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Sermon December 12, 2021
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Third Sunday of Advent, Year C
http://lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Advent/CAdv3_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__December_12__2021
Video: https://youtu.be/wVlTXs7TCkI
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4
Please be seated.
We hear so many reports about the increase in deaths due to opioid addiction. Deaths increased during this time of pandemic. A number of years ago the average life span of people who are White dropped and it was attributed mostly to opioid addiction.
There are many treatment programs. We even have given additional money to Perry Human Services to help provide services to people who are addicted to drugs.
Yet, I often feel like something is missing; that we aren’t really getting to the heart of the matter. Why are these drugs and their use so attractive in the first place?
Well, this past week, I read an Opinion Guest Essay from the Monday edition of the New York Times, entitled Opioids Feel Like Love. That’s Why They’re Deadly in Tough Times by Maia Szalavitz. The chemicals in opioids are similar to chemicals our brains make that allow us to feel safe and comfortable and connected to each other.
Social isolation means less of these chemicals get produced in our bodies. Social isolation is one of the factors that can lead to opioid addiction. The article provided this information:
Research has also shown that low social capital, which is a measure of how much people feel connected, trust one another and are a part of their communities, is strongly linked with overdose fatalities. One study that looked closely at individual counties found that those with more civic organizations, nonprofits and greater participation in presidential elections and the census (all of which are linked to trust and social networks) tended to have far fewer overdose deaths.
We need each other. We need community. We need to be connected to each other for our health and well-being. I’ve always remembered what a friend of mine told me years ago. Dr. Ron David, who later became an Episcopal priest and hospital chaplain in California, was at the time the Assistant Secretary for Public Health in Pennsylvania. He said if you take one healthy cell and put it in a healthy environment, it will not function well. However, if you take a layer of cells and put them in a healthy environment, they will function perfectly well. We, like those cells, need to be connected.
Coincidentally, this week a friend gave me a link to a video book launch for Brene’ Brown’s new book, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience. I’ve spoken about Dr. Brown before. She’s is a social worker, professor and researcher of human emotions. Her new book maps 87 different emotions we feel. She discovered in her research that when she asked people what they were feeling, their vocabulary of emotions was very limited, often to sad, mad, and glad. She believes we must go deeper and broader in naming what we feel in order to be more deeply connected and in relationship with each other.
Today in our reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we hear, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” Notice how Paul emphasizes the need to rejoice. This third Sunday of Advent has a theme of joy and we light a pink candle, instead of a blue or purple one. Joy…Rejoice. What is that emotion?
This is what Dr. Brown says about joy:
“Joy is sudden, unexpected, short-lasting, and high-intensity. It’s characterized by a connection with others, or with God, nature, or the universe. Joy expands our thinking and attention, and it fills us with a sense of freedom and abandon. P. 204
She also says that based on her research, she defines joy as an “intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and appreciation.” P. 205 Another researcher confirms that when we feel joy, we do not lose ourselves, rather we become more truly ourselves.
In her talk, Dr. Brown said that feeling joy requires a belief in inextricable human connection. Joy lights us up from within and deep connection is the raw material for joy. She also notes that “joy is the most vulnerable human emotion.” P. 215 She has a whole section about what she calls foreboding joy.
“No emotion is more frightening than joy, because we believe if we allow ourselves to feel joy, we are inviting disaster. We start dress-rehearsing tragedy in the best moments of our lives in order to stop vulnerability from beating us to the punch. We are terrified of being blindsided by pain, so we practice tragedy and trauma. But there’s a huge cost. When we push away joy, we squander the goodness that we need to build resilience, strength, and courage.” P. 215
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice, says Paul to the Philippians.
Dr. Brown’s research found that people who can feel joy deeply, people who can rejoice, can do so because they practice gratitude. Rather than rehearsing everything that can go wrong, they remember and lean into everything for which they are grateful.
Our parish community provides a place to be connected to each other; to reduce social isolation. Our parish community at our best provides a place for us to feel safe, and loved, and to trust others. Our parish community at its best is a place where everyone is welcome…where everyone can rejoice. Our parish community provides a way for us to bring joy or deep human connection to those who are not yet part of us.
While we are together, let us rejoice. When we go out from here, let us rejoice. May our joy carry us through until we are able to meet again.
Amen
Atlas of the Heart: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B097416CTT&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_52EJSBTNCFZS0TFFD47J
