"Joy" by Krista Heide
As we approach the Advent Sunday of Joy our reflection is by Krista Heide.
Krista Heide is a mom, artist, musician, preacher, graduate theology student and lover of creativity and spiritual formation. She lives with her family in Treaty 1 territory (Winnipeg), and is part of the Winnipeg Centre Vineyard.
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Image: Adoration of the Shepherds by Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich
“The real voyage of discovery consists
not in seeking new landscapes,
but in having new eyes.”
-Marcel Proust
Though we may pray and hope and plead and beg, none of us can escape the hard things in life. Death, sickness, injuries, pain, loss - these things have a way of finding us all. And hasn’t 2020 confirmed this; life can be awfully hard.
But thankfully, there is always more than one dynamic at play. Amidst the pain, there is always joy to be found. Several advents ago, after a particularly hard season for my family, we spoke with our kids about how sometimes joy seems to shout at you. At other times, it is more like a game of hide and seek; you have to really look for it.
And let’s face it, sometimes joy requires a full fledged, no-holds barred scavenger hunt.
8 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” --Luke 2:8-12
I love this story of the shepherds.
Living amongst the animals, with the flies, disease, bacteria. Walking through their excrement, caring for their wounds. Being a shepherd was a dirty job in a culture where religious cleanliness was highly important. The dirtiness of the lifestyle left them as outsiders. Cut off from temple worship and community gatherings because of their unclean state.
Though our nativity scenes often depict these shepherds as grown men, in actuality the job was often given to the youngest boys (and sometimes girls) in the household.
That Luke documents the first proclamation of the birth of Jesus - an angelic proclamation no less - as being proclaimed to these unclean children was remarkable. This news was not announced to kings, but to young night shift shepherds. Not announced in palaces, but in an unremarkable rural field, to young children and their flea covered animals. God chose to declare the extraordinary news to ordinary people. From the moment of Christ’s birth, God is privileging the outliers.
On this unexpected night, in a remote and ordinary location, an angel appears to proclaim the good news. The good news of great joy for all people.
How did the shepherds respond?
We read that they hurried, made haste, ran. They embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime, life-will-never-be-the-same-again journey to find a child lying in a manger. A hunt of all hunts to find the great joy they had been promised.
Allow yourself to imagine this scene in your mind. A group of young shepherds, ceremonially unclean, pungent with the odour of sheep, running through town at night, on a mission - somewhat like a scavenger hunt. Cutting through properties, jumping fences, hunting through an over-packed village, pushing into homes and waking up everyone in sight. Rubbing their unclean shoulders past who knows how many people while following the clues they had been given: to find a newly born baby, somewhere in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.
How many people did they wake up that evening, looking for a baby? How many people heard them testify* about angels and a new Messiah? Can you imagine oil lamps and torches being lit around town? How many people were angered by the interruption by these unreliable, unclean children? How many people got excited by the possibility? The long awaited Messiah - born in Bethlehem? Did anyone join the search party?
Luke doesn’t unwrap any of these details - we can only imagine.
But what we do know is that the shepherds do find Jesus. They find their great joy. In an unexpected place, on an unexpected night, after an unexpected hunt.
And I believe the same is true for us, today.
No matter the bleakness of our circumstance, joy can be found.
May we have eyes to receive it.
———-
*Shepherds were viewed as unreliable, and were not allowed to testify in courts.
Searching for Joy
-a reflective exercise
Much like the angelic proclamation to the shepherds, advent speaks of the truth that in Jesus a great joy has been given to us. But in a year where fear, tension, anxiety, and conflicts rule our news feed, sometimes we need some assistance in our ability to receive and rest in this joy.
Set aside a moment of time to do one of the following reflection exercises with your family, or on your own. As you answer the questions below, notice how the memories and images stir up joy and hope in your physical body. As you listen to others share, pause to name the smiles, or laughter, or glimmers of joy that emerge. Allow yourself to sit and rest in this moment, letting it be a place of reprieve and refreshment.
An M&M Thankfulness Game (from Shauna Niequist)
Pass around a bag of M&Ms. Pull out an M&M without looking at it and share with the group based on the chart below:
Brown - Name a place or location you are grateful for and why
Blue - Name something in nature you are grateful for and why
Green - Name an activity you are grateful for and why
Yellow- Name an object or possession you’re grateful for and why
Orange - Name a moment you’re grateful for and why
Red - Name a person you’re grateful for and why
A Sensory Joy Scavenger Hunt
Using memories and your imagination make a creative word map while you brainstorm individually, or with your family about the sensory experience of joy.
What does Joy smell like?
-list smells that evoke joy
What does Joy taste like?
-list flavours that evoke joy
What does Joy sound like?
-list sounds that evoke joy
What does Joy look like?
-list sights that evoke joy
What does Joy feel like?
-how do you experience joy in your body?
After each exercise take a moment to give thanks to God for the gifts of joy in your life, and ask for refreshed eyes to notice joy as we continue on our journey through Advent.
