The third Sunday of Advent carries the traditional theme of joy. It has been preceded by Sundays emphasizing hope and peace. The fourth Sunday will focus on love. We have been called to fill our hearts with hope. We have been called to seek peace in our world. Now we are called to find reasons to rejoice. That is not always an easy task.
Advent throughout its history has at times emphasized the Second Coming of Christ rather than celebrating his first. It also carries a tradition as a time, not for celebration, but as a time of repentance and contrition. After all Christ did not come into the world to tell us we were doing a fine job of things. He was born to die because we had done such a lousy job of things. Perhaps a little more repentance and contrition would do us good.
Nevertheless this Sunday is the third Sunday of Advent and our current tradition says that it is the day we emphasize the joy in our faith. The Apostle Paul felt he had every reason to rejoice in spite of all the mess he had experienced. He tells the Philippian Christians to "rejoice...and again...rejoice" (Philippians 4:4). They weren't rich and powerful. They had no reason to believe that the Roman government would bless them above all other citizenry. They were ordinary folks trying to find enough to eat each day and have enough money left over to pay their taxes, not a whole lot different than common folks today.
Finding reason to rejoice in the midst of less than joyful times has been a recurring problem for thousands of years. The almost innate need to rejoice has been the basis for many of our annual celebrations. We create a reason even when we may not feel like it. Weddings and birthdays are naturals. Look at the times our banks and post offices close each year and you find many other reasons to celebrate. If that is not enough, Hallmark cards will create a hundred more reasons to "send the very best".
The short book carrying the name of the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk ends on one of the greatest calls for joy we find in all of scripture (Habakkuk 3:17-18). Our joy is to be independent of life around us. Abundance in neither flocks nor crops should be the source of our joy, but rather the relationship we have with God. That is also the heart of what Paul was trying to convey to his readers.
When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the words for "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", there was no great joy in his country. The terrible suffering of the American Civil War was being experienced by the nation. He wrote out of a deep grief for what his fellow citizens were enduring. His conclusion, however, was that God was greater still and human suffering, terrible as it was, would not endure. God's healing love would win in the end.
The third Sunday of Advent serves to remind us that joy can be experienced when the stalls and fields are empty. That special day serves to remind us that joy can be experienced when persecution envelopes us. The Sunday given to an emphasis upon joy should remind us when the fires of war seem ready to overcome our world that will not be the final word for our lives.
Christ came once before to bring us hope for our future, peace to carry us into that future, and love that is the foundation for that future. We can rejoice, we can find joy today in spite of all the news that comes to us, because the One who came once before is coming again. May we find joy in that promise throughout the year.
