So, it’s official.  For all of you who have been waiting years for it to happen, just this past Tuesday it was announced… My Little Pony was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame! The pastel colored ponies, along with Transformers and the Phase 10 card game, after 7 times being a runner-up, finally made it to the winner’s circle.  My Little Pony even beat out the balloon for this top spot! Happiness, utter happiness, is what I am feeling in my heart! Well, perhaps not utter happiness, but at least a little lightness in my heart.  And I’ll take it.

I really need a little lightness in my heart right now because, quite frankly, so much in the world is rather grim.  We’ve just made it through a contentious election and our nation remains bitterly divided; there are wars in the Middle East and Europe; the effects of climate change are being manifest in violent floods and storms across the world; inflation is still high and people are struggling to make ends meet; the poor and homeless and mentally ill and disabled and undocumented immigrant and people of color are still being forgotten.  Ugh. 

So, thank you, My Little Pony, for a little bit of happiness that you have brought to my heart. I appreciate it.  But really, if I am to be honest, I want more.  I want more than a little happiness.  I want joy once again. And real joy is something that doesn’t come from the things of this world; it comes from God.

In his letter to the Philippian Church, St. Paul entreats the believers to “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, rejoice.” This may not seem like a bold statement, but it really is.  You see, when Paul wrote those words, he was sitting in a prison cell.  And he was writing to a community of folks who, along with most other Christians at the time, were being persecuted from all sides.  In the midst of all that suffering, Paul has the chutzpah to claim that joy is the proper emotion to maintain in one’s heart. So, what’s up with that?  

Well, in contrast to happiness, joy runs deeper and stronger.  Joy is the quiet, confident assurance of God’s love and work in our lives and in the life of the world. Joy is the trust that God will not cut and run, that God is with us and for us no matter what, that when everything else is falling apart, God is about the business of putting it all back together. While happiness hinges on happenings, joy is rooted in the love of God through Christ. Joy is the deep-seated belief that all shall be well because God’s got the whole world in his hands.  Despite seemingly all evidence to the contrary, God’s got the whole world in his hands; he’s got the whole wide world in his hands.

This Sunday, all of us at St. John’s have the opportunity to respond to the proclamation that “God’s got the whole world in his hands.”  It is Pledge Sunday and we will be gathering up and offering to God our pledges for the new year. I can think of no better time than the present for the people of God to pledge their support to the work of God at St. John’s.  We will continue to be faithful, bold, and joyful proclaimers and doers of God’s will in these challenging days of our nation and world. I hope that you will join all of us, who, along with the believers in the early church of Philippi and countless Christians since, have committed to God’s work of reconciliation. My friends, he’s got the whole world in his hands; he’s got the whole wide world in his hands.  Trust in God and join in his work of life and love.

~Father Art