Three people walk into a bar: a priest, a pastor, and a rabbi. The bartender greets them saying, “You all look exhausted. What’s going on?” The pastor says, “There’s a new baby in our house, and I’m praying for the gift of sleep.” The priest nods, “We just baptized a baby on Sunday, sweet child, but I’m still drying my robes out from the splashes.” The rabbi sighs, “A baby joined our synagogue nursery, and suddenly everyone’s praying for patience.” The bartender summarized the patron’s comments saying, “Sounds like those babies are bringing more prayer than a revival meeting!”
And indeed, a baby brings many things. Among them is unavoidable change. If your household is preparing to welcome a child, you have no choice but to prepare. Preparing a nursery; preparing the birth bag; getting baby clothing, cradles and all the ‘baby stuff’ that a growing family will need. A baby brings real change. And ready or not, the baby arrives…bringing change. As Christians we also prepare for the birth of a baby. But our preparations are different. There is a choice in our preparations, isn’t there? We are encouraged to prepare. We talk about preparing. Yet the choice is ultimately ours. The choice to prepare our hearts anew, welcoming the shifts, the transformation, and all the changes…yet, in the end embracing God’s changes are optional aren’t they? We can prepare to be changed through this season or we can choose to just ‘go with the flow’. Are you truly preparing for the changes, for the new thing, for the birth that God will bring?
Coupled with this choice to embrace God’s change is a further challenge that change is hard. Few of us like it, do we? Even good change…exciting change…hopeful change. It is hard because change disrupts our routines, our plans, our expectations. Change forces us to see the world differently and nudges us into places we didn’t ask to go. And yet, mysteriously, change is exactly the soil God uses to grow new life. Psychologists who study change note how difficult it is. They used to tell us that changing, adopting a new habit, would take about three weeks to adopt. However, they (Scientific American) are now telling us it takes more like sixty-six days to fully adopt a change. Some studies rate it as the better part of a whole year. So, if you might have tried to eat a little healthier, drink a little more water, or walk more regularly, you already know the difficulties we are facing. It is difficult and it is optional. Yet, change is the heart of the Advent story…change is the way God births joy to the world. And so, with those challenges in mind, we consider pondering when God’s change becomes holy!
Matthew tells the story from Joseph’s perspective, and in just a few sentences we learn that Joseph’s life has been blown apart. Joseph is a good, faithful, righteous man. He is engaged to the love of his life. He is preparing a future. He has plans. He imagines a certain kind of life. And then Mary tells him she is with child. Everything Joseph thought he knew collapses in an instant. We might imagine the thoughts running through him: “This wasn’t the plan. How did this happen? What will people say? What am I supposed to do now?” Matthew says Joseph had “resolved” to do the compassionate thing. He made a plan to dismiss her quietly. But even Joseph’s plan is interrupted because God is not done; God’s way is about birthing change. In a dream, Joseph hears these life-altering words: “Do not be afraid.” Do not be afraid to receive this change you aren’t ready for. Do not be afraid to let your life become something new. Do not be afraid, because God is already in the middle of it making it holy. Joseph wakes up and steps into a future he does not fully understand. And in that obedience, in that courageous demonstration of faith, joy enters the world. And in the Mary and Joseph story, we discover that joy is not the absence of fear; joy is the transformation of fear into trust; fear into faith; fear in joy. This is the deep joy Advent speaks of: the joy that comes from embracing God’s unfolding way, even when the path forward is unclear.
Isaiah’s prophecy also speaks into fear. King Ahaz is terrified. Armies surrounding him. Judah’s fate is very bleak. Everything is unstable. And God offers him a sign of hope through Isaiah: a child, Emmanuel, “God with us.” But this is not a sign of stability, is it? A baby! A sign of hopeful change? But, it was! The baby was a sign that the old ways will not continue. A sign that something new is birthing. What we are observing from the two passages is that God rarely speaks into our comforts. God speaks into our uncertainties with a promise of presence. And in that presence, Emmanuel/ God with us, is the source of joy…God birthing joy amidst all the changes; joy amidst the fear; joy!
I wonder if we often think that joy is a feeling that comes when life is easy. And that might be true to a degree: joy is a day at the park; a day with family; a day without the aches and pains that life brings. But the biblical joy we explore is deeper. God’s joy grows in the cracks of uncertainty. It emerges in the moments when our plans fall apart. It appears when we realize that God is already standing in the new place before we get there. Mary and Joseph do not feel joy because their life is predictable. They feel joy because God is faithful. They feel joy because they are participating in God’s new thing. That is what makes their change holy. That’s how joy arrives for them; it is the promised joy that would, one day, arrive for Isaiah’s people. NOT that it is easy, (it is never easy), but that God is present in the changes. And because God is present, change becomes a possibility, for everything is possible with God…even joy!
This year, as we move past our centenary, the United Church of Canada is inviting us into a bold conversation called “Toward 2035”. It is a recognition that the world is shifting: socially, spiritually, demographically. And it is an invitation for our church to listen to where God is inviting transformation. Toward 2035 is not an anxiety project pronouncing a death sentence on our denomination; Toward 2035 is a joy project; it is a call to imagine who we are becoming, how we will serve, and how we will express God’s compassion and justice in the coming decade (and beyond). Like Mary and Joseph, we face questions: What will OUR future look like? How will we adapt? What changes are God asking of us? What new possibilities are waiting to be born? This initiative reminds us that the church is not defined by its buildings or past structures. The church is defined by its calling, its mission, and its willingness to say “yes” to God’s unfolding future. Just like Joseph said “yes” to God. Just as Mary said “yes” to God, we also are called to say yes! Joy comes when we embrace change as the holy place where God is moving.
At our local level, we see this reality with the SkyTrain expansion through Fleetwood and into Langley: a project that will reshape our neighbourhood dramatically. More people will come. In fact, city planners tell us that our neighbourhood will welcome 200,000 new people in the coming decade. More housing will develop. More cultures will gather. More needs will emerge. More opportunities will open for us to be the church! That future might feel overwhelming. It may raise concerns. It will certainly bring change. But like Joseph awakening from his dream, we hear the Spirit whispering: “Do not be afraid”. I am with you. Do not be afraid. New life is coming. Do not be afraid. Joy will be found here too. The SkyTrain expansion is not simply an infrastructure project. It is a sign that the community around us is growing, shifting, transforming. And whenever a community changes, the church is invited to consider: How will we be church for the people coming into the neighbourhood? How will we show hospitality? How will we (as we say in our vision) “embrace all of Creation with the love of Christ? How will we embody Emmanuel / God with us for a changing world? This is holy work. This is joyful work. This is Advent work.
When faced with change, Mary said, “Let it be with me according to your word.” Joseph awoke and “did as the angel commanded him.” Neither had clarity. Both had courageous faith. And from their courage, joy was born. Joy to the world would come! Their story invites us to trust when change arrives. To trust in the church, in the neighbourhood, in our families, in our own hearts. To trust that God is already there. The call of Advent is not to avoid change, nor to fear it, nor to resist it, but to ask: How might God be arriving through all of this? What new life might this bring? How might joy be a present wrapped up amidst this disruption?
Joy transforms fear into faith. Joy turns uncertainty into openness. Joy makes change into the birthplace of God’s new thing. Joy teaches YOU to say “yes” even when we do not yet understand. This is the joy of Emmanuel / God with us. Not God above us. Not God behind us. But God with us in every unfolding moment. May we welcome this transforming joy and receive the holy gifts God is birthing among us. Amen.