Tidings of Comfort and Joy

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is one of my favorite carols of the Advent season. 

God rest ye merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Saviour
Was born upon this day,
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray:
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

The carol reminds Christian pilgrims that we need not dismay since Jesus Christ has delivered us from the "domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of light" (Colossians 1:13).  And yet, the tune is sung in a minor key.  Now, I'm no expert in music, but I enjoy the oposits of a minor key with uplifting lyrics.  The minor key reminds me that joy is mingled with sorrow during the Advent season. 

Last Sunday which was the third Sunday of Advent ( the church I regularly attend, sadly for me, did not celebrate) is called Gaudete Sunday, which in Latin means "rejoice."  The longing and expectation that begins the season, now turns to joy as the arrival of the Christ child approaches. With Gaudete Sunday, many Christians rejoice for the tiny baby who will be King; here is joy enfleshed, and our lives belong to his rule and reign.  And yet, I sense remorse, for there are so many who are familiar with this carol, even those who sing its verses, may still feel the power of evil over them, or feel that they have yet to find their way to the manger of Jesus.  Some find it difficult to enter into the victory that comes on Christmas morning.

Everywhere I went this past week and most media I viewed exemplified the fact, that it is difficult to rejoice when all that is experienced is a world in crisis.  Many desperately long to enter into the joy promised long ago to humble shepherds: "Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Messiah, the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11). 

Those who heard the announcement of the birth of the Messiah knew it signaled the end of exile and darkness, for the coming of the Messiah meant a new age for the people of Israel.  We  hear this promise sung in psalms: "When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dream.  Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with joyful shouting; Then they said among the nations, 'The Lord has done great things for them'" (Psalm 126:1-2).  Great things will be accomplished for the people as a result of the Messiah's advent.

Yet, these great things were not accomplished without tears of sorrow and mourning.  For, as the psalmist suggests, joy and sorrow are inextricably linked.  "Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.  He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him" (Psalm 126:5-6).  Indeed, the sowing and the seed are the tears of the exiles, tears that bear the fruit of joy.  Talitha Arnold, in  “Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary” reflects on the mystery of suffering turned to joy when he writes: "The natural power of God to turn seeds into grain would be miracle enough.  But Psalm 126 makes an even greater statement.  The seeds are not ordinary, but seeds of sorrow.  The fruit they bear is not grain or wheat, but shouts of joy."

In spite of a world easily consumed by sorrow and sadness this season, those who anticipate the arrival of the source of all joy recognize that the harvest of joy is sown in tears—tears that are redeemed by the one who "for the joy set before him endured the cross and suffered its shame" (Hebrews 12:2).  Jesus, the joy of the world, was not immune to tears.  The "tidings of comfort and joy" would be that God enters our suffering, and is not removed from it.  God enters our exile, and offers deliverance and salvation.

I admit that over the years I have to often sought joy in this season, but was looking in the wrong places and in the wrong ways: "This is no jingle-bells joy brought with a swipe of a credit card," Arnold continues.  "The seeds of this joy have been planted in sadness and watered with tears.  This is the honest joy that often comes only after weeping has tarried the night."  Tidings of comfort and joy come to us in a person, a person who sowed both tears of joy and sadness himself.  Jesus brings joy from tears and fills hearts with gladness at his coming.  Weeping may last through the night, but joy indeed comes in the morning.