I think I can help you if you are at a Christmas party and want to impress your friends with your knowledge. The Third Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is a Latin word that means “rejoice.” In some churches they light a pink or a rose-colored Advent candle on this Sunday. Church decorations are also changed to pink.
We’ve already noted that Advent is a season of watching and waiting, of preparing and repenting. But we don’t go through Advent pretending like we don’t know Jesus will be born. We know the story. We know that God has fulfilled his promise to give his people a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And we are confident in the promise of Christ’s return. Therefore, the dominant note in our observance is that of joy.
Julian of Norwich, the great 14th century English mystic, had a concise way of summing up the Christian life. To her, we are called “to live thankfully and joyfully because of the knowledge of God’s love.” What a mission statement! Just recently one of you asked me about printing out and posting our mission statement on a wall in the church. But now I’m not so sure on how to improve on Julian’s mission statement!
Gratitude and joy are part and parcel of the Christian life. If there’s not enough gratitude and joy in our lives, maybe that’s because there’s not enough knowledge of God’s love. Last time we spoke of the misperceptions people have of Christianity. If people perceive that it’s predominantly about fear and guilt and hypocrisy, then their perception has nothing to do with the faith of Jesus Christ. None of these has to do with why he came. He came that his joy may be in us and that our joy may be full (John 15:11).
So is that true of us? Can we honestly say that our lives are characterized by gratitude and joy? Do we rejoice in the Lord always? Is it easy for us to celebrate, to have fun, to laugh, to enjoy life? Do we take pleasure in the good things of life, trusting in the living God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment (1 Tim. 6:17)?
The great 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was once invited to speak in a front of a church group. Now, Nietzsche didn’t care much for Christians, as anyone familiar with his writings will know. He looked around the room and said: “Strange, you don’t look redeemed.”
We may laugh at the words of this famous enemy of Christianity, even as we must acknowledge that there is some truth in his observation. Now, of course, we all have emotions. Sometimes we come to church feeling down, while other times feeling good. And there are some who are constitutionally more emotional than others. We say of them that they have “mood swings.” “Emotions are like the tides. They come in and go out, they rise and fall” (M. Villano).
But joy is not a mood. It’s not a passing emotion. Author Mark Villano understands it as a deeper attitude towards reality that makes it easy for us to relax, to be thankful, to see the good around us, and to take pleasure in the great things the Lord has done for us. That joy stays with us regardless of the difficulties we happen to be going through. It’s like an inexhaustible fountain that bubbles up from within us. Or, changing the metaphor, it’s like an inner flame that burns perpetually within us. It may burn low in very dark times, but it never goes out, because its source is God’s own Spirit, who lives within us.
Does that sound naïve? One reason why many of us find it difficult to rejoice in the Lord always is because it feels so naïve. We think that the one who obeys this command hardly knows the world as it really is. He has his head in the sand so that he doesn’t see the bad things. He plugs his ears so that he doesn’t hear about the tragic things. We may say of him that he lives in willful ignorance. Or else we may say of him that he’s lived a sheltered life. What else can explain why he doesn’t look at the world as it really is? I mean, come on: global pandemic, political dysfunction, school shootings, homelessness, breakdown of marriage and family, degradation of the natural environment, and the list goes on. Or what else can explain why he doesn’t look at the personal problems we or our loved ones struggle with? One has a serious health concern. Another is lonely and depressed. Still others are dealing with addictions or debt. Or another is having problems at school or at finding a decent job.
And yet the command is to “rejoice in the Lord always.” It comes from the Apostle Paul in the first lesson we read for this Lord’s Day. So is Paul naïve?
Before we say anything, we should know that Paul and his traveling companions made great sacrifices to bring the good news to the people at Philippi, to whom this epistle is addressed. It all began when Paul one night saw a vision of a man standing and saying: “Come across to Macedonia and help us.” They put out to sea in response to this vision.
Lydia, the woman from Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth, was the first to respond to Paul’s message. She and her family became the first Christians in Europe. The church in Philippi began to meet in her home. Paul and his companions stayed there long enough to help the church, in the spite of the opposition they had to face.
Their troubles multiplied when Paul freed a slave girl from an evil spirit that enabled her to predict the future and so make money for her owners. Furious, these men seized Paul and Silas, dragged them before the magistrates of the city, and charged them with teaching customs that violated Roman law. The magistrates ordered Paul and Silas to be stripped and beaten. After they were flogged, they were thrown into prison.
I need not continue the story here to impress on you that Paul knew the world as it really is. He was not sheltered. He was not spared from trouble simply because he was called and commissioned to spread the gospel. On the contrary, he soon found that this calling only invited it.
Some years have passed, and Paul again is in prison. Probably he writes his letter to the Philippians from prison in Rome. He is under house arrest and faces a trial there that may end in the death sentence. Paul writes to the Philippians to bring them up to date about himself, about his present situation, and his hopes for the future. He likes them. There are no words of reprimand or rebuke in this letter. He confides to them that he is in danger and is suffering, but at the same he wants them to rejoice in the Lord.
Now imagine yourself as one of the readers of this letter. You ask: “But Paul, how can you say this? Your enemies surround you and want your blood. From Rome you have no higher court of appeal. There you will stand trial before Caesar and he may condemn you to death. You no longer have any control over your life. How can rejoicing in the Lord even cross your mind?”
But he is firm: “Rejoice in the Lord! And we know he is firm, because he repeats it: “Again, I say to you rejoice!”
The great 19th century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard commented on these words. He contended that there ought to be a punctuation mark that indicates a long pause between the first instance of this word “rejoice!” and the second. Because in the time that passes between these two, Paul is listening to the all the objections that can be raised against the appropriateness of the command given all of life’s problems. And not one objection among them all can dissuade Paul from repeating the word again, perhaps with more emphasis this time: “rejoice!”
Now we can’t say back to him: “That’s easy for you to say.” Paul was in prison awaiting trial. And as he lay there languishing on the cold floor of his lonely cell, troubled by the thoughts of all the opportunities he would miss, of all the friendships he would neglect, of all the goals he would forfeit—as he lay there alone with these dark thoughts, then he came to know for himself that which he now declares to the Philippians: “The Lord is near.”
Just as it was for Paul, so it is with us: we often come to know that the Lord is near when we feel most alone. This is our comfort when we are in a situation just as serious as the one Paul was in: when we are confined in a hospital room, when we lose a job, when a loved one leaves us. The comfort that is most essential to us in any one of these situations comes from the Lord himself. This is the Lord who came so near to us as to share our own flesh and blood, as we remember and celebrate at Christmastime.
Paul did not let the fear and anxiety in his heart quench his joyful spirit, because he knew the God in whose presence there is fullness of joy. He knew the God who knows all things—who knows even the situation you and I are in right now. He believed that this God daily bears the burdens of his people, because of his care for them. That is why he can tell the Philippians to be anxious for nothing, but to commit all their concerns to God in prayer, with thanksgiving.
When we are facing something that is beyond our control, well-meaning friends tell us that we must leave it in God’s hands. But seldom do they add that we must also give thanks to God.
When we are in great need, giving thanks to God is not our first thought. Indeed, it is probably the furthest thing from our mind. But this is the measure of our confidence in God. We thank him because the outcome will be the very best one for us. Since he loves us, how can it be otherwise? Recall Julian of Norwich’s vision of the Christian life: to live thankfully and joyfully because of the knowledge of God’s love for us.
When we relax into God’s love for us, anxiety is exchanged for the peace of God. We can imagine that when Paul discovered in his lonely cell that the Lord was near, that therefore there was no longer any cause for worry, he experienced this same peace. This is a deep and lasting peace that protects us from attacks of anxiety, which are so common today. God’s peace protects our hearts and minds. The verb that Paul uses here is a military term that pictures God’s peace as a detachment of soldiers that stands guard over a city to protect it from attack. God’s peace keeps guard over our thoughts and feelings so they will be as safe against the attacks of fear and worry as any fortress.
No, Paul wasn’t naïve. His message to us is not grin and bear it and pretend the world is something that it isn’t. He was rooted in something far deeper that went beyond external circumstances. This is what he wanted to impress on his friends in Philippi. And this is what he wants to impress on us today. He saw in his circumstances greater opportunities, greater possibilities for rejoicing, for bringing joy to others (M. Villano). He discovered that because of Christ there is a joy in this world that cannot be extinguished. The worst that evil can do will not overcome it.
This is the joy that comes to us at Christmastime. It knows in faith that Christ was born into this world, that Christ is with us now, and that Christ will return. It’s a joy that sees the whole story and knows that it’s all safely in God’s hands (M. Villano). That joy is available to us. Let us be sure that we receive it. Amen.