The theme for this Advent season at Lakewood United Church of Christ is JOY to the World. Each day during the Advent season, a reflection on a scripture passage related to JOY will be posted. We hope these daily reflections help you to have a joy-filled Advent.
The joy of our hearts has ceased;
our dancing has been turned to mourning.
Lamentations 5:15
Gladness and joy have been taken away
from the fruitful land of Moab;
I have stopped the wine from the wine presses;
no one treads them with shouts of joy;
the shouting is not the shout of joy.
Jeremiah 48:33
There are several places in the Hebrew scriptures in which joy ceases. It is taken away. It is gone. Sometimes it is the joy that was experienced by God’s people. Sometimes God’s joy has ended. What causes this end to joy? In the instances in the Old Testament, the cessation of joy is caused by problems in the relationship between God and the faith community. The people have not held up their end of the covenant. They promise things to God and then break their promises. God is angry and hurt and God’s joy ends. We also see the people experiencing pain and suffering which is attributed to God as punishment for their unfaithfulness. In the prophets, the relationship between God and the people of faith is likened to a marriage in which one party is having an affair. It is not God who is unfaithful. When this occurs, the joy of God and the people ceases, is taken away.
One thing that comes to mind here is the idea that God takes joy away from the people. In your concept of God, is there room for God to remove joy? Do you think of God as taking joy away from people? Does this sound like the God of Jesus? Do you think Jesus’ Abba God would take joy away?
This Advent season, we are reflecting on the theme, JOY to the World. This is a season we associate with being merry and bright. A time for jingle and jolly. Yet I am wondering about this idea that joy can stop, can cease. Can you think of a time when joy seemed impossible for you to experience? Is there a circumstance that comes to mind that simply precludes the possibility of joy? Have you known others for whom joy seemed to be absent? Can joy cease? In our lives? In the world? In nature? If so, what can cause that to happen? Can it be prevented?
Tomorrow we will follow up on this idea of the absence of joy.
Prayer
Help us to know that joy is necessary to our lives just like air and food and water. May we seek joy for ourselves and may we endeavor to help others know joy as well. Amen.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 