Making Joyful Noises

Psalm 98 From Psalms for Praying by Nan C. Merrill and Joy is the Justice (We Give

Ourselves) by J. Drew Lanham

November 9, 2025

Nicole M. Lamarche

It’s so perfect that we have all of these joyful noises! Thank you all for showing up for each other. I invite you now to take some deeper breaths with me on this beautiful day.

What a gift to be together like this.

God of many faces and names, open all of us humans to hear whatever we need to today. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

“Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive, who is youer, than you!”-Who said that? Dr. Suess! Here’s another one: Biologists have crossed a watermelon with a cauliflower. People who eat the new variety have a sense of sadness known as: meloncauli! These are some Calisms. There were too many to choose from. Not long ago he posted a twisted baby duck face with a caption that said: Controlling my mouth is the easy part, It’s the subtitles on my face. That’s the problem. Can anyone else relate to that?

We celebrated his life last Sunday afternoon, and there seemed to be no end to his resources of jokes in myriad forms. As if he claimed humor as a spiritual practice. Because helping us all laugh is quite useful, it’s a tool in the construction of a life infused with joy. Humor is always holy, it lightens, shifts, opens, connects and that feels so important right now, especially in a hard time for many of us in this room and many in our community. Laughter, helps our body release, relax, renew itself from hard things. A good laugh is shaking it off like wild animals surviving an attack.

So today we are exploring joy and what it means to make joyful noises in this time? As heard from the ancient words from the Psalmist, a poem from long ago, what does it look like to make joyful noises with our lives? I ask this both from a spiritual perspective and from a political one.

In her book Possessing the Secret of Joy, Alice Walker wrote “Resistance is the secret of joy!” And what many have understood this to mean over the years is that keeping joy itself is a form of resistance, protecting our joy is protecting what we love, for ourselves, for our community for our nation state, our planet. Not letting ourselves get so down low that we cannot feel it. Not allowing ourselves to require curated convenience more than the beauty of messy true community. Not spending energy only on doom scrolling, despair reading, or downer news sharing. Giving time to doing the things that keep us joyful is itself as important as boycotting, calling, marching, writing, emailing. As Sidney Burris wrote recently, “The secret is that joy itself, whenever it appears, is a form of resistance. A resistance to struggle, to hardship, to tragedy, to boredom. To the human condition. Joy is resistance.”

So holding our joy is not just for us individually or for us as a faith community but also as a broader community, a city, a country, a state. As many parts of the infrastructure of our democratic republic have been chopped, reduced, in some places what seems like destroyed, or at least temporarily put out of commission, investing ourselves in what gives us joy locally calls upon us now more than ever. What will it take for us to stay joyful right here, in person, in Boulder? It’s the babies and bubbles for sure! What could we do, what would we do to help one another keep our joy?

To remind one another of the need for joy?

What would we need to as the poet said to give ourselves permission to see joy as a way for us experience what is like heaven here at hand. “Joy that is the paradise we can claim right here, right now.” How do we not let joy become a luxury or something just displayed as holiday art, but something we make time to feel? On our own and together?

Joy is the sunrise breaking through night’s remains, shone new

Joy is the soul underneath the journey…

Joy is the gift, what we deserve without asking…

The Hebrew word for joyful used in Psalm 98 is rua which literally means: To shout, to cry out, to make a loud noise or to sound an alarm. And when one continues to investigate it’s the same Hebrew word used in a battle cry. So beloved of God, joy doesn’t need to be hidden. It can be your own little battle cry for the world you love and the world you want in the big and small sense. It can be loud and it can also be quiet.

This week as I was gripping the steering wheel, trying to get somewhere quickly when in a buttery voice, the radio said, take a really deep breath. I found myself smiling. “Who are you?” Before a blast of Bach’s Overture #1 in D a CPR Classical DJ named Kabin Thomas said something like, let that breath go through your body mind and spirit, let the peace you feel right now go out into your day. Peace be with you.” I couldn’t believe it! I did take a deep breath and I did smile and it gave me the gift of joy. So thank you Kabin Thomas! And then I blasted Bach as my joyful noise! And I thought he must be in a really good place that he can share joy with me and others in that moment. What if joy itself is a form of resistance?

Not long ago Serena asked at the 9 a.m. bible study what would be useful to a tyrant? We all came up with a list. Hopelessness, being numb, feeling despair, being paralyzed into doing nothing. And today I would add to that being without joy. Let us all claim our joy. Protect our joy! Let us keep making joyful noises whatever that means for you! Here’s the other funny thing. I think joy is a strategy. UCLA political science professor Daniel Treissman recently wrote that authoritarians don’t have a sense of humor. What if humor is a strategy and keeping our joy is part of how we will get through this together?

Today, I want to say don’t let joy seem like a luxury, protect it, protect your joy, let it be something you delight in here in this heaven that is at hand. Let us all keep making joyful noises, whatever that looks like for us. Joy itself, is one of our forms of resistance.

COMMUNAL REFLECTION

Question(s):

How are you giving yourself the gift of joy in this time? What does it look like when you are making joyful noises with your life?

Beloved of God, joy is our resistance. Keep making joyful noises. Amen.