Today is the Third Sunday in Advent and the theme for this week is Joy. It’s the week of the pink candle in our Advent Wreaths – the pink color symbolizing a lightening up of our intense waiting for the promise of Christmas – allowing a little joy into our waiting because we know the promise is getting closer every day.
Joy is one of those words, like Love, that can have dozens of different meanings – anywhere from the deep reverence we feel when we know that we are somehow in the presence of the Holy to the silly happiness we feel when we are joking and laughing with people we love. Try listening to an infant laughing – you cannot help but laugh along with it and with that laughter is always lovely and it is truly joyful. There is happiness and there is joy – and our hearts know the difference.
Joy appears in the noisy moments when your family or friends are all gathered together after a time apart and sharing memories and teasing each other and (at least in the case of my family) getting louder and louder. Joy is also in the quiet times such as when we are able to be still and watch the new day come awake as the sun reaches out and lights up everything around us, one leaf at a time.
Some people seem to carry joy within them while others give the appearance of never knowing joy.
When your topic is Joy there are dozens of scriptures you can use as a base for your message – there actually is a lot of Joy to be found in the Bible. I’m going to be pulling from multiple readings today, and so, rather than sharing a single scripture at the beginning here, I’ll be sharing bits of different readings throughout this message.
It turns out that having too many choices can be as big a problem as having too few. I looked through a dozen different books on Advent and on Joy. I checked out several seasonal devotionals and simply could not settle on any one scripture. So I gave up and went to the Vanderbilt Lectionary to see what it suggested and there I found what I was looking for – I just didn’t recognize it at first.
The Old Testament reading that it offers for this Sunday comes from the prophet Zephaniah, one of the minor prophets who preached in the time of King Josiah. He preached against the religious laxity of his time and warned of evil to come. In this reading, Zephaniah is prophesying about a time in the future – after disaster has struck – when God will once again redeem his people and restore Jerusalem. From Zephaniah, chapter 3, verses 14-15:
- Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more.
The second reading given, the one that would normally be from one of the Psalms, is, during Advent time from Isaiah. Today it’s chapter 12, verses 2-4:
- Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the LORD GOD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. Shout aloud and sing for joy for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
The third reading, from the New Testament, is from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter 4, verses 4-7:
- Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Each of these bits of scripture shouts aloud our reasons for joy, and any one of them would have served, with its surrounding verses, as a perfectly good reading for this third Sunday.
However – it is the fourth reading given, the Gospel reading, that caught my interest. This is from the third chapter of Luke’s gospel. Luke here is describing John the Baptist out among the people who have flocked to hear him and to be baptized by him. This pericope begins thusly, from verse 7:
- John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. 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. Even now the axe 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."
Hmm, not the most joyful text we’ve heard today. I suspect more than a few of you may be shaking your heads, wondering what on earth this has to do with Joy. I’ll admit that I giggle whenever I read it myself because it seems so utterly inappropriate. I even have a visual to go with it, thanks to some unknown soul on facebook, who earlier this week posted a photo of a purported “Christmas card” showing a wild-haired, wild-eyed man shouting “Ye brood of vipers,” followed by “Merry Christmas.” I’ve been snickering about it all week.
But we have to keep reading in Luke to find the Joy – it really is there -- because right after the verses I just read, the people turn to John and ask, “If this isn’t enough, what then are we supposed to do?” They didn’t just grumble, they wanted answers and they asked. And John gives them a simple answer – a short list of the things they should be doing. No theological folderol, no long sermons – just short, simple answers.
When the people ask, what should we do? John answers, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise."
When the tax collectors in the crowd asked the same question, he answered, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you."
And when even soldiers who were there asked in their turn, he answered: "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."
The joy that I find in this reading lies in the fact that the people asked for more information. They didn't just give up and go home. They obviously feel they have lost the path somewhere; their leaders have not been leading them in any satisfying direction, or they wouldn’t be here asking John what to do. John gave them simple, understandable answers – and they listened. They listened, because they really want to know.
How often in this life have you asked for help and gotten an answer so complicated you felt just as lost and hopeless? The people here asked a simple question, “What are we supposed to being doing, if what we’re doing here today isn’t enough?” and they received simple, clear answers that matched their position in life just then.
We all have had moments in our lives (at least I suspect we have – I certainly have) when we aren’t sure what we’re supposed to be doing or what the next step might be. Times when we were lost and muddled, and it was a joy when we were given a clear, concise answer: Do this. Trust me and do this. And we did, and it worked, and there was joy.
John is telling the people – do these simple things, live with common decency, think about others as well as yourself. Live a life of kindness and goodness, the life God calls us to. If we ask – and then listen – God answers. And that is always cause for Joy.
So prepare the way -- for the one with the answers is coming. The One who is the source of our Joy.
Prepare the way – and rejoice as you do so.
Amen.
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