Joy Cometh in the Morning
AM Psalm 30, 32 • PM Psalm 42, 43
1 Kings 12:1-20 • James 5:7-12,19-20 • Mark 15:33-39
I don’t know about you but some days I think to myself, “I sure never thought the end of the world would look like this.” We’re all living through a season right now. It can aptly be described as “night.” At once we find tragedy all around. Brutal regimes rise to power with tremendous loss of life, environmental catastrophes rage, and a naggingly persistent pandemic robs us of those we love too soon. On top of all that, America still finds itself in a pressure cooker of political hatred, animosity, and outright moral injustice. In the words of an old priest, “All seems to be permitted and nothing forgiven.” It’s easy to encounter indifference, even in ourselves. People. Are. Exhausted. You can easily catch yourself wondering what difference does anything make?
Yes, night and even midnight, is a worthy description for times like these. But in today’s morning Psalm we read that “…joy cometh in the morning.” I recently listened to a podcast from The Rt. Rev. Rob Wright, Bishop of Atlanta and he shared this gem, “[We] are not abandoned in [our] grief, and in [our] loss, and in [our] dark moment. There’s a companion with [us]. Story after story in the Bible tells us. Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego were in the fiery furnace condemned to die and then there was a fourth with them...” My fellow weary travelers, there is a fourth with us!
In the final speech of his life, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared these words:
“Midnight is a confusing hour…[but] the most inspiring word that the church can say to men at midnight is that no midnight is here to stay…our eternal message of hope is that dawn will come…In the final analysis, faith in the dawn grows out of faith in God. It grows out of the conviction that God is good, and God is just. When one believes this, he knows that the contradictions of life are neither final nor ultimate. Therefore, he can walk through the dark night with a sense of being safe and being secure. He lives [with] radiant conviction that all things work together for good for those that love God. He knows that even the most starless midnight may be the darkest moment just before the dawn of some great fulfillment…we must go out with the same faith tonight. We must believe that a way will be made out of no way.” (A Knock At Midnight)
May God bless you and I with radiant conviction. May we know that God is good. May He walk beside us, and we know it through and through.
God love you.
Written by Jonathan Wright
Jonathan is a native of Atlanta, GA and a relatively new member of St. Paul’s. He moved to the parish from the Cathedral Church of Saint Mark in Salt Lake City, UT where he became an Episcopalian.