Third Sunday of Advent

‘Rejoice in the Lord Always.  Again I will say rejoice!’

You are shuffling along to work. It’s a dreary Monday morning. Friday and the weekend seems an age away. Out of the drizzle she comes. You can see from the spring in her step and the expression on her face that she is very happy. You wonder if she is an alien from another planet. She appears lit from within and her face looks as if she has rented the sun. She beams with joy. ‘What have you got to smile about?’  You ask. ‘It’s a rotten day, half the world is hungry and the other half is at war, and you’re beaming. How come?’ She looks at you, puzzled for a moment, gives you a big wink, and goes off with her joy intact. You shuffle on wondering. There is nothing quite as bewildering as someone else’s joy when you are feeling down - or someone else’s sadness when you are feeling on top of the world. But the greatest puzzle is when people feel joyful in the midst of suffering and tragedy. How do people dance among the ruins that surround them, refusing to be locked in a place of despair?

Today is known as Gaudete Sunday from the First word of the Introit of the Latin Mass - ‘Gaudete’  ‘Rejoice’. And the theme of Rejoicing is a strong theme in the first two readings for today the Third Sunday of Advent - Gaudete Sunday.

In the first reading the prophet Zephaniah exhorts the people of Jerusalem: ‘Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion, shout O Israel! Rejoice and exalt with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem’. The prophet was calling for the people to be full of rejoicing in the most desperate of circumstances. Jerusalem was already partially destroyed and now again was surrounded by powerful enemies and was threatened with total destruction. No one on earth could save the city and its people. This was the worst of all Monday mornings. But then suddenly the prophet’s mood and his message changes. From despair to hope.  From judgement to joy. The situation is as bad as ever. The powerful enemies haven’t gone away they are still at the gates. What has changed then? Why the joy in the midst of disaster? The prophet has received a wonderful insight and that is the cause for the joy. ‘The Lord in is your midst.  You shall fear disaster no more’. The Lord is in your midst.  The Lord is with you. It is the presence of God that makes all the difference. When God is present everything is changed.

And so Zephaniah calls through the streets and the slums of a defeated Jerusalem that its people should hold a grand celebration for the real fortune of the people – which is that God is with them even in the midst of disaster. That’s the secret of the joy – the presence of God.

The second reading is from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. On his first visit to Philippi Paul had been imprisoned and from within the prison he had sung hymns with his companion Silas. He now writes a letter to Philippi from another prison. With his life in danger he calls upon the Philippians to join him in rejoicing. And why? How could he rejoice in such circumstances? He gives the same explanation as Zephaniah – ‘The Lord is at hand’. ‘The Lord is near. The lord is with us.’ In the midst of disaster the Lord is with us and that makes all the difference.

There is a world of difference between the happiness which is dependent upon the right circumstances of life to prevail and the God-given joy which remains in the heart no matter what the circumstances even when things go wrong. The tendency if we are not careful is to go for happiness. And especially at this time of the year when we are tempted into an unreal world of consumerism and shop until you drop. Retail therapy it’s called. The idea that buying things will bring us happiness. Well of course we know that it won’t – the bill will come in sooner or later. In any case happiness comes and goes. It is God given joy that remains and lasts no matter what happens to us.

Teilhard de Chardin the great Christian writer scientist and theologian said: ‘Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God’. Joy is God’s gift to us when he comes to live within us by his Holy Spirit. That’s not a flippant Bon Homie that giggles its way through life – in the current language that everything is a laugh. Joy is a deep down assurance that all is well because God is with us. That was the message of the angel to Mary as the Christmas story began to unfold – ‘Rejoice the Lord is with you’. It is God’s word to us. The child whose birth we shall soon celebrate is God with us – the reason for our rejoicing, the cause of our joy. Rejoice the Lord is with you.

Both Paul and Zephaniah shared a radical sense of God’s nearness. The joy of God’s nearness was a power within them that carried through times of great difficulty. Neither had to deny the difficulty of their experience bit both of them could still experience joy in the midst of it all. We all need a power that carries us through difficult times. A presence that prods us on when we face the reality of our weakness and limitation. To believe in the abiding presence of a God who cares gives us a deep sense of joy in the midst of our stops and starts. It enables us to continue living joyfully even when our calendars are crowded with dreary Mondays. ‘Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say Rejoice’ and why because the Lord is at hand. The Lord is near. And God’s great sign of his presence with us is in the one whose birth we await in Advent. Even so come Lord Jesus.