Joy (ft. Ken Shigematsu) | Advent 2025 E3

Hello and welcome to the John Mark Coleman Teachings Podcast. My name is Yinka Dawson and I'm your host. Each week we feature teachings by John Mark or other voices in the formation space, and it's great to have you with us. As we continue our Advent series with our Week on Joy, we're resharing a teaching from one of our teaching fellows, Ken Shigematsu. He gave this teaching to the Ten Church in Vancouver, BC, where he serves as a senior pastor. He's also the author of several wonderful books, God in My Everything, about spiritual rhythms, and Now I Become Myself, about overcoming toxic shame. Today, Ken unpacks how the arrival of Jesus brings what Tolkien called the sudden joyous turn, a miraculous shift in our story that gives us cause for deep and lasting joy, even in the midst of sorrow. Here's Ken. During World War II, 30 Allied soldiers were captured and imprisoned behind German lines. There was a rumor that they didn't have any chaplains among them. So this guy named Dr. Ray Bakke, who is an urban professor of missions, shared this story and he said, I knew this chaplain named Murdo MacDonald, known as Chaplain Mac, who when he heard there were no chaplains for the prisoners, raised his hand along with another Scottish chaplain and volunteered to be flown over this prisoner of war camp or near it and to be dropped into the area by parachute. And so they board this plane, they're dropped off by parachute, and they're pretty much immediately captured and taken as prisoners into this POW camp. And there was this high-wired fence that was separating the American barracks from the British barracks, making it very difficult for the two sides to communicate. But every day, Chaplain Mac, this Scottish guy, would come to the fence to connect with his Scottish chaplain friend. And there was a German guard that was always there and a big sign that said, no speaking in English, no speaking in French, no speaking in Italian. But there was no sign that said, no speaking in Gaelic, this ancient Scottish language. And so they would converse a little in Gaelic and they'd be on their way. Known to the German guards, the Americans had built this small homemade radio with which they could receive news from the outside world, which was more precious to them than food. Precious for them than food. And so Chaplain Mac would come to the fence and he would deliver some headlines in Gaelic. The German guards didn't know what was going on. And then one day, the Americans received news on their radio that the German high command had surrendered and the war was over. So Chaplain Mac goes to the fence in Gaelic, communicates this to his chaplain friend. The chaplain friend walks into the British barracks and moments later, there is this roar of celebration. People are shouting, they're dancing, they're laughing, and the guards have no idea what's going on. Well, a few nights later, news reaches the German guards that the war is over, that they've surrendered. And so they flee into the night, leaving the gates of the prison camp unlocked. And so the very next morning, the Americans and the Brits walk out as free men. But three days before, the soldiers were technically free. When they heard the news the war was over, they knew that there was a turn in their story and so they began to experience joy. J. R. R. Tolkien explained the finale of his book, The Return of the King. And he explained that the ending, with its surprise of joy, was not escapist, but it was a miraculous grace. Something he described in his words as the sudden joyous turn. Tolkien explained that it does not deny the existence of sorrow or failure, the possibility of those is necessary for joy to be the joy of deliverance. Tolkien said, when the joyous turn comes, it causes a child, a man, a woman, to catch their breath as it gives them a beat and a lifting of the heart as joy. During Advent, as we remember the arrival of Christ, we experience or can experience the sudden turn of joy. And during Advent, we remember Christ's first coming and his return, and today we're going to look at how Christ's coming and how his return supplies us with joy. Last week we saw how in what we now call the first century, a 14 or 15 year old teen girl from a tiny town of Nazareth, maybe a hundred or so people, who is illiterate like all her peers, is approached by this large luminous being. And this teenager is bewildered, she's shaken, she's afraid, and the angel Gabriel says to her, do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. Now Mary had many reasons to be anxious. She would become pregnant supernaturally through the Holy Spirit, she would start to visibly show, and in this small traditional town, people would have assumed that she had had sex outside of marriage, scandal would have befallen her as people gossiped about her. When her fiance Joseph learns that she is pregnant, he knows he's not the biological father, he assumes she has cheated on him, and so he begins a process of breaking off the relationship. Mary's story is not without pain and sorrow, but when she hears from the angel Gabriel that she is favored and loved by God and will give birth to a son whom they will name Jesus, which means Savior, she