Rejoice Always

On this third Sunday of Advent, our lectionary scriptures ask us to reflect on the worship theme of joy from two very different perspectives.  The first ancient perspective is from Isaiah, writing after the Jewish exile in Babylon, and the second perspective, some five hundred years later, is from Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica.  From two very different times in our Judeo-Christian history, we have soaring passages about joy, both interestingly written during times that were not very happy circumstantially.   Why do our scripture writers today speak of towering joy during times of deep pain and suffering? 

Will you join me in prayer?  “Advent God of our Joy and Peace and Hope, visit us now, this day, and teach us how to claim and live the joy you have promised us.  Amen.”

Last week we pondered the different voices that speak out of the book of Isaiah.  We learned the first 39 chapters of Isaiah are a prophetic voice warning that Israel will be taken captive in Babylon if the Jews do not change their ways.  In the second voice, chapters 40 through 54, we hear a comforting voice echoing from the end of the exile in Babylon, calling God to free the Jews so they may return to Jerusalem.  Our passage from Isaiah today is from the third portion of the book, chapters 55 though 66, written after the Jews returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile as they tried to reestablish their culture and Temple.  The Jews returned to empty homes and a defiled Temple in Jerusalem, and yet they still greatly rejoiced in God. Even as they struggled in their search for their identity after the exile, they raised up good news for the oppressed, bound up the brokenhearted, proclaimed liberty to the captives and the release of prisoners.  Israel was still aching and brokenhearted about their exile in Babylon, and yet, Isaiah proclaims joy and rejoicing in the midst of the Jews enormous suffering, shame and pain.

This joy proclaimed in time of Jewish suffering makes me ask how any of us can be joyful when we are in pain and suffering?  How is this possible?  Perhaps this will become clearer when we understand joy from the perspective of Isaiah and ancient Israel.  In the writings of the prophets, happiness is the response to good times when things are going along well.  Happiness is a response to the circumstances of the world.  But joy is a very different concept: it is a response in gratitude for what God has done.  Gratitude is a mental attitude that invites us into God’s gift of joy.  And this is why we spent the two Sundays before Advent preparing our hearts as we celebrated our gratitude.  When we live an attitude of gratitude towards God, our life results in joy!  Joy is a response to God’s gracious blessing, not a response to our outward circumstances!

Our epistle scripture explores this same concept of joy from a completely different context, so let us set the stage for Paul’s First Letter to the Church at Thessalonica.  First, Thessalonica is located at the north end of the Aegean Sea, between Greece and Turkey.  Thessalonica was the major city on the Via Egnatia, the main Roman highway to Constantinople.  Thessalonica was adopted by Rome as a sister-city, and Rome built most of the infrastructure and commerce there.  The merchants of Thessalonica were completely beholden to Rome, and they did as Rome told them to do.  When Paul arrived there in 45 preaching the Gospel of Jesus, the local church found itself standing against the Roman culture that worshiped Caesar as king and god and bank.  Because Thessalonica was so closely tied financially and politically to Rome, the early church’s stand that Christ—not Caesar--was God was seen by the Thessalonian culture as foolish and imprudent.  The populace knew that Rome completely funded their lives, so they were very patriotically Roman, so professing Christ as Lord as the church did was very counter-cultural in Thessalonica.  It also caused deep financial stresses and arguments in the new church.  It split them down the middle.

You see, Paul, who wrote this letter in 50 or 51 CE, believed as most Jews did, that there were two ‘ages’ or periods of history—the present age, and the age of the coming New Jerusalem.  Paul deeply believed the crucifixion of Christ ended the present age, and that Christ’s coming again would usher in the coming new age.  Paul was waiting for Christ in constant Advent.  Paul preached the “already” had come to an end at the cross, but the “not yet” was still to come in Jesus’ return.  Paul, as were most Christians of the era, was waiting for Christ to return very soon, ending the temporary in-between time.  Paul believed the world was stuck between the “already” age and the age “not yet.”  And the church in Thessalonica was being torn apart by a culture that worshiped Rome and the status quo.   Cities like Thessalonica were all over the empire.  Economically supported by Rome, these cities were politically and financially fiercely loyal to Rome.  The hustle and bustle of shipping goods back and forth daily reminded them that Rome was the reason for their thriving economy.  Christ-followers that dared to preach a gospel of an age that was new or “not yet” were not welcomed by the rich merchants in Thessalonica.  And the church was torn by this economic and theological conflict. 

