I saved this for last. Apologies to liturgical purists.
Proverbs 21:3 "To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
21:15 "When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but dismay to evildoers."
I know some things about joy. I have my joy. I get unhappy about things, even often it seems, but I seem not to lose my joy because it is based on a faith in ultimate things of God. Ultimately, I believe that God is going to turn things right. Ultimately, I believe love will win, justice will win and peace will be known by all. God will restore shalom for all in this part of God's Kingdom and/or in the other part of it, ultimately.
I have been happy. I have desperately sought happiness for lengths of time in my life. It often left me empty and unhealthy. It made me hurt some very important people in my life. My happiness came at the expense of others at times, because I traded the things of justice and joy for fleeting happiness, regardless of the cost. What made me happy hurt others. Fleeting happiness is not what sustains me in my life. I am much less likely to run after fleeting happiness in what I can feel, do or obtain. I have deep, abiding joy. It is in my being. That is the state in which I live.
Can my joy be shaken? Sure! If I have devastating loss or if I suffer injustice at the hands of someone else or many others, I can lose my joy. It can be stripped from me.
I know a lot of folk, love a lot of folk who have systematically and intentionally had their shalom stripped from them by injustices perpetrated by others in our society. They have been held down, back and out from the "pursuit of happiness" which is supposed to be their right. They have been discriminated against. They have been judged unjustly. They have been exploited. They have been abused. Their loved ones have been destroyed and/or killed unjustly. Those who do such things to others can worship, praise, pray, tithe and even do mighty acts of healing and still not be right with God. The dismay they have produced is unconscionable and immoral. God is not pleased.
But when justice is restored and shalom with it, then joy is restored to those who have suffered injustice at the hands of unscrupulous, immoral and conscience-less folk. Then the dismay belongs to those who have perpetrated injustice, because it means that their efforts have not somehow elevated them in their own eyes.
How pathetic is it that someone would take joy in the dismay of others and dismay when justice is restored to others? How pathetic is it that for some it is only when others suffer that they can feel good about life? It is ungodly. It is evil. Getting much more than one needs off the backs of others who consequently will not have enough for shalom in their own lives is greed, which is evil idolatry. It wrongly presumes one's right to have more than they need. Obtaining power so that one can exploit, discriminate and abuse others around them for their own gain is evil idolatry. It wrongly presumes one's entitlement to hurt others for the sake of self. The notoriety of status gained by doing nothing good for others is also an expression of idolatry of self.
In what do you find your joy? What makes you happy? I pray that it is not found at the expense of someone else, or it is delight in evildoing. Advent is the time to make the crooked way straight, the rough places a plain and the high brought down and the lowly lifted up. Take joy in God's activity in Agape Love through others. Join in that activity. It is a new hope in love that could bring you a peace and joy that you have never had before now. Anticipate Joy in Joy, as you work to restore the joy of those who have had it stolen from them.
"When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but dismay to evildoers."
May you have Joy!
Pastor Jamie
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