Joy, Anyway
Reverend Janet Parsons
Gloucester UU Church
December 24, 2019
“Joy to the World!”
The song, and its generous, lavish, wish for joy for all people, is 300 years old this year. It has come to us across times of famine and plenty, of war and peace, times of grieving and joy. The song, written in 1719, is after all this time the most published Christmas carol in North America.
But there is a surprise to this story, as there is so often a surprise in any of our Christmas stories. For this song was not written as a Christmas song; it was never intended to be sung at Christmas.
The author of the lyrics, in 1719, was an English clergyman named Isaac Watts, and it was his intention to take the words of some of the Psalms and well, modernize them, so that they could be set to music and more easily sung. “Joy to the World” was Reverend Watts’ interpretation of Psalm 98, which includes these familiar phrases: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises…Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth.” (Psalm 98)
And so, if you listen closely, you are given a hint that this song isn’t really about the birth of the baby in Bethlehem. No, there is another surprise: this song anticipates the second coming, not the birth; the incarnation of the Holy here on Earth.
This old song has held secrets for us, things we never knew. Christmas, truly, can be surprising.
The question becomes, why did this song become a Christmas carol? I don’t have a ready answer. Christmas is not only full of surprise, but also full of mystery, down through the ages.
The most likely answer is that the song invites everyone to rejoice together. Not just everyone, but the whole earth: fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, are invited to repeat the sounding joy. What other song expresses all our wishes and hopes for ourselves and for the world each Christmas? We long for joy, and on this one night, we are asked to burst into song and express our hopes as loudly as we can.
But I think there is a deeper reason why this song calls to us, and reminds us of Christmas. There is that little phrase: prepare him room. In the Christmas story, a young couple far from home struggled to find a place so that she could safely deliver her baby. The song reminds us that the world needs us to make room – room for each other, room for the arrival of the holy in our midst, and room for joy. We are called to create space for one another, space among us and space in our hearts. The song reminds us to make room for Love, room for the stranger, room for compassion, and room for joy.
This can be difficult. We don’t always want to share what we have, to make room for the unknown. It can be frightening, and we can feel out of control. Prepare room – how, exactly? And what will be the result? There’s that Christmas mystery again; we don’t know what we might set into motion.
And how to make room for joy? There are times in our lives when it might feel almost impossible to make room for joy. What do we even mean by joy?
Joy requires some care and attention on our parts, some effort, as it turns out. Joy is not the same as happiness, and it can feel elusive. Here we are, coping with our very long nights. Grief does not take a holiday, and we feel all our losses so acutely at this time of year. Today we struggle to comprehend the effects of the climate crisis, and we worry about the future for our children and grandchildren. Perhaps we struggle financially to meet the demands of the holidays. With so much to burden us, can we make room for joy?
Joy is a conscious effort. Joy is different from happiness, which rises in response to external events. The new Lexus in the driveway on Christmas morning with the red bow on the roof might bring us happiness. But joy is deeper, born out of gratitude, born out of a choice to look hard each day for what is right with the world. Joy is born out of love, and appreciation for beauty.
Joy can be hard to find, and a challenge to sustain. It can be with us as a quiet foundation deep within, or it can come to us in brief flashes of insight, glimpses of something beyond us that makes us feel a part of the Whole, and the Holy. Think of joy as a decision, an orientation toward life. Joy is an act of defiance in the face of all that might be wrong with the world, to say, “I’ll face the world with joy, anyway.”
Tonight, and every day, we are invited to seek joy. May you find it, and may it find you. And may joy be yours in the morning.
Blessed be,
Amen.
