We Wait in Joy (No Video)
- Shane Montoya
- Dec 16, 2024
- 2 min read
Sermon Notes: Joy is innately interconnected with grief- we must practice joy, if not out of natural feeling, then out of rebellion and spite against the forces of evil, human and inhuman.
Yesterday was Gaudate Sunday- Joy Sunday; many of you know that I haven't had a particularly joyful December. Yet I found myself rejoicing through grief and loss- in events small and large- on the small side, I met the Minoru Yamasaki's niece Keiko- Minoru Yamasaki designed Northminster and Birmingham Unitarian Church- and got to tell her that her uncle's buildings were still bringing people together as he would have wished.
But I also did it in the big ways too. I sung Amazing Grace as I never have before, accompanying my father-in-law's casket down the aisle after his funeral mass. "The Lord has promised good to me," I sang, in open defiance of the power of death, that force that the apostle Paul calls the last and greatest enemy of humanity.
There is no way around grief- the only way out is through it. We also know that on the other side of it is joy, not easy sensorial euphoria but a bedraggled celebration of life and all of the goodness is can and does contain.
I am joyful not immediately and not always, but eventually, because I must. I am because of genuine feeling when I can, and when I can't, out of resistance and rebellion to the forces of evil in this world, human and inhuman, that would threaten to steal, destroy, or commodify our happiness and well being. As we are reminded in the 23rd psalm, God sets a feast for us in the presence of our enemies. Let us feast on life. Amen.
As a note, that was my last sermon of this calendar year: the 22nd is the Christmas Pageant, and on the 24th, I won't be preaching at either service. The 29th is a pajamas and Christmas Carol singalong. Thank you all for being on this journey with me this year. It has truly been a gift.
Peace,
Pastor Shane