Into this raging conflict, Paul reminds the church that their joy did not come from their circumstances or relationship to Rome, but, instead, came from their intimate relationship with God through Christ.  In verse 6 of Chapter 1, Paul exhorts the Thessalonians: “And you became imitators of us and the Lord, for in spite of persecution, you received the word with joy.”  This joy that Paul refers to is not happiness coming from external circumstance, but joy coming from trusting God in an attitude of gratitude, even in the midst of persecution and trouble.

So, into this divided economic and political context, Paul says in our passage today,   “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing.  Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Jesus Christ for you.”

Did you hear that?  Paul says give thanks in everything?  How could the church in Thessalonica do that when they were being persecuted for not holding the party line and declaring that Caesar is Lord?  How could they give thanks when they most likely had lost their jobs because of their beliefs?  How could they give thanks when times were hard and money was short and they were daily being persecuted for their beliefs?  Really?  Give thanks in everything?  What was Paul thinking?

In this short letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul asks the church to do two things.  First, he says, worship God in all things—in all of life.  If your life is constant worship, Paul says, then a second thing will happen; you will begin to live life at its deepest and fullest level, seeking and probing the depths of our relationship with the divine, remembering that our current circumstances will pass in the blink of an eye.  Do not live at the cultural surface of life, Paul says.  Live deeply with God, and there, live into gratitude and joy of your existence with your loving creator, no matter your earthy circumstances.  “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Jesus Christ for you.”

Things do not always go the way we want them to in life, do they?  As Christians, we celebrate joy in many circumstances that outwardly look very troubling.  We celebrate the birth of a child in a barn stall.  We celebrate the death of Jesus on Good Friday, knowing, of course, it leads to new life in Christ.  Oppressed people of faith have always responded in worshipful joy and praise- the poor of South America are in a faith revival, the slaves of Pre-Civil War America celebrated joy in the middle of the harsh circumstances of slavery, and the persecuted Christians of the early church were slaughtered in joyous martyrdom.  So, when the world seems most against us, let us remember the words of the prophet Isaiah and the Apostle Paul.  Rejoice always.  Joy is not a matter of reacting to the superficial facade of things in our life, but rather, joy is a matter of our deep personal relationship to the eternal living God.  Rejoice.  Life’s circumstances may be challenging, but God always walks with us, in good times and bad, in happy times and frustrating times.  Rejoice Always.

Our culture emphasizes the surface of our life—how we look and what we wear, all in 30-second sound bites.  But here, Paul reminds us that it is our relationships that matter most.  Our complex relationships to each other here in our church matter more than what we wear or what we may believe or what political party we adhere to.  Our superficial differences do not matter.  What matters is our personal and deep relationship with the living God.  We are all children of God in the deepest sense.  Deep down, it is our relationship with God that matters most.  If we disagree about politics and economics and theology like the Thessalonians did, Paul reminds them and us, to go deeper and remember that we are all beloved by God, our differences are erased before the throne of grace.  Instead of division, Paul says “Rejoice Always.”  At the deepest level, we know we will live forever with the eternal living God, so Rejoice Always, in good times and bad times. 

As we expectantly wait in Advent for the arrival of the baby Jesus, let us also rejoice always.  As we wait and watch amidst the chaos of this crazy world, let us not be disheartened by the exterior disagreement of things, but, instead, let us rejoice that God always walks with us, and will soon be visiting us again, re-born in an animal feeding trough when there just wasn’t room for him in the inn.  Jesus lived his life rejoicing as a poor Jewish peasant-prophet with no wealth or privilege at all.  Certainly, we, who are so privileged to live in this great country amid so much abundance, certainly we can rejoice like Jesus.  But let us not rejoice because of our privilege and circumstance.  Let us rejoice simply because we are humble children of the living God.   Even if times are hard and the economy is sinking and there is so much joblessness, poverty and hunger, we can rejoice for the simplest, but deepest, of reasons: Christ was always here, Christ is here now, and Christ Jesus is always coming.  God-is-with-us, Emmanuel.  Rejoice, children of God!  This is the good news!  Rejoice always.  Amen.