"SOMETIME'S COMING"

	This past Friday morning, as I drove to work, I was thinking – as I had
been most of the week – about the theme of today's service for the 3rd
Sunday in the season of Advent: joy.  Joy: something I haven't been feeling
a lot of lately.  Between a long year of personal challenges and the general
atmosphere of fatigue and tension that seems to have been hanging in the air
for all of us, "joy" has seemed hard to find. This is the first Christmas in
my life that I haven't even put up a tree. And I know lots of other folks
are feeling the same way.  We probably should have just scheduled the
holidays for some time later when we're all feeling a little better.

	So...as I drove in thinking about how much I really was "not about" 
writing a sermon on "joy," I stopped at Walgreens to pick up a couple of greeting cards. I was standing there perusing my options when a little, old lady walked up beside me and said, "Dear, could you help me? I had surgery
recently, and I can't see very well. Do they have some cards here for
children?"

	O.K., I may not have been feeling joyful, but I'm not a total "Scrooge," so
I said, "Well, let's see here. Ummm...yes, here're some just for kids," and
I pointed her to a rack of cards. But I could see that she needed further
assistance, so I started picking up various options and describing the
pictures – "Here's one with Santa parachuting from a plane...here's one with
a snowman...this one has a pretty tree...." – and I read the messages
written inside of each one to her. Her response to every card was, "Oh,
that's cute!"

	Turns out she has 2 grandsons and a granddaughter, and we finally settled on cards for each of them. (We decided to give the boys cards that were just
alike because last Christmas she gave them each a Nutcracker doll – one had
a red jacket and one had a blue jacket. The 4 year old said, "I want the red
one" but the 8 year old wanted red, too – she's not going to make that
mistake again!)  She took her cards and said, "Thank you so much!"  "Oh,
you're welcome," and I started to walk away. But then she turned and added,
"Oh...and Merry Christmas – you've certainly got the spirit!"

	Whoa.  It was one of those mysterious moments in life when you feel
simultaneously ashamed and awestruck. I knew God had just spoken to me
through that little old grandmother.  The Christmas spirit – joy – is not
something that will come along, under the perfect circumstances, to be put
on us, like decorations, starting in December; it's something that comes up
from within us -- it's a choice...it's a response.

	The mistake that almost all of us make is confusing joy with happiness.
Cartoonist Charles Schultz once proclaimed that "happiness is a warm puppy."
We may think it's a little more than that...but perhaps only a little. For
most of us, happiness would be defined as a checkbook that has money, a car
that works, a good date for Saturday night. Happiness is the absence of
major hassles or terrorism or crime; happiness is kids getting good report
cards and spouses getting a raise. Happiness is something we know as
enhancement to or protection of our preferred way of life.

	By those criteria, I'll grant you, a lot of folks don't have much to be
happy about these days. And I mean folks right here in our own church
community. If you saw the Post-Dispatch this past Wednesday, you may have
seen a photo on the front page of the Metro section beside a headline that
read, "Veterans group closes its four thrift stores; 88 people lose jobs;
one manager was told by fax."  The photo was of that manager, a woman named
Kathy Allen. Kathy had worked for the Disabled American Veterans thrift
stores for 36 years. Kathy is also a long-time member of this church.

	And I know Kathy isn't the only person here who's lost a job recently. In this church, there are people who have lost loved ones to death, who have
gone through relationship break-ups, who are facing chronic or even
life-threatening illnesses. Others are mired in difficult legal and
emotional hassles with ex-wives or husbands...or are barely getting by,
living from week to week, struggling to keep cars repaired (if they even
have a car) or roofs from leaking or kids from getting into trouble. I know.
Life can be hard, and happiness is elusive. And when things get rough, it's
easy to start doubting God.

	Look at John the Baptist...the great preacher in the desert of Judea who
proclaimed the coming of the long awaited Messiah and warned the people to
"repent" and get ready.  Now, today, in our reading from Matthew's gospel,
John has been thrown in prison; he finally ranted in the wrong direction and
hacked off the wrong politician. Now he's wondering: could I have been
mistaken about Jesus?  I was expecting the Messiah to come and overthrow the
crooked, abusive powers-that-be and put an end to the oppression of our
people. And that's not happening at all!  "Pssst...hey!," he must have
called to one of his supporters outside the bars – "Go and ask Jesus, ‘Are
you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?'"

