Greet with Joy

Let’s think for a moment about the carrot and stick question. At times a carrot is dangled to persuade another to comply. Other times a stick is waved to convince another. Persuasion is an almost constant sport in human communication and interaction. Think of a couple of familiar phrases in our culture. You must have heard many forms of the threat, “Do it or else.” The formidable British nanny character, Mary Poppins, told us, “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” You sometimes hear the colloquial wisdom, “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Do you respond better to a positive incentive or a threatening warning?

To entice with a “carrot” is to count on the instinct of the other’s hunger or wants. To influence with a “stick” is to count on a person’s fear and self-protection. The poles of these instincts want and fears play even into how theology is presented. People can be wooed into belief or frightened into belief. Some people put their whole trust in God to avoid the frightening consequences of not doing so. They choose the path to heaven to avoid the fearsome road to hell. Some people catch hold of the attractive wonder of the God of love. Once this end is recognized and sought, even with starts and stops, the progress toward the loving embrace of God is compelling.

Preachers and movements through the ages have made use of both instincts but usually have leaned strongly one way or the other. The revivalists of the first and second Great Awakening movements were often persuasive in their preaching missions by means of descriptions of eternal punishment. The preachers were each unique, but there was that thread. Think of the effectiveness of the more contemporary Billy Graham and that of Billy Sunday, Dwight L. Moody, and Jonathan Edwards. Think also back through the esthetic, intellectual, Christian humanists: from our own Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry back through Phillips Brooks, Priests of the Oxford Movement, all the way to Erasmus of Rotterdam. They all have used a very high view of humanity, and a persuasive way of wooing people toward the greatest good, the unsearchable essence of a God who delights in the creation and loves all the children of the world.

I suppose most people of faith have a mixture of motivations underneath their choice to live out their belief. I find, in the Anglican way, the Episcopal way, the “carrot” prevails. The season of Advent is filled with the message of the prophets and the stern call to repentance to prepare our way for salvation. There are readings about conversion and the imposing reality of the Great Judgement. Still, we emphasize overall the joy of meeting the Lord. Look at the preface of the Eucharist in the Advent season. (The preface is the part of the Eucharistic Prayer right before we say the “Holy, holy, holy”). The celebrant prays: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you Father…

Because you sent your beloved Son to redeem us from sin and death, and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life; that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.

You see there? When the Lord comes, because of what Jesus accomplished for us by his saving life, we shall have life. When he comes again we will have, not shame, not trepidation, but rejoicing. We will be happier than at any other time. This is how we are drawn to him. This is why we believe, and why we hang in there and progress in our life in Christ. It is a reward in the present, and a reward beyond description in the age to come.

The same concept shows up in the prayer for 2 Advent.

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

We forsake our sins, not so much out of fear, but out of the anticipated joy of greeting our Redeemer. Imagine you, greeting the Savior. Picture the look on his face and the expression on your face. Behold his radiant smile of welcome. Feel your own smile of gratitude and elation. This is what moves us. It is why we believe, why we strive to live for God and to demonstrate divine love. Yes, we listen to God’s messengers, the prophets, hear their call to repentance, heed their warnings, and forsake our sins, but it is all rooted in the confidence that we will behold Christ’s appearing, and greet our Savior with unbounded joy.