Day 17 • The Week of Joy
Scripture Readings:
Psalm 125
2 Kings 2:9-22
Acts 3:17-4:4
I don’t know about you, but when I see all that is happening in the world that causes so much suffering, it is really difficult for me to remain hopeful, to imagine peace being made, let alone joy overwhelming all the sorrow.
Yet, the season of Advent really challenges this in me. It puts hope, peace, joy, and love in front of me and invites me to not only rest in them but also invites me to renew my trust that despite the circumstances of our world today, the redemption of all things will be the end result. God will have the last word over us. Not death, not destruction, not sorrow, but the word of God that brings life and life abundantly will be what endures.
Our passage from Acts 3:17-4:4 really wrestles with this issue. When we remember that the Jesus movement was a movement within Judaism and not separate from it, it really does help us to understand how Peter and John are speaking to their own people from within, not as those who have “converted” out from their people. We Christians, +2,000 years later, are the “Gentiles” looking in and reading this internal struggle taking place within their community.
Peter and John embody the long line of the prophets, who were from Israel and sent to Israel. Prophets in any movement have a tendency to be mistreated and suppressed. How Israel treated its own prophets is a prime example. How Jesus was treated by his own people is another example. How Christians who critique American Christianity are being treated is yet another example. Whenever you are calling for repentance from those you love and those who you share a deep bond, it can often turn very messy and even hostile. Being a “prophet” isn’t for the faint of heart.
Yet the message Peter and John are speaking of is one of radical grace and reconciliation. They point to how ignorance among Israel and its leaders led to the unjust crucifixion of Jesus, their beloved teacher. Yet, instead of preaching a message of hostile vengeance and retribution, Peter and John proclaim how God had used such a tragedy to yet again offer forgiveness and reconciliation, even for those who played a role in Jesus being handed over to death. With Peter being one of those who played a role in denying Jesus, he preaches as one who knows firsthand the radical nature of being forgiven and reconciled. His message is proclaiming that God does not want to repay evil for evil but to still faithfully offer wholeness, healing, and peace to the world.
You see, the cross was not God’s response to humanity’s sin. The cross was humanity’s response to God’s radical love and desire to forgive. The kind of love and forgiveness Jesus proclaims is too radical, too reorienting, and too subversive to our hierarchies and structures of power. This is why Jesus’ death was so predictable. To paraphrase George Orwell, we fear love because it creates a world we cannot control. So we prefer to respond with hostility and even crucify the prophets who preach such a radical message as “love your enemies” and “pray for those who persecute you.”
I think that is one of the most powerful parts of Jesus’ message that keeps me coming back to him time and time again. Even when we humans cause such great harm to each other and the world around us, God is at work trying to break the endless cycles of violence and hatred with love and forgiveness. At the end of my life, I want to look back and be able to say that I didn’t allow the world to make me violent, hateful, or controlling, but I held onto the radical message of the gospel and worked for hope, peace, joy, and love to be created in the world around me. No matter how bad the world may look around us, God is still working to bring about goodness and healing. I believe we should, too.
Reflection Steps:
I can be prone to what’s called “doom scrolling.” Where tweet after tweet or news story after news story just leaves my heart feeling so heavy and sad. Especially when I start my day this way, I can find it really hard to hold onto any joy. The algorithms of our online consumption are built to bring us the sensational and the shocking. So, we will most likely see all the “bad news” and very little of the good news. I have since decided that I need to be proactive in looking for the good, the true, and the beautiful. It has made a really big difference. I want to invite you to reflect on what brings you joy today. Spend as long as you need to, allowing those things to stoke the joy in your heart. When you do, I think you will find how your imagination is expanded to envision the possibility of good things happening, even out of the worst of situations.