returning thanks and sharing gifts...

This coming Sunday, June 28, 2020 @ 10 am I have the privilege of leading

Zoom worship once again with my friends at First Congregational Church, Williamstown. I will post the Zoom link on my Be Still and personal Face Book pages when they have been announced. You may also tune-in Sunday morning via the congregation's Face Book page @https://

www.facebook.com/First

ChurchWilliamstown/. I will, of course, post a link later in the day to my Be Still and Know FB site, too. (go to:

https://www.facebook.com/Be-Still-and-Know-913217865701531/)

It is also a quiet and regular joy in my life to share Friday afternoon prayer with my L'Arche Ottawa friends. I have not been able to visit in person since early in February. But, twice a week they gather on Zoom for conversation, laughter, tears, sharing, song, and reflection on life in community. It has been especially demanding for the associates who have been in lock down mode for 100+ days. When these mostly young adults from all over the world signed-on for a year at L'Arche, no one imagined the intensity of being totally immersed in community 24/7 with precious few opportunities for down time. They have been wonderful in rising to the challenge and my prayers are with them often. 

Since Pentecost, we have been working through a community-made booklet of short readings that correspond to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Each Friday I get to share a short homily and give thanks to God for a chance to share my gifts with the people who have given me so much. Here's one from two weeks ago on the gift of joy.

TEXT: Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, my friend, because you have refreshed the hearts of God’s people. (Philemon 1:7)

REFLECTION: There are different types of joy that we experience in our lives – and appreciating what the Bible has to say about God’s joy within us can be helpful. Sometimes we feel joy as a happy, giddy feeling – an emotion – that surprises us. It fills us up inside when it arrives then slowly passes away when it is over. Being happy is a feeling that can include the quiet satisfaction we sense when we do a job well, the fun we know when laughing hard with our friends, or our delight when something wonderful happens to us or those we love. It comes to us from the outside – from people, events, and things – and stays for a while and then fades away.

Joy is something deeper. Joy is not a feeling or emotion. It is an inward awareness that we are treasured in God’s heart just for being alive – not for anything we have done or said or created – simply because we are beloved by God. That is why joy is called a spiritual gift. God gives it to us as we realize and accept that we are special to the Lord. Jesus used the word beloved of the Lord – and that means you and me: it names us as those who are loved inside and out for all time by our Creator. And because God gave it to us as a gift, joy cannot be taken away: it is always in our hearts. Not a feeling, that comes and goes, but an assurance or awareness that God’s heart is always connected to our own. Our feelings will come and go. Sometimes we are up, sometimes we are down. A country music song says: sometimes we’re the windshield, sometimes we’re the bug. But God’s joy is always within us even when we’re sad or ashamed or blue. God’s joy is forever.

Jesus told his friends that the reason God had sent him into the world was to help us discover the gift of joy – and learn to trust it. He said, “I have come so that your joy may be full.” (Jn 17: 13) No matter what happens outside of us – and there will always be times when we are hurt or afraid or confused – Jesus assured us that God’s love is always there. The more we trust this joy, Jesus continued, the more peace we will feel inside. And the more at peace we feel within, the more generous we can be with acts of love to others. The spiritual gift of joy is a blessing that we can nourish by giving thanks to God and by taking time to be quiet and remember: we are God’s beloved. Forever!