Joy and Mission

 

Hey, Cobblestone,

     The comic strip character was wrong. “Rat” had taken pen in hand to write to the editors of Oxford English Dictionary. As the frames moved left to right, the letter went like so: “Dear Oxford English Dictionary, I see you’ve chosen “vax” as the Word of the Year. This is wrong. The Word of the Year is actually ‘crappo.’ Again.” But I have to disagree.

     In a gathering of friends recently, Kay asked us, “What are you grateful for from the year past, and what are you hopeful for in the new year?” In this group, there was no shortage of gratitude or hope, but you know how these conversations go – it takes some prodding to get them expressed. Kay’s good at prodding. When my turn came around, I was glad to have had some practice.

     A few weeks earlier I’d been with Jeremiah George, one of my fellow elders here at the church, taking up space at Patterson’s Café. He asked how life was going for me. He’s good at prodding, too. Between sips of coffee, I said, “The joy is back.”

     As he was congratulating me on finding “the joy” – in those very same moments – I was thinking, “Oh, no… did I just lie to him?!” Here was the problem: if he asked any follow-up questions – How can you tell? How did you find it? – I wouldn’t have an answer. He may have asked those and many other questions (someday I’d like to be as good at prodding as he is), but I honestly don’t remember. I may have given answers, but if so, I don’t know what they would have been. I was busy analyzing, which is what I’m good at. Maybe too good. In a second or two, I was settled that I hadn’t lied to him. The joy was there. But why?

     Over the next several days I analyzed some more, turning joy round and round like a Rubik’s Cube, trying to figure out why the colors matched. At times I was afraid I would chase joy away with the analyzing. I could imagine joy as a comic strip character – though certainly not Rat… maybe an otter… aquatic mammals seem to have so much fun. But this otter was swimming away, waving a paw in disgust, saying, “Ain’t nobody got time for this ol’ stick-in-the-mud!” Thankfully, the image was only in my overworked imagination. Joy stuck around, enduring the analysis with a toddler-like pleasure – and teasing me with bits of evidence.

     After a while, I started to like the teasing. I abandoned the search for cause and began enjoying the effect. All the evidence was everywhere I wouldn’t have looked anyway, and wasn’t what I would’ve looked for. To begin with, I realized I’d been taking myself much less seriously for a while, which is kind of handy, since taking myself less seriously gave me eyes to see that others had been taking me much less seriously than I’d been taking myself. And yet I was unharmed – who knew?! I was singing more, spontaneously – one notable example was a rousing rendition of “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road” as Kay and I were driving out to the kids’ house. Skunks are possibly being targeted by Morgan Township drivers, but hey, it’s not the end of the world. I get a print newspaper (that’s where I encountered Rat in his wrongness), and I was reading it with the mind of Christ. Eventually, I became especially glad I hadn’t found a process, a procedure, the ten repeatable steps to joy. I only found otter tracks leading to the water. Joy snuck up on me, and I’m tickled that it did.      

     Lately, I’ve been noticing joy in you, too, Church. And again, the effect is the big deal, rather than the cause. We don’t have joy banners strung up everywhere. On the front porch, I don’t require the arms-and-legs J-O-Y dance before you go in the door (though I wouldn’t stop you from doing it). No, it’s not a worked-up thing. I see it in your actions, some – but mostly in your reactions. I see you reacting with patience and even gladness to the same situations that would produce fear, frustration, or outrage… if joy wasn’t up underneath, tickling. I see you trusting the Lord more.

     Once I recognized that you and I both had some joy percolating, I did indulge in a teensy bit more analysis related to a possible cause: Is there something common to your joy and mine? And this is where the second half of Kay’s question comes in. I had answered the first half in saying I was grateful for the joy. Then, Kay reminded me that I hadn’t answered the second part. She’s good at reminding, too (which I’m also grateful for). What was I hopeful for in the new year? Again, I was unprepared. And again, as with Jeremiah, I went with the unprepared statement. I’m hopeful for a clear sense of mission. It’s not just wishful thinking; I’m expecting it to happen, for you and me and all of us together. And that’s when I found what could be – could possibly be, I say – the common cause of our joy.

     I road-tested it with that gathering of friends the other day, and today I’m rolling it out to you, Church. Since I’m kind of a dime-store scientist, I’ll put it in the form of a hypothesis: Joy is inextricably linked to mission.

     By way of gathering evidence, I’ve been searching the Gospels. Or maybe the Gospels have been searching me. I’m OK either way. Now that you and I are into the New Testament in our Bible reading plan, we’re seeing Jesus launch into his mission, which was to initiate the kingdom of heaven… on earth. In just the first ten chapters of Matthew we’ve seen the Incarnation, the fulfillment of several hundred prophecies, the baptism and temptation of Jesus, and the calling of his disciples. We’ve seen Jesus heal, taking time out from healing only long enough to roll out his core teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. We’ve seen him lay out all the most necessary attributes of his mission-minded disciples in every age. And when you pause to think about it – hey, Jesus’ mission is my mission as a Christian! Or to put a finer point on it, his mission was to initiate the kingdom; ours is to extend it.

     Jesus accomplished his mission. And there, right there, is perhaps the spark for our joy. In the Gospels, we see Jesus methodically knocking down the works of the devil, exercising authority over sin and oppression and disease. We see him conquer death. Knowing that our mission is an extension of his, we know he is with us and for us. We are encouraged. We become a fit vessel for joy to bubble around in.

     If I’m right, if joy and mission are inextricably linked, then there’s probably a thing or two we ought to know about mission. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39, Jesus speaking)… that’s the “great commandment” and the One Big Mission. Within the One Big are many categories – works of mercy, caring, evangelism, and so on. Within the categories, churches will be stronger in some than others. And when it comes to individual mission, there are as many of those as there are individual Christians – with infinite combinations and degrees of spiritual gifts. Maybe this is the year of understanding your mission, and finding more joy.

     I visited one of our folks this week whose health is poor. She hasn’t been to church for a while, but wants to come. I offered some help from my family, but she was already making arrangements with a neighbor lad. You see, if he brings her, he’ll bring his buddy as well, and both young men will experience the love of Jesus in the gathering of his saints, which would increase her joy. Yeah, that.

     I haven’t yet seen a comic strip with a reply from the editors of Oxford English Dictionary. Why wait? I’ll propose a Word of the Year. In the English language, we’ve co-opted many words from different languages – how about some Latin? I propose Anno Domini for 2021 – “the year of our Lord” – just like the 2,020 before it and however more are to come. And I don’t really care what Rat thinks. I’m too busy being tickled. 

 . 

Grace and Peace (and joy for all the ticklish among us),

     

John