Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee

Scripture Psalm 146:5-10 (NRSV) 

5 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, 
    whose hope is in the Lord their God,

6 who made heaven and earth,
    the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;

7 who executes justice for the oppressed;
    who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;

8     the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
    the Lord loves the righteous.

9 The Lord watches over the strangers;
    he upholds the orphan and the widow,
    but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10 The Lord will reign forever,
    your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!

*****************************************************************************

If you were here last night you heard the story of the birth of Heaven’s Child sung and directed and accompanied with such power and passion and love that, sitting where I was, it was a wave of sound and emotion rolling over me, like feeling an ocean wave breaking.   If you were not here, I am sad for you, but it was recorded and should be on YouTube in the next few days.  As the narrator, I couldn’t help but notice that in the spoken parts the author made a point of mentioning, even stressing, the hardships experienced by the people Jesus was born into.  The narration spoke of the dinginess of the shepherds’ lives, the oppression under which they lived, their abject poverty.  And into the middle of the dreary brown sameness that described their lives, the Creator, the Composer of life’s music, dropped joy.  The angels proclaimed, the shepherds clamored, the aged prophet became as a young man, the newborn sang the beautiful newborn song - I am here, I am safe, I am alive.   Last night’s cantata was an amazing experience, and I am so grateful to have been a part of it.  

In 1991 the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (which uses to be named Burma) for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.  Now one of the leaders of her nation, she appeared before the United Nations this week to reject claims of that her nation had engaged in ethnic cleansing.   The previous day testimony had been heard about  the forcible expulsion of more than three quarters of a million Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar since August 2017, which was accompanied by mass executions, arson and rape, and described by those witnesses as ethnic cleansing.  They told of veils ripped off girls before their rapes, babies thrown to their deaths, hundreds of villages turned into kindling.  The Nobel Laureate, holder of the Peace Prize, said the military was simply engaging in clearing a locality of insurgents and terrorists.  And that the UN had no right to interfere in this internal struggle.  Her political party, the National League for Democracy, said the stories of genocide were fake news.  

The Psalmist who speaks with such joy about God also asks “How can we sing songs of Zion in a foreign land?”   That is a valid question.  How can we speak of Joy in a world where events like these are happening?  Or when we know how many people cannot get the medical care they need in this, the richest country in the world.  Or that the number of homeless, unsheltered persons in Fresno County increased by 17% since last year. Or when the FBI tells us that the number of hate crimes reported in our country has gone up again this year.  How can Joy enter our lives when we know all of these things?  And there are those who would ask us how we can possibly believe in an all powerful God in the face of so much suffering.

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever,  who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry.  

Those shepherds, whose view of life was dismal at best, believed in that God, the creator of all, the one who repeatedly sent someone to help Israel overcome her problems.  Their lives might be filled with dreary drudgery, but they had faith that God would help. Their help had always been in the Lord, and they believed God would make a way to liberate them from the oppression under which they lived - because that was the repeated experience of their ancestors, from the time of Moses onward.  And so their hearts were open to possibilities.   They were able to hear the angels, see the Child, and return to their lives, where nothing had really changed - they were still poor, they were still hungry, they were still stuck in day to day sameness, they were still living in oppression under Rome.  But that night their lives were changed forever. That night Joy entered their hearts.  They had seen the Lord, and for the rest of their lives, they would repeat the story of this night to everyone.  They had found Joy in the midst of darkness and that Joy illuminated their lives from that day forward.

The Lord sets the prisoners free; opens the eyes of the blind, lifts up those who are bowed down;  watches over the strangers; upholds the orphan and the widow.  

Into a world of darkness and despair, God sent Heaven’s Child.  Not to the wealthy, or those whose lives were comfortable and secure.  But to the vulnerable, the tired, the ones who were bowed down under the weight of grinding poverty, living on the fringes of society.    

We are not quite those people.  We are not, most of us, living in that kind of poverty and daily uncertainty.  But we do know despair sometimes.  We know the feeling of helplessness in the face of the anger and divisiveness that is so prevalent in our world today.  We may wonder why so many seem to be completely self absorbed and unaware of the troubles others around them are facing.  The Psalmist says the Lord loves the righteous and will bring the ways of the wicked to ruin, and we might wonder when that is going to happen - because we’re not seeing it.  We may feel discouraged.  

You know, the shepherds in the field that night saw the same things that we see.  They didn’t see change in their world or their particular situations immediately, or indeed, ever.  The change that came when the savior came into the world was that they opened their hearts to the Child.  They let Joy come into their lives.  They rejoiced that they were the ones the angels woke that night, and that they believed enough to go and find that newborn child.  They shared that experience with everyone, for the rest of their lives.  And maybe what they shared made a difference in other lives. Maybe they were able to bring a little hope and light into the lives of others like them.  

A Facebook meme that goes around now then says, “I asked God, “Why do you allow all this suffering? When will you give food to the hungry and bring justice to the oppressed, and lift up the bowed down?”  And God said to me, “Funny.  I was going to ask you the same question.” 

If we would bring Joy and Peace into the world, we must first let Joy and Peace into our own hearts. If we would end the suffering, we must allow our Joy over the coming of the Christ into our world to overcome any discouragement we might feel.  If we would be the righteous people whom God loves, we will share our Joy with everyone we meet, the way the shepherds did so many years ago. 

The shepherds worshipped God and rejoiced with the angels. They saw the Child and they found Joy.  The old prophet in the Temple saw his hopes come to life in that Child, and the Joy that brought made him praise the Lord out loud.   We, too, have seen the Child.  We have seen the Hope he brings into the world.  We have felt the Peace of his presence.  So let us rejoice, knowing our God will reign forever, and sing of our joyful adoration of Heaven’s Child, our Lord and Savior. 

Please stand and join me in singing “Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee.”