knows that her story has experienced a sudden joyous turn and that she has cause for her heart to lift in joy. And she breaks out in song. In Luke 1, she sings, My soul is ecstatic, overflowing with praises to God. My spirit bursts with joy over my life-giving God, for he has set his tender gaze upon me, his lowly servant girl. From here on, everyone will know that I have been favored and blessed. The mighty one has worked a mighty miracle for me. Holy is his name. And whether you know it or not, with Christ's coming to earth, like Mary, you too can experience the sudden joyous turn. On that first Christmas night, when the angel said to the shepherds who were keeping flock, watch over their flocks at night, do not be afraid. I bring you good news. good news that will cause joy for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. The angel doesn't say this is good news cause for joy just for Mary or just for the shepherds, but for all people. Not just for the rich and the well-connected, not just for the good people and the upright folks, but for all for you and for me. A Savior has been born which according to the gospel is the one who will save us from our sins, provide the way for us to be forgiven so that we can live in harmony with God and so that we can enjoy an even richer relationship with God in days to come. Have you ever experienced in any part of your life or any season a sudden joyous turn where somehow you knew that your future would be different and for the better? Maybe you were admitted to a school that you really wanted to study at and somehow you knew that your life would would be tracking in a different direction. Or perhaps you made a sports team or a musical group that you really wanted to play for. Or perhaps you got an offer for a dream job. Or maybe you were just beginning a new friendship or romance or we're about to start a new family, to have a child. Or perhaps you got a clean bill of health from the doctor. Or maybe like my mom this summer you got bad news but because you know the Lord, like my mom, you were really eager to meet the Lord face to face. And your heart rose in joy. You know when Christ is part of your story, not only can you know God right now in this moment, but your future and your eternity will never be the same. Scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians 2, I has not seen nor heard, neither has entered into the heart of man or woman the good things the Lord has in store for those who love him. I wonder if you ever take time to really ponder and savor your good fortune and your great future. You know as we saw last week, on that first Christmas day when the baby was born and named Jesus we read in Luke 2.19 that Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Do you ever take time to treasure and to ponder the gifts that God has bestowed upon you? According to neuropsychologist Dr. Rick Hansen, two-thirds of the neurons in the amygdala of our brain that is in our personal alarm system stand the world for bad news and for emergencies and danger. Scientists believe that our ancient ancestors developed this negative bias because when they were on the African savannah, they needed to scan the horizon for potential predators that might enjoy them for lunch. And so they needed to have this negative focus just to survive. And so because we have this tendency, when we experience something bad or painful, it just takes two or three seconds for that experience to lodge in our brains. But when we experience something good, it takes at least 12 seconds for that good experience to really form in our consciousness and move from our short-term memory to our long-term memory. I was recently in touch with someone who was aware of this dynamic and he said, on the Sabbath day my family and I will pause and take 14 seconds. So they're past the 12-second threshold and they take 14 seconds to imagine a good gift from the previous week that felt like something from God's hand. And they just imagine it and they ponder it so that it forms in their long-term memory so that they feel gratitude to God and so they experience more joy. I know it's a very busy time of the year, but do you take time to ponder and to savor the good gifts that God has brought into your life, including the gift of a Savior who reconciles us with God and who will one day return for us. So Mary experiences this sense of being favored and loved by God through the message of the angel Gabriel and then knows this sudden joyous turn, but she also knows joy because the Holy Spirit will come into her. When the angel Gabriel says, you will conceive and give birth to a son, Mary responds by saying, but how can that be? I am a virgin. I have never slept with a man. And the angel says, the Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born in you will be the Son of God. And so the angel says, the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you and you're going to conceive and give birth to God in human form. Now the Holy Spirit will not come upon us in exactly the same way so that we conceive and give birth to the Son of God, although if you've read A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, the novel, you might wonder if that is a remote possibility. I won't