Rejoice

This is one of my very favourite hymns and one of the best bits of Advent, for me, is having the opportunity to sing it. In another life, long, long ago when I was Vicar of a parish with lots of people in it who didn't have a particularly strong feeling for liturgical tradition, a woman complained about its inclusion in a December service. She noted that while it urged us to rejoice, neither the tune nor the lyrics were very happy. Which is a good point. Or rather , it would be a good point if joy and happiness were the same thing. Which they are not.

Happiness is the wonderful feeling I have that everything's going my way. Our happiness usually depends as much on what we've just eaten or what we've just heard as anything else, and we dont have a lot of control over whether we're happy or not. The Bible tells us to rejoice in the Lord and we knock ourselves out trying to make ourselves feel happy, in a pious, hand clappy sort of way, singing bouncy praise songs and smiling for all we're worth. It never works. Sure, we fool the people around us, which just makes them feel bad as they are all busy trying to perform the same trick. But we dont feel any happier, just a bit guiltier that no matter how hard we try, we can't get the hang of this rejoicing thing. It would be easier for us if only we could understand that joy and happiness are different species of being.

Joy is the settled place of confidence that comes from trust , or to use a synonym for trust, faith. Joy comes not because of our external circumstances but often despite them.

So a baby boy is born to a teenage refugee, fleeing her fiancé's family because her pregnancy is so shameful. She lays the baby in a borrowed bed and the very heavens explode in song: Joy!

Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel has come to thee, O Israel.

Comments

Allen said…

So my favourite as well! Thanks for your post

20 December 2018 at 00:41

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