Share Delight

Although each Sunday at St. Paul’s is marked by palpable joy and energy, this week was extra special. During worship, the children and youth of the parish gathered at the altar with their backpacks for a blessing. After worship we went outside to enjoy a lovely summer day with food, games, bounce houses and other activities. Our primary purpose was simply to be together. We didn’t change the world or transform lives. No one was converted or baptized (though a lot of children and three priests did get very wet!). We simply delighted in the blessing of community.

This brings to mind Mary Oliver’s poem, Mindful, which begins:

Every day

I see or I hear

something

that more or less

kills me

with delight,

that leaves me

like a needle

in the haystack

of light.

Reveling in that which delights us can seem shallow in a world so filled with struggle. How do we justify making time for pleasure and play when the world is full of inequality and injustice, intractable problems, scandals and divisions? If we believe what Jesus says — that the first shall be last and the last shall be first (Matthew 20:1) — we need to pay attention to those who are too often last. Not so we can save them but so we can walk with them as we work together to make society more equitable for all God’s people.

But we must leave room in our lives for delight. Joy is not only good for our well-being, but it is also at the heart of Jesus’ life and ministry. I came into the world, Jesus told his disciples, “so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11) And let’s not forget Jesus’ first miracle in John’s gospel, changing water into wine at the wedding in Cana (see John 2). While there are plenty of biblical scholars who suggest a variety of serious interpretations of this miracle, I wonder if there is a simpler explanation. Jesus was having a good time and wanted the party to keep going.

Delight isn’t relegated only to special moments. We don’t need bounce houses and water slides to experience delight (though they do help!). As Mary Oliver reminds us, delight is found not only in “the exceptional, the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant,” but also in “the ordinary, the common, the very drab, the daily presentations.”

Has something delighted you this week? Give thanks to God for that moment of joy, and then share your delight with someone else.