JOY: Experiencing Joy This Season

Read: Amos 8:4-12; 2 Corinthians 9:1-15

By Julian Wright
 

This Advent, like most, I am struck by the incongruities. A helpless babe as a Messiah. The lure and lucre of commerce in a season meant to be about redeeming love and – if the manger story retains any relevance – a certain simplicity of living. In today’s scripture, I am struck by the incongruities even more. Amos sends a clear warning on the perils of wealth to greedy capitalists and anyone not nearly attentive enough to the needs of the poor. (Amos 8:4-12). I find the message daunting as my law partners and I gather in much of the bounty of a years’ worth of work, and many of our clients finish deals and tally up balance sheets for the IRS’s year-end deadlines. Yet, we juxtapose Amos with Paul’s (the conventional writer of at least parts of 2 Corinthians) praise of zeal in giving and reaping abundantly. (2 Corinthians 9:1-15). Indeed, in this season of giving – as always, even if a bit late for stewardship season – we are reminded that “God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

It is often in such incongruities – these admitted mysteries of life – that I find the Joy of this Season. In heeding Amos’ warning and going from not trampling on the poor and needy to actually trying to help out on occasion, I glimpse hope and perhaps provide it for those I more conscientiously reach out to help. In bountiful giving – in whatever form – I aspire to do as much good and spread as much love in Paul’s “ministry of the saints” as I can. The Joy comes most readily in lighting up the eyes of a child, a family member, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger – all of whom give to me in some form and to whom I try to give to in some reciprocal measure – with some type of gift during this time of year and trying to extend that Joy throughout the year. For today, heed Amos’s warning; emulate the generosity of the church at Corinth in giving; and experience the Joy of the Season.