Sunday, December 15, 2019
Today, the third Sunday of Advent is called ‘Guadete Sunday’ which means ‘Joy’ or Rejoice’. The opening antiphon for our liturgy asks us to Rejoice in the Lord always. Indeed the Lord is near. Today, on the Advent Wreath we light the pink candle to mark this day of joy.
St. Paul’s advice and encouragement from the first reading in the liturgy this morning gives the third Sunday of Advent its traditional name." Joy is the central message of our readings and prayers, and indeed the whole of Advent and the celebration of Christ.
Not too coincidentally, one of the most well-known Christmas carols is ‘Joy to the World.’ The words to this carol were written by Isaac Watts in 1719. At Christmas it will be sung all over the world. The music for it comes from Handel’s ‘Messiah.’
The first words that Mary hears when she is told that she is going to be the mother of Jesus are, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured.’ Mary is to be filled with joy because God has called her by her name and her son will be the long awaited Messiah. When she goes to see Elizabeth her cousin, she breaks into song, singing loudly, ‘My souls proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savour’.
Mary does not keep her good news or her joy to herself, she freely shares them with Elizabeth and the whole world. When the angels appeared to the shepherds they heard this life-giving message, ‘Do not be afraid, I bring you news of great joy.’ The good news of Jesus’ birth is meant not only for the shepherds, it continues to be good news for each of us today.
We are called to wait for the birth of Jesus and we are to wait in hope joyfully. As we wait, we are not to be afraid, anxious or worried; we are to wait in joyful hope. Why? Because, as the opening antiphon tells us, ‘The Lord is very near.’
Like Mary who shared her joy with Elizabeth, today each of us is asked to be a person of joy and we are asked to share that joy with others. There are many people, some of whom we may even know, who have little reason to be joyful at this time of the year.
As Mary did with Elizabeth, may we follow her example and share our joy with all those we meet during these last few days and weeks of Advent. May we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
You know...Every year around this time, we see news stories and facebook posts and tv coverage of the “War on Christmas.” There’s conjecture about whether or not you can say “Merry Christmas” anymore or if you must say “Happy Holidays.”
Others urge us to remember that “Jesus is the reason for the season,” and warn against “taking Christ out of Christmas.” Maybe you’ve even been frustrated by the secularization of the season.
I certainly get frustrated by the consumerism, the commercialism, as if spending more and more money will somehow bring us a more joyful and meaningful experience celebrating the birth of Jesus. But I wonder, as we reflect on this season, what might happen if we worried less about how others might try to “take Christ out” of Christmas, if such a thing were even possible, and wondered more about how we, how you and I can produce any evidence that we’re working to put Christ into our preparation for Christmas.
We can’t control what other people do or think, much as we might like to. But we are, in fact, totally responsible for how we conduct ourselves. And so, when it comes to Christ in Christmas, we have to ask: Are we in fact putting Christ in?
A clergy friend writes, “Nothing can take Christ out of Christmas as long as I strive to be Christ in Christmas.” And that’s his sort of slogan for the season: “Be Christ in Christmas.” He tries to think of tangible, meaningful ways that he can act and live and interact as Christ in Christmas, and urges others to do the same. How can we be Christ in Christmas?
We’re the messengers of God in these days, the ones tasked with sharing the message, the good news. What kind of messengers are we? Today, we turn our attention to making sure we know exactly what our message is. What is the message that we’re delivering?
We need look to Luke’s gospel for a little more insight on the message that John the Baptist was sharing.
As our text opens, crowds are coming out to John to be baptized. Baptism like this was a cleansing ritual, practiced in many traditions. It signified renewal, a fresh start. So folks are coming to John to be baptized. But he’s not exactly warm and welcoming when he sees them: “You brood of vipers!” he hells. “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance.”
He goes on to say that the crowds should not expect to rely on their Judaism, their families, their history, their cultural identity, to give them a free pass from responsibility. “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”
In other words, yes, God has had a special relationship with His people. But that doesn’t give you the freedom to do anything you want. You still have to hold up your part of the relationship, the covenant. John continues forebodingly: “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
*John obviously catches the attention of his audience – they begin asking him what they should do. He replies to them, to tax collectors, to soldiers – whoever has two cloaks must share, whoever has food must share, whoever has power, whoever has money must be fair and just.
The people are filled with expectation at John’s words, and they wonder whether John himself might not be the messiah they are waiting for. But he insists he is not: “I am not worthy to untie his sandals,” John says. But, he leaves them, and us, with a compelling image of the messiah.
“His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” A winnowing fork was a farming tool used to toss wheat into the air, so that the wind would catch the good grain and separate it from the useless chaff. Our passage concludes, “So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.”
Is John’s message “Good News?” There’s such an underlying tone of threat, between the vipers, the ax, and the winnowing fork. And yet, obviously his message was compelling enough to have crowds flocking to him to be baptized, ready to say: I’m changing things in my life starting now.
John is sharing with the crowds, with us, his vision of what the messiah will be. In fact, John will eventually have to send word to Jesus to find out if he really is the messiah, because Jesus certainly acted differently than John was expecting.
John sees judgment, just as surely as Jesus comes with salvation – a bit different in emphasis. John has a picture of the messiah that is his own – but the good news still comes because of the core of what John is preaching, as we read last week: Repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
What John is preaching, at heart, is that all this preparation is for one who is coming, who has the power to free us from the consequences of our sins; one who has the power to cancel out the results of our messes. And that, certainly, is good news.
As Christians, we celebrate what is called incarnational faith. Incarnation means for us first of all the event of Christ’s birth – God became human. It means embodied. Jesus is called God-with-us, Immanuel. As the gospel of John puts it so beautifully, “and the word became flesh, and dwelt among us.”
Our faith is embodied in God incarnate. Jesus is God-in-the-flesh, come to live among us. We celebrate it as a sign of God’s great love for us, that when we failed to get the message in so many other ways, God made the message tangible, made God’s own self into the living embodied message in Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
But our incarnational theology doesn’t end there. It isn’t just that Jesus is the light of the world. The gospels tell us that we, then, as followers of Jesus, are the light too. We’re the light of the world, meant to shine for others to see, so that they might see Christ within us.
We are the body of Christ in the world, the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. We are the body of Christ, the embodiment of Christ, in fact the incarnation of Christ that lives in the world today. We’re not just the messengers. We embody the message. We have the potential, the power, the responsibility to be Christ in Christmas.
Here’s the amazing thing. When we seek to be Christ in Christmas, which is exactly what we incarnational folks are supposed to be, called to be, created to be doing, we are not only the messengers of this good news. We actually embody the message itself.
If we are Christ in Christmas, we become living, breathing, walking and talking messages of good news. And when we do that, when we live and breathe the good news, there’s no way we can miss the meaning of Christmas.
Friends, if you find yourself worrying that we’re losing our grasp on Christmas, the best thing you can do is look into your hearts, and see if you find Christ there. Is the light of Christ shining from you? Are you not only a messenger, but the message?
When people meet you, talk to you, interact with you – and by people I mean everybody – are they seeing Christ in you? If they do, we won’t have anything to lament! Be the message. Be Christ in Christmas.
...And have a good old-fasioned merry time doing it in the traditions of your family-- and your faith! -- Amen.
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