Uncover the Wellspring of Joy Within
by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts
Readings
Luke 2:8-12:
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Isaiah 12:1b-3
“I will praise you, Lord.
Although you were angry with me,
your anger has turned away
and you have comforted me.
Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord himself,
is my strength and my defense;
he has become my salvation.”
With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.
Read the written message below with music videos:
The angel in our reading said, “Do not be afraid, I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people,” but who exactly is this reading referring to when it says “all”? Often, the Christmas story’s impact is understood to be limited to “Christians.” But perhaps this understanding is missing the point entirely – that God’s Advent in history and continuing Advent in each of our lives is meant to uplift everyone, a phenomenon that’s always present, working to empower hope, peace, love, and ultimately, our joy. Moreover, this statement starts by enjoining us to release fear, pointing to God’s call to let go of our false ideas of self and turn to the reality of God’s Advent within us, no matter our tradition.
Joy is a consistent theme in Biblical scripture, a consistent promise and a call – indeed, often to “sing for joy.” Although, in a midst of a life that includes a pandemic that often calls for a lack of singing, we might wonder what joy might be in a world so full of pain. Interestingly, many scriptures make the point that often our greatest joys come after suffering through pain. Whether it be a newborn baby after a childbirth, or a moment of connection amidst strife, sometimes it seems like the contrast between the ups and downs can make moments of happiness that much more poignant, making the value of those joyful, love felt moments more obvious and cherished.
The mystics in our midst point to those loving, joyful moments as embodied moments of God’s Advent in our lives. Moreover, our favourite theologian Emanuel Swedenborg as well as the writer Eckhart Tole and many Buddhist monks alike point to how challenge often gives us the friction needed to turn to the true wellspring of joy in our lives: the Divinity at the core of each of our consciousnesses, the living God known by names, including Jesus Christ (God with us, the saving one).
Challenge and the frictions of life help us to realize that we don’t really enjoy giving all the power up to our rambling, fearful minds. They invite us to truly accept the transient nature of all things, and to turn toward the breadth of peace within – our connection to the God that never changes, what we call consciousness and compassion itself, the wellspring of joy. As we run into issue after issue, we tend to ask ourselves, “Why is this happening to me?” But life inherently is full of challenges, as we witness even in Christ’s life, and our sages tell us that these challenges are meant to invite us further into a connection with the Spirit within that is always above the fray, into the peace, love, light, and hope of God. As we connect with this, we perceive God’s Advent more into our lives and we come to find a source of joy that is never-ending.
Further, the promises and calls to joy that we hear are meant to inform us that joy – the thing that we all yearn for, an exceeding amount of happiness and contentment – is the result of following the spiritual prescriptions of scripture and of God speaking in our lives, what the Bible calls “following God.” These prescriptions have little to do with knowing a hollow God – the one in our fearful mind’s back pocket, used to justify our fear, superiority, and whims – and instead points to a God better defined by the core ideas of scripture and our Advent themes together: love, hope, peace, and, yes, joy! When we isolate any of these from the others we can more easily step further out onto dangerous ground, using selective definitions to justify our behaviour and lack of earnest spiritual work.
When we think about the holidays, I think this message becomes clearer for many of us. The best moments with family over Christmas have some semblance of all of our Advent themes, all of which feed off each other in the moment, leading to greater joy, peace, love, and hope. We love these moments and often live for them. This is why it’s so important to lean into practices that help us become less attached and centered on the things that pull us away from these things, as our more destructive and selfish practices do to great extent. The moments where these attributes are undermined are often painful for everyone involved and unfortunately often create what we can only call hell on earth, giving us great reason to listen to Christ’s invitation to “repent” from our unloving, selfish, and divisive modes of (non) being.
To truly embrace and celebrate the Advent of God in our lives we should start to accept God for what and “who” God is, with some level of fullness. This is no arbitrary set of concepts or a specific verbal name for God, but something we should discover for ourselves within, perhaps guided by the scriptures and sages that we’ve come to value because we know firsthand that their messages strive to empower all the things that make life worth truly living. The incarnation of Christ, to me, is so valuable for just this reason (even if I don’t believe others have to agree)! Jesus masterfully expressed what it meant to love and embody hope and peace in this world, even amidst strife, and his life points to what that means for all of us: resurrection and everlasting joy because of our centeredness on everlasting qualities and the Divine consciousness inherent with them, the source and substance of infinity and eternity itself, God.
How has God brought joy into your life? And when you’re not centered on joy and our other Advent themes, in what ways does your mind forget the first part of our reading, the command to “do not be afraid?” Note that however important your mind and incessant thinking tells you that your fear is necessary, the Advent of our God says otherwise. That God, often known as Jesus who was born in a manger, points to the power of humble beginnings, and how even the small light of love, peace, hope and joy within is but a glimmer of the wellspring of everlasting life already at our core. We have but to let go of our fear and all the divisive analytical thinking and yearnings that give rise to it (with spiritual practice and earnestness!) and turn to the incarnate God that’s always been with us, known as love, peace, hope, and ultimately, joy – all together.
Peace and joy to you,
Rev. Cory