Category: Michael D
24hr Joy Coverage
In times like these what brings you joy?
It’s the third week of Advent.
But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.
Ernest Lawrence Thayer,Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic, Sung in the Year 1888. public domain, 1888.
Casey at the Bat was the first poem I memorized for my 7th grade English class. The second was, The Road Not Taken. “And that has made all the difference.”
Crisis and tragedy are all around us. Joy is present, possible, and as inevitable as tragedy and crisis, but we don’t usually think of it that way. That idiom, “nothing is certain but death and taxes” still resonates for most of culture, but for some reason “joy” isn’t considered a “certainty.”
In a sermon for the third week of Advent I note: “We never get 24hr coverage of joy in the world. How would we see the world after 24hrs of wall to wall “joy coverage?” Could we stomach it the way we do the violence and crisis? I don’t know. Unreasonableness for profit is waiting for us at breakfast, lunch, and dinner these days.”
The text for the day was Luke 3:7-18. John the Baptizer is ranting and insulting the crowd that has come out to see the show and hear about good news. He shouts, “Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” For John, this is what that looks like.
If you have two coats give one away.
If you have more food than you need for this day or this week, give some of it away.
Leave greed behind you.
Don’t use power as extortion for more power, money, or material objects.
Writing about this text, Rev. Dr. Ron Allen says:
“. . . buried deep at the center of John’s preaching is a conviction that is as true today as when John spoke it: Our attitudes and behaviors bear consequences. If we go along with dishonesty, injustice, exploitation, violence, and death, we can expect our personal lives, and our social worlds to be stained by dishonesty, injustice, exploitation, violence, and death.”
Rev. Dr. Ron Allen, A Sermon on Luke 3:7-18, http://thevalueofsparrows.com/2014/06/08/sermon-a-sermon-on-luke-37-18-by-ronald-j-allen/
Joy is all around us. Come on let is show. An example. Rev. Dr. Milton West was interviewed after the tornado that went through Mayfield, KY. Rev. West is the minister for First Christian Church in Mayfield. The congregation’s building sustained significant damage. He is standing in the rubble and asked about what he is saying to his people as Christmas draws near and there appears to be nothing to celebrate. His words represent a life of faith that is consistent and not threatened by change that is out of his control. This is one of the better examples of my denominations expression of Christian faith. Click here to watch.
As we wander through Advent one of the epiphanies for me is that community, embraced for its blessed messiness, rather than its Stepford orderliness, might be the best antibiotic for the bacterial polarization that has infected our Nation’s body politic and oozed into many aspects of life. Community. Not, “me and my tribe only.” Community, like what Rev. West describes and what we usually see after weather disasters. You know, “_______ Strong” slogans and t-shirts. And yet, Americans can’t seem to rally the same way to stop Covid-19. Vaccine. Mask. Anyone. Anyone.
I can make different “joy” choices. And that has made all the difference.
How can you offer Joy?
Peace: It’s Complicated
It is the second week of Advent.
Peace. We sang about peace all the time at church camp when I was in junior high and high school. As a camp counselor the singing tradition was passed on, but somewhere in the mid to late 1990’s it ceased.
I’ve got peace like a river
African-American Spiritual in the public domain. Click here to listen.
I’ve got peace like a river
I’ve got peace like a river in my soul
Down in my soul.
All we are saying is give peace a chance.
John Lennon. “Give Peace a Chance.” (Apple Records) 1969. Click here to listen.
Now the valley cried with anger
Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter. The Original Caste, One Tin Soldier, “One Tin Soldier” (Bell Records) 1969. Click here to listen.
Mount your horses
Draw your swords
And they killed the mountain people
So they won their just reward
Now they stood beside the treasure
On the mountain dark and red
Turned the stone and looked beneath it
‘Peace on Earth’ was all it said
Unfortunately, the overplay of “One Tin Soldier” at camps, youth Sundays, and countless other places defanged the power of that lyrical story.
And outside of summer camp the Eagles sang about peace in relationship.
And I got a peaceful easy feeling.
Jack Tempchin. Eagles, “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” (Asylum Records) 1972. Click here to listen.
And I know you won’t let me down
‘Cause I’m already standing on the ground.
Where have all the peace songs gone? Here’s a list from Zing Instruments.
One of the identities that Christianity has hung on Jesus is the “Prince of Peace”. History is littered with more violence than peace in the name of Jesus or the name of God. That is something that can be understood, maybe even something to sympathize with, but not reconciled. Sacrificial atonement and substitutionary atonement are beliefs that come with theological guarantees unlike the messy work of peace in the here and now.
Peace is my responsibility. It’s a walk in the forest. It’s a protest for justice and equality. It’s the sound of the ocean breaking on the beach. It’s my companion cuddled up to me on the couch. Bob Marley is right. People have to get ready for peace and redemption song. It’s doing what is right because it is right. I can help create moments of stillness for the majesty of peace to be experienced in a noisy, cluttered, and self sorted 21st century.
Peace is something more than an absence of violence, but that would be a good start. Maybe Jimi Hendrix is right, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”
Peace is our responsibility. May it be so.