Finding Joy in the Midst of Disappointment
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Luke 1:39 - 45; 2:8 - 14
December 11, 2011
David C. Wright

          Today is the third Sunday of Advent.  Only 14 days until Christmas!  One of the hallmarks of this season is joy.  “Joy to the World,” we sing.  “Merry Christmas,” we say to one another.  It’s a time of joy.  Yesterday, seeking inspiration on the topic of joy, I went to see the new Muppet movie with Bonnie and Melissa.  It was fun!  The movie stated that laughter was the third most important thing in the world.  And laughter seems related to joy, doesn’t it?  By the way, they said children were the most important thing and ice cream was the second!  I’m not sure about children, but I’m pretty sure ice cream is right up there near the top!  Especially a good Mint Chip or a Black Raspberry with a good chocolate sauce.
And yet, even ice cream isn’t able to bring joy in the light of the reality many people live with today.  The sluggish economy continues.  Some people are out of work and others are barely making ends meet.  Wars drag on in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Iran scored a major intelligence coup this week when they captured one of our sophisticated drones.  There is continued upheaval in the Arab world and no one seems to know how it will all turn out.  And, we are still reeling from continued news about the allegations of child sexual abuse at Penn State and other places around the country.  All those world-realities can put a real damper on our joy, can’t they?
          And, some of us are also finding life to be disappointing on a personal level.  Careers which looked so promising turn out to be unfulfilling.  Relationships that we thought would last a lifetime are teetering on the brink.  Serious illnesses plague us or those we love.  The promise of retirement has turned out to be less than we expected.  And, truth be told, even our religious faith doesn’t excite us the way it once did.  Perhaps joy was possible in those simpler biblical times when Jesus was born, but it just doesn’t seem realistic today.
          But let’s think about those biblical times into which Jesus was born into the nation of Israel.  The people of Israel had a special relationship with God, who created and sustained them.  And God promised to protect them and lead them, but for centuries Israel had been under foreign occupation!  First by the Babylonians, then the Persians, Greeks, and finally the Romans.  Believing God would give them victory, they had tried to revolt against their occupiers several times, but those uprisings had been brutally put down.  And grinding poverty was the norm for God’s people in Israel.  Where was God?  And, what happened to God’s promises?  Jesus came into a time and place that was rife with fear and disappointment and unrest- into a world much like our own.  It was into that situation that the joy of Christmas was announced.  The theme of joy appears twice in the Advent and Christmas stories.  Maybe we can find some insight there into joyful living today.  Let’s take a look.
          The first reference to joy is found in Luke 1.  An angel appeared to young, recently-engaged Mary and told her that she would bear a child, the Messiah.  Mary was astounded by this news and went to visit her relative, Elizabeth. 39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be* a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’ (Luke 1:39-44)
          The child within Elizabeth- John the Baptist!- leapt for joy when Mary came.  Why?  Elizabeth referred to Mary as “the mother of my Lord.”  Most Bible scholars believe that phrase is a reference to the long-promised Messiah.  Mary is to be the mother of the Messiah.  You see, God had not abandoned his people.  He promised that one day he would raise up a leader, a Messiah, who would lead his people Israel and deliver them from their bondage.  The people of Israel had waited centuries for the Messiah to appear to no avail.  But now the time was right.  Elizabeth, inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit, recognized that God’s promises were about to be fulfilled in the birth of Mary’s child.  That was a cause for joy, for God had kept his word to his people- his promises were being fulfilled!
          God has also made promises to you and me.  To hear and answer our prayers.  To save us from our sins.  To heal us.  To guide us.  To give us a spiritual community, the church.  He also promised us to fill us with his Spirit.  And one of the fruits of the Spirit is…joy!  But, like Israel, sometimes there are periods of waiting before we experience God’s promises.  Waiting is hard for all human beings, but it’s especially hard in a culture like ours that is fast-paced, efficiency-obsessed, and used to immediate results.  We have to learn to wait patiently for God to fulfill his promises, but the story of Christmas reminds us that God does keep his word, sometimes in ways that are unexpected and far beyond what we could have ever hoped for.  The Christmas story reminds us that at the right time God will fulfill his promises to us.  And that is a cause for joy!
