Long Way Here

The heart of God has been unveiled in the Advent of the Christ-child. He yearns to share His life with us and enjoy us forever. The King of the universe is the King of joy and love. God wants us more than we want God. It is God’s love and joy that has the power to transforms us into a people who fully trust his rule and can celebrate God’s reign with all our hearts. God finds satisfaction and joy in his love for us! God wants us to know the deep pleasure of what it means to be satisfied by his presence and rejoicing over us as his beloved, so that we too will know the Lord’s joy. God wants us to become a people of joy!

Let’s not allow the events of our world or nation to get us confused about the source of our joy or what joy is. The third Sunday of Advent invites us to remember that joy is not some feeling of fleeting optimism, but a state of mind and orientation of the heart. Joy is a satisfied state of mind that takes pleasure in the loving reign of King Jesus over our lives and turns our hearts away from fear and to the One who says, “Do not fear for I am with you, rejoicing over you with singing!” Joy is a settled state of contentment, a confidence and hope, not in ourselves, but in the faithful love of God who reigns with compassion and grace. It is the settled assurance and quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright because God’s kingdom, of which we are citizens, will never falter or fail. So joy, more than optimism or happiness, arises from the ashes of a world prone to anxiety, disappointment and fear, and strengthens my feet to walk by faith trusting in the power and promised presence of Christ in our midst by the Spirit.

~ Fred

Zephaniah 3:14-17
14 Sing for joy, Daughter Zion; shout loudly, Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
Daughter Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has removed your punishment;
He has turned back your enemy.
The King of Israel, Yahweh, is among you;
you need no longer fear harm.
16 On that day it will be said to Jerusalem:
“Do not fear; Zion, do not let your hands grow weak.
17 Yahweh your God is among you,
a mighty one who will save.
He will rejoice over you with gladness.
He will hold his peace in His love.
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Psalm 16:10-11
10 For you will not abandon me to Sheol; you will not allow your faithful one to see decay.
11 You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures.

PRAYER

Lord of joy, God of dancing and celebration, awaken my heart to the joy that comes from your presence and reign. In Jesus’ name, amen.

I interrupt my Advent posts because, well, that’s how life works. It’s stories like the two I will tell that create in me a deep longing for the final Advent.

It has been said that justice is love done in public. We need love done in public. We need justice. Until then, I lean into Advent and like so many, I wait. Now for the two stories.

A white bar owner in Staton Island NY declares his bar an “autonomous zone” as a protest to COVID-19 restrictions. He holds a protest. Sheriff’s deputies stop by to arrest him for the violation. The white bar owner evades arrest and attempts to run over a sheriff’s deputy. It’s on tape. He bowls over the deputy forcing him onto the hood of his car while the deputy holds on. The white bar owner gets arrested and charged, including a second degree charge for assaulting an officer. He gets released without bail. The white bar owner gets a guest spot on Fox News and is declared a patriot, a small business hero.

Casey Goodson JR. stands on the porch of his house and is mistaken for a felon by one white sheriff’s deputy. Casey Goodson JR is shot dead. Casey Goodson JR is black.

The authorities have confessed he was wrongly identified. But there is no body cam footage available to shed more light for Casey Goodson JR’s case. The deputy didn’t wear a camera. It’s Casey Goodson JR’s family’s word against the word of one deputy. A federal investigation is being conducted.

Video footage shows the white bar owner hitting the deputy with his car. No shots were fired. The white bar owner is alive and well to tell his story on TV.

Most likely there’ll be no examination of past relationships conducted on the white bar owner. No one will look into the psyche of this man willing to evade arrest by running over a deputy, one whose Blue life he likely claimed to support.

It took days for the D.A. to change his mind and do more than release him without bail.

Not so for Casey Goodson JR. He’ll have his death challenged with the burden of proof placed upon his past and his family. Most likely, examinations will be conducted on his past relationships in the court of public opinion.

Everything I mention about the white bar owner’s situation is what we do know. There’s a lot about Casey Goodson JR’s death and it’s circumstances that we don’t know. But here is what we know about both.

The white bar owner has his life. Casey Goodson JR does not.

The white bar owner gets to celebrate the holidays with loved ones. Casey Goodson JR does not.

The white bar owner will go on to plead his case. Casey Goodson JR will not. He cannot.

But history will. And the contrast between the two stories does, for some of us at least.

