Advent 3 Joy

If I asked you all to imagine a green hill with a blue sky with some small white puffy clouds on it,

how many of you would see the Microsoft Windows background screen which was so popular for decades?

It is reportedly one of the most widely known photographs ever taken

it is now titled Bliss, originally titled Bucolic Green Hills

bought from National Geography photographer Charles O'Rear

it depicts a green hill and blue sky with a few white clouds on it.

It was taken on the Sonoma Napa county line in California in 1996.

The hill was in a resting stage between different vintages of wine grapes at the time

and the story goes, O'Rear was driving to visit his girlfriend after a storm earlier in the day

and saw the scene at the perfect moment.

He put it up on a photo sharing website from where Microsoft bought it to use as their Windows background image.

It is somewhat ironic to me, in an age of technology

as more and more of spend hours staring at screens

that most of us have at some point in our lives, or still do have

a background screen image of something in nature.

I think the name of the image is so telling.

This is what we think Bliss would be like.

A perfectly green hill with a beautiful blue sky and maybe some nice white puffy clouds.

I will agree that it is a calming image to look at.

No tension, nothing to really wonder at

its reassuring in its cheeriness.

If we look outside on any given day, we won't see this kind of scene

granted, right now we are on the cusp of winter

so everything has a brown cast to it

but also, we get a lot of weather and we have a lot of broken up skyline

with electrical cables and tv cables

wind turbines cell phone towers

humanity comes with a lot of infrastructure.

The thing about an easy picture like this, especially when we name it something like bliss,

is that we think happy emotions will be easy.

Clear, uncluttered, easy bliss

like an empty green hill and an empty blue sky.

Yet, even happy emotions are rarely that simple or straight forward

Happiness may come for a short while and be easy

but Joy, the deeper under girding foundation of any happiness

is a complicated emotion.

One of the best pictorial images for seeing the complicated nature of joy

is from the Pixar movie Inside Out.

It is a movie that takes place inside the head of a pre-teen as she copes with moving across the country

and going to a new school.

The real main characters are her emotional thoughts, depicted as

Sadness, who is completely blue, head to toe,

not surprisingly, anger is red, Disgust is green, fear is purple.

Joy, who is bright yellow and dressed in a yellow dress,

actually also has blue hair!

Symbolically giving away some of the movie plot

as the emotions learn how to share moments and recognize that emotions are not always only one way.

You can't really have joy without some sadness.

Because part of what makes joy joy is that you know the moment won't last.

The third Sunday of Advent is about joy.

Our celebration is another great mix of themes: joy in the midst of a season of waiting.

There is plenty of joy to be had when we are waiting

even if we don't like to wait.

In the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, he says,

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Many of us understand the joy of waiting for something we expect will bring happiness

even when it means leaving behind something else and sometimes feeling sad about that.

Perhaps when changing jobs or moving to a new location or waiting for a new year,

2024 is fourteen days away!

or as children in school, waiting for the summer to start or the new school year to start.

It is the joy of summer with the sadness at not being able to see friends on a daily basis.

Rejoicing while waiting for something you're not looking forward to

or while waiting for something you are uncertain about

takes a different approach.

Finding and acknowledging joy in those moments comes from being present

being awake to God's goodness as it is

in the little parts of life, like a tasty meal or favorite shoes

or in the joy of a friends' smile.

We do need these momentary glimpses of joy

like that Windows background of clear sky and open fields

even if they aren't true joy

we need those moments of serenity

in order to let go of the tension in our bodies and minds

in order to 'stay awake'

as Jesus has repetitively taught.

Sometimes we feel ashamed or unable to enjoy the moments of joy in our lives

because we know there are horrible conflicts going on and people struggling to get the basic necessities of life

Living into God's wholeness for us means recognizing that

God has created us for joy

even when we are in unhappy seasons of our lives.

This is part of the blue edge of sadness in a yellow joy-filled moment.

When it comes to waiting for Jesus

there may indeed be excitement with a little sadness

excitement for what is to come, but also sadness at what we might lose

as life changes.

God brings new light into the world anyway

and that IS what we are waiting for

the light, the moments of joy in a dark world

Jesus coming into the world will bring

more than just a spark or a flame

Jesus coming into the world will bring more light than we can imagine

moving in and around and through us

opening us up to God's joy and love in all of creation.

In this joy, we are home.

That is worth waiting for.