In computer programming circles there is an old joke about a king.
His wife is ill, so he calls the royal physician. After some time with the queen, the royal physician returns before the king. The king demands to know that the physician has made her well.
“Sire,” the physician begins, “there is cause for rejoicing! For the queen is pregnant with your first child!”
The king thanks the physician for his service, and makes a royal proclamation that the queen will bear a child during the month of harvest, and the proclamation is sent out to the people.
After hearing the proclamation, the royal physician seeks audience with the king.
“Sire, the queen cannot bear the child during the month of harvest, fo that will be too soon. The pregnancy must last nine months!”
“NINE MONTHS?” bellowed the king. “That is far too long. You must make it sooner, or I will lose the confidence of the people to whom I have promised a prince or princess during the month of harvest.”
The royal physician stammers “bbbut that is how long it takes for any woman, queen or peasant, to bear a child.
The king ponders this problem, then his brilliant mind seizes upon a simple solutiom.
“PUT MORE WOMEN ON THE JOB!”
Let’s go to God in prayer.
God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.
Amen.
Our reading today doesn’t begin very joyfully.
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” – Luke 3:7 NRSVue
Hi John. Nice to see you, too.
John has an apocalyptic message, and he’s scaring the people who are coming to be baptized. They’re wondering whether he might be the anointed one, the Messiah, and he says
“I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
– Luke 3:16-17
Not only is John saying “not me.”
He’s saying “Not yet.”
Humans are generally not patient creatures. We want next-day shipping, instant credit, buy-now-pay-later. But some things just take time.
This is the problem with good stuff: it usually takes a while.
If you want a meal cooked to order, you have to wait.
If you want something right now, you can probably get something at the gas station that’s been under a heat lamp, but it will probably not be as good.
Good stuff takes time.
Good stuff often takes hard work.
Joy is good stuff.
We can find something to make us happy in the short term, but joy is something that grows over time.
Joy is something that may begin as something tiny that bears fruit later.
The story about the king is told as an allegory for product development: sometimes a thing will take as long as it takes.
It takes 33 hours to drive from Eureka to Chicago. If Mary and I take two cars, it still takes 33 hours. If we drive with a bunch of friends in their cars, it still takes 33 hours.
Spring will come on March 20th at 2:01 AM. We cannot move that time forward.
For those of us who are not feeling joyful, joy may seem far off. Waiting to feel joyful again can make it seem as if joy may never come.
But the promise is that joy will come again.
We must await joy with the same expectation with which we await spring, or a new child. What we can do while we wait is to prepare.
For a child, people often prepare a room with colorful paint, furniture, and toys. Not to mention baby-proofing anything we can think of.
In the scripture reading, preparations included:
- sharing clothes
- sharing food
- honesty in tax collection
- refraining from extorting money
basically being decent to other people.
Maybe that’s what it takes for us as well: expanding our caring for others.
Making room in our hearts for others also creates room for joy. It gets us out of our worries about things in our own lives that we can’t control, and opens us to the needs of others.
And somewhere along the way, joy will come.
So my challenge for us this week is to cultivate an expectation of joy: not transitory happiness that will go as quickly as it comes, but a deep-rooted joy that will grow over time, and bear fruit in its own season.
Expect joy.
Amen.
Let’s sing NCH 120 There’s a Voice in the Wilderness
* Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue
* Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.
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