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 realm of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in joy goes and sells everything and buys that field.
Matthew 13:44, adapted
This is a beautiful image of the worth and value of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The new reality that Jesus images for us is of vast worth. But what we also see in this verse, brief but heavily laden with meaning, is the significance of joy. Joy motivates the person to sell everything. Joy compels the person to give up all material possessions. Every single thing. Not some. Not half. Not most. All. One version tells us, “he goes and sells all that he has.” Another version tells us, “went and sold all their possessions.” The person who is drawn in by the gospel experiences joy; such great joy, that it motivates this drastic action, the selling of all possessions. Here we see joy as a very powerful force. It is so powerful that it leads to what can be considered radical, really unreasonable, behavior.
In this holiday season, we sing songs about joy and send cards with messages of joy. But how much difference do we expect joy to make in our lives? Do we simply expect a warm feeling of well-being? When we send a Christmas card proclaiming “JOY to the World” are we associating this with drastic, radical, extreme behavior as we see in the verse above from Matthew?
Maybe we have dumbed down joy, to a ho ho ho holly, jolly sentiment to be associated with hot chocolate and mistletoe. The birth of Jesus bringing JOY to the World is meant to be so much more powerful than that. It is meant not only to be life changing, but to be world changing. Experiencing more joy this holiday season may lead to strange, extreme behavior. Are you ready for a joy-full Advent-ure?
Prayer
We pray for Joy to the World this Advent season. May we recognize the power of joy to motivate and compel drastic life changing actions. May we embrace the transforming potential of joy. Help us not to be afraid of being joy-full, whatever that may lead to! Amen.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 