Preacher: Revd Dr Joe Mottram
Date: 12/12/2021
Rejoice in the Lord
Third Sunday of Advent
Readings: Zephaniah 3:14-20, Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:7-18
Opening Prayer:
As I speak, may the Lord, who is in our midst, guard our hearts and minds. May the Holy Spirit burn away the chaff, those things which are come only from me, leaving behind the wheat of his message to us. Amen.
Opening Illustration/Introduction: do we feel like rejoicing?
Well, it’s been another of those weeks hasn’t it. I don’t know about you, but there have been times in the past few years when I’ve not really wanted to hear the latest news.
Whether on the radio, TV, online, or in the newspapers, there seem to have been so many things to worry about, that affect all of us. Regular moments when all our plans and expectations, all our certainty about what everyday life will be like, go out of the window.
There were times in the spring last year and this year, and around this time last year, where it felt like it was almost not worth making plans beyond the next briefing from Downing Street, because no sooner had we put all the plans in place then the picture would change once again.
It almost makes me long for those silly little items at the end of the news. The ‘and finally’ items where you get something uplifting or just light-hearted – the owl and cat who are best friends, and the video of them playing nicely together helps you to feel like the world isn’t all bad.
We had another potential moment of disruption on Wednesday this week, a bump in the road out of pandemic due to the new Omicron variant, as Chris Witty put it.
I don’t know how you’re feeling about all this. Perhaps longing for a normal, predictable Christmas? Resigned? Worried? Anxious? Frustrated? Angry? Depressed?
You even might be thinking: Where is God in all this?
And into this soup of emotions, we have today’s readings, talking about rejoicing and Good News.
Does life feel joyful at the moment? Do we feel like rejoicing? If not, what does that mean for our faith?
Let’s have a look at each reading in turn to think about what they might be saying to us and how we should respond, starting with our Old Testament reading.
Zephaniah – The joy of hope
Our reading from the prophecies of Zephaniah comes from right at the end of this short book. Zephaniah was probably preaching to the people of Judah, the southern Jewish kingdom, around the start of the reign of King Josiah in around 640BC.
This was a critical time in the life of Jerusalem. The northern kingdom of Israel had been conquered about 60 years earlier, and the previous two kings of Jerusalem had allowed foreign idols, worship, and morals to become an increasing part of public life, even into the Temple itself.
Zephaniah’s prophecies are a call to return to Yahweh, the god of Abraham and Jacob, with stark judgment and warning about the destruction that Judah and Jerusalem will face if things don’t change. It is only in this last part of the book that Zephaniah talks of the joy which will come if the people return to the Lord, as King Josiah’s reforms attempted to ensure, though this was short-lived.
So, Zephaniah is not talking to a people for whom everything is perfect. Quite the opposite. Their way of life is under attack, in terms of both their faith and their freedom to govern themselves. His call is to recognise that God is in their midst, is in control despite the circumstances, is fighting for them, and to choose to put down their fear and focus on hope, responding with worship, trust, faithfulness. If they could do this, then they would find their joy.
Luke – What should we do?
Our reading from the gospel of Luke also has the promise of God’s presence with us at it’s heart against a setting of oppression and social upheaval. John the Baptist also challenges the crowd and us too through his call to ‘bearing fruit worthy of repentance’.
Repentance is not just about saying sorry. It’s about choosing to turn towards God, to do things God’s way rather than our own. And we don’t have to do that in our own strength. We have the promise of the Holy Spirit, God’s presence with us to guide and prompt us to put aside those things that are not of God. Because John says of Jesus:
‘He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 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”
It’s easy to think about the wheat and chaff as different people, those who are in and those who are out. However, if we think about that image in detail, we notice that each stalk gives both wheat and chaff. Perhaps it’s more consistent with the earlier parts of the passage about repentance and how to respond if John is emphasising that part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to help remove from each of us those things that are not from God. Those things which do not lead to life, which get in the way of our joy.
Philippians – Joy despite adversity
Joy is one of the overriding characteristics of the whole of Paul’s letter to the Philippians as well. This is particularly striking as it was written from prison to a church which was primarily made up of people who were poor or slaves, who knew more than their fair share of hardship and persecution.
So it’s important to know that when Paul says “Rejoice in the Lord always”, and “Do not worry about anything”, these are not the glib comments of someone who doesn’t know better.
Indeed, what Paul is exhorting his readers to, including us, is not a cheap joy – being giddy and jumping up and down like we’ve had too much sugar.
No, he’s talking about a conscious choice to ask God for that peace and joy which comes through the Holy Spirit. For the contentment which comes when we lay aside all our doubts, worries, when we consciously give up the sense that we should be in control of everything, that the solution needs to come from ourselves alone. When instead we trust that God is in all things and rest in the freedom that comes with knowing that we can do all things through the strength that Christ brings.
This is of course no-where near as easy in practise as it sounds, but takes effort, discipline, and practise, the development of holy habits which help us to find that abundant life which Jesus promised through acknowledging and working with the presence of God that is within each of us.
Pulling the threads together
Pulling all these threads together, I’d like to suggest three things that this means for us today.
Firstly, as we walk our Advent journey this year, we are reminded that even as people who have the light of Jesus shining within us, we are also walking in a world that still has plenty of darkness and shades of grey. The light may have come into the world, but the final victory of light over darkness is still to come.
We shouldn’t feel like we are bad Christians if we don’t feel joyful some or even most of the time. It is normal to feel worried, stressed, or fearful, which can make us struggle to feel happiness or joy. Fear can also block our sense of God with us,and may rob us of the sense of joy we might normally have felt at this time of year. Fear also locks us into the false narrative of needing to solve everything in our own power.
It takes conscious effort and practise, but if talk to God about our fears, we will meet and walk with Jesus in them, and find that we’re not alone. We open ourselves to working with God, standing in His love, which will help us manage and overcome our fears.
Secondly, just like the other fruits of the Holy Spirit, joy doesn’t come from us, so we shouldn’t expect to be able to make ourselves feel that deep-rooted contentment and acceptance of how life.
Instead, we need to be talking to God about how we feel and asking for him to transform our situations with his peace and joy. As we look at the world, the image of God within each of us will respond with compassion to the image of God in others. It is only with joy which comes from outside ourselves, from God, that we can truly rejoice in all things.
Finally, we need to remember that God is with us even in the dark times, especially in the dark times. This was true for Zephaniah, Luke, and Paul, and for those they were writing to. It’s true for us.
I can’t say where things are going to go in the next few weeks or months. The uncertainty of the past couple of years makes it particularly hard to make predictions with the degree of certainty we might want. But God is with us, bringing compassion, encouragement, and yes even joy at times.
So my prayer is that even as we walk in darkness, that each of us may know something of God’s light, his hope, his peace, his love, and his joy, today and always. Amen.