The hit song "Vertigo," by U2, ends with the line "Your love is teaching me how to kneel." I won't pretend to know what the song is about, but that line came to mind when I reflected on today's readings.
Today's second reading contains a line that we've all probably heard so many times that it has become a cliché: "Rejoice always." But it is a remarkable challenge. It's not a suggestion. It's a command. We are told that we must rejoice. Paul is ordering us to be joyful.
"Brothers and sisters," he says, "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit."
I don't know about you, but I find this passage remarkable because I rarely feel like rejoicing. I am usually preoccupied with my personal problems, or discouraged by the persistent troubles in the world --- war, poverty, hunger, discrimination. But Paul is not asking us to be joyful only when things are going well. He asks us to rejoice always, and to give thanks in all circumstances.
What does this mean? Paul seems to expect that those of us who have experienced Jesus Christ have experienced something so spectacular that we can find happiness even in the midst of our personal struggles and global crises. We are not asked to ignore or deny the darkness in our world, our lives, or even in our own hearts. But we are asked to express the joy that we have found as Christians. Yet how are we to rejoice when there is so much that is wrong in our lives and our world?
The call to rejoice always, to give thanks in all circumstances, is at its heart the command to worship. We are asked to recognize that God is in control of all things, and that we are not. We are asked to acknowledge that there is something far greater than us in this world --- not just something, but Someone. The call to worship is ultimately a call to humility. In other words, the love of God is something that should teach us to kneel.
"The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me," Isaiah announces in the first reading. "because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God."
Advent, of course, is a season where we are confronted with the story that can and must move us to worship. The arrival of Jesus Christ into our world, the spirit of God taking human form, eternity compressed into an infant, is a story of overwhelming love. For in Jesus Christ the love of God overwhelms evil, overwhelms poverty, overwhelms broken hearts, and overwhelms captivity. It has happened. It is happening still. It must continue to happen in us and through us.
This is that staggering good news of the Gospel. And we are not just invited, but commanded, to rejoice. Bill Peatman writes from Napa. |