“Joy to the World?”

Isaiah 12:1-6; Luke 2:8-12

One of my seminary professors who taught my first semester of preaching, Dr. Randolph Taylor said authentic preaching is to “preach where you are at.” That is, a preacher should reflect upon the passage, preach upon it in light of the current circumstances that she or he is living in, in order to have a deep and honest message.

So, I come to you this morning with the intent to preach on the subject of joy. Yet in the midst of that intention, I find myself grieving in the valley of the shadow, for I along with many others in the Ashland community lost a dear friend suddenly last week.  Graham Lewis was my sponsor for Rotary and became one of my first friends when I moved to Ashland almost 5 years ago. He died suddenly and unexpectedly last week. Many of us who called him friend are still in shock and saddened over this sudden loss. So, that’s where I am at. Yet I am called to preach upon joy. Is it possible to feel joy, to preach upon or speak about joy when in the midst of grief? It all depends on your definition and expectation of joy.

I believe the two passages for today can help us understand the concept of Biblical joy versus the definition of joy in the dictionary. Joy in the dictionary is described as a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. Synonyms include delight, jubilation, triumph, exultation. Is that the kind of joy described in today’s passages, what the candle of joy stands for as it shines this morning? Or does joy mean something more? Let’s begin by looking at this passage from Isaiah.

This section of Isaiah is considered by many Biblical scholars to be a hymn, just like many of the psalms. It is a hymn of thanksgiving and joy sung by the prophet to a group of people who were anything but thankful. The audience for the hymn were exiled Israelites, captives in Babylon. The message of the hymn is to focus upon God, to trust, not fear, and find joy in God, who in time will restore the people back to Jerusalem. I have no idea how this hymn was received, but my hope is that the people learned to sing this song of thanksgiving and joy while they waited to return home.

The word used for joy in Hebrew, sawsone, means -welcome, mirth, gladness. Somehow, the prophet tells these exiles that they can feel welcome, mirth, and gladness even in their current situation. How is that possible?

Let’s look a bit closer at the structure of this hymn. In verse 1, we see the words, “I will give thanks to You, O Lord.” This is a hymn fragment from Psalm 138:1, which says the exact same thing. Then in verse 2, the prophet sings, “Surely God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid.” This also is from one of the psalms, Psalm 27, where the psalmist writes, “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Of whom shall I be afraid?” Then there is another song fragment from the song of Miriam in Exodus in verse 5. “Sing praises to the Lord, for God has done gloriously!” Miriam sang, “Sing to the Lord, for God has triumphed gloriously!”(Exodus 15:21)The prophet reminds them of songs sung in joy, hymns that help the faithful remember joy even in the midst of captivity.  Old Testament Professor Rolf Jacobsen writes, “In the midst of exile — with all its physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma, the prophet invited the exiles to sing the familiar songs that celebrate Israel’s repeated experiences of God’s deliverance… one can see in these three examples that what Second Isaiah does is, in the words of one of my favorite hymns, sing the old, old story. The prophet goes back to the hymnic well, draws up the old language and vocabulary of Israel’s experience with the God of the Exodus, and promises, “With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

We will be singing a couple of hymns about joy in just a bit, to remind us, wherever we are of the old old story, to help us draw from the well of salvation. One of those hymns is one of my favorites this time of year, “Joy to the World.”

First, a bit about the history of this hymn, which I absolutely have to sing at least once or it just doesn’t quite feel like Christmas to me. I invite you who are here in person to open your hymnals and look at hymn #134. The hymn’s text was written by one of the heavy hitters of hymnody, Isaac Watts, a prolific hymn writer from England who lived from 1674-1748. Watts also wrote the text of many other hymns we still sing-“My Shepherd Will Supply My Need,” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “ Our God Our Help in Ages Past,” Jesus Shall Reign Where’re the Sun,” just to name a few of the more than 750 hymns he wrote the lyrics to in his lifetime. If there are any Elton John fans out there, he was the Bernie Taupin of his day, a fantastic lyricist.

