“No greater prophet” Jesus declares about John the Baptist – a wonderful compliment for someone we meet for the second week in a role in our gospel readings. At first glance this great prophet seems out of place on the day we celebrate the role of angels in the nativity story, and on the day we light the candle of joy. Let’s face it, John the Baptist is not the first person that comes to mind as an example of a joyful person. Last week we heard how John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt and ate locusts and wild honey. Rarely do we get a wardrobe report in the gospels or an update on someone’s diet. Clearly John would not make the cover GQ. However John, this great prophet, is front and center last week and this week – John’s story is red flagged to pay attention to on this day of angels and joy.
Other than Jesus, John is the only other New Testament prophet whose birth story is told. The angel Gabriel told his father Zachariah that John, “…will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth.” It is the unborn baby John who leaps with joy in his mother’s womb when Mary, the mother of Jesus, enters the home of Elizabeth and Zachariah. At the end of his career, as Jesus began his public ministry, with prison and death around the corner, John’s disciples began to complain about Jesus. Disciples were leaving John to follow Jesus. Shouldn’t John be insulted at this upstart? John dismisses this at once, explaining, “the friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”
So you see, John’s is a life bookmarked by joy. Joy announced his birth. Joy filled him as he faced death. John had a joy that enabled him to live boldly. He poured his life in setting the stage for Jesus. John knew who he was and he knew who Jesus was. The clarity of his purpose, the singularity and purity of his thought, the consistency of his actions, brought joy.
We think of joy in the context of celebration, feastings, dancing abundance and everything going right -- not a monastic, severe, subsistence lifestyle, boldly naming the evil and wrongs with little thought to personal consequence. So, it is not the lifestyle we should look at, but the life that in found in the actions.
Joy is there because God ‘s life produces joy. Joy is not fabricated, it just is. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit, given freely for the asking. It was John’s joy, which radiated from him, unspoken but clearly felt that people responded to and hungered for – to have lives that are repaired, healed, cemented in joy.
On the day of Advent Joy, John is lifted up for us to ponder, along with the pageant angels. Too often those who preach repentance or who stand for social justice have a hard time experiencing real joy in their lives. Anger, yes at the cruelties and inequalities we see. The task of confronting sin and oppression takes a toll. The statistics are staggering. The work is endless. Hope seems a long way off. Without the cultivation of joy, the mission can become unbearable and we can turn bitter. Mahatma Gandhi observed that “Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possession is pales into nothingness before service that is rendered in a spirit of joy.”
Joy is not contingent on the circumstances of our lives. Joy does not depend on how well or poorly we are doing. I have known homeless people with more joy than Fifth Avenue matrons who walk around like their panties are in a bunch. Joy is not related to our age, our intellect, or anything inside or outside of us. Joy comes from being in relationship with God who makes us whole (not perfect, whole) and holy. Joy makes our witness irresistible. Most of us gravitate towards truly joyful people – people connected to joy in all circumstances in their life.
Joy is the spiritual habit we are called to cultivate today. It is not surprising that Jesus, as he began his public ministry, selected the passage from Isaiah for his first sermon a passage that integrates joy and justice. “I will bring up the broken hearted, release the prisoners, proclaim good news to the oppressed, but I will also give those garlands instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit, everlasting joy shall be theirs.”
Jesus points out in this passage that Joy is the outcome of a life that uplifts the poor and the hurt, a life that is rooted in the teachings of Jesus. Joy is our natural state, unmarred by sin. It is said that both the Koran and the Talmud teach that we will be held accountable for every permissible pleasure life has offered us and that we have refused during our earthly sojourn. So, joy is a holy right, even an obligation. The Upanishads, writings, sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists, add:
That which is Whole is joy There is no joy in fractioned existence- Only the whole is joy (VII.23d). Jesus, the night before he died gives his disciples the new commandment of loving each other and he explains to them: 15:11 "These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” Joy is loving like Jesus, with abandon and without reserve.
Do we have joy in our lives? Let’s be bold and ask for it. There will always be problems to face, challenges, frustrations. But Jesus promises us in the midst of it all, we can have joy. As we draw closer to Christmas and the near year, God would give us the precious gift of joy – and would we experience the profits of joy! To know wholeness of life – to seek justice, to care and love for others, even the most challenging – to practice the awareness that Christ lives in us and connects us to all of creation. To live like Jesus and John – being able to speak the truth with love and compassion, and to love, and live as whole people.
May we be freed for joy – and be a church of joy.
May the Joy of John, the Joy of the angels, be ours. Right now. And always! Amen