In this world heavy with robust reasons for despair, joy is a stubborn courage we must not surrender, a fulcrum of personal power we must not yield to cynicism, blame, or any other costume of helplessness… And when the war within rages, as it does in every life, the practice of joy, the courage of joy, becomes our mightiest frontier of resistance.
– Maria Popova
It feels unusual to be speaking of Living Love Through the Practice of Joy right now when our nation and the world is experiencing so much mayhem and tragedy. This, though, is the wisdom of theme-based ministry. It invites us to reflect on spiritual themes of universal significance without regard for our personal preferences or the circumstances of the moment. The universal significance of the themes helps to elevate our spirits beyond the confines of our passing partialities and the pressures of the moment to remember their importance to the journey of truly loving.
I know many of us are living with intense fear, anger, and pain and as we witness people being abducted off of our streets because they exercised their first amendment rights to free speech, press, association, assembly, and the right to petition the government to address grievances. We are witnessing court orders being ignored and undocumented people and documented people and even citizens being detained, deported, or imprisoned. The queer community is under attack and some of its most vulnerable members are being disparaged, discriminated against, or erased. Women’s rights continue to be assaulted and the progress we’ve made over generations is evaporating before our very eyes. We have every reason to be fearful, angry, and suffering when we witness what is happening to our own lives, and those of our families, our congregation, and members of our larger community.
Reflecting upon what the queer community faced in the midst of the HIV/ADIS crisis when the vast majority of Americans, and the US government, and the medical community, and the mass media, and schools, and religions decided to look the other way while a generation of queer people died from a terrible plague, I think of the wisdom of Dan Savage who lived through that dismal generation of American history. He writes, “During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced at night. The dance kept us in the flight because it was the dance we were fighting for. It didn’t look like we were going to win then and we did. It doesn’t feel like we’re going to win now but we could. Keep fighting, keep dancing.”
In our time, if authoritarians, fascists, and bigots think they can silence us, keep us from offering our resistance, or deprive us of the joy of life, they’ve got another thing coming! We will find joy in life to empower us, inspire our movement, and to make, as Toni Cade Bambara had similarly expressed, the revolution that’s coming irresistible!
Our Soul Matters theme-based ministry questions for our spiritual reflection in small groups and committee meetings this month are:
- What were you first taught about “deserving joy?”
- Did you grow up in a “happy family?”
- What simple joy rescues you over and over again? (What might you do to make a little bit more room for it in your life?)
- Are you mostly a creator of joy, receiver of joy, notice-er of joy or spreader of joy?
- If you could magically give a joy-filled and sorrowless week to one of your friends, family members or co-workers in the coming year, who would you choose and why?
- Have you been hesitant or scared to ask for the thing you know will bring you joy?
- When was the last time you sought out joy for your body?
- Has choosing joy ever been an act of survival for you? Or an act of defiance?
- Are you too responsible to let joy in?
- What is one of your favorite/best moments of bringing joy to someone else?
- Has joy ever asked something big of you? Might it be asking that now?
- When was the last time you told your partner that they delight you?
Our Pastoral Care Team is available to provide non-judgmental and confidential support and care in times of elation, struggle, life transitions, disability, surgery, or when a friendly soul would simply be welcomed for short-term companionship. You can request a conversation with a Pastoral Associate by emailing pastoralcare@uusm.org or by calling the church office.
If you have a joy welling up in your heart you’d love to share with the community, a grief or sorrow that might be lessened if held in community, please email joysandsorrows@uusm.org to have it included in our Thursday announcements and shared from the pulpit on a Sunday morning. We’d love to know how you are and what’s happening in your, as Mary Oliver might say, “one wild and precious life.”
Yours in love and ministry,
Jeremiah
Rev. Jeremiah Lal Shahbaz Kalendae
Developmental Minister
