Always Rejoice Third Sunday in Advent

 Rejoice

“ Always rejoice” I Thess. 5:16 ---3rd Sunday of Advent

O LORD Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee; Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

 

The First Sunday in Advent
(to be said throughout Advent)

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

These two little Greek words are in that order in the original language. They are to be our attitude and demeanor as Christians. The chapter begins with the Apostle’s discussion of the “ day of the Lord” and its coming will be “as a thief by night.” 5:2 This week I received a Christmas letter , thinking it was such , from a Pastor I worked together with 30 years ago . His wife who was younger than he was died. In the letter was a picture of the obituary and the service done. I did not think he would outlive his wife. She was a wonderful encouraging joyous person who had been a big help to him and to my wife and I. It was very unexpected. I thought it was a Christmas letter but it was a copy of her death. I did not know she was ill. The section of Scripture with these two words is about our Christian conduct in the light of the Advent ( coming ) of our Lord . For her this was early. Time is no more . She is in God’s eternal now which has no beginning and ending.

In the light of the Lord’s coming which for us occurs at death, we should be “ always rejoicing”. That is the command of the Apostle. How is this possible for us ? I need not delineate the situations in which we can find ourselves and hearing this command it becomes quite hard to believe. Is it possible for us to have this kind of thinking? Not only do we have current difficulties we even fear some past things that are coming up to the surface which have not been resolved. Then oh we think, “ what about the next year?”

How can we prepare or have a mind ready to rejoice always? The Gospel is actually John 1:6-8,19-28 describing the preparation John the Baptist worked on behalf of Jesus. He was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness,‛Make straight the way of the Lord.’ ” We lit the Candle of preparation last Sunday in discussing this from Mark’s Gospel. To make a beginning we said we should have an ending of all that needs to be ended in our lives so that we can listen to the “good news” 1:1 This ending involves making a statement to God which we call confession of how things have gone wrong with us spiritually and how we are now going to repent, i.e. change our direction .

Back in around 529 AD Benedict wrote about such a thing called humility. He said, “ the way of ascending is humility….if our heart is humble we shall be lifted to heaven.” Then in his note on this he listed some steps which we would do well to review for true humility: “ 1. The first step of humility is to have a constant reverence for God before our eyes. 2. The second step of humility is rejecting our own will and desires and instead doing God’s will. 3. The third step of humility is obedience to others. 4. The fourth step of humility is accepting the hardship of the commandments and enduring with patience the injuries and afflictions we face. …” He goes on to speak of other steps as confession, contentment, self-reproach, obeying the common rule, silence, seriousness, simple speech, humble in appearance, and finally humility as a way of life.

Will not such humility bring us to the true freedom and joy we seek? In the Third candle of Advent we see the hope of joy that is possible despite our situations . Rejoice always. The rose or pink candle is a light of hope for our journey to the Christmas birth of our Lord as a baby in the manger.

In the “ Song of Mary “ which I read for a Gospel today is an integral part of Christian worship modeled on Hannah’s prayer from I Samuel II. Mary gets astounding news about the child to born in her womb. Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth who is also with child . Elizabeth asks, “ and whence is this to me , that the mother of my Lord should come unto me? “ Luke 1:43 The whole situation was fantastic. It was beyond comprehension and belief . Mary who had not known a man would bear a Son . This was not possible. Her attitude must have been one of anguish and at that same time wonder and joy. How can this be? Yet I can rejoice in God my Savior whatever my situation Mary sings in this hymn used by many churches in the evening service. “Magnificat” which is latin for the first few words Mary sings.

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior” In this beautiful song Mary recounts the things God has done and will do in her life that she could not ever expect. “ All generations shall call me blessed,” 1:48 This God has spoken to Abraham and “holy is His name.” 1: 49 Mary finds a way to rejoice in her soul and spirit even though she has no idea how all these things are going to happen. We too have such a challenge in our lives to find joy. If we say , “ if only this or that would be true now for me, or I could have this job or income then I could be happy,” we miss the whole point of “ rejoice always.” Our joy must come from something deeper than these things in our lives. If we are to have joy in the lives we live we must find it in God and His unchanging promises to us in His Word.

One time I walked my dog past the Lake House in Florala when it was dark. I had done this before and was very confused about the lights on the lawn. They seemed to be a bunch of lines without reason . I could not make out what they were supposed to be saying. I turned my head and my body and around. I could not make sense of them. Then it hit me. These lines did indeed spell out something but I was too close to them to make the words out. So I got back a ways and sure enough, “ JOYOUS NOEL.” There was a message but I had never seen it before because I was too close to the lights. They just blurred into squiggly lines. Right now you and I are too close to the words to make out what they are saying to us. We know God has a plan but it is not making any sense and we have no idea how he can bring anything good out of the situation. What we have to do is get back to see the message and the time and the years will make them clear. I missed it when I tried to squirm myself into seeing it. I had to get back and see it. Then it was so clear it jumped out.

“ Rejoice always” even when the lines are hard to see and you cannot make out the words. Mary did it. John the Baptist believed it, and we too acknowledge God’s power and direction in our lives even when we cannot see it.