The tune is attributed to none other than G.F. Handel (1685-1759), according to a later collection of hymns from the 1800s. Handel, best known today for his masterful work, The Messiah, wrote 100’s of different music works including operas, oratorios, sacred cantatas, hymns, anthems, and orchestral works. Later composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart said of Handel, "He is the master of us all. Handel understands affect better than any of us -- when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt..” He definitely was an Elton John of his day.

The tune is indeed joyful and even has some echoes of the Messiah in it. The first 3 notes are also the first 3 notes in the chorus, “Glory to God” from the Messiah. This tune sticks in your head. Watt’s focus upon the text of the hymn is the joy that comes to us through Jesus Christ. Christ has come as king, to claim our hearts, rule with truth and grace. The Savior reigns and the words echo in nature. Christ comes to make his blessings known - the forgiveness of sin far as the curse is found. All of these things about Jesus bring joy to the world.

So, if the exiled captive in Babylon could sing hymns of thanksgiving and joy, then I can preach on joy in the midst of grief, and you and I can sing a hymn of joy even as the pandemic surges once again, and we may wonder, “How long, O Lord? How long?”  This hymn reminds us, just as it did the Hebrew exiles of the old, old story - to help us remember times of joy even in the midst of sorrow and pandemic, even though it may be difficult to feel that joy. Sometimes, it is hidden just below the surface of things.

For example, I was working in my yard on Saturday, trying to prop up my manger scene and angel, which had fallen over in the storm yesterday. As I sat down and tried to anchor those figures, I noticed a rather large mushroom, yellow in color, popping up between the redwood bark. I then noticed it had a vein growing off further in the yard, and then saw other yellow, brown, and white mushrooms in various places. As I dug down a bit to explore, I noticed that there was a lot of fungus living just below the surface of things. Similarly, there is joy beneath the surface of things in our lives, even though at first we may not even notice it is there; those times we grieve the loss of a dear friend or we fear for our safety in the midst of Covid, or…fill in the blank. Joy is still accessible even in times such as these.

That joy was just below the surface of an event I had the pleasure of participating in yesterday in Talent. I was asked to do the prayer and blessing of the wall raising of two homes for two different fire victim families. These families lost everything in the Almeda fire 460 days ago. You could still see the results of that fire all around the build site. I parked across the street on top of a future foundation of a trailer in a mobile home park in the midst of reconstruction. After a number of speakers, the fire victim families were asked to speak. The matriarchs of each family took a turn at the mic. They shared their pain and loss as they spoke to the crowd gathered. They both got teary in expressing how hard life had been.  Many of us shed tears as we listened to their anguish. Yet these families also spoke of the joy of that moment, of being able to build their forever homes along with Habitat and the many churches and volunteers who were there. There were also tears of joy for many who were there. Despite the devastation around us, despite the loss, there was joy in our hearts, especially when that first wall went up.

Let us look briefly at the announcement by the angels to the shepherds in Luke’s Gospel. The angel says, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy for all people. To you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11) What is the word and meaning of “Joy” in Greek? The biblical definition of this kind of joy, or Xara(Cara) in Greek means,“ Calm Delight.” I think this definition of joy can really fit for us today. We may not feel exultation or great pleasure or jubilation or triumph right now. But if we remember God’s care for us, if we can recall moments of joy by singing hymns about joy, then perhaps a calm delight can be found below the surface of things.

Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu in the book, Discovering Joy, says, “Joy does not save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily too. Perhaps we are just more alive. Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreak without being broken.”

We find that joy, that calm delight in the story of Christ’s birth. It is a story that reminds us God loves us, is for us, and wants to be in a relationship with us. We are valued creations of our Creator. That is an old, old story I have known in my heart since I was a small child, and it is what brings me Chara (Cara), or calm delight - not some fake smile or fleeting happiness. It is a joy that helps me to have hardship without becoming hard, heartbreak without being broken. It is a joy that allows me to hold onto future visions of what the world can become through Christ’s teachings- a world of Hope, peace, joy, and love.

So, despite all that may be going on in your life right now, whatever the struggle, whatever the loss or pain you feel, as you hear this sermon, as you sing these hymns, may you know and feel God’s joy deep within you, a sense of calm delight in the knowledge of the birth of our Savior, Jesus. Alleluia. Amen.