On a personal a note:

I thought about posting this on social media for a while. I’m weary of these stories, of the “again.” I’m also weary of my many white brothers and sisters working so hard to prove a point while missing the point. I decided long ago to put my hands and feet to my response to these stories in my city and resist the urge to add to the vitriolic noise of Facebook. But this one needs to be seen, given the timeframe and season. As obvious as it is, I realize it won’t be for many who will fail to see the inequity and double standard.

I post this not to demonize the white bar owner. I post this not to demonize the officers. I post this not to demonize any person. I post this to (once again) highlight the demonic systemic evil and injustice at work in the racialized cultural systems of our nation. I post this because it reveals the legacy of death-dealing dehumanization that continues to be upheld against black and brown brothers and sisters.

We can create systems of accountability. We can create mechanisms and practices that promote restorative justice. Many have written about it. Many have pleaded. We need to listen and act.

#CaseyGoodsonJR #blacklivesstillmatter

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/staten-island-da-issues-statement-on-defiant-bar-owner-tells-mayor-gov-to-back-off/2773334/

https://www.silive.com/crime/2020/12/da-responds-to-criticism-over-staten-island-bar-owners-release-without-bail.html

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/10/945019298/casey-goodson-jr-s-family-calls-for-murder-charges-against-sheriff-s-deputy

This week you get two for one.

“Joy is a deep-seated sense of well-being, of safety in God’s universe. Joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit, growing as a natural product of the transformation of one’s inner self to be like that of Christ, which itself is full of joy. We should, to begin with, think that God leads a very interesting life, and that he is full of joy. Undoubtedly he is the most joyous being in the universe. The abundance of his love and generosity is inseparable from his infinite joy. All of the good and beautiful things from which we occasionally drink tiny droplets of soul exhilarating joy, God continuously experiences in all their breadth and depth and richness.” 

~ From Dallas Willard’s, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God, p. 62

“If we think we will have joy only by praying and singing psalms, we will be disillusioned. But if we fill our lives with simple good things and constantly thank God for them, we will be joyful, that is, full of joy. And what about our problems? When we determine to dwell on the good and excellent things in life, we will be so full of those things that they will tend to swallow our problems.”

~ From Richard Foster’s, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, p. 195.

PRAYER

“Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we men, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you—we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” (From Augustine’s, Confessions, p. 3.)

Arouse my heart, O Lord, so I will know the wonder and joy that comes from your presence. In Jesus’ name, amen.

“Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence.
It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience.

We try to get it [joy] through entertainment. We pay someone to make jokes, tell stories, perform dramatic actions, sing songs. We buy the vitality of another’s imagination to divert and enliven our own poor lives. The enormous entertainment industry in America is a sign of the depletion of joy in our culture. Society is a bored, gluttonous king employing a court jester to divert it after an overindulgent meal. But that kind of joy never penetrates our lives, never changes our basic constitution. The effects are extremely temporary; a few quiet minutes, a few hours, a few days at most. When we run out of money, the joy trickles away. We cannot make ourselves joyful. Joy cannot be commanded, purchased, or arranged.

But there is something we can do. We can decide to live in response to the abundance of God and not under the dictatorship of our own poor needs. We can decide to live in the environment of a living God and not our own dying selves. We can decide to center ourselves in the God who generously gives and not in our own egos which greedily grab. One of the certain consequences of such a life is joy, the kind expressed in Psalm 126.”

~ From Eugene Peterson’s, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society, p. 96. 

PRAYER

Lord Jesus,
Master of both the light and the darkness, send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas.
We who have so much to do and seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day,
We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us.
We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom.
We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence.
We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light.
To you we say, “Come Lord Jesus!’
Amen.

~ Prayer by Henri Nouwen

• Henri J.M. Nouwen

The songs of Advent-Peace are a protest against the way the world now is. They sing of the Church’s stubborn refusal to accept the way things are. We sing songs of God’s plan to bring wholeness to the suffering and poor living in our land of broken promises where the nations are so filled with terror that violence is all they know. The songs of Advent-Peace sing of the God of the gospel who has promised to reorder the world. They summon us to lean into the present tense of the reign of the Prince of Peace who has promised a future God intends to bring.

God of Advent, may the melodies and harmonies of our songs change our minds and move our hands as your Spirit guides us in the way of peace.

~ Fred