totally categorically deny that, but that probably won't happen to you. Still, if you come to God and receive the forgiveness of sins which is on offer for you because Christ died for you, you will be filled with the Holy Spirit and you will have reason for joy. Dallas Willard was a professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, a brilliant writer on the spiritual life who died some years ago. I never tire of quoting him. Dallas describes how he was visiting Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to teach and how on one particular day, one of his hosts, a young man, took him to one of their beaches. Dallas said, I figured, hey, I'm from Southern California, I've been to the beach before. I was totally unprepared for what I was about to view. He said, my host and I, we walked up a small hill, got to the crest of it, and then I was just stopped in stunned silence at the view before me as I saw the sandy beach and the gorgeous ocean. My breath was taken away, I don't have words to capture what I saw, but we began to walk slowly toward those waves and the thought entered my mind that God sees this view from every imaginable angle and possible dimension, and not just this view, but billions like it in the world and in billions of other worlds all the time. And I thought, tidal waves of joy must continuously wash over God. And then Dallas thought, we human beings, we spend a lot of money buying a little tank, A little glass tank, and we get some tropical fish, and we never tire of their beauty. We marvel at their form and movements, but God has seas full of these fish and more! We human beings sometimes come into contact with goodness and beauty and occasionally drink in tiny droplets of soul-exhilarating joy. But God enjoys these things all the time. And Dallas concluded, God must be the most joyous being in the universe. And when that most joyous being of the universe lives in you, you will know a greater joy as well. The great C.S. Lewis, in his classic Mere Christianity, wrote these words. If you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire. If you want to get wet, you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to or even into the thing that has them. They are not the sort of prize which God could, if he chose, hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you. If you are not, you will remain dry. If you want eternal life, that is, the life of the most joyous being in the universe, get close to God. Immerse yourself in the water of who God is and you will grow in joy. So Mary recognizes she's favored and loved by God and experiences the sudden joyous turn. And then she is filled with the Spirit and her joy grows. And the same can be true for us. When we recognize that we are loved by God, we will know this sudden joyous turn. When we are filled with the Spirit, our joy will grow. That does not mean, however, as some of us know from experience, that our lives will be free of sorrow and pain. Mary, as I alluded to, had sorrow and pain in her story. When she became pregnant outside of wedlock, people didn't know that it was a supernatural conception. And so they gossiped about her. That was painful. When Joseph assumed she had cheated on him, he understandably broke up with her. That was crushing for her. Although an angel would later reveal to Joseph that her conception was something created by the Holy Spirit, so he stayed with her. And then scripture tells us that when Jesus, her son, was in his early thirties, he was nailed to a cross to become an atoning sacrifice for our sins. But the Bible tells us that it was like a sword was thrust through Mary's heart. She experienced so much pain. A mentor of mine says that joy is like a tree. It won't always be in visible bloom, but even in the wintertime, we know the tree is still growing and that it will bloom. And knowing it will bloom is a reason for hope. And if we have a reason for hope, even during painful times, we can know a quiet undercurrent of joy. So as we experience the sudden joyous turn, as we connect our life to Christ or Christ connects his life to us, as we are filled with the life of God, joy grows in us. And then finally, as the life of God is birthed in, but also through us to the world, we will know a unique joy. Mary had the experience of not only being filled with the spirit of God, but conceiving a real flesh and blood human being who was God as one of us. And that was just obviously just a cause for monumental joy for Mary. It's also the cause of considerable grief as well, but a lot of joy. And when we have the privilege of not only being filled with the spirit of God, but becoming a channel of God's life to others, we will know a joy that we have not known before. When people ask me, how am I doing, they sometimes ask, how's the family doing? How's your wife doing? And if they ask about my wife, Sakiko, I'll say this, we were talking about this last night. I don't want to share this, but I think I should share it. So it's nothing bad, but she just thought maybe not to share this. I'll say something like this. You know, a few years ago, Sakiko enrolled in this school based out of Oregon that teaches something called spiritual formation, how to be formed spiritually. And she finished that program and then she entered into another course that teaches someone how to become a spiritual director. A lot of us aren't familiar with that term. When I talk to people, they just sort of glaze over. Spiritual direction is an intentional conversation where you talk with someone and help them discern how God is at work in their life and how God might be speaking to them. So she's been engaging in this with others, with some folks from Japan via Zoom and some Canadians here in the area. And I've seen God at work in her. She's sensed God at work in these conversations, in the lives of these people she's getting to know. And there's just real joy as they see God active and showing up. And when you sense God is at work in your life or someone else's, there's something about that that's just incredible, as some of us know. I shared this story at the AGM now because there's no big dramatic scandal to share. We had a quorum, but we didn't have a great number. So a lot of you wouldn't have heard this story unless you were at the AGM, but here's a version of it. Not long ago, a woman, a young woman in Afghanistan was offered admission with a scholarship to a well-known medical school here in North America. Actually in the United States. I won't name the medical school. But when the violence with the Taliban broke out in Afghanistan recently, this young woman admission to med school and the scholarship were both withdrawn. But this creative young woman had the original letter of admission in her hand, and she figured out a way to use that to get herself a visa. And so before the fateful August 30th deadline, she bravely boarded a plane and flew to the United States of America. She somehow made it up to Blaine, Washington, just across the border, and then on foot walked across the Peace Arch border into our country of Canada. She ended up meeting five or six guys and living with them. It was not a particularly safe or good situation. Then ran out of money and they kicked her out. And on her first day of homelessness, she was walking through a park here in Metro Vancouver when she ran into a couple of Afghan women. They began talking. They said, tell us your story. And the young woman began to pour out her heart in her story. They looked at each other and they said, you should meet Mim Wickett of 10th Church. Mim works as an occupational therapist. That's her daytime job at BGH, but she's really involved, as some of you know, in just welcoming refugees into Canada. And so that very night they connected her to Mim Wickett and to Patrick Olaszczuk, our pastor of International Missions. And they... And they got her a place to stay in the area, a condo that a Christian couple had donated for the express purpose of housing a refugee. And this young woman is becoming friends with the friends of God here at 10th. And the people who are familiar with this and are part of this story are experiencing joy because they see God at work among them. God through them, but also among them. And when you sense that you have been an instrument of God, whether it's to your child or to children that you are caring for at a place like Anvil, Anvil Camp. Or you sense God at work in a conversation. Or as you offer hospitality to someone, a friend, a stranger, in your home, somewhere else. But you see God showing up. That is a cause for joy, a unique joy that the larger world sadly often does not know. When you sense that you have been favored by God like Mary, you can see that your story is now on the arc of the sudden joyous turn. And one like the shepherds, you understand that a Savior has been born for you. And that Savior begins to live in you by the Holy Spirit and then begins to manifest God's life through you to the world. Then you will experience the lifting of your heart as joy. May that be so for you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Ken shared how our brains naturally fixate on the negative. Bad experiences stick in just two to three seconds, but good experiences need at least 12 seconds to really form in our memory. If we rush through Advent and the busyness of the season, we can miss the sudden joyous turns happening all around us. We invite you to treasure and ponder like Mary did. So to end, let's take some time to practice this, to let gratitude and joy sink deep into your heart. Start by taking a few deep breaths with me. Become aware of God's presence. When you're ready, bring to mind one specific gift from this week. Maybe it was a moment of connection, a provision, a surprising joy, or simply God's faithfulness in an ordinary day. Picture it, savor it. Let yourself feel gratitude for it for at least 14 seconds. I'll give you 30 seconds to do that, and then close with Amen. Amen. Everything we make is completely free because it's already been paid for by The Circle, our community of monthly givers. Special thanks today goes to Rebecca from Springfield, Ohio, Randy from Eagle, Idaho, Amy from Cambridge, Massachusetts, Catherine from Lynchwood, Washington, and Sarah from Portland, Oregon. Thank you all very much. To join these friends in The Circle or learn more about our resources, visit practiceintheway.org. Until next time, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.