	Jesus' reply was not one of anger or disappointment with John. In fact, he sent a message that he hoped would bring John great joy.  Jesus said, "Go
and tell John [what I am doing in people's lives] – the blind receive their
sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are
raised, and the poor have good news brought to them."  You see, he figured
John would immediately recognize the words that had been recorded first by
the prophet Isaiah – words that looked to the miracles that would accompany
the coming of a great Ruler for the people.  The reference to Isaiah was
meant to reassure John – in a way he would understand –  that Jesus was
indeed the fulfillment of that ancient prophecy.  With the reassurance of
Jesus, even in his prison circumstances, John could once again have
joy...knowing that God's promise was coming true...even if it wasn't coming
exactly the way he had supposed it would come.

	Often we lose our joy because things don't happen or turn out the way we think they're "supposed to." Think about it: Christmas is "supposed to be" sparkly and happy and fun!  People are "supposed to" live to a ripe old age and then just "slip away peacefully."  Being "in love" is "supposed to be" enough to make relationships work and, if you work hard and do your job
well, you're "supposed to have" the appreciation of your employer and
financial security.

	So...when things don't happen they way we've "supposed" they 
should...we're disappointed – and happiness flees.  That's why Jesus doesn't come promising
earthly happiness -- it's too flimsy; Jesus comes offering eternal joy. Joy
that can come without money or a good date or a working car.  Joy that can
mean our healing and our freedom from the manipulative and constantly
changing demands of "happiness."

	Both of our readings this morning talked about sight received and hearing restored, about the lame leaping like deer and the speechless singing for
joy. That is the work of the Messiah: to touch and change people's lives.
Sometimes that healing or restoration is physical. Sometimes – oftentimes –
it is emotional and spiritual...which may be, ultimately, even more real and
lasting. The physical dimension of our lives will end. The spiritual
dimension will go on and on.

	And the spiritual dimension of which I'm speaking is not just some "pie in
the sky, in the sweet by and by, when we all get to heaven, Hallelujah" kind
of thing!  The Holy Spirit of God – the living presence of Jesus – is with
us even now wanting to help us grow to a place where the painful but passing
circumstances of life can no longer knock us down and steal our joy. But
allowing that to happen is both a choice and a response on our part.

	There's an old saying: "Some people bring joy wherever they go. Other
people bring joy whenever they go!"  We've all met some of those folks! But
it doesn't have to be that way. Author Tim Hansel says, "Pain is inevitable,
but misery is optional. We cannot avoid pain, but we can avoid joy. God has
given us such immense freedom that we're allowed to be as miserable as we
want to be."

	He says, "I know some people who spend their entire lives practicing being
unhappy, diligently pursuing joylessness. They get more mileage from having
people feel sorry for them than from choosing to live out their lives in the
context of joy."

	"Joy is simple – (which is not to be confused with easy.) At any moment in
life, we have at least two options and one of them is to choose an attitude
of gratitude, a posture of grace, a commitment to joy."

	And he's right.  I chose to respond to that grandmother looking for greeting cards with patience and pleasantness – not two things I necessarily
come by naturally...but which I know are right!  Life constantly presents us with opportunities to do good...even to help create minor miracles for
others.  And I think that whether we choose to respond or not depends a lot
on our awareness of all that God has done for us!

	I read an interesting perspective on this recently. Think about the proclamation of the angels to the shepherds. The angels came to
marginalized, oppressed, potentially miserable people; they came responding
to what God had done through the birth of the Christ child – singing out a song of joy: "Glory to God in the highest."  Then came the call for "peace on earth...."

	C. Welton Gaddy writes, "Did you catch the insight about joy? Joy was found
through participation in the divine event, not in external circumstances. In
the prayer of the angels, words about peace followed, not preceded, words of
joy. Words about peace were not prerequisites for joy. Peace came from joy.
That is the divine order of things."  In other words, we think we would have
joy if we could just find peace. In reality, it may well be the other way
around.

	What we call "Christmas" is a one day celebration of an every day event: "God with us"...in all things, at all times.  Each one of us is invited to
be a participant in that daily divine event. The question for each of us is,
"How will you respond?"  With the daily option of misery or joy, what will
you choose?

	As for the future, the promise of Advent is that "sometime" – we don't know
when – Christ will come and there will be a reign of unending joy forever when misery will no longer be an option. In the meantime, until "sometime" comes, we can still have joy...not just at Christmas but every day – if we
choose to.  Amen.

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