The Advent of Joy

In Sunday’s post, I used the image of a child waiting under a Christmas tree for Christmas morning to come as the jumping off point for a reflection on cultivating patience for God. But if we fast-forward to Christmas morning, that same image becomes one of pure joy. One of my favourite memories of my now-grown nephews was one Christmas morning when the then three-year-old opened up his stocking and started jumping up and down screaming “I GOT A TOOTHBRUSH!” And that’s an interesting example because it shows that joy can turn even the most mundane thing into something precious. With this in mind, it’s a shame that of all the words people might use to describe Christians, joyful would likely be among the last. Our reputation has more to do with austerity, severity, and harshness than joy. And that’s a very curious thing since joy permeates our Scriptures and the stories they tell about what God has done and is doing in our world. And that means that, if we really are participating in those stories, joy should permeate our lives too, even in the midst of the hardships of life.

From the Psalms, long known as ‘the hymnbook of the Church’, we have lines like:

• “But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy.” (Psalm 5.11)
• “In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm 16.11)
• “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” (Psalm 30.5)
• “Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy.” (Psalm 47.1)

Or, from the prophet Isaiah, whose words impacted early Christians’ understanding of Jesus, and Jesus’ own self-understanding, so much, we have expressions like:

• “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. …Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 12.3, 6)
• “O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a radiant dew, and the earth will give birth to those long dead.” (Isaiah 26.19)
• “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 35.10)
• “For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” (Isaiah 55.12)

The Gospels associate the birth of Jesus with joy:

• “When [the Magi] saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.” (Matthew 2.10)
• “For as soon as I heard the sound of your [Mary’s] greeting, the child in my womb [John the Baptist] leapt for joy.” (Luke 1.44)
• “But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people” (Luke 2.10)

Likewise, they also see that joy is the appropriate response to receiving God’s words:

• “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13.44)
• “And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy.” (Mark 4.16)
• “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15.11)

And, lest we forget, as Easter people, the natural response to the resurrection of Jesus is joy:

• “So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” (Matthew 28.8)
• “And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24.52)

That may be well and good, but what about for those of us who have not witnessed these things in person? Well, consider these words from the Apostle Paul:

• “For the kingdom of God is … righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14.7)
• “We are workers with you for your joy” (2 Corinthians 1.24)
• “I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith” (Philippians 1.25)

And, last but certainly not least, Paul marks joy as one of the essential characteristics of a Spirit-filled life:

• “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.” (Galatians 5.22-23)

The point of all this has been to show that joy is not something on the margins of Christian faith, but something central to it. Inasmuch as we are part of this story, our lives should be joyous. To speak even more boldly, if we take our Scriptures at their word, if we are not joyful, we might even question whether we are Christians at all! I say this as someone for whom joy does not come naturally, so I have no desire to shame anyone. Rather, my point is simply to emphasize just how important joy is in the story of our faith. How strange that Christians have for so long emphasized virtues like faithfulness, self-control, and patience yet been so suspicious of joy!

I don’t think the answer to this problem is simply putting on a happy face in every situation. That’s just spiritual bypassing and it’s not healthy, honest, or holy. And it’s also exhausting. The world is not an easy place and it will always break our hearts. And it’s important to honour that heartbreak — “for everything there is a season” (Ecclesiastes 3.1) after all, and “blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5.4). The key to joy is not being joyful about everything, but about being able to find joy within everything (or at least within as much as we can).

The good news is that, in my experience at least, joy — must like hope — is connected to gratitude, and is therefore about what we perceive and our attitude about it. Building off of the classic ‘three good things’ gratitude practice, I once decided to be intentional about noticing the good things happening around me that gave me joy. And the difference that made was palpable. Suddenly the little things I witnessed to started filling me with joy: the look on the face of a stranger on the streetcar receiving a text from someone they love, the dappled light around a maple tree, or a toddler in the line up at the grocery store dancing to Beyoncé. It really didn’t take much.

This may sound too ‘self-help’ and not ‘spiritual’ enough. But I am increasingly convinced that so much of genuine spirituality is about just this kind of intentionality, in both the presence it takes to notice what is happening around us, both the good and the bad, and not just be stuck inside our own heads or narrow lives, and in our choice of framing what it is we notice. If I notice someone’s face light up at a text, I have the choice whether I make it about me and get caught up in my own loneliness, or I can share in their joy. If I notice the beauty of nature, I can think about the threat of climate change, or I can appreciate and delight in what’s in front of me right now. If I notice a child dancing in line, I can wistfully contemplate the melancholia of the passing of time and lost youth, or I can dance too. It’s about seeing the world with different eyes, eyes oriented towards goodness and joy. And in that way, it’s not unlike repentance, which is likewise about changing our perceptions of the world and our actions within it. And that means, it’s deeply spiritual.

So I’d once again like to end this with a challenge. As we enter the last ten days before Christmas, commit to practicing joy, whether it’s in baking favourite recipes, laughing at a favourite film, or enjoying music we only listen to this time of year.

May the joy of the season be with us all!