Joy, joy, joy! Joy, joy, joy!
Praise we the Lord in heav’n on high!
Praise we the Lord in heav’n on high!
"Joy to the World, the Lord is Come", Good Christian Men, Rejoice
One of the powerful Advent passages from Isaiah is
chapter 35. It declares that joy caused when God comes. The first picture it
portrays is a desert which blooms with flowers. It is written that the desert
itself will rejoice. The second picture is of healing. When this healing comes,
“the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless will sing for
joy.” The last picture, my favorite, is the joy of a homecoming. The Word of the
Lord speaks of a highway through the desert which will allow exiles to come back
home. Then “they will obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee
away.”
The promise is not that we will leave the desert and
find a garden somewhere else. The promise is that the desert itself will
blossom. The joy will come. It will even grow out of the dryness and bareness of
the desert.
The same kind of dynamic occurs in the other two images. It is those who have known sickness who will experience the joy of healing. They who have known the pain of the exile who will experience the joy of homecoming. In his book, "Where Is God When It Hurts", Phillip Yancey spoke of a curious connection between pleasure and pain. St. Augustine once said that our love is always greater for that which we have lost and then regained, than that which we have possessed all along. Augustine said, “Greater joy is always proceeded by greater suffering.” Yancey saw this principle at work in the many people he interviewed in his years as a journalist.
The same kind of dynamic occurs in the other two images. It is those who have known sickness who will experience the joy of healing. They who have known the pain of the exile who will experience the joy of homecoming. In his book, "Where Is God When It Hurts", Phillip Yancey spoke of a curious connection between pleasure and pain. St. Augustine once said that our love is always greater for that which we have lost and then regained, than that which we have possessed all along. Augustine said, “Greater joy is always proceeded by greater suffering.” Yancey saw this principle at work in the many people he interviewed in his years as a journalist.
It is written that
the desert will rejoice and blossom abundantly. In the midst of bareness, and
even hopelessness, in the midst of suffering joy will come.
The
source of this joy is God. It is written that the reason that the wilderness and
the dry land will be glad is that they will see the glory of the Lord, and the
majesty of our God. The reason that the lame will leap and the speechless will
sing for joy, is that God will come – God will come to save them. The highway in
the desert will appear. It will be called the Holy Way, and it will lead those
who have been ransomed by the Lord to Zion – to the holy mountain in Jerusalem
where the temple will be restored, and they will know God.
I offer a word of caution here. We must not think we need to go out looking for pain in order to experience God’s presence. Our Lord comes to us in both times of joy and times of sorrow. He comes both on the mountain top, and also in the desert.
The source of our joy is the coming of God – and God can come in both the desert and in the garden, in sickness and in health, in our times of exile, and in the joy of coming home.
One of the challenges of all of the advent texts is that we see glimpses of God’s
promise already being fulfilled, but we also see many ways that God’s promise is not yet fulfilled. There are some blossoms out there – and those blossoms can be a source of great joy. But there is also still a lot of desert out there – in the world and in our lives.
We do experience God’s healing even now. That healing might come in extraordinary ways that can only be described as miraculous. Or the healing might come in more ordinary ways, such as through the skill and care of a physician.
Sometimes our healing is more spiritual than physical. It is that infusion of grace and strength that enables us to carry on.
We also experience something of that joyful homecoming that Scripture so often describes. There are times when we feel so close to God that we have to celebrate. But there are also times our sense of exile persists. Therefore, we wait for the day when we will see God face to face, for that day when we will know fully, even as we have been fully known. Because the source of our joy is God, we can have confidence, even when we are still wandering through the desert, even when we are still in exile.
I just love Isaiah's description of the Holy Highway that will lead the people from their exile to God’s temple in Zion, the site of their joyous homecoming. Isaiah wrote that there will be no ravenous beasts; there will be nothing along the way to be afraid of. He added, “No traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.” This is a wonderful image of God’s grace. God is so eager for us to come back home, to come back to him, to know the joy for which we have been created, that he builds this holy way where no traveler, not even a fool, can go astray.
The source of our joy is the Christ of Christmas.. We can begin to experience His presence even now. There are flowers already blooming in the midst of the desert. We wait for that day when we will know Jesus fully, and our joy will be complete.
I offer a word of caution here. We must not think we need to go out looking for pain in order to experience God’s presence. Our Lord comes to us in both times of joy and times of sorrow. He comes both on the mountain top, and also in the desert.
The source of our joy is the coming of God – and God can come in both the desert and in the garden, in sickness and in health, in our times of exile, and in the joy of coming home.
One of the challenges of all of the advent texts is that we see glimpses of God’s
promise already being fulfilled, but we also see many ways that God’s promise is not yet fulfilled. There are some blossoms out there – and those blossoms can be a source of great joy. But there is also still a lot of desert out there – in the world and in our lives.
We do experience God’s healing even now. That healing might come in extraordinary ways that can only be described as miraculous. Or the healing might come in more ordinary ways, such as through the skill and care of a physician.
Sometimes our healing is more spiritual than physical. It is that infusion of grace and strength that enables us to carry on.
We also experience something of that joyful homecoming that Scripture so often describes. There are times when we feel so close to God that we have to celebrate. But there are also times our sense of exile persists. Therefore, we wait for the day when we will see God face to face, for that day when we will know fully, even as we have been fully known. Because the source of our joy is God, we can have confidence, even when we are still wandering through the desert, even when we are still in exile.
I just love Isaiah's description of the Holy Highway that will lead the people from their exile to God’s temple in Zion, the site of their joyous homecoming. Isaiah wrote that there will be no ravenous beasts; there will be nothing along the way to be afraid of. He added, “No traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.” This is a wonderful image of God’s grace. God is so eager for us to come back home, to come back to him, to know the joy for which we have been created, that he builds this holy way where no traveler, not even a fool, can go astray.
The source of our joy is the Christ of Christmas.. We can begin to experience His presence even now. There are flowers already blooming in the midst of the desert. We wait for that day when we will know Jesus fully, and our joy will be complete.
In
Christ,
Brown
Living Nativity
Presented by the Union Center United Methodist Church
Location: The
Oakdale Mall, Johnson City, NY.
Date: Saturday,
December 22, 2012
Time:
4-5 PM
Handel's Messiah
Presented by the Down Town Singers of Binghamton
Date: Friday
December 21, 2012
Time: 8
PM
Location:
Helen Foley Theater in Binghamton High School (corner of Main & Oak
Streets).
Christmas Eve
Candlelight services
4:30 PM at First
UMC, 53 McKinley Avenue, Endicott
Pianist: Aric
Phinney,
Organist: Yancey
Moore
Soloist: Emma
Brunson
Pastor Brown will be
Preaching
7.30 PM Candle Light
Communion Service
Union Center
UMC, 128 Maple
Drive
Organist: Betty
Phinney
Pianist: Laureen
Naik
Preacher Rev. Brown
Naik
All are
welcome.
Phone for
information: 607-748-6329 or 607-748-1358
