Joy Unspeakable In the Time of Covid19

Blessed be God who animates our lives; blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 

You may recognize that benediction as the opening of Peter’s letter and the Epistle for this Sunday. It goes on to say, and these may be the critical words for today...Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

I am tempted to repeat this and to emphasize the YOU ARE RECEIVING...present active happening tense! Please repeat it to yourself today many times...

These are words which have become so very difficult to comprehend much less believe this spring when snow covered the ground in mid-April almost as a sign that the world has indeed gone mad. Anxiety and fear, grief and sorrow have come in such a tidal wave as to cause us to almost miss the Joy of Easter. Almost...

Yesterday, I offered you a poem entitled Joy Unspeakable and fully anticipated to leave it at that. I was postponing some contemplation on its litany of joy to preach about Thomas’ doubts. But like the magnetic field which God can be for me/us, I kept literally placing it next to Peter’s letter and turning both offerings of hope and joy over and over in my mind, in my heart. Being unable to let the words of both poets go, I succumbed to another homily. 

For while Thomas is an interesting and everyone kind of character (we all doubt) it is the offering and RECEIVING of faith and its gifts which is at the heart of Easter and what we are all wondering about just now. In a world turned upside down, much like the times over 2000 years ago, we doubt God, we are suspicious of joy, and we are mired in grief. 

So let me get to it and read you this amazing poem by Barbara Holmes, a womanist mystic theologian/poet:

Joy Unspeakable

is not silent,

it moans, hums, and bends

to the rhythm of a dancing universe.

It is a fractal of transcendent hope,

a hologram of God’s heart,

a black hole of unknowing.

For our free African ancestors,

joy unspeakable is drum talk

that invites the spirits

to dance with us,

and tell tall tales by the fire.

For the desert Mothers and Fathers,

joy unspeakable is respite

from the maddening crowds,

And freedom from

“church” as usual.

For enslaved Africans during the

Middle Passage,

joy unspeakable is the surprise

of living one more day,

and the freeing embrace of death

chosen and imposed.

For Africans in bondage

in the Americas,

joy unspeakable is that moment of

mystical encounter

when God tiptoes into the hush arbor,

testifies about Divine suffering,

and whispers in our ears,

“Don’t forget,

I taught you how to fly

on a wing and a prayer,

when you’re ready

let’s go!”

Joy Unspeakable is humming

“how I got over”

after swimming safely

to the other shore of a swollen Ohio river

when you know that you can’t swim.

It is the blessed assurance

that Canada is far,

but not that far.

For Africana members of the

“invisible institution,” the

emerging black church,

joy unspeakable is

practicing freedom

while chains still chafe,

singing deliverance

while Jim Crow stalks,

trusting God’s healing

and home remedies,

prayers, kerosene,

and cow patty tea.

For the tap dancing, boogie woogie,

rap/rock/blues griots

who also hear God,

joy unspeakable is

that space/time/joy continuum thing

that dares us to play and pray

in the interstices of life,

it is the belief that the phrase

“the art of living”

means exactly what it says.

Joy Unspeakable

is

both FIRE AND CLOUD,

the unlikely merger of

trance and high tech lives

ecstatic songs and a jazz repertoire

Joy unspeakable is

a symphony of incongruities

of faces aglow and hearts

on fire

and the wonder of surviving together. 

I could probably write a book about this poem and the joy it evokes, the faith it strengthens, but so might we all. We all have different reactions and memories of joy, individual and communal. So for today I would like to place this poem in the context of Jesus’ post resurrection appearances and how the joy of the resurrection might be revealing itself to us today in the time of coronovirus that we too might know the “wonder of surviving together”.

Taking any verse of this poem it seems to me that Holmes, like Peter, like the 4th evangelist, is finding in messy threatening times something of salvation being given. 

“In the interstices of life, it is the belief that the phrase ‘the art of living’ means exactly what it says.” 

Holmes’ inspiration for this poem was in large part African American music, the cultural tradition from which it sprang. This causes me to recall just over the last few pandemic weeks how life-giving the arts have been. Spontaneous musical offerings, not only in the face of John Prine’s death, but just because...Audiences became virtual yet somehow together...

Musicians from classical to jazz, folk to rock, spiritual to gospel to traditional, have all used art to bridge the emptiness and loss. We who listen have received that offering with “joy”, albeit in the midst of sorrow. 

(below is Sherry’s offering of Alleluia, Alleluia give thanks to the Risen Lord #178 which serves to immediately bring the joy of communion into our hearts!)

No less vital are the artists who bridge that emptiness with images! Color and stroke, light and shadow, reveal the holiness with which the world is imbued and our human artistic creative response to it all. 

Were I to humbly write my own verse to Joy Unspeakable it might go something like this:

For the socially distanced and isolated

Joy Unspeakable is the realization

that the Body of Christ has journeyed from the building

and is deployed in places of care and fear.

Joy Unspeakable is the music, art, conversation and prayer

which reaches through the silent depressed anxiety

and strikes a chord of love and life

previously unknown, unrealized

until it echoes a return.

harmonies of wholehearted compassion are created;

holy connection continues.

In the end, today is as much about enduring faith as it is about doubt. It is as much about revelation and imagination as it is about suppression and grief. 

We are “receiving the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls” day in and day out. Although we have not seen Him, we love him. Hold onto that! And look for the Joy Unspeakable!