3rd
Sunday of Advent
Gaudate
Sunday
Cycle
A
I
woke up this morning in the middle of a Hallmark Channel movie. I live in a
small town away from the hustle and bustle of the city. A gentle snow was
falling, the house was warm and quiet and decorated for Christmas. There was a
tree and ornaments and stockings hung on the fireplace. There was hot coffee
and warm blankets, a beautiful woman at my side (although she’s not a blonde)
and a dog at my feet. It was like I was living in a snow globe.
That’s
what we have come to expect from Christmastime. And that’s how I categorize it.
The secular season I call Christmastime. The religious observation is Advent. And
every once in a while the two seasons connect, but oftentimes not.
Advent
is different from Christmastime. Both are all about anticipation, but what we
are anticipating in each is very different. Both set expectations, but one will
never fully satisfy. One is looking forward to a day, a single day, and the
anticipation is mostly around what we are going to receive. Christmastime is
about an experience, one that will soon end. Advent is looking forward to what
that first Christmas day put into motion. The incarnation of the Lord paved the
way for eternity. The first coming of the Lord set in motion the second coming.
The birth of Jesus was the beginning of
something that will never end.
Christmastime
as the world now celebrates it is empty. It is never really like we image it
should be. My house will never be a beautiful as in a Hallmark movie. The
problems in my life will never be neatly wrapped up and resolved in the same
way they are in an hour and a half on TV. And we never seem to be satisfied. It’s
like the anticipation of little children. They are not excited about the day as
much as about what they will receive that day. Have you ever seen it? They are
so excited with this present in their hands, but as soon as they open this one
they are looking to the next, and the next, and the next. They tear into their
presents to see what they are and then push them aside so they can get the next
one. And two weeks later, many of the toys will be forgotten, meaningless,
nothing special. It seems to be a metaphor for life in the US in general.
Disposable joy.
And
Christmastime ends abruptly once Christmas day is over. You see it driving down
the street the day after Christmas, with all the Christmas trees lying on the
side of the road or, here in Park City, piled up at various empty lots around
town. We must set aside this holiday to prepare for the next. On to New Year’s
Eve! Break out the Valentine’s candy!
For
those who understand the season of Advent, Christmas day is not the end but the
beginning. If we celebrated it correctly, we would wait to put up our
decorations until Christmas Eve, then keep them up until January 12 for the Feast
of the Baptism of the Lord. That is the true liturgical Christmas season. But
we start preparing for Christmas sometime around Halloween – that’s when the
stores start putting everything out – and very rarely do we see or hear any
reference to Jesus and the incarnation. It’s all Santa Claus and Elf on a
Shelf. You can now go the entire season and never hear a Christmas carol that
mentions the Christ child.
But
today is different. Today is Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of rejoicing. We have
been preparing our hearts and minds for the true meaning of Christmas, and now
the end is in sight. We have been observing Advent, not Christmastime, and it’s
time to stop and contemplate the wonderfulness of the gift we are about to
receive. It is now time to rejoice because the finish line is in sight. Not
presents and festivities but the greatest gift of all – eternal life with Jesus
in heaven. We look forward to our salvation, when Jesus Christ returns in his glory
and all creation is made new again.
The
readings today speak of justice, of setting things right again. When sin
entered the world the result was suffering, pain, and brokenness. When the Son
of Man returns in his glory everything will be made whole again, as the creator
has always intended it to be. It is good and necessary that we stop today and
focus on the prize, because it is difficult to see the summit sometimes when
we’re down in the weeds.
We
speak of peace on earth, goodwill towards all, and we know deep down that that
is what we truly crave. The peace of the Lord is different from the peace of
the earth. We long for a time when there is no strife or war or suffering or
broken relationships, because we feel the anxiety and pain that those things
cause us. We seek relief from our suffering. The peace of Jesus Christ is
deeper than that and is not dependent on any outside influences. The peace of
the earth is the absence of something. The peace of Jesus Christ is the
restoration of everything. It is the peace of Adam and Eve in the garden, who
had their every need and desire provided, and had the contentment of children,
walking hand in hand with their father in paradise.
In
fact, Adam and Eve had no wants and desires, because they lacked nothing. They
didn’t even know what a desire was, because they had never experienced want.
That’s what heaven will be like. That’s what Jesus promised would be restored
to all of creation. There will be no regrets of the past and no worries for the
future. There will be no blindness nor deafness nor feebleness nor fear. Everything
will just be as it intended to be. That is true peace.
Jesus
began the work of restoration in his earthly ministry. It was not an accident
that he was a healer. He was not just alleviating his children’s suffering as a
loving father would, he was restoring them to their intended state. He was
reconciling the world to himself. Just as infirmity entered the world through
sin, the natural outcome of the messiah’s reconciliation would be the
alleviation of suffering. John the Baptist understood the scriptures, and that
is why Jesus answered him the way he did. Jesus wasn’t just offering his works
as proof that he was the messiah, he was telling John that the prophecies of
hope were true, and he was the fulfillment of them.
The
peace of Jesus Christ can be present in your life even as you are experiencing
earthly sufferings. It is a paradox that your sufferings can actually bring you
that peace. Many of us know people who have that peace in the midst of
suffering. I think it is because they have completely surrendered themselves to
the Lord, as Jesus did. Jesus submitted to the will of his father and had no
attachments to worldly things. He never thought about his own needs because he
trusted that his father would provide everything he needed. That trust extended
to the cross itself, and the resurrection was vindication of that trust. And
Jesus was glorified because of it.
That
is our future, if we are persistent in our anticipation. We focus on these
things for these four weeks of Advent every year, but we are called by Jesus to
live that anticipation every day. We have been given the great promise of hope,
and we must live as people of hope. We start by holding that hope in our own
hearts. If we do, that hope will naturally extend out from us to our families,
our friends, our community. That hope will renew the face of the earth. That
hope is cause for great rejoicing.
Gaudete!
