Joy Anyway (3rd Sunday in Advent)

Scripture:       Zephaniah 3:14-20, Isaiah 12:2-6,   Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:7-18

Today, the third Sunday in Advent is called Gaudete Sunday – Gaudete is the Latin word for rejoice!  Rejoice!  Over the past two weeks Al has lit candles for hope and peace, and today he lit a candle – the pink candle this time - for joy as well.   The mood of the Scripture texts shifts as well, from the apocalyptic forboding of the Gospel reading from two weeks ago with heaven shaking and stars falling and people fainting, and the anxiety of last week’s Old Testament reading, about God sending a messenger who will be like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap….this week’s texts are more gentle, more joyful, for the most part.  Zephaniah writes, “Sing aloud! …..shout! ..rejoice and exult with all your hearts!....the Lord has taken away  the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies!  You shall fear disaster no more!”  Isaiah writes, “Surely God is my salvation, I shall trust, and not be afraid.  With joy you will draw water from the well of salvation, and you will say on that day, ‘Give thanks!’”  With joy!   Give thanks!  And Paul, in his letter to the church at Philippi, writes “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice!”  In our reading from Luke’s gospel, John the Baptist doesn’t seem to have gotten the message….he sounds a bit cranky…but Luke assures us that what John preaches is “good news”….and therefore there is joy in it, even if that joy is not immediately obvious.

Sing aloud?  Rejoice?  I don’t know about you, but I’ve found this year, and especially these past few weeks an especially difficult time in which to rejoice.  Recent terrorist attacks and shootings, and the fearmongering and scapegoating that’s going on in response – much of it driven by politicians using fear to seek votes and by TV talking heads who get paid to inflame rather than inform - has made this a grim Advent indeed.  Just to give some perspective, I was in a number of conversations with clergy this week, and all of them remarked that the level of fear and anger among the members of their congregations was off the charts.  These clergy I spoke to are finding it as difficult – but as important – as it’s ever been for them to remind their flock that God has not left the building, that God is still in charge, and that as God’s people we share a commitment to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God – and that commitment does not change with the day’s headlines.   So when we hear Zephaniah, Isaiah, Paul, and even John the Baptist in his own way inviting us to rejoice, it may be tempting to dismiss their words as being out of touch and disconnected to our daily realities – to tell ourselves that they’re nothing but a bunch of bliss ninnies, inspiring but irrelevant.  What do they know?

We may dismiss their invitations to rejoice….until we realize that all of these calls for joy came from people who were rejoicing while dealing with very difficult circumstances.  Zephaniah and Isaiah were pleading with their people, and especially their national leaders, to turn to God in repentance – so they were dealing with societies overrun with violence and corruption.  Paul wrote his call to rejoice from a prison cell, likely in Rome, where he was eventually executed.  John the Baptist, like Zephaniah and Isaiah, called the people and the national leaders to repentance, and it cost him his head.  So it would seem that any joy they had, any rejoicing they did, had nothing to do with their own circumstances, with stuff like whether they woke up on the wrong side of the bed or were having a bad hair day.  Their joy came, not from their circumstances, but from their faith.

Paul gives us the best picture of what this looks like and how it feels.  First of all, Paul is entirely focused on seeking and doing God’s will.  Earlier in his letter to the Philippians, he writes:

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.

Paul’s singleminded devotion to the Gospel – to the point that he regarded everything else as junk, as garbage – fills him with joy.  When he sees the Philippian church acting in accord with the Gospel, it fills Paul with joy.  So much of our own lack of joy can come from comparing ourselves to others.  On Facebook we may see someone from our high school graduating class with a bigger car than we have, or someone in our family with a bigger house than we have, or photos of a more exotic vacation than we can afford to take – they may have photos of Thailand while we have photos of Dutch Wonderland – and it makes us feel jealous, and beneath the jealousy, we may feel inadequate, less than.  It may send us into an emotional tailspin.  None of this material stuff had ever excited Paul, but before his conversion, Paul had his own stuff on which he prided himself, that made Paul feel like a special snowflake – being a Hebrew born of Hebrews from the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the 8^th day, a Pharisee, zealous in following the law – oh, so special Paul felt - and after his conversion, he was able to set all of it aside, put it out with the trash or more like flush it down the commode, and embrace the joy of the Gospel.  Similarly, we may have much more joy in our lives if we stop comparing ourselves to others – who has the biggest car or house, or, for pastors, who has the biggest congregation or who chalked up the most new members - and focus on God, and what God is doing in our lives.  When we die, God won’t be asking us about other peoples’ houses or cars, but about how fervently we believed and how faithfully to the Gospel we lived and how passionately we loved God and neighbor.

Paul’s focus on serving God enabled Paul to write these words to the church at Philippi:

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
So Paul tells the Philippian church that they do not have to get caught up in the negativity of the day, but rather that they can choose to think differently.  They can choose to think about whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy.  It may not come naturally to them, but it’s a choice that’s open to them, and a choice that Paul recommends.
We, too, can make choice as to what we focus our minds and our spirits on.  And I’m not advocating that we ignore the problems of our day – far from it.  I firmly believe that caring for the poor and powerless, and confronting those who oppress them, is at the heart of our mission, at the heart of the Gospel.  It’s what Jesus did, and we are to go and do likewise.  In our Gospel reading, John the Baptist told those seeking baptism to share what they had, told soldiers – members of the Roman occupation army, essentially the police of their day – not to abuse their authority, and told tax collectors to end their corruption and only collect what was due them.  We in our day would do well to follow John’s advice – and perhaps we can draw joy from realizing that what John asked wasn’t impossible, indeed was very doable.  And if we keep our focus on God, we can confront the darkness without being swallowed up by darkness, can light our candle against the darkness without burning ourselves out.  It’s this focus on God that empowered John to continue in the face of opposition.   It’s helpful to focus on things that remind us of God’s presence.  In the past few months, we’ve had some absolutely spectacular sunsets – some I’ve seen via photos on Facebook, and some I’ve seen myself – and they remind me that there’s still great beauty in the world, that hasn’t been extinguished.  We can read of acts of kindness and caring, or even act with kindness and caring ourselves, and be reminded that there is still good in the world.  If our eyes are open and spiritually attuned, we can see that God is still at work, however quietly, behind the scenes.
Apparently the Philippian church had taken up a collection to support Paul, and Paul thanked them for it.  But in thanking them, he wrote
 I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. In any case, it was kind of you to share my distress.

“In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of living with and of living without….I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.”  I believe that at Paul’s secret involved trust and gratitude – Trust that God would provide, and gratitude for what God already had provided. 

 “Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say rejoice!”  “In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and going hungry, of having plenty and being in need.”  “I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”  May God grant us grateful and joyful spirits, and may our gratitude and joy be a blessing and a witness to all with whom we come in contact.  Amen.