(I've noticed I am being inconsistent and sometimes having "week in advent" and sometimes "week of advent" but I'm not going to go back and edit all the posts)

Week three and our lens is 'joy'.  As I regularly remind people, joy is not 'glee' nor yet 'happiness', it is a deeper, inner resilient positivity that will not be crushed despite circumstance, without morphing into twee, Pollyanna 'I'm so glad this bad thing happened to me' codswallop.

Anyway, today the Northumbria community offer us these:

Psalm 38:8

Jonah 1:17 - 2:1

Matthew 6:6

I'd have to say, at first sight, joy is in very short supply here.  A bit of hilarity at the ridiculous tale of Jonah being swallowed by a large fish.  A bit of advice on private prayer, oh and a psalm verse that says this:

I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart. (Psalm 38:8)

Not much evidence of joy there!  Psalm 38 is a lament psalm, a psalm in which the writer tells it to God as it is.  There is no pretence in this psalm.  No nice pious language to clean it up for public consumption, these are are the private outpourings of a broken hearted man (the psalm is attributed to David).

Perhaps what is important here, is the honesty.  Perhaps we need to be reminded that joy, even as a attitude, cannot simply be manufactured.  Perhaps for joy to flourish, we need permission to be honest about the *expletive deleted* experiences we have; that suppressing our anger, pain, bewilderment, whatever, actually kills our joy?

If I'm honest, I wanted a nice upbeat set of readings for today - I had such a lovely weekend that I am feeling quite bouncy today.  But others are not.  Maybe for you the groans of the psalmist ring more true?

"Joy is the flag flown high from the castle of my heart"

So we sang as children and adolescents:

Did the actions,

Wore the cheesy grins,

And didn't really have a clue what we meant.

"Joy is Jesus, Others, Yourself"

So the preacher told us (and some still do):

Heard the challenge

Tried to get it right

(But didn't really have a clue what that meant)

Joyful God,

Sometimes we have no idea what this concept really means:

We're told it's more than a feeling

We're told it's a spiritual fruit

We're told it survives the trials of life

And yet

Hunger and poverty

Violence and war

Sickness and death

Anger and abuse

Relationship breakdown

Unemployment

Homelessness

Loss of certainty

Crowd in and crush us

Or those we love

Or those we read about

How then does joy prevail?

I will raise a tattered flag above the crumbling tower of my heart

I will choose acknowledge Christ as King

I will continue to care about others

I will believe myself to be loved and precious

JOY shall, after all, be the ensign

God of joy

Hear my cry

Amen.

This morning one of my thoughts was about the possibility that Mary wasn't the first woman the angel visited... there is no scriptural basis for this, it is pure, mischievous, conjecture.  But what if the angel had arrived at the home of, let's say, Ruth, and Ruth had said 'erm, no, I don't think so'... so the angel went to the home of Naomi, and Naomi said, 'erm... why don't you ask Martha'...  so the angel continued visiting woman after woman until one said yes?  What, then, if Mary had said 'no'?  Was there a 'plan B', another woman to ask?  What might history have looked like if no one had been prepared to bear the Christ?  What would God have done then?

Heresy?

Maybe.

But what of us.  How often are we guilty of 'here I am , Lord, send him/her'?  How often do we say 'no thank you' to what might just turn out to be God's call on our lives?  How often is God's gracious gift of free will the cause of God having to formulate Plan B or C (unless of course you have a complete predestination theology)....

There is something about human sin and finitude that means we can, and do, say 'no' to God.  So perhaps it's not so impossible to think that Mary (and others) could have too.

God of Mary, world-changing, ordinary woman

Help us to be open to hearing the voice of your messenger bringing news of your call on our lives.

Then give us the humilty,

Give us the courage,

Give us the determination,

Give us the confidence

To say -

though we still don't get what it all means -

To say -

though the future will be so different from what we had planned -

To say -

though we struggle to utter the one word you long to hear -

To say

Yes

So Be It

Amen, and amen

This morning we were packed out at church, which was just lovely, even though there were as many people missing as usual.  Some occasional visitors, some returners after a little break, some guests.

And it all felt quite joyful in a fairly gentle, evenly paced kind of a way.

I combined Advent 3 (John the Baptist) an Advent 4 (Mary) under the heading of 'world changers' and we did a little bit of compare and contrast between their lives and the celebrity culture that plagues our own time.  We pondered, necessarily briefly, what me meant by 'changing the world' and who we would identify as people who have changed our own experience of the world, as well as those who have the impacted the coyurse of human history.

An amazing response during the interactive bit - it had been good in previous weeks, but this week was a level up.

So, our wall now has four collage 'trees' on it...

Our Jesse tree, which has one week still to go in terms of symbols to add

Our patriarchs and adventurers tree

Our prophets and discoverers tree

Our world changers tree

And ready for next Sunday we will have our church Christmas tree twinkling in a corner, as the children lead us their wonderful retelling of the Christmas story.

Anyone had a copy of the Baptist Times this week?  I know it's closing at the end of the year, but I haven't had a copy this week (and the post is surely not that disrupted yet).  I can live with it closing but I would like all my (prepaid!) copies until then...

Today's verses:

Psalm 40:17

1 Kings 19:9

Romans 8:27

Last Sunday I used the wider passage from 1 Kings 19, and Elijah's depressive experience, as part of our reflection on prophets as people who make discoveries about God's activity or intentionality.  Romans 8 is also a passage I've used quite recently, and it comes right up there in the 'top ten (or at least top 100) best loved passages of scripture.  The psalm is perhaps lower on the list of 'overworked scriptures' and so I've opted to sit with that one, albeit briefly.

Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay. Psalm 40:17

The truth is, by any material measurement, anyone reading this is neither poor nor needy - we have a choice of clothes to wear, cupboards stuffed with food, cars sitting on the drive/road/car park, gifts wrapped ready for Christmas.  We do not need anything.

Yet our poverty and need remains - we may speak of being 'time poor', 'emotionally drained', 'spiritually dry', 'burned out' or many more signs of non-material destitution.  Peace is in short supply - peace of mind about the use of our time, the depth of our relationships, the sincerity of our devotional life, the state of our psychological well-being.  So we cry to God - hurry up!  You are the one who can, and will refresh and renew us, but please, get on with it!

You are my help and my deliverer, oh God

You are the one who watches as I burn the candle at both ends

You are the one who notices when I skip a meal or eat junk in order to get more done

You are the one who hears the heart cry of the loved one I am too busy to spend time with..

...And my own heart cry to be with others

You are are the one who waits patiently for me to remember to pray

You are the one who helps me, if only I allow myself to be helped...

Hurry up, God

Come quickly to help me face myself

To recognise my poverty

And seek you help

In the meantime

When I make excuses that I am still

Too busy

Too tired

Too indispensable

Too unspiritual

Too hassled...

In the meantime

I take comfort in the promise

Of Sophia's intercession:

Holy Spirit of God pray for me                    (Romans 8:27)

Amen.