Joy: Transcending Our Pain <br><br>
Luke 2:8-20 <br><br>

PAUMC		12/23/07 <br><br>


Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days. The scale and speed of the slaughter left its people reeling a horrendously hopeless situation. Yet we hear in that reading the power of Advent hope arising in the people. <br><br>


The Darfur genocide, in the Darfur region of Sudan, began in February 2003 when two Darfurian rebel groups, frustrated by poverty and neglect, launched an uprising against the government. The government responded with a scorched-earth campaign, arming and bankrolling militias against the innocent civilians of Darfur. They have killed more than 400,000 civilians and displaced 2.5 million people from their homes. Here is another place where the power of Advent hope is needed. <br><br>


Every night on the news we here more tragedies, and more places in our world, in our cities and in our neighborhoods where Advent hope is needed. And then there is the story of our lives, where Advent hope is needed in the midst of our struggles and our grief. <br><br>


	For many people the Christmas season is not a joyful time because of painful events that happened during this season in past years. As each Christmas season arrives, so does the grief and depression from significant losses in our lives. It’s a season where it’s painfully evident who is not here. <br><br>


	So here we are in the middle of this holiday season that is telling us to cheer up in the midst of our pain. There’s jingle bells everywhere, happy faces wishing you joy and peace. When you’re feeling down the last thing you want to be confronted with is some smiley face, loud happy Christmas music, all telling you to cheer up and enjoy the season. It can be rather irritating. It’s hard to rejoice in the midst of so many things that rob us from joy. <br><br>


	I’m wondering if that isn’t what the shepherds felt when they heard the news from the angels that night. A shepherd’s life was hard and difficult. Their profession was not on the high end of the social strata. They spent much of their lives out doors with their flock of sheep, dirty and smelly. Providing for their families was difficult. They couldn’t always leave their flocks to go to worship in the manner the religious leaders prescribed. The Roman government probably taxed most of what little income they had. They were looked down upon religiously and socially. I can’t imagine there was much joy in their lives.  <br><br>


	So when the angels announced that they were bringing “glad tidings of great joy,” I wonder if the shepherd’s first response was a bit cynical. Where can there be joy in the midst of their dreary existence? But somehow the news of joy broke through. It was they, the shepherds that the angels appeared to – not the rich merchants or the top religious leaders who were also waiting an watching over the years. Maybe God was doing something new as the prophets foretold. They left their flocks to go find this child. Shepherds don’t leave their sheep. <br><br>


	In the shepherd’s response we see the power of joy to break through the pain. By joy, I’m not talking about happiness, which is fleeting. Joy is something deep that wells up in us and has the power to transcend the pain – transcend it, not take it away. 
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	The prophet Jeremiah in chapter 31 tells of the power of God to bring joy in the midst of pain: “God said, I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you….With weeping they shall come and with consolation I will lead them back. I will make them walk by brooks of water….They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, their life shall be like a watered garden and they shall languish no more. I will turn their grief into joy, and give them gladness for sorrow.” This is part of our Advent hope. <br><br>


	My dad died a number of years ago – 20 years this February, and my mother has been gone almost 2 years now. I remember that first Christmas after my Dad died. I was dreading it. I was serving a congregation in Austin, MN and I remember that particular Advent season being very depressing. I couldn’t imagine Christmas without my dad. I couldn’t imagine that Christmas would have the same joy that is always had for me in celebrating with my family. Then the day came. We gathered together to celebrate, and to my surprise it was wonderful. We had fun, we laughed and there was joy that sprung up among us. In fact, it was one of the better Christmases we’d had together in a long time. <br><br>


	Then I realized that this particular Christmas was not about my dad being gone – rather it was about God being present. And JOY broke through as an unimaginable gift. We ate till we were stuffed, laughed until our stomachs hurt and enjoyed being together. It was true Christmas joy, an experience of Emanuel – God with us.
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Yvonne Dilling was a church worker from Indiana working in a Salvadorian refugee camp in Honduras during a horrible military conflict in their nation. The nature of the war continually meant that the Salvadoran people had to move their refugee camps from one location to another. The refugee community always knew whether someone was there to help them for a lifetime or a short time, for the ones who were there short term were the ones who cried and despaired over what they saw. 
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Yvonne tells of a refugee woman who one asked her why she looked so sad and burdened. Yvonne talked about the grief she felt over all the suffering she was witnessing and her commitment to give all of herself to the struggle of the refugees. The woman gently confronted her: “Only people who expect to go back to North America in a year work the way you do. You cannot be serious about our struggle unless you play and celebrate and do those things that make it possible to give a lifetime to it.”
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	Every time the refugees were displaced and had to build a new camp, they immediately formed three committees: a construction committee, an education committee, and the comité de alegria, or committee of joy. Celebration was as basic to the life of these refugees as digging latrines and teaching their children to read. They knew that if they lost their ability to celebrate the joy of living, the joy of family, and the joy of a relationship with God, they would lose everything.
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	In the midst of the losses that confront us this Christmas season, let us be that committee of joy for each other, that we may truly celebrate the joy that has come into the world. 
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Pastor Suzanne Mades