Let us Pray.
“Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.” Today we celebrate the 3rd Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday, which is Latin for “Rejoice” or “have joy." Thus, this is a Sunday of rejoicing, praising, joyfulness...of excited anticipation of the Lord’s coming because it is near. But, our conversation about joy falls within a larger season of Advent. In Advent, we reflect on the past and anticipate what is to come in the Birth of Christ or the Second Coming. This means that this Joy Sunday is a deviation from the normally somber and penitent tone of Advent...Which means we find ourselves in what might feel like tension. How can we “rejoice” while in a period of darkness, a period of waiting? This is what I love about the 3rd Sunday of Advent. It is raw. It is real. It is life. Gaudete Sunday serves as a visible reminder that we can – and do – experience joy and can – and do – rejoice amid the darkness or uncertainty of life because we have hope given to us by God, the source of all Joy. Thus, the joy about which we’re speaking is not some unfounded or fleeting joy, but it is joy rooted in Christ which we, as worshippers of Christ, turn into the action of rejoicing for our Savior is near...regardless of the world around us. So, let’s explore what it means to have joy. The late pastor Henri Nouwen aptly describes the kind of joy we’re celebrating today. He offers that our joy is the “experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing – sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death – can take that love away.” Said otherwise, Advent teaches us that the spirit can rejoice while the body can be in pain. Nouwen captures the tension of Advent that we live into on this day – finding the joy amid the darkness of life. This joy that stems from unconditional love is Christ-inspired joy...and this is the joy we experience this Sunday as we head into our final week before Christ is born and our Hope meets us on earth. Our reading for today points us to this joy. The prophet Zephaniah prophesied primarily about the impending “day of the Lord” in which God would cast judgement on Israel. At this point in Israel’s history, the northern kingdom had been destroyed and the southern kingdom continued to rebel against God. However, just before our reading, Zephaniah tells the Israelite’s that God will renew Israel, even amid their destruction. With this hope, then, Zephaniah pronounces “Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!” (3:14) Zephaniah is literally telling the people to rejoice amid their suffering. As a prophet, this is a message coming from God, God’s self. God is commanding rejoicing and deeming it “good.” What is more is that Zephaniah tells the Israelites that they can rejoice not because of some temporary man-made escape, but because God is near (3:15). Zephaniah then proclaims that “the Lord, your God, is in your midst” (3:17). That God is a “warrior who gives victory,” who rejoices over us in gladness and renews us in love (3:17). Thus, Israel is told to find their joy by experiencing God’s presence. This has tangible applications for us in our exact moments. With the coming of Jesus, God coming into our world, we can take solace in the fact that God did, does, and will walk among us. This is something to rejoice! Since we’re in Advent, we also have something to look forward to as this is the season in which we acknowledge that we await Christ’s second coming. In Zephaniah, the prophet told the people that when God comes, the Lord will “remove disaster from you” and “deal with your oppressors at that time” (3:17-18). We can have that same hope for when Christ returns. In Christ, we find freedom from disasters and oppression - regardless of the forms that those take...and it is in this hope that we can find our joy because, as Christians, we know that whatever it is we are suffering is only temporary until we are united with Christ. What Gaudete Sunday teaches us is that Christ-inspired Joy – the Joy we encounter on this 3rd Sunday in Advent and can expect to encounter from God – does not discriminate. Though sometimes it can be hard to feel, joy can always be within us, regardless of our external circumstances. Joy is a state of being. This Joy will find us where we are, even in the darkness or the waiting, and lights our candles. Eventually, as more and more candles are lit, the darkness will be no more and we, as the living Israel will be able to “sing aloud,” “shout,” and “rejoice with all [our] heart” (Zephaniah 3:14-20). Sisters and brothers, may I conclude with the words of Paul in his letter to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” (Phil. 4:4-7) Amen. |