“And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:10).
I wonder if the hope-filled words of Isaiah were hard for God’s people to hear. After all, life was anything but good for God’s people. God’s people Israel was experiencing the full force of God’s judgment upon them, living as exiles in a foreign land, separated from everything they considered to be home. The day might come when the wilderness and desert would bloom and blossom, but right now it felt dry and lifeless. The day might come when the eyes of the blind would be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped, but right now life felt without purpose and without hope. The day might come when they would be able to return safely home again, but right now it felt unlikely, if not impossible. Sorrow and sighing might one day flee away, but right now it felt hard and overwhelming. “Everything is going to be ok” are difficult words to hear when life is not ok!
The truth is that life is not ok right now, at least not for many. Life is not ok for those struggling to put food on the table for their family. Life is not ok for those who fear being arrested simply because of where they are from. Life is not ok for those battling life-threatening illnesses. Life is not ok for those suffering from anxiety or mental illness. Life is not ok for communities that once were vibrant and full of life but now are barely struggling to survive. Life is not ok for those who have returned home only to find their homes no longer there due to war or natural disaster. Life is not ok for those who are overwhelmed with the grief of having lost a loved one either through death or a broken relationship. Life is not ok, and putting up our Christmas lights earlier and earlier each year and spending more and more money on gifts to numb the brokenness inside our homes is not going to make the pain somehow magically go away. We need something more. We need a savior.
The word that the prophet Isaiah speaks right into the midst of the harsh reality for God’s people is the promise that a savior is coming. “Here is your God,” the prophet announces. “He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you” (35:4). Yes, the wilderness and desert are dry and lifeless, but they will bloom and blossom abundantly! Yes, you may be dwelling in the valley of the shadow of death, but streams of healing water will break forth overcoming death with life! Yes, you may feel far from home, utterly abandoned and alone, but a highway is being built and you will travel home again singing and rejoicing all the way!
Is not this promise the Word that the world needs to hear as we enter into this Advent season? Have we not been called to “strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees, and say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear!”? Have we not been sent into the world to announce through our words and our deeds the joy-filled coming of Christ, the One who was, who is, and who is to come? Dear disciples of Jesus, during these days of Advent, preach this Word! Sing this Word! Announce this Word! Live and breathe and celebrate this Word! Life will not always be the way it is now. Jesus comes to make a home for us — ALL of us. That promise is cause for JOY — unbounded, overflowing, knock-your-socks-off JOY — even, or perhaps especially, when life is not ok.
Frederick Buechner, in his book The Longing for Home, puts it this way:
Joy is home … God created us in joy and created us for joy, and in the long run not all the darkness there is in the world and in ourselves can separate us finally from that joy, because whatever else it means to say that God created us in his image, I think it means that even when we cannot believe in him, even when we feel most spiritually bankrupt and deserted by him, his mark is deep within us. We have God’s joy in our blood. (128)
Even in the midst of all that is going on in our world and in our lives, there is joy to be found this Advent. Jesus is our home. Sorrow and sighing is fleeing away. Even in the wildernesses and dark places of our lives, there is singing!
Advent Joy +
Bishop Greg