Joy to the World

 

Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling

Recently, in talking with a colleague from another church, he described one of his parishioners as an “Eeyore.” Constantly complaining about how bad things were in the numbers and the news, it was all doom and gloom. Like people you may know, Eeyore is generally characterized as a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, and old gray stuffed donkey. “It’s still snowing. And freezing. However, we haven’t had an earthquake lately,” said Eeyore to Winnie the Pooh.

I heaved a sigh in front of someone last week and he quickly responded. “That sounds like a middle of the winter kind of sigh.” In truth, I was having a case of the ‘woe is me’s.’ I had grave concerns about the health of some family members and friends. I was tired of the weather and the pandemic, and I was a little grumpy about the losses of my favorite basketball team. Finally, I was unhappy with the challenges of aging. 

In the words of Jeremiah, I was feeling “like a shrub in the desert, which cannot see when relief comes. (I was living) in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.” And I didn’t want to push out into the deep waters as Mike suggested in his sermon last Sunday. Nope, I was Eeyore, pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, and feeling like an old gray stuffed donkey.

The ‘woe is me’s’ attitude is often attributed to Jeremiah, who was known as one of the major prophets in the Old Testament. He was also known in a song written by Hoyt Axton called “Joy to the World” which was made famous by the band, Three Dog Night. Jeremiah was a bullfrog, who “was a good friend of mine. I never understood a single word he said. But I helped him drink his wine. If I were the king of the world, tell you what I'd do. I'd throw away the cars and the bars and the war, and make sweet love to you.” Jeremiah was all about peace and love.

Some people have theorized that there is a Biblical meaning to this song. They suggest that the bullfrog is representative of the prophet, Jeremiah, and that the bullfrog is symbolic of the voice of God. Apparently a member of Three Dog Night said that the original lyrics to the song were "Jeremiah was a prophet" but no one liked it. So it just became a “silly song” that helped bring the band back together as a working unit.

Jeremiah’s prophetic career coincided with the critical events in his country's history. Like Eeyore, Jeremiah, the prophet, had a reputation for his laments. There was no joy in his world. At first, he argued with God that he was only a boy, and too young to be a prophet. Initially, he spoke words of judgment, offering ‘woe is you’s’ to the people of Judah. He endured both hatred and persecution from his very own people.

Be obedient to your ancestral faith and the commandments of Moses, Jeremiah insisted, and not to the King David dynasty. Do not rely upon the priests and your temple worship to save you. Instead of fighting a war, Jeremiah told them that they should acquiesce to the Babylonian invasion in order to avoid national destruction. Invasion of borders is a hot topic these days as well, and many prophets are making various suggestions! 

Some 600 years later, Jesus, the prophet, also spoke some  ‘woe is you’s’ to the people of Israel. In a challenge to his religious leaders, he said, “Woe to you who are rich, full of yourselves, laughing at others, and have good reputations because you are false prophets. Instead of speaking the hard truth of God, you only say what people want to hear and to protect your own power.

Later in the gospel of Luke, Jesus piles on even more. Woe to the cities and people who reject me. Woe to the Pharisees and lawyers who are focussed on the letter of the law rather than its spirit. Woe to the people who cause others to stumble, especially children, and to pregnant women and nursing mothers when the end times come. Finally, at his last supper, Jesus said woe to the ones who will betray me. Pointing always to God, he spoke truth to power and for the powerless.

St. Augustine in his book entitled Confessions talks about his sinful pleasures and his eventual decision to be baptized. He hoped to lead a different kind of life. But there was a great deal of ‘woe is me’s’ before that. “Woe is me!” he wrote. “Lord, have pity on me; my evil sorrows contend with my good joys, and on which side the victory lies I do not know. Behold, I do not hide my wounds. Thou art the Physician, I am the sick man; thou art merciful, I need mercy.”

Turning to God for help, we can turn our “evil sorrows into good joys.” We can change our attitudes and perhaps even our lifestyles. Jeremiah eventually changed his words of judgment into messages of hope. He invited his people to help rebuild Jerusalem after its destruction by the Babylonians.

“Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,” he said. “They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.” Which is why the crowds came to hear Jesus as well. The multitudes wanted to be healed of their diseases, cured of their troubles, and rid of their unclean spirits. If only they could just touch Jesus, they thought, he would turn their woes into blessings. 

Occasionally we will need to adjust our attitudes so that we can see life and even death from a new perspective. William Shakespeare once said, “There is nothing either good nor bad, but thinking that makes it so.” And in a daily meditation, the author of Today’s Gift wrote, “Attitude is everything. And luckily for us, our attitudes are a matter of choice. Nothing or no one in the past or present can dictate our attitudes. No one else deserves credit or blame for how we choose to process reality. For better or worse, our attitudes are ours alone.” (Hazelden/BettyFord, Today's Gift, Feb. 3)

Every day, we can look for simple moments of joy, as the great Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu suggest in the Book of Joy. With attitudes of gratitude we can give thanks for our many blessings, even for the thorns in our rose gardens, the parched places in our wildernesses, and the dry bones in our bodies. We can always find streams of living water, flowing from the side of Christ.

In the end, Jeremiah began to talk about a new covenant. The law of Moses would not be found in the stone tablets displayed in the temple of Jerusalem. The new covenant would not come from the kingly powers of a foreign government or even from their current administration. The new covenant would not even come from their priests, but rather it would be written on the hearts of all God’s people. God’s love and peace and joy are all spiritual blessings that are always present even when our woes and Eeyores surround us.

Jesus' message was similar to Jeremiah’s, both the prophet and the bullfrog. He gave his people a new commandment, that we love one another as He loves us. Jesus incarnated the peaceful, nonviolent, healing, and loving power of God. This Word of God made flesh invited us to love God first; for our health and salvation are God’s desires for us. Opportunities for rebuilding, renewal, and resurrection are given to us every single day. They just come wrapped in different packages, and are spoken by different prophets, throughout the ages.

Poor indeed are we, if we do not understand the riches that God offers to us in Christ. Hungry indeed are we, if we have not yet found the food of eternal life. Sorrowful indeed are we, if we have faced our losses without the comfort and hope of resurrection. And despised indeed are we, if we cannot share from the abundance of our riches.

Put your trust in the Lord, said Jeremiah. Have faith in God’s power, said Jesus. Believe in the resurrection, said St. Paul; for Jesus wasn’t just a moral leader, a great teacher, and a compassionate healer. Nor was he just a prophet and a religious revolutionary of his time. No, Jesus was the One who brought joy to our world.

 When Eeyore shows up at your door, and you’re feeling like an old, gray stuffed donkey, turn to Jesus, and sing  a silly song, like Three Dog Night. “Joy to the world, all you boys and girls right now. Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea. And joy to you and me.

Jeremiah 17:5-10

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Luke 6:17-26