God With Us Through the Gift of Joy
with Rev. Laura Sherwood
December 17, 2023
The message on Joy Sunday reminds us that the joy of our faith runs deeper than anything the world can throw at us. It is a joy that we share with all of creation, and a joy that sounds and resounds through us because of knowing Christ.
The Scripture
John 1:6-8, 19-28
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
…
19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”
24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
I Thessalonians 5:12-24
12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
Read the Full Text
As you know, today is the third Sunday of Advent, traditionally called Joy Sunday or from the Latin, Gaudete Sunday. In older days in the church, meaning more than 100 years ago, the season of Advent was practiced like the season Lent – it was a time for believers to prepare in heart, mind and spirit for, respectively, the endangered and newborn Christ at Christmas and the crucified and resurrected Christ at Easter.
Preparation was taken as a serious matter among the faithful that required disciplines such as fasting, extended times of prayer, and an overall sense of turning away from excess and examining what has become the excesses in our own lives.
This kind of serious preparation was fitting as the people of the Church looked toward the events of God breaking into the world – first in frail human flesh, then in saving sacrifice – both joyous in ultimate meaning, but both also occurring in the harshness of human reality. The brutality of the cross is widely recognized, but we don’t always talk about the harsh poverty of the nativity and the violence that threatened even babies who were considered potential rivals to those in power when Jesus was born.
Finish reading
In recent years, while the penitential focus of Advent has remained in the scripture selections – the penitential practices have moved primarily to Lent. Advent has become more a time of building excitement amid festivities of a season that has spread far beyond the church and decorates our days with happy songs and colorful lights.
This relatively new kind of Advent is how I grew up in the Church as I guess so have most of you, and I do find a deep and important spirituality in the season’s focus on expectant waiting especially as our culture becomes more and more about instant gratification. I do not, as a rule, think of it as a time of penitence and fasting and I am not necessarily arguing that we bring that particular tradition back.
However, it helps to hear what the season of Advent used to be in the Church in order to gain some real understanding of what this Sunday was originally meant to be.
The church color for penitence and suffering is blue or purple and so is also the color of Advent and of Lent. That is why the Advent candles are usually purple, but for many churches including ours, the candle lighted on the third Sunday is pink. This hearkens back to the days of a longer, penitential 6-week Advent. The Sunday that was ¾ of the way to the end of the season was chosen as Joy Sunday and allowed the Church to take a break from its difficult practices and focus, instead, on the ultimate Joy that was promised by God’s coming into the world through Christ.
This Sunday broke from the seasonal traditions of color, fasting, and quiet. 1) Color – by replacing the subdued purple with bright pink – which we have done today in our Advent Wreath, 2) Fasting was suspended on this Sunday to allow feasting together with meals that offered plenty for all – today we are in that spirit with the Youth’s Cookie Walk event. 3) On this Sunday, devoting extra time for quiet reflection gave way to singing out in choruses of joy – today we end both our services with the hymn Joy to the Word and celebrate the season this afternoon with a community Christmas Concert.
Joy Sunday, in those former days, was a true contrast from what the rest of Advent was like in the Church. It came as a preview, so-to-speak, of what the celebrations of Christmas and Easter were all about – the love and joy that God has for the world and all who are in it as the ultimate definers of life in God’s kingdom and the final victors over evil in the world.
Our first scripture reading today is from the prophecy of John the Baptist, who, like many biblical prophets, proclaimed the ultimate Joy of the Lord in stark contrast to the realities in which he lived in order to bring a message of true repentance and fruitful life of faith to God’s people in the church and beyond.
John was a stark character all on his own. He lived in the wilderness, ate only off the land, dressed as simply as possible and rejected anything that could be considered excess – his entire image was one of living penitence. He spoke as harshly as he lived. He regularly warned people about living in ways that go against God’s intent for all to live in compassion and generosity. He gave challenging messages in the midst of difficult circumstances and yet his ultimate message, like that of the prophets who came before him, was one of Good News.
Even though kingdoms based on oppression, power, and greed may prevail at different times in the world, but they are all limited by time. The good and joyful news of John and all the prophets was that God’s kingdom not only exists beyond time, but can, does and will break into our existence at this time.
When the Apostle Paul writes to the Church in Thessalonica, their own reality is no less difficult than the times when John the Baptist and other prophets from hundreds of years earlier lived.
Paul does not deny the difficulties, but addresses them head-on with instruction, even admonition, to those whose behavior is adding to the community’s struggles. He knows that the pressures of the world around them may serve to weaken their efforts to treat one another with love as Jesus inspired and tempt them to stray from their commitment to lift one another up in the model of Christ. And so, he also greatly encourages them to remember the joy of their faith and God’s vision for them and for the world that was embodied in Jesus, who was Emmanuel – God-with-us.
16 Rejoice always, Paul writes. 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
The root word for Rejoice is Joy and the biblical Greek word for “joy” is “chara” which was used as a common greeting that meant – may you be cheerful or joyful – kind of like we would say, “have a good day.” But when the apostle Paul uses the word joy or any of its derivatives, he always means it in reference to the joy we have through Christ – the joy of the soul. The kind of joy that goes beyond the comforts and pleasantness of life, but instead is grounded in the eternal creation and goodness of God and is available to all because of knowing Christ.
I think hymn writer Isaac Watts was tuning in to the message of Paul, and prophets like John the Baptist, through his beloved Christmas Carol “Joy to the World” which will end both of our services today, and for which he penned the term “sounding joy.” This creatively simple phrase connotes a joy that sounds, resounds and resonates through the many layers of our lives. A joy that meets us in the darkest places, that carries us through the deepest sorrows, that strengthens us in the face of ongoing challenges. Even the way he uses this term in the lyrics echoes Paul’s command to “Rejoice Always” as verse 2 of Joy to the World directs us to repeat the sounding joy.
There is a lot in the world that works to take away our joy and to prevent others from experiencing the joy of God by living life to the fullest. Advent, and especially this Third Sunday of Advent, reminds us that the joy we have in Christ is truly a joy that runs deeper than anything the world can throw at us. It is a joy that we share with all of creation, and a joy that sounds and resounds through us because of knowing Christ.
May we repeat this sounding joy in all that we do, say, sing, and pray as we help the world prepare for God-with-Us all over again. Amen.