“Advent Joy”
Rev. Rachel Lewis Cooley
Eternal Hope UCC, Fort Walton Beach, FL
December 12, 2021
Luke 3:7-18
7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What, then, should we do?” 11 In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
15 As the people were filled with expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So with many other exhortations he proclaimed the good news to the people.
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us. Spirit of the living God fall afresh on us. Melt us, mold us, fill us, use us. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us. Amen
I remember a Christmas morning as a child, I was about 6 or 7, waiting in the hallway with my sisters who were much older, in college, and were in the Christmas spirit with me. Once mom was up, and we could go into the living room, I ran up to my presents from Santa. A penguin friend with a Santa hat and Santa on his scarf sat next to a my-sized basketball hoop toy with a tube to catch each colorful plastic ball and spit it back out at the thrower’s feet. Clearly, Santa had been here! And my penguin friend – who’d I’d soon begin to call “Pengy” – was a sign that Santa had come, Christmas had come, and Christmas joy was possible. I can remember so many details – our light colored couch and bright living room, and dusting of snow outside, the laughter on my family’s faces, the gifts I and my family had received. I was fully in the moment, and abundant joy was fully there. I had no one to be but myself, nothing to do but play and imagine and love, and anything seemed possible.
Each year following, when mom would say “yes, we can pull out the Christmas things,” Pengy would emerge from the box I rushed to first. We’d take some time becoming reacquainted. He’d take his place on the couch or on my bed. He’d be that sign that Christmas was here again, he’s still a sign – sitting at home right now - that Christmas is here again and anything is possible, joy and freedom, dreaming and play, and deep deep love were here, right here!
I know each of us has memories of Christmas joy, and memories of childhood freedom – when our imaginations ran wild and we felt free and expansive – like we could throw our arms open and say “here I am, here is the world, here is possibility, here are good things!” Think, for a moment, to bring a memory back – be it from Christmas or not. Close your eyes, perhaps, We’re going to really linger here for a minute. feel your body and your breath. Take time to channel your inner child, your inner child’s joy. Breathing deeply, and remembering.
Your joy is good, your joy is right.
Remembering the joy of your inner child can call you and call us to what is good and right. To repent, as John the Baptist says, which really comes from a word that means “turn around.” How might you turn around to return to your inner child? How might you create and protect joy for your inner child? For yourself as a child of God today? And because joy has to do with our connectedness to God, to Spirit, to others, how might you create and protect joy for all creation?
“You can trust yourself,” Glennon Doyle writes in her book Untamed. Sink into your body, into your deep Knowing, and listen to what you deeply desire. Deep desires are not the same as shallow wants, which might nearly demand we numb our feelings with shopping or drinking or watching or scrolling or working or manipulating or whatever your escape of choice is. Shallow urges do not bring us back to our inner child. But Our deep desires come from the God within us, Jesus made flesh in us. Our deep desires for joy can be trusted.
“I have spent the last decade of my life listening to women talk about what they most desire,” Glennon Doyle writes of her work in community with readers and friends and people looking for connection and joy. “This is what women tell me they want,” Glennon writes…
Let burn all those things which keep you from your deep joy. Let burn all those things which keep you from ethical living and preparing the way of Jesus, John the Baptist writes too. Just as Glennon Doyle writes she’s gotten “untamed” by listening to her deep Knowing and letting all else burn to create truer and more beautiful ways of living, John the Baptist sure seems untamed to us and to those followers then, living in the wilderness, speaking prophetic, bold language about repentance. Baptising us so that we may be ready for the One who comes, the One who will baptize us by fire, and by the Holy Spirit.
I am lately taking a few hesitating steps into the fire. I sat with many memories from my childhood recently as I look to connect to who my inner child was and is and who I really am. To get to that true and beautiful self, created by God to do specific and unique work and co-creation in the world, I realize I must let burn those ideas I was taught along the way that made me feel shame, and start to hide myself a little more and a little more. I notice that like the memories of joy, the memories of shame stand out, I often remember them vividly. I know just where I was when I learned from my sister that I should feel shame, as she did, when I didn’t wear a bra in public, or from my other sister and the school that I shouldn’t wear shorts that were said to be too short. I can almost get fully back in the feelings I felt when it seemed my friend was choosing our other friends over me, and I know that mix of confusion and shame wondering why and coming up with answers that may or may not have been true, but narrowed my path going forward. I would conform to what I thought it took to stay on that path, in order to avoid that feeling of shame and confusion again. And then there are lessons I don’t really remember, but I know were taught over and over, and some of which I really still think are right – like when I ask myself what makes a good daughter or what makes a good wife and realize I have all these beliefs that limit what I think I “should” do. Our paths feel like they get narrower and narrower until we’re walking a skinny small balance beam and fearing if we fall off or fearing if our feelings seem to take up too much space there.
John the Baptist and Glennon Doyle are inviting us to walk into fire though, a cleansing fire that lets allllll those ideas I was taught burn on down. I have to be “sweet” and small to be a good little girl? I have to talk less and never question authority to get along in school? I have to follow what my partner wants to be a good wife? No. I get to let those ideas burnnnnn because I KNOW deeply, that they are not true, and I KNOW deeply that they’re not from God. and when I let burn those things that close in on the freedom of my path, my path becomes wider and more spacious. There’s more room to breathe and create. And just be with God.
But sometimes naming these pressures and ideas about how we’ve been taught to be good and the ways they’ve smothered our joy feels too bold, too untamed, like we’re being dramatic or complainers or maybe those ideas aren’t that bad after all. But I do believe that the Spirit guided me to Glennon’s book and to this scripture in particular this week, and further than that, I believe we all have the right and the responsibility to do this work. I began to feel that big, free breathing, arms open wide, joy that says here I am, here is the world, anything is possible! When I began to name those things that had held me in. You too are invited to let burn all that’s not true and beautiful enough anymore, as Glennon says. You too are invited to practice baptism by fire, u-turning from those things which aren’t from God, as John the Baptist says.
To be clear, your version of untamed will be different than mine, or than Glennon’s, or than John’s. Just as your inner child who God created you to be is different. My untamed may say go be with people and use your voice boldly with them, while yours may say you want to stay home more, or you express yourself differently. No one can give you an answer. Glennon says “I have stopped asking people for directions to places they’ve never been.” Only you have the journey you have.
This is the other part that’s scary – no, terrifying – about letting our old ideas burn. Those ideas have given us roles, given us patterns that tell us how to behave and what to do without even having to think about it sometimes. And conforming to those roles has made us feel satisfied in the past! I loved being the “sweet” little girl, and certainly not everything about being sweet was bad. When I wrote notes to my parents out of a joyful expression of love, that was beautiful and wonderful, and called “sweet.” It was only when “sweet” became a performance, like I had to do it even when I felt mad or sad or tired. It’s just that I could be so much more than “sweet.” I’m the one who held onto that idea that “sweet” was good for me. So letting it go to let it burn seems like… how do I even do that?
So then I feel like the crowds asking John “Teacher, what then should we do?” and getting a practical reply, focused on ethics. Focused on what you do, not what you say. When you notice yourself trying to be “sweet” when you don’t feel joy there, show and be how you really feel instead. When there’s an opportunity to grow, take it. When you’re tired, rest. When you can give support to another on their journey, give it. Live out what you say. Let your burning of “idea trees” that don’t bear joyful fruit change how you live in the world. Let them burn all the way to the ground, and if they’re still standing, act your way into it. If you find that you’re eating from one of your old and false idea trees that conflict with your Knowing, set fire to it again. If you find yourself offering the sour fruit to another and thus limiting their joy and freedom, stop as soon as you realize. Let them know you’re actually trying to burn that tree down. Apologize for the sour fruit you’ve given out, the sour fruit that has hurt your connection with another. Let burn any traditions and trees that aren’t bringing you or others fruitful joy. It is from the ashes that a new, joyful, creative, and faithful tree can sprout up. For these first fruits after your returning to joy and to God are not only good and right in themselves, but they are also the first fruits of the coming harvest, the coming of the kin-dom of God.
The tax collectors who ask John “Teacher, what should we do?” can collect no more than they’re required to, but they cannot burn down the whole system which takes from the poor and gives to the rich. The soldiers can stop threatening and taking from others – they can burn down those ideas that say they’re better or deserve more just because they can take it - but they cannot topple the empire which will still govern and punish unjustly. But the One who can is coming. Jesus the Christ – who is not born of the tree which says the rich and powerful deserve it but who announces that that tree shall burn. In the years since John the Baptist, we still don’t know when the kin-dom of God will fully come. But I’ll tell you I believe those folks who are untaming themselves who are getting themselves ready for full baptism full immersion in fire in Spirit by letting burn all the Know is false are like Glennon and like John – they announce the coming possibilities. The world as we know it crumbling, Glennon says. We too can be like Glennon and John, saying things are changing and we are part of it. We do not accomplish it all alone, but we will with God, and in time. For when we heal ourselves of the ideas holding us back, we proclaim that there is a different way, with God. And we take up our place as children of God called to bring the kin-dom.
This advent, we prepare the way of the one who will baptize us and the world with fire by getting back to our real joy, our real desires, and letting burn anything narrowing our paths to walk with God. Your joy is good, your joy is right.
Follow your joy to the manger and to the coming kin-dom. Amen.
Joy is a freedom. It helps a person to find his/her own liberation. The person who is joyous takes responsibility for the time he/she takes up and the space that he/she occupies. You share it! Some of you have it ... you share it! That is what joy is! When you continue to give it away you will still have so much more of it.