The Gospel of Black Joy
Isaiah 61:1-11
61The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.They will be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
4 They shall build up the ancient ruins,
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.5 Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,
foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines;
6 but you shall be called priests of the Lord,
you shall be named ministers of our God;
you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations,
and in their riches you shall glory.
7 Because their shame was double,
and dishonour was proclaimed as their lot,
therefore they shall possess a double portion;
everlasting joy shall be theirs.8 For I the Lord love justice,
I hate robbery and wrongdoing;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their descendants shall be known among the nations,
and their offspring among the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge
that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my whole being shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.
Perhaps the first few verses of this text are familiar to you. They are a mighty proclamation to those who long for justice. They echo from generation to generation. It is this chapter of Isaiah that Jesus reads at the synagogue in their hometown as they enter in fullness to ministry. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is baptized, led into the wilderness and temped, then returns to community to begin leaning into the their identity as Christ and the first thing they do is to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath as usual, read from the sacred text as usual, but this time joining the ancient promises with contemporary reality,
saying “these words are fulfilled in your hearing.” The idea that these promises would be made true here and now through someone as seemingly ordinary as a backwoods carpenter’s son is so beyond expectation or comprehension that it gets Jesus run out of town.
The prophets gives voice to God’s poetic vision, not to provide clarifying detail, but to reveal the character of what WILL be.
Perhaps you too long for someone to show up and announce that they are here to usher in a time of liberation, a year of Jubilee where the debts of generations are cancelled, the compiled and compounded weight of struggle is lifted. Isaiah and Jesus both proclaim that they embody the Spirit’s work toward this end.
But even more so, they point to God’s work among the whole people as the fulfillment of these words. This Spirit of the Lord is upon me to do and be these things, but also with you. The movement of God’s promise and presence are from Me to We.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
4 They shall build up the ancient ruins,
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
…. you shall be called priests of the Lord,
you shall be named ministers of our God….
everlasting joy shall be theirs.
The embodiment of God among us does not float just above our reach, but enters fully into the mess of the masses. It is not only the noted leaders, but the people together who will be agents of this rebuilding. And this rebuilding is not the result of a slog of suffering. Rather, it is buoyed by the subversive joy that remains even amid the toil.
I met with my spiritual director recently and she talked about this practice she does with those who are feeling isolated and weighed down during the pandemic. She has them envision the last time they were among family or friends, that last really good gathering. Remember where they were and who was there, the look and smell and taste of the food that was shared, the games that were played or the stories that were told, the rising sound of their laughter, and the whole-hearted smiles.
Through this remembering, there is also an experience of joy that takes shape. This vision of past joy actually produces an echo of that same joy into the present. The physiology of it proves true, that our brain benefits even from pretending to be joyful. It’s the science behind laugh therapy, which says that laughing even at nothing, even if it feels phony or hollow, if we lead our bodies into the practices of joy, it can create the same chemical boosts that we find in those rarified moments of true joy.
She talked about it like an endowment - that we can draw on the balance of joy, both past and future, to be sustained and bolstered through this moment.
I wouldn’t say the Gospel is a mind over matter proposition, but I have seen how a vision of joy beyond this moment radiates into current realities to create powerful liberation among us.
It is that infectious joy that bring us to tears for the way it evokes our heart and our humanity in ways that defy the dominion of sorrow and restores the soul, beginning with the defiant hope that joy is even possible. Even as it seems beyond us, it enters into us and changes everything.
Could there be any witness to this more powerful than black joy? Throughout history the black community, and in our corner of the world the African-American community has been given reason aplenty to mourn and despair - as we are being sorrowfully reminded in recent days with continued state violence toward black men – the federal execution of Brandon Bernard and then Alfred Bourgeois with two more black men scheduled before inauguration day, the police killing of Casey Goodson Jr. – who’s basic existence is assumed to be criminal. How can there be rebuilding, hope, or joy amidst so much pain and destruction, the devastation of many generations?
And yet, the current of black joy is not dissolved. Rather, it emerges all the more insistently. It serves as a holy incarnation among us, the embodiment of God’s vision that blesses us into new ways of being.
During this time of global strife, a song by Master KG out of South Africa went viral. “Jerusalema”, sung in Zulu, remembers and builds the symbol of holy home, the promised land that leaves none forsaken. The words speak of healing, but it is the joyful dance and the sharing that make it tangible. It became an international “challenge” that produced effervescent videos from Angola to Romania and all around the world – Of people dancing with lunch plates still in hand to frontline healthcare workers dancing down hospital corridors. It is precisely in these places where it is least expected that is becomes most palpable and perhaps irresistible.
I’d like to share one of my favorites with you. The Masaka Kids Africana is a dance troupe made up of children who have often lost one of both parents through the devastation of war, famine, and disease. Yet here they are, a prophetic witness to resounding joy.
During this season of Advent as we yearn for and look forward God’s arrival among us, let us not forget to look at the flesh and blood already surrounding us. Jesus isn’t born somewhere back there or beyond us, but within and by us. Amen.
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