Repeat the Sounding Joy

In one of Jim Davis’s Garfield comic strips Odie, the dog, is asleep on the floor. Garfield walks up, lifts Odie’s ear, and whispers, “Christmas is coming,” then walks off. Odie is still asleep, but now there is a smile on his face and his tail is wagging ninety to nothing.
Somehow, that is not the reaction we all have. So, what is the message of joy for you this Christmas?
For some of us, just smiling and wishing someone “Merry Christmas is nearly impossible. The world tells us that “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”
Only it’s not! Not for everyone.
• Not when there is an empty chair at the table.
• Not when your body is ravaged with illness.
• Not when the depression is too much to bear.
• Not when you are not sure you can even afford the rent or mortgage, let alone the presents.
• Not when you feel all alone even in a crowd.
• Not when it is the “first Christmas.” The first Christmas without him. The first Christmas without her. The first Christmas you won’t be with family, or part of your family won’t be with you.
• Not when the fear of loss hangs heavy in the air.
You may find yourself wondering, how can I have joy? How can I possibly celebrate?
For others of us, right now our tails are wagging. You may be humming carols, decorating trees and cookies, wrapping packages with shiny bows, and dreaming of an old-fashioned Christmas with a warm fire, singing carols gathered around the piano, and a snuggly reading of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas with all the children in your lap.
And the reality is, it may all go wrong. The cookies may burn, the wood may be too wet and smoke up the whole house, the stomach bug may pre-empt caroling, and the closeness may become stifling instead of cozy. You may find yourself wondering, joy? How can I possibly celebrate?
We celebrate the joy of Christmas, and it is not a holly, jolly joy. It is not the joy of everything being the way we would like it to be.
Mary set out and went with haste to see her cousin, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was older and barren. Her husband was a priest, and Elizabeth poured herself into ministry since she had no children. They were faithful and compassionate.
I can only imagine the emotions swirling in Mary’s heart. Joseph should, by law, stone me. The angel said I am favored by God. A child is a blessing. I am pregnant and not married. I agreed to serve God. This child, my child, will be named Jesus, he will be the promised king from David’s lineage? Maybe Elizabeth will understand what this all means. Maybe Elizabeth will welcome me and not shun me. Maybe Elizabeth will keep me and this child safe.
She must have found herself wondering, joy? How can I possibly celebrate?
She arrived to find Elizabeth in her sixth month of expecting a child. At the sound of Mary’s voice calling as she arrived, the child in Elizabeth’s womb jumped for joy. And Luke says, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Mary didn’t have to speak a word.
Elizabeth is filled with joy. She cries out, “God blessed you! More than other women, you are blessed! And blessed is the child you will have! Why should I be so blessed that the mother of my Lord has come to me? As soon as I heard the sound of your voice, the baby inside me jumped for joy!”
It didn’t change the circumstances, but it did reframe them. God was working in their midst. They were able to be together. And they knew that new life was coming.
These are the joys of Christmas. God is working in our midst. We are able to be together. And we know that new life is coming.
James Moore tells a wonderful story about a man who was home with the children one afternoon while his wife went out Christmas shopping. He was reclining on the couch, half sleeping, half watching a football game, when the kids came into the room.
“Dad, we have a play to put on? Do you want to see it?”
He really didn’t want to, but he knew he needed to, so he sat up, came out of his slumber, and became a one-man audience.
His four children, four, six, eight, ten years old, were the actors: Mary, Joseph, and the wise men. Joseph came in with a mop handle. Mary came in with a pillowcase under her pajamas; another child was an angel, flapping her arms as wings.
Finally the last child, the eight year old, came out, with all of the jewelry on that she could find in the house, her arms filled with three presents. “I am all three wise men,” she said. “I bring three precious gifts: gold,circumstance, and mud.”[1]
The joy of Christmas is that God is working in our midst as we offer our gold, all that we can be, our circumstance where we might be right now, and our muddy selves. Mary said, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord.” The joy of Christmas is responding to God, “Here I am, with my gold and my circumstance and my mud, the servant of the Lord.”
But Mary didn’t go it alone. She and Elizabeth were able to be together. The joy of Christmas is the love that removes the barriers all of our differences can erect and unites us as one in Christ.
Rev. Billy Strayhorn tells about a trip he took to the Holy Land in 1992. The “group was made up of United Methodists, Presbyterians, Disciples of Christ, and Roman Catholics. On Russian and Greek Orthodox Christmas Eve, our Epiphany, we stopped at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Attached to the church is an ancient monastery. We visited the room where the Roman Catholic priest Jerome lived and translated the Old and New Testaments from the Hebrew and Greek into the Latin Vulgate, making the Bible accessible to ordinary people.
There, we paused to sing Christmas carols. While we were singing, a group of Korean and German Christians joined us. In mixed languages, in mixed national and denominational affiliations, we sang and celebrated the birth of the Savior of us all.” (Billy D. Strayhorn)
That is the joy of Christmas, that we gather united to celebrate and worship our Savior.
As we gather around the manger, the joy of Christmas is that the baby lying there is our Savior.
The world was in darkness, but God sent the light of life to shine. We were alone. But Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God is with us. The people rejected God. But God embraces us. The joy of Christmas is that still God comes to be with you . . . .
To comfort you, to strengthen you, to empower you, to redeem you, to save you, to restore you, to grant you peace, to be raised for you.

Repeat the sounding joy! Amen.