3 Advent A December 15, 2019
Is.35:1-10 Ps. 146: 4-9
James 5:7-10 Matt. 11:2-11
Why did we like a pink or rose candle today on the Advent wreath? Today is the third Sunday of Advent and it is called Rose Sunday. Christian calendar days have traditions which have histories. Advent in times past began as a forty day fast before the celebration of the birth of Christ, kind of like a second Lent. It was regarded to be penitential season and began in the 4th century, after the feast of St. Martin in early November. In later tradition the season became shorten from 40 days to four weeks. Advent retained like Lent, a refreshment Sunday, a day of temporary indulgence within a penitential season. In liturgical color, rose replaced the seasonal purple to use color to express the change in penitential relief for the day.
The Lenten Sunday of refreshment is called, Laetare and the Advent Rose Sunday is called Gaudete. Both words in Latin mean, "Rejoice," and they come from the introits that were used on these days, in Advent from the Epistle of Paul in some years, "Rejoice in the Lord, always