3C Epiphany
23 Jan 2022
Maybe joy is the wrong topic on the day of the annual meeting, but it seems to me what we need today is a very good dose of joy. Maybe I should preface this by saying I do not mean happiness; joy and happiness are kissin’ cousins, but not the same thing. The US constitution says we are entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Well, I think that is a good thing, mostly, but it is not a sure thing and often leads people to engage in irresponsible acts, believing that happiness means their wealth and security. It doesn’t. Not really. We live in a nation that seems to have been founded in part on the idea that the individual takes priority over the community. In that case the pursuit of happiness can lead to devastating consequences for the community.
Rabbi Abraham Sachs says this about happiness: Ashrei, the closest Hebrew word to happiness, is the first word of the book of Psalms. But Ashrei is not the central value of the Hebrew Bible. Occurring almost ten times as frequently is the word simcha, joy. It is one of the fundamental themes of Deuteronomy.
He goes on to say that happiness belongs to the individual and is a state of mind. Hebrew scripture teaches it is not bad and is to be sought, but more greatly to be sought is joy, or in Hebrew simcha. In Deuteronomy the word is frequent and is always used in a context of sharing. Joy is collective, best seen in the festivals of celebration described in the book. Everyone, including foreigners, is to be part of the collective celebration. Happiness is an attitude to life as a whole, while joy lives in the moment. Joy is ephemeral and fleeting. Think about the words of the author of Ecclesiastes. He is describing life as vanity, or smoke, or a shallow breath, and says it is pointless. Yet he uses the word “simcha” more times than any other book in Hebrew scripture. For every musing about the ultimate mortality we all face , he adds a counterpoint about rejoicing in life. We cannot know what will happen after our death but we do know we are alive at this moment and our own scripture invites us to celebrate life with joy, a joy that is to be shared in the entire community.
I think of the movie Babette’s Feast. Babette, a French woman who became a refugee in Denmark and is living as a cook, maid, and housekeeper for a very glum pair of aging sisters, whose father had been a austere and stern man, pastor to a small fundamentalist community. Babette wins a lottery and uses the money to buy everything needed for a once in a lifetime feast. Joy comes when they are around the table. Hearts and minds are changed. Eucharistic, communal joy.
Nehemiah, a book we don’t often hear in our lectionary, speaks of communal joy. Simhat Torah, the joy of Torah, is what is so viscerally celebrated today. The people have returned from exile, the walls of Jerusalem are being rebuilt. The Torah has not been heard by the people for almost a generation. What if you had no access to scripture or worship for many, many years? They gather at the Water Gate, where all may gather without regard to gender or class, and they ask to hear the Torah read to them. Did you hear their response? They all stood up and listened and praised God in unison; they worshipped; they were instructed. Finally, after hours of listening, they were told to go celebrate!! No fasting, have a feast and make sure you eat dessert and share so that no one goes hungry!! I have trouble imagining a group of mainline Christians viewing the reading of scripture in such a fashion!
Does not Paul, in our reading from 1st Corinthians, in some way speak of the same thing? But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the part with less honor 25 so that there won’t be division in the body and so the parts might have mutual concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part gets the glory, all the parts celebrate with it. 27 You are the body of Christ and parts of each other.
What does it mean to be one body? It should mean that, regardless of who we are, where we are, or what we are, we are an essential part of a whole. It should also remind us of our interdependence upon one another, but today I think we need to remind ourselves to celebrate the gifts and joys of everyone. We speak of “essential workers” and Paul would have us remember that they are essential to the body of Christ and to be both upheld and cared for. The entire world in interdependent; no person is an island and that is not a reason to be disheartened, but a reason to be joyous. It also serves as a reminder that the world around us, all things living and even those things that are not, are part of a greater body of the world, of the universe. You are important as an individual; we are important as a family; everyone and everything is important as the body of Christ. Nature loves diversity.
Psalm 19 could not be any more a celebration of complete and utter joy!! Marvel at what God has created. The CEB says “One day gushes the news to the next,” and burst into a hymn of joy and praise. Simhat Torah!!
The words of Jesus are those of Isaiah and they, too, speak of a kind of celebration. He has been doing great works in Galilee and now returns to his hometown. He delivers his mission statement: he is the one anointed by God to deliver justice. Again, celebrate. This is communal joy!! Of course we know that joy can quickly dissipate and next week you see that it does.
Should we dwell on the idea that joy is to be found in the ordinary or on the thought that it is ephemeral? Manic depressive if you will.
I prefer to think that Jesus came to give us life and give it abundantly. If we open our hearts, we will find it and together we can celebrate the joy God brings us, all the while following the lead of Jesus in our actions.
Beethoven, as he neared the end of his life, had dealt with deafness for twenty years. Yet, despite the isolation and hardships it caused, he composed one of the greatest works of Western music: the Ninth Symphony. He embedded in it Schiller’s Ode to Joy, creating the first choral symphony a musical work that is so familiar and so loved. The Ode to Joy will be recognized by people who have no idea where it came from. Rabbi Sacks says Jews are like Beethoven and the Ninth: they have suffered, been isolated and rejected, yet had the courage to rejoice. If we can live in this time of upheaval and uncertainty and still feel a thrill when we hear Beethoven’s Ninth or the words of Jesus in Luke’s gospel, we will survive and our spirit will not be broken.
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