          The second reference to joy occurs in the well-known story of Jesus’ birth found in Luke 2.
8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah,* the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,* praising God and saying,
14 ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
   and on earth peace among those whom he favors!’ (Luke 2:8-14)
The angel is bringing good news of great joy for all the people!  For rich rulers and for poor shepherds.  For religious people as well as agnostics and atheists.  For Jews and Gentiles, and even for Roman occupiers!  Good news of great joy for all the people!  And what is this good news?  A Savior is born.  But, what does that mean?
          Most of us understand that something is desperately wrong with our world.  This very day some people will starve to death while others have more than enough to eat.  Wars and ongoing conflicts cause many to live in terror, and snuff out the lives of countless innocent civilians.  Easily treatable or preventable illnesses claim the lives of many.  In some places people can’t drink their water or safely breathe the air because of pollution.  People regularly lie to one another and cheat one another in business transactions.  The powerful prey on the weak.  Gossip and character assassination are common.  Relationships break down.  Our world is broken in profound ways.  And it is beyond our ability to fix, for many of these problems are rooted in the human heart.  We need outside help. We need a Savior.
          The Good News is that God has provided us with a Savior in the person of Jesus.  And that is a cause for great joy!  Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection provide a way to transform the human heart and to restore our relationship with God and with one another.  His death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin.  And his resurrection demonstrated that the power of sin and evil over us has been broken!  Jesus’ gift of salvation is available to all the people- no matter who you are or what you’ve done!  It is truly good news.
          In Ann Lamott’s book, Traveling Mercies, she talks about her own journey to faith in Jesus as an alcoholic and drug addict.  She meets a man named Bill, who she describes as the first Christian she could stand to be in the same room with!  One day, she asked him what it means to be saved, to experience a Savior.  Here is his reply: “I guess it’s like discovering you’re on the shelf of a pawnshop, dusty and forgotten and maybe not worth very much.  But Jesus comes in and tells the pawnbroker, ‘I’ll take her place on the shelf.  Let her go outside again.’”
          A Savior.  As Steve Morrison put it, “He came to pay a debt he didn’t owe… because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.”  A Savior.  A Savior who desires to rescue you and give you a new life with the possibility of joy.  A Savior who desires to save and transform the entire world, and who invites you to be part of restoring it to the kind of world God intends it to be. (BLANK)
          And that’s where we begin to find a sense of joy and contentment, knowing we’re a part of God’s plan to transform this world.  A number of years ago, I was on a mission project in the mountains of Tennessee.  It was hot and humid and the work was hard.  We tore down a rotted porch and replaced it with a new one for an older couple.  The man, who was confined to a wheelchair, rolled out onto the new porch after we finished it and just gazed at the view of the surrounding hills.  He began to cry a little, saying that he hadn’t thought he would ever be able to enjoy his home like that again.  Then he turned and looked at us and said, “You are an answer to my prayer.”  It seemed like time stood still for me at that moment.  I got a glimpse of the fact that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves- that we are playing a part in the work that God is doing in the world.  That was a moment of profound joy and contentment for me.

          This world is still occupied by evil, just like Israel continued to be occupied by the Romans after Jesus returned to his Father.  Jesus promised to return and finish the work of restoring this world at a later time.  But in the meantime we can be involved in the work God is doing in our world today. We can participate in mission, locally and far away.  We can visit those who are lonely.  We can help lead God’s people in worship by ushering, greeting, singing, and playing instruments.  We can serve in leadership like those who are being ordained and installed as deacons and elders this morning.  We can share our faith with others as God gives us opportunity.  We can give generously to support God’s work.  We can pray.  And, as we are involved in God’s work in the world, we sometimes catch glimpses of what God is up to and experience moments of joy.  This Advent, look for ways to get involved in the work God is doing in the lives of the people around you, and see if the joy of Christmas becomes a reality for you.

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