Monday, August 21, 2023
Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Joy in the morning
The children of Israel offended the Lord, abandoning the Lord, following other gods and worshipping them. They did not listen to the judges God raised up, and when the judge died they would do worse even than their ancestors, relinquishing none of their evil practices.
As our Pastor Matt said yesterday, the book of Judges is not good children’s bedtime reading. It chronicles three hundred years of Israel’s descent into darkness, violence and evil. But in 1075 Samuel became Israel’s last judge. Saul was anointed king, a handsome physical man who did not humble himself before the Lord. He became proud, Samuel cursed his kingship, he sought help from witches, and Saul died miserably in battle along with his three sons.
After Saul was humiliated and killed, David became king. The stories of David run the gamut of David’s commitment and worship of God, a “man after God’s own heart,” to his lust and willingness to kill for selfish reasons. He chose love for his son Absalom over civil and civic duty. But he wrote psalms that are still sung today. Over and over he chose to worship God and honor God’s anointed ones. There is more written about David than any other character in the biblical story.
David danced before the Lord, and Saul’s daughter Michal, David’s wife, hated him for it. But David chose not to contain his joy. I want to follow in those joy-filled footsteps, and dance with David. Dance the night away. Wake up in the morning, and leap up dancing again. Because, as Steve Garnaas-Holmes wonders …
What if God is joy?
What if the Father is bliss and the Son is gratitude
and the Holy Spirit is gleeful wonder?
What if creating is God’s play,
and the big bang was an outburst of happiness
and the galaxies are spun from pure delight?
What if gravity, that holds the universe together,
is simply the pleasure of harmony,
and every created thing’s ecstatic desire for one another?
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What if earth is God’s great celebration,
spinning and dancing and making music and beauty
and inviting everyone in to feast and wonder?
What if being itself is such a miracle
that God gets endless enjoyment out of it?
What if God doesn’t own a throne (most uncomfortable)
and has never handled a gavel,
but has a million musical instruments?
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What if God goes to hell every weekend
with a load of tissues and listens to everybody
who’s locked themselves up in there
until they’ve cried out all their sorrows,
and they come out laughing and dancing?
What if what it means to come to God
is to enter into God’s joy?
What if the work of justice
is to enable everyone to truly know joy?
(And would that not mean that cruelty and injustice
are most heinously sinful?)
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What if even in our grief and our despair
the root of our being is joy,
and resurrection means passing through our sorrow
into God’s delight?
What if salvation means
being rescued from our inability to rejoice?
Why not? Why not? Do you think you can convince me
that God is all somber and serious?
What if even now, as you consider this,
and think it’s kind of silly,
God is laughing… and waiting?
Jesus spoke to the young man who approached him wanting the joy of eternal life. What more should he do?
Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. Keep the commandments.
Jesus knew his Father. He knew his joy, and he knew what would give this young man eternal joy. David did not know this. Solomon did not. We mostly do not either. The young man asked the question. What else, Jesus? I think there is more. I don’t feel the joy I know God has for me.
And Jesus answered him.
Jesus told the young man to simplify his life so he could follow, serve, surrender, and become a child again, but this time a child of God.
If you wish to be perfect, go and sell your possessions. Give what you make to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, and follow me.
(Judges 2, Psalm 106, Matthew 5, Matthew 19)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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