Day 19 - Turning to Joy
Living Christ Sangha - Advent Ango Practice Period
Readings
(click the header to view the readings)
Isaiah 9:18-10:4
2 Peter 2:10b-16
Matthew 3:1-12
Reflection
I want to start today’s reflection with a look at the readings. As is the case with many Advent readings, this set seems harsh and can be offensive to our 21st century ears. However, there is an important common theme across the readings, and it very much speaks to our current situation. The theme is the political instability and factionalism that is the breeding ground for dissolution and injustice.
Isaiah decries two things: (1) the aggression of the kingdom of Israel against Judah, as well as tribal factionalism within the kingdom, and (2) the rampant political injustice within the land where leaders and the people “write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey!”
Peter condemns and predicts the demise of a group that knows the faithful and feasts with them. However, this faction has “hearts trained in greed” and live in dissolution and dissipation.
Matthew recounts John the Baptizer’s call to repentance, and his rebuking of the Sadducees and Pharisees, religious factions with competing theologies. They probably came to be baptized by him in order to gain political advantage with the people, as John was a popular preacher who had catalyzed a vibrant religious movement. John famously refers to both groups as a “brood of vipers” and calls on them to bear fruits worthy of repentance.
Repentance. This is a call explicitly or implicitly in all three readings, and a concept that is central to both Christian and Buddhist practice. The Book of Common Prayer provides a confession form for the key daily and weekly services in which the congregation declares together that, “We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.” In Zen Buddhism, repentance also figures prominently. Many ceremonies begin or end with a form to realize repentance. In Thich Nhat Hanh’s community, the repentance gatha is:
All wrongdoing arises from the mind
when the mind is purified, what trace of wrong is left?
After repentance, my heart is light like the white clouds
that have always floated over the ancient forest in freedom.
The Greek word for repentance is metanoia, which means “a change of mind” or “a change of heart,” and it indicates a turning around from the direction we have been heading. In the teachings we’ve been exploring about our minds, it means turning away from touching the seeds that cause misery and suffering, and turning to touch the seeds that yield freedom, peace, and joy. If such a turning moves us from misery to peace and joy, we see that repentance is not a terrible, humiliating experience. It is a relief.
Cultivating Joy
As promised yesterday, below are a few resources to help us repent and turn toward joy. I want to start with a caveat. Tending our mental state is like growing a garden. When gardening, we may plant and nourish certain seeds, but we don’t control the growth or health of the plants. We simply have faith that if we do our part, the garden will flourish. So please be gentle and go slowly. This isn’t about controlling our mental states; it is about tending our minds lovingly.
Here are a few practices for cultivating joy.
Intentionally schedule time into your day to stop, notice your life, and find a source of joy. Sheryl Chard at grateful.org has created a lovely step-by-step guide called Three Appointments with Joy to help you structure this practice.
Do you feel like joy is in short supply in our troubled world? Also on grateful.org is a wonderful essay addressing this challenge. Check out Spirit Bathing for the Worried and Beleaguered by Patricia Adams Farmer.
Thich Nhat Hanh offers a short video teaching on the Practice of Joy, in which we come home to the present moment, reunite our body, mind, and breath, and enjoy what we find.
I hope you find these resources and the practices they offer useful. Tomorrow we will explore the practice of sharing joy with others by “watering” their beneficial seeds.
Prayer
Ground and Source of our joy, help me today to be truly alive and fully aware as I experience the world through what I see, hear, taste, smell, or touch, and teach me to savor and enjoy what I discover. Amen.