This frosty Maine morning, I was privileged to “gather at the river” with my Methodist brothers and sisters in the tiny old 1881 Congregational church where my grandmother was married. I have been privileged to worship in this small village church for many happy years. This morning, as we lit the candle of Joy in our Advent wreath and sang Joy to the World, my thoughts went back to my first Pastor, a dear old Quaker saint with an impish sense of humor, who first taught me the meaning of the word joy.
Joy, he preached, is not self-centered jollity and effervescent happiness like bubbles in seltzer water, but an overcoming of sorrow and hardship. To overcome is to come out of the battle with more than one had going in. And thus, joy is best appreciated after great hardship.
Around the Thanksgiving table this year, my family’s conversation turned to politics, as I am sure many family conversations did. But we didn’t argue about policies, candidates, or campaigns. Instead, we reminded each other that the powers that be are ordained of God (Romans 12), that God sets up over the kingdom the basest of men (Daniel 4:17), and that the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord (Proverbs 21).
We talked about the ways that the word “joy” had become politicized during the election season, drawing inspiration, perhaps, from Soviet propaganda. And we agreed that the joy a politician or a campaign can give is not a lasting joy. The joy we want to build our life on is the joy of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, “whom having not seen, ye love; though now you see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable” (I Peter 1).
This is the joy that does not end with a political campaign or fade away with a politician’s prominence on the world stage. Christ our Lord is our Savior, our Emmanuel, no matter if a cruel Roman emperor a dissolute prime minister, a godless dictator, or a wicked president is in political power. Our joy does not depend upon our political leaders because no matter the powers that be, Christ our Lord is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and in Him is our joy, and our joy in Him no man takes from us.
In my little white church by the river, we have a beautiful closing tradition. We all gather in a circle in the small sanctuary and join hands and sing together Let There Be Peace on Earth. For Advent, we have been replacing the word “peace” with the theme of the Advent candle for the week, and this morning, it was “joy.”
Life in a fallen world, as we remembered at prayer time, is full of suffering and hardship, and sorrow. Each heart present at church this morning had a burden. St. Peter acknowledged that “for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold trials.” But Advent is a time to reorient ourselves to our Emmanuel, to God with us, and to rediscover that the joy of our Lord is our strength, and to renew our faith that they who sow in tears shall reap in joy.
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Thank you for a timely reminder. With all of the chaos right now, political and otherwise, it is good to be reminded that we have the option to know true, lasting joy.
At my little Church, not so much a little building, but a small congregation, we transcend political differences by transcendence. It is a privilege indeed.