work. We carry the message of God’s work to those
who need it most and we do so with compassion.
Christmas highlights what God’s people are all year – joy carriers.
AMEN
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