Responding with joy

Posted Dec 25, 2015 in Faith

 

For the December edition last year (2014), New Times asked Uniting Church SA members from a variety of backgrounds to answer two questions about “joy.” Some chose to respond directly to the questions, while others wrote short reflections on the topic. The results provide an interesting insight into how faith, life and joy intersect in the lives of Uniting Church members, particularly over Advent and Christmas.

 

Rev Sue Ellis

Joy comes from participating in the glory of God.

My middle name is Joy – sometimes I say I am full of Joy – as a result, joyfulness has always intrigued me.

I am filled with joy when I experience, again and again each Christmas, the wonder of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling in the messiness of our midst in the infant Jesus.

Joy captures my heart when people are still able to demonstrate goodwill and love towards one another in the stress-filled, spending frenzy of the festive season.

Whenever and wherever I experience the delight of the glory of God, there is joy – with bells a-ringing!

 

Rev Brian Polkinghorne

What does the term “joy” mean to you?

A few times in my life I have been walking somewhere, and jumped in the air and clicked my heels together. Why? Well, it had just dawned on me that, momentarily, what I believed was the will of God, for me and the society around me, was being realised. Not happiness, but something much deeper and more meaningful – fulfilment, contentment, deep satisfaction that, for that moment, all was well. Joy.

How do you experience joy during the Christmas season?

The Christmas season for me is always a tough one. I cannot but agonise over the distortion, shallowness, extravagance, waste and skin-deep, tinselled frivolity of Christmas in Australia, and the Western world – particularly compared to the grinding poverty, but widespread deep contentment, of the Developing world. For me, Christmas highlights the conflict of the world of waste and the world of want.

It almost drives me crazy to think that this is possibly the season of greatest environmental destruction and pollution on the one hand, while in my head and soul, I know that joy has come to the world as Christ, the world’s hope and salvation, has arrived.

So for me, joy lies in the reality of giving meaningfully at Christmas as God gave of God’s-self in Christ. Christmas Bowl and UnitingWorld’s gifts to the poor, in enabling others, are my source of joy in the conflict.

 

Esteban Lievano

What does the term "joy" mean to you?

Especially at Christmas time, joymeans the sense of happiness from being a part of a loving family, as well as the wider Christian family in the church. Joy is also something that is shared – Christmas is a time when we're reminded that God loved us so much that he sent his son, and that knowledge of the love of the Father brings joy. I have the immense pleasure in sharing that with my children as well my brothers and sisters in the church.

How do you experience joy during the Christmas season?

I rejoice in being able to take time to share with my kids another element of my culture in sharing the Christmas traditions. We have a traditional meal of Argentinean asado, with ensalada rusa and empanadas – all of which we have laboured together to produce. In the living room we have a traditional Christmas tree with all the trimmings, but next to it is our pesebre or nativity scene celebrating that Latin American tradition of putting the baby Jesus at the centre of the festivities, and we open the presents on the 24th at midnight – waking up for Christmas Service is sometimes difficult! The evening usually ends with breaking a piñata outside, a custom we've picked up from our Hispanic community here in Australia, and the kids are allowed one piece of candy before we tuck them into their beds. On Christmas morning, we join in with our wider church family and my wife's Australian family in celebrating Aussie traditions – so we get the best of both worlds! This mixture of custom, tradition and faith - and the privilege of sharing this with my family – is one of the aspects of the season that brings me great joy.

 

Rev Sarah Agnew

Jacarandas burst, lining the streets with Advent joy. Days linger into the evening as the seasons themselves sing joyful songs of life.

That was last Christmas, and every Christmas before it. This year, I am accompanied by empty trees and long nights as the carol books and decorations are dusted off again.

This year, I will sing, but will not play, the carols of Christmas joy. Our midnight contemplative service of the past three years, at which my clarinet accompanied the carol singing, was a special Christmas joy.

This year, for the first Christmas in over a decade, I will hear the story told without telling it. Will I find joy in a return to listener, even as I feel the absence of collaboration in telling the story anew in a community of faith?

For the first time in my life, I will not eat and drink Christmas with my family, my deepest Christmas joy. As I write these lines, I do not know where or with whom I will eat and drink this Christmas; and in my gifted, chosen “homelessness” my thoughts turn to all those who yearn for home, whatever “home” may be.

This Christmas, the language and imagery of light in the darkness take on new meaning as I celebrate Christmas in the darker, colder north. But though I am told not to get my hopes up, this relocation may bring a new joy I could not experience at home – a whiteChristmas! There is joy even in the possibility of snow!

 

Rev Sue Page

What does the term “joy” mean to you?

When I first hear the term “joy” I think of celebration, excitement, fun. But when I think about it more, I would also describe joy as a sense of urgency toward God – seeking, learning, praising God. Joy is also that sense of warmth in heart and soul that I experience when all feels right in my world.

How do you experience joy during the Christmas season?

I experience joy during the Christmas season in the retelling of the Christmas story and entering in to the feelings of Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds and Magi at the advent of the Christ child – the wonder, the fear, the excitement!

I also experience joy watching my children celebrate Christmas - my three-year old son’s exclamations over the Christmas decorations in shopping centres, and excitement when he spots Santa. I get that warmth in my heart when my seven-year old is asked by someone what Christmas is all about, and he answers that it is the birth of baby Jesus.

I feel great joy and excitement when I think about seeing my extended family and celebrating Christmas with them – sharing life, reflecting on the year that has been, and looking ahead to the new year. All is right in my world when I am listening, sharing and celebrating life – what joy!

 

Rev Lindsay Faulkner

Surprised by Joy is the title the late C. S. Lewis gave to the book about his life and journey into faith. His faith was in the love of God shown in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To define joy as a surprise is, to me, very apt. It is a surprise that God chose such a simple way to show love – coming as a child, born at the fringe of a small community and so vulnerable that he had to be whisked away to safety in another country. Joy is that he returned and lived out a life so that you and I may know God’s love for us, to be surprised by that love and so be joyful.

Joy is also an experience or emotion that can only be defined by each of us as we come upon it. I remember the joy of seeing my children at their birth, and in sharing their growing. I reflect on the continuing joy of my marriage to Nessie, and our shared joy in ministry to communities throughout Australia and beyond in the name of our Lord.

Since our “retirement” Nessie and I have made our church home in the congregation at Payneham Road Uniting Church. In this place we have met many people from different countries and cultures. It has been our habit to host a Christmas dinner for young people in our community who have no local family outside of the church. It is a joy to see strangers become friends in the fellowship of Christ!

This year we are to miss out on that particular Christmas joy and exchange it for another – we are heading to Melbourne to share Christmas with our family there! It will be the first time in many years that we will be able to share a Christmas dinner with our daughter and her family.   What a joy!

During this past year I have had the privilege to serve as SA Synod President of the Uniting Church Adult Fellowship committee. In that role, I have travelled widely in South Australia. It has been a joy to meet so many people, each practicing the joy offellowship in many ways – through Packing Day, op shops, Men’s Sheds, quilting groups and more!

Joy is not just a solitary experience – it is a gift that surprises us as we join together in the household of God.

 

Rev Jock Dunbar

What does the term “joy” mean to you?

I recently read a quote by author Brene Brown stating that joy can feel like a “setup” – a feeling that things will suddenly or inevitably become worse than they are, and that I need to prepare myself for that coming situation. I must make a choice to receive and feel the love and pleasure I find in the present moment, and thereby experience the fullness of joy through God's Spirit. Being welcomed into the Synod and Presbytery of the Uniting Church SA, the congregation of Rosefield, and the neighbourhood of Highgate has been a joyful experience.

How do you experience joy during the Christmas season?

At present, I find joy in seeing others included at lunch and dinner tables, particularly people who would otherwise have little or nothing to celebrate and no one to celebrate with. Joy is closely related to gratitude, and this is a good thing to exercise over the Christmas season. During this season, God challenges me to see those who do not have what I have, and to participate in acts of kindness, justice, and peace-building for people abroad and closer to home.

 

Jenny Esots

As we lift up our voices and sing

We are currently contemplating the season of Advent, a time of waiting. That feeling of anticipation is on the rise. There is something very special about celebrating Christmas – the remembrances, gatherings and good food. Beneath all the clamour of the season there is also the simple joy in singing Christmas hymns and songs, joining in carol services and worship, and remembering all the Christmases past. Rarely have I felt pure joy like that caused when I hear or sing a favourite carol.

There is joy in knowing that Jesus came into our world and rocked it to the core. The sound of choruses ringing out over the land provide just one way for joy to be expressed. Other joys may sing out through nature – the blossom on the trees, brilliant creatures and reflective skies, rolling vineyards and coasts shining.

Still, music has a unique ability to unite the whole community, particularly through songs like the Hallelujah chorus, which have passed across generations. Music such as this is a joy that surpasses the commercialisation of this time as we acknowledge the love that came down at Christmas and is with us still.

 

Neil Andrew

What does the term “joy” mean to you?

It was an engaging coincidence to get this question emailed to me on the day our youngest son was returning briefly to Australia from Abu Dhabi. In common with other parents who have adult children working and living overseas, Carolyn and I were happy about the news of his visit. This cheerful sentiment was transformed to joy when he appeared on the air bridge – “joy” as in an immediate sense of fulfilment, contentment and completion flooded into our lives. This was joy because everything that mattered was just as it ought to be; life’s priorities were in balance and aligned. Joy is always much more than happiness. It is always more than simply having what we want. Look at joyful people in Holy Orders – they do not have all that they could materially desire, but they radiate contentment and joy because they have relationships that are reassuring and fulfilling.  

How do you experience joy during the Christmas season?

My illustration above has no relevant parallel in the Christmas season. The joyful appearance of my “prodigal” son into the arms of an even more wayward father is as close as this analogy gets to any biblical context. By contrast, Christmas “joy” is the miraculous revelation of God in the form of His Son. Creation is complete. Relationships are restored. God becomes man. Life is in perspective because God has revealed himself as a loving father, and we see our new roles as sons and daughters in common with the entire human family. It is this sense of reconciliation and completeness that heralds Christmas joy. Luke records the shepherds as the initial recipients of this “good news of great joy.” Consequently Christmas is celebrated by giving. We discover again the joy of giving without expecting reward. We gather as the Magi did – simply to worship the One whose revelation has meant that we are acceptable. We gather, joyful, because we know we are welcomed as we are and reconciled to others. In Christmas celebrations, life is fulfilled, purposeful and complete – a time of great joy.

 

Rev Elwyn Penna

Joy

“Sweet is the sunlight that follows rain, and sweet the joy that follows pain.” So we used to sing, and there is truth in that, but joy and pain are two sides of the one coin – the coin called “life.” In life, we are equally open to joy and pain.

The modern demand for instant and lasting pleasure is a search for the impossible without denying the nature of life. There are different levels of joy. We reduce it to being constantly happy – there is a deeper joy that exists even in the midst of pain. This joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit.

Joy in Christmas

In my family, I enjoy the shared reflections and banter, and as I can no longer run and play as I used to, I now find watching the family games a rewarding experience.

I love Christmas carols and wish we would sing a wider range of them – there is joy in the music. Besides carols, I find joy in sharing with God’s people the good news of Jesus, reflecting on the implications of the coming of the Saviour and in the gathering of family. Sadly, the latter of these seems to have assumed greater importance than the coming of Christ for many people today. The commercialisation of Christmas has greatly distorted its message. We are constantly told that getting our wish for Christmas will bring pleasure, even joy.

 

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