First Reading:
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm:
Psalm 126
Second Reading:
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Gospel:
John 1:6-8, 19-28
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There is one undeniable aspect that I enjoy about our gathering at the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer in worship to a Holy God. While it may not happen ever week, spontaneously and semi-regularly, as a church you are not afraid to laugh out loud – in worship. There are some who think it unholy or undignified to laugh in church. In one church, I was told, “Pastor, we smile as loud as we can.”
This third Sunday of Advent is traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday, from the Latin verb for “rejoice.” It’s the joy Sunday. The opening line in Paul’s list of imperatives at the end of 1 Thessalonians captures the spirit of the day: “Rejoice always.”
The first reading describes confused situation of Israel after the return from exile from their country. Things had not gone as smoothly as predicted. Perhaps you can recall the Christmas carol, „O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.“ And the one line of the carol is „ransome captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here.“ Nevertheless, the prophet Isaiah, refuses to wallow in discouragement. Rather, he describes his prophetic calling as bringing “glad tidings to the lowly” and regards it as a source of great joy: “I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul.” In the Old Testament there are many occasions for joy: marriage, the birth of children, good harvests, recovery from sickness and defeat of enemies. But the greatest and most basic source of joy is God’s action on behalf of God people. The acknowledgement that God is working in the world and in our lives, and that we are not solely left to our devices is the profound center of the prophet’s joy.
When God acts, the psalmist in Psalm 126 sings: “our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.”
Unemployment, scandal, unfaithfulness, hunger, financial collapse, illness, cancer. You have already been made aware of the realities of life, we just need to put on a bigger smile, grin and bear it, right? Don’t worry, be happy. Well not really.
See there is a difference between being happy and being joyful. One can be joyful even amidst difficult circumstance, even in sadness.
I once asked a poet: “Could you recommend any good poetry about joy and rejoicing perhaps even amidst long suffering?” And her response was, “What other kind of joy and rejoicing is there?”
What are we told we will do when the impossible is about to happen, well likely we laugh at it. That’s what Abraham and Sarah did when they were told that they would bear a child in their old age. And they did give birth to a son who was named “Isaac” which literally means “God laughed”. And Zachariah laughed when Zachariah and Elizabeth were also beyond child bearing age when they gave birth to John who would be the prophet to prepare the way for the Lord.
Perhaps the greatest poet of all about joy amidst difficult circumstances would be by the Virgin Mary in her Magnificat. Here is a woman who is unmarried, pregnent, traveling in a foreign country, and as she is about to give birth declares in bold beautiful poetry to Elizabeth: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.”
But it is not every morning that we feel like breaking out in song like Mary. We wonder if anyone is really listening. We keep waiting for news about our health, for a friend, for peace, for freedom, comfort from sadness, or justice and wonder if our hopes will be realized.
Advent is a time of waiting. And Theologian Henri Nouwen provides this definition of a waiting person as a patient person. The word “patience” means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the fullest in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us. Inpatient people are always expecting the real thing to happen somewhere else and therefore want to go elsewhere – the moment is empty. But patient people dare to stay where they are. Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there. Patience is pregant with the joy of hope.
John the Baptist and Mary focus their joy on what God has done and will do. John says, “I must decrease so that Christ may increase.” When we rid ourselves of a messiah complex of needing to save the world and instead pointing ourselves and others to Christ, we can begin to our eyes to the joyful work that God is about to accomplish. We rejoice that the work is not ours to accomplish but the burden of preparation and restoration rests on God’s shoulders that God will act.
In Alice and Wonderland, when Alice fell through the rabbit-hole into Wonderland, she was convinced that she had fallen right through the earth and was destined to come out where people would be upside down. She referred to such reversals as „antipathies“ though she did wonder whether or not that was the right word. Alice did invite a word but she helped explain how upside down our world can feel at times. When she finally landed, Alice discovered that the world was not upside down, but it certainly was out of proportion to her size. She had to change, to get smaller in order to enter that mysterious world.
This third Sunday of Advent invites us into a world of reversals, a world where the captives are freed, where the hungry are filled and where the rich are sent away empty. It is a world of rejoice in hope amidst the disapair of our sinful world, of illness and pain, of finanical collapse, of the cross. For God’s work is transformation in our advent hope and waiting. We must remember that captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile were dispossessed, in chains, people in need of a message of hope, a promise of some kind of reversal.
It is not that God wants to make us unhappy by turning our world upside down. Rather, God offers us the possibility of a new world.
In order to enter the mysterious new world that lies before us –waiting for the advent of Christmas, like Alice, we undergo God’s transformation from despair to hope, from sadness to eternal joy. In the second lesson, the Apostle Paul is conscious of our need of transformation, for he prays God’s spirit not be quenched.
Advent is a time to search our hearts, to discover where, both individually and as a community, we need to change. It is a time of expectation, for we are told that there is one who is ready heal our brokenness, to heal our fractured families, to heal our bodies, to heal our bleeding world. Paul tells us that the Messiah is coming; John tells us that the Messiah is already in our midst. Mary tells us that nothing is impossible with God. So tell God your plans, it might just make God laugh.
The Rev. Jason Bense
Third Sunday of Advent
Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer
Sacramento, California
