Tuesday, November 9, 2021
Joy in Small Matters
We move further into scripture looking for stories of joy that continue to surprise us. To explore other stories, click on the word Joy in the categories cloud in the blog’s right hand sidebar and choose a reflection, or enter the word Joy in the blog search bar. You may also want to visit the Joy for the Journey blog at www.joyforthee.blogspot.com to see how joy surprises you there. Today we pause to consider the joy we might find in the smallest of places in our lives . . . and the way in which small matters have great effect in our lives.
We know the answer to the question: What can one person do about the ills of the world? We easily reply that we can – in apparently unimportant ways – take small actions that have huge, rippling effects in a world looking for a reason to hope. Today we consider the parable of the talents.
From www.christianity.about.com : A talent was an ancient unit of weight and value in Greece, Rome, and the Middle East. In the Old Testament, a talent was a unit of measurement for weighing precious metals, usually gold and silver. In the New Testament, a talent was a value of money or coin . . . In the New Testament , the term “talent” meant something very different than it does today. The talents Jesus Christ spoke of in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:21-35) and the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) referred to the largest unit of currency at the time. Thus, a talent represented a rather large sum of money. According to New Nave’s Topical Bible, one who possessed five talents of gold or silver was a multimillionaire by today’s standards. Some calculate the talent in the parables to be equivalent to 20 years of wages for the common worker. Other scholars estimate more conservatively, valuing the New Testament talent somewhere between $1,000 to $30,000 dollars today. (http://christianity.about.com/od/glossary/a/Talent.htm )
In this parable Jesus alerts his disciples to the real meaning of a disciple’s call: The work is arduous but immensely rewarding.
With this parable Jesus reminds us that while much is asked of us, much will also be given.
Through this parable Jesus shows us that when we find joy in the smallest of matters . . . we harvest great joy in the most surprising of ways.
The end of the liturgical calendar is upon us when we look forward to the celebration of Advent, a season of anticipation, a time of hope in the darkness, a rejoicing in the coming of Christ’s healing light in a suffering world longing for transformation. As we prepare for this special time of year, let us close doors on all that has harmed us and open doors to building bridges where rifts have grown. Let us determine to put toxic places and people aside and to ask God’s intervention in rebuilding broken relationships. And let us agree to choose joy even in the darkest of times and in the grimmest of circumstances. We will be mightily surprised at what God has in store for those who respond to God’s call in the smallest of places and in the smallest of matters.
Images from: http://franklinchurchofchrist.com/?p=6589 and http://www.elizabethesther.com/2010/12/christmas-tour-of-my-home-pics-happiness-joy.html
For more information about anxiety and joy, visit: http://riselikeair.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/anxiety-joy-a-journey/
The Noontimes 