Joy Series

Joy

Last year, I also got to speak for the third Sunday of Advent. But turns out I can’t just repeat that sermon.

Last year, the bible passages were about Advent bringing a promise of joyful reconciliation. This year, I’d say the readings are about Advent as a promise of joyful disruption.

Isaiah 35, Psalm 146, Mary’s song in Luke 1, and Jesus’ comment in Matthew 11 all say basically that God’s coming is about things turning upside down.

This is more like the ha-ha funny side of joy. According to the internet, philosophers have figured out one explanation for what’s funny, called incongruity theory. This theory says:

humor¬ arises when logic and familiarity are replaced by things that don't normally go together. A joke becomes funny when we expect one outcome and another happens.

For example, think about comedies. You’re laughing when things pop out and surprise you, when identities get mixed up, when the team with no chance wind up winning the game, and when the characters who couldn’t stand each other fall in love, when the big man starts to hop around and do some ballet. You laugh when something happens that you did not see coming.

The Bible passages for today mention a lot of things that we’d have certain expectations about, according to what’s logical and familiar and normally goes together. I’m going to start by throwing out some words, and you think what you associate with them.

Desert wilderness

Blind mute deaf lame

Feeble fearful

Prisoners

Foreigners

Rich

Poor

Vengeance retribution

And now with all those expectations in mind, I’m going to read today’s passages, and listen for those words and how they show up with very different associations. Isaiah 35 is a poem that looks forward to how things will be when God comes.

Isaiah 35 The desert and the parched land will be glad;

the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.

Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom;

it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.

The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;

they will see the glory of the LORD,

the splendor of our God.

3 Strengthen the feeble hands,

steady the knees that give way;

4 say to those with fearful hearts,

“Be strong, do not fear;

your God will come,

he will come with vengeance;

with divine retribution

he will come to save you.”

5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened

and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,

and the mute tongue shout for joy.

Water will gush forth in the wilderness

and streams in the desert.

7 The burning sand will become a pool,

the thirsty ground bubbling springs.

In the haunts where jackals once lay,

grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

These are some surprising images, especially since this poem comes after a serious of chapters in Isaiah called “the six woes.” Those chapters described countries and people falling apart. For example,

Isaiah 33:9 The land mourns and wastes away; Lebanon is ashamed and withers, Sharon is like the desert, and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.

Isaiah 35 names those same places, but it talks about “The glory of Lebanon” and “the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.” Isaiah foresees how those famously beautiful places that were withering and drooping and ashamed can be restored to glory and splendor.

Meanwhile in the wilderness, flowers burst into bloom, in the desert, water will gush forth.

And who’s seeing clearly, it’s the blind people. Who can be strong and courageous, the feeble and fearful people. That mute, isn’t just talking now, he’s shouting, The lame person, not only walking, leaping like a deer.

These is not the expected natural order. This like is a comedy show, with surprises and reversals right and left. This is what redemption looks like – when God intervenes and turns things around.

The Psalm for today has a similar vision of how God acts.

Psalm 146: 6 God is the Maker of heaven and earth,

the sea, and everything in them—

he remains faithful forever.

7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed

and gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets prisoners free,

8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,

the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,

the LORD loves the righteous.

9 The LORD watches over the foreigner

and sustains the fatherless and the widow,

but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

Hungry, fed; prisoner free; blind, seeing; bowed down, lifted up; foreigner cared for; bad guys, not getting away with it. God steps in to turn things around.

And then on to Luke 1, the section called Mary’s song. At this point, Mary was in a awkward situation. She was pregnant, and her fiancé wasn’t the father. Her moral neighbors would probably expect her to be embarrassed and ashamed. We can imagine why Mary hurried away from the village to visit her relative Elizabeth.