Thoughts on a tragedy...

As you may know, I am a young United Methodist student pastor.  Writing a sermon after the tragedy in Connecticut was very difficult.  It was made more difficult by the fact that it was right before the third Sunday of Advent when we are supposed to be lighting the third candle for joy.  Somehow we had to have joy after a horrible tragedy.  I am writing this blog post knowing that 9/10 of pastors out there have already written a post about this and probably more eloquently than I can.  At the same time, I hear enough bad theology mixed with the good, that perhaps we need to all be writing.  So, this blog post is based upon the sermon I preached last Sunday about two Scripture passages all about joy, Isaiah 12:2-6 and Philippians 4:4-7.

Philippians 4:4 said, “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say I again: Rejoice!” (NIV) How can we ever have joy in the midst of such a tragedy?  How can we trust and not be afraid? How do we have joy when all we want to do is cry?  These were children!  Yet, somehow, we are called to have joy even when there is evil in the world, to rejoice because the Lord is near, to rejoice because Jesus is coming soon.  Christmas is near!

So, what is joy?  How can we have it this week or after any tragedy that shakes our world?  One option is what has come to be known as the Pollyanna kind of joy. In that sweet story, a little orphan girl goes to live with her childless and unmarried aunt who has no idea how to treat a child.  Pollyanna, when faced with adversity big or small, only focuses on the good.  There is no room for tears.

Is that joy?  It is certainly what many Christians seem to think joy is.  Pollyanna’s theory is that you ignore the bad and find the good.  There is no room for grief or crying and it is only right to smile and be “glad.”  This theory falls apart quickly in light of shootings like the one on Friday.  I don’t think that the “glad game” is joy.

I also don’t think joy is an emotion at all.  When we talk about an emotion, we talk about being happy or glad.  No person can be happy all the time.  This is an emotional high.  Happiness is temporary, fleeting.  Happiness is a good thing, but it is no joy. 

True joy, though, is born of knowing that Jesus Christ has come, has died for us, has risen from the dead and will come again.  That joy is here no matter what happens, if we have faith.  That joy is here in the horrors and evils of life.  We can have this joy as we cry for those who were brutally killed.  We can have this joy as we deal with our own losses in life.

Paul in Philippians is writing from a jail cell, Isaiah is writing a hymn to be used when the Israelites are restored.  In the midst of some very bad things, these authors are calling for joy.  And what can be worse than horrible tragedies like the one on Friday?  Where is the joy for the families of those who died?  For the parents and families of the 28 people who died in Newtown on Friday.  Where is the joy for those families?  Where is the joy for those of us sitting here anywhere else in the United States knowing that this can happen in our country?  Knowing that in China 22 children were stabbed with a knife on the same day?

Joy is not the opposite of pain.  Joy is not the opposite of grieving or horror or evil in this world.  Joy is the only thing that gets us through that pain and that horror.  Joy in the knowledge that Jesus Christ came at Christmas, died at Good Friday, rose at Easter, and will come again one day. 

Joy is not denying or ignoring evil, like the Pollyanna glad game.  Joy is not forsaking all feeling at all.  Joy, instead, is what as we weep allows us to heal.  Joy, that assurance that God is with us and that Christ is alive, is what allows us to move forward after these great tragedies.  Joy is the hope in Christ, the peace that can only come from Christ.  I saw a picture on Facebook the other day.  It had Jesus hugging a child.  Jesus is down at the child’s level with the child’s head on his shoulder as Jesus’ eyes are closed.  That comfort, I believe, is joy.

Never say that events like these are God’s plan.  God does NOT plan evil, God does NOT cause evil to happen.  A good God cannot cause evil, and there is nothing else to call these events but evil.  What God does do is call us to have joy in the understanding that God is our salvation.  We can trust and not be afraid.  We can call on God’s name.  We can rejoice in the Lord always, because we know that God is good all the time and that God is with us, was with those who died, is with those families, and is with all the survivors.

            This may not be a lot of comfort to those families or that community right now, but if those of us who are watching and praying can have this joy, we can be here for them as a witness until they are ready.  We can stand next to them telling them that God DOES love them, no matter what they may hear from certain religious groups.  So, perhaps, it is our job now to be that witness.

Amen.