The epistle lesson for this Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, is from Paul's letter to the Philippians, 4:4-7. The hallmark of this letter's popularity is its positive and upbeat message. A cursory read assumes an almost euphoric happiness. We perfectionist love an optimistic outlook. We're happiest when everyone else is happy.
However, when one considers Paul's circumstances, beaten, imprisoned, unpopular and untrusted, its hard to figure what he had to be so happy about. That, of course, drives right to his point - he, personally, doesn't have a lot to be happy about. Yet, without doubt he is overflowing with joy. What becomes clear is that this letter is not about happiness, its about joy. Happiness has little to nothing in common with joy; they are not interchangeable terms. There is no theology of happiness. Happiness is simply a measure of what we've been successful in controlling, while our level of unhappiness equates with how much we concede is beyond our reach. The bottom line is that our happiness or unhappiness is not an appropriate benchmark for judging God's influence in the world around us.
There is, however, a theology of joy. So this letter is not about Paul and how hard he is working on God's behalf, its about how God's will is being worked out by the people of God. Its not about Paul's misfortunes, its about Paul's service to Christ in whatever form that has taken. Nor is it about the people of Philippi and their problems or successes (or their happiness), its about God's faithfulness to them and how God's will is being worked out through them. It a letter about joy, the divine gift of joy.
[This is problematic for perfectionists. What do you mean there's no theology of happiness? If its all about joy, which is God-centered, then that means its not all about happiness, which is me-centered. Anything not me-centered equals out of my control - definitely problematic.]
[Still,] We are moved by Paul's optimism - not because his words have any power to change whatever place we find ourselves in, but because his words free us to explore a different, more sophisticated frame of reference. Paul's frame of reference, his joy, offers us a different way of being in the world. Paul offers us something beyond the simplistic, linear, logical state of being that typically frames our lives: Good things happen, we are happy; bad things happen, we are unhappy. Day in, day out, its one or the other, its a good day, or its a bad day. For Paul, as this particular letter so clearly illustrates, the quality of our days has no bearing on the quality of the work of God in our lives. They are unrelated. And the only thing that really matters to Paul is how we respond to God's relentless pursuit of us and God's mercy in dealing with our infidelity. Paul is not concerned with how well things are going for us personally at this particular moment in time. Instead, he invites us to observe and deeply appreciate what God is doing for the betterment of all of God's people; something beyond the fleeting particles of good fortune floating ever so precariously in our microcosms.
Joy, unlike happiness, can be found only outside of ourselves; we cannot create it because it is a divine gift. Joy is the assurance that there exists something bigger and more powerful than we are; something that is watchful and careful and more than just a little helpful in the face of our helplessness. We can't find joy without running into God. We can't be joyful without first having been touched by the divine. So Philippians is a good place to find joy, to find God, in the midst of adversity, uncertainty, stress and conflict. Joy is born into the world in a wasps nests of contention as surely as Jesus was born into this world under threat of death from his first breath. Joy is both the human expectation and the divine expression of perfect love. It has the power to set us free from our preoccupation with the pursuit of perfection that binds us to all that is unimportant and trivial in this life, which is why we both long for it and reject it.
No comments:
Post a Comment