God's Vaccine Of Joy

 God's Vaccine Of Joy

“But forget all that— it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland." Isaiah 43:18-‬19 NLT

Before the birth of Jesus Christ, the Jews were waiting for a Messiah to deliver them from the oppression of the Romans. But God had a far better, wonderful and amazing plan - to give the world that is infected by sin and evil, a Messiah to heal us of our sinful nature so that we can live the fully human and fully divine life as the beloved of God.

Likewise, in the grip of the COVID 19 pandemic, humanity is looking for an effective vaccine to set them free from the tyrannical fear of the COVID 19 virus. The focus on the eradication of the COVID 19 virus blinds us to the truth that it is but just one of the vast number of viruses that we need to learn to live with. What we really need is the liberation from the fear of death - the fear that makes us slaves of sin and keeps us from living in the kingdom of heaven here and now. 

The world has been turned upside down (or rather right side up) by the COVID 19 virus. It has opened our eyes to the harsh realities of the uncertainty of life and the certainty of death. Sigmund Freud had drawn attention to the truth that we are living psychologically beyond our means when we do not face the reality of death and give death its proper place in our thoughts and in life. The good news of Christmas is that death has been conquered because Jesus Christ was born to taste death for everyone:

“Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.” Hebrews 2:14-‬15 NLT

The miracle of Christmas is seeing God doing something new by making a highway of holiness through the stony and thorny soils of my heart. Christmas is a time for the Holy Spirit to fill my heart with the love of God and renew my thoughts with the mind of Christ. God’s thoughts are nothing like our thoughts and His ways are far beyond anything we can imagine (Isaiah 55:8). The ways of the world leads us to seek happiness by being healthy, rich and famous. Jesus came to show us that we can find “joy unspeakable” in sickness, poverty, the mundane and even in the face of suffering and persecution.

 

Jesus taught his followers that they will be persecuted for the sake of righteousness when they live in the kingdom of heaven. For the righteous will always be a threat to the evil ways of our egos and the world. We will face suffering, tribulation and persecution when we seek to live our lives for God. Hence, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith. He endured the cross and disregarded its shame because of the joy awaiting him (Hebrews 12:2).

In one of the Christmas stories, we read of the gift of myrrh given by one of the three wise men and the prophecy of Simeon to Mary, the mother of Jesus that a sword will piece her very soul:

“This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.” Luke 2:34-‬35 NLT

COVID 19, like these stories, is to teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psalms 90:12 NKJV). And in the information age, we are to remember that “true wisdom starts with a heart full of faith, not a head full of facts.” At Christmas we celebrate the wonder of God coming into the world and into our lives as a helpless infant who needed to be cared for and to be loved. 

Christmas in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic challenges us to go on a journey of “creative care” - to unpack the mystery and power of love by caring for one another. Anne Basting found creative care to be the profound and life-changing act of healing. She saw creative care as an invitation to shape the world together when there is an agreement between people to come together to imagine themselves, each other, and their worlds a little differently.

Creative care involves the use of “ a beautiful question.”  “A beautiful question" always shapes a beautiful mind” and it is an invitation to both selfhood and to community. The beautiful question leads a person into contemplation without having to worry over finding the right or wrong answers but to begin a journey to live into the answer. Life will throw disturbing and difficult questions at us. Rainer Maria Rilke advises us not to seek the answers but to love the questions and to live the questions now. Then without noticing, we will gradually live into the answer some day.

A beautiful question for Christmas 2020 may be “What is Joy?” especially in the midst of the doom and gloom of COVID 19. Perhaps joy is God’s vaccine for the pain and suffering that we will face in the new year. In the season of Christmas over the next twelve days, we can unwrap the beautiful question that God has for us. Let us encourage one another to live into the answer by drawing closer to Jesus and to one another so that we can truly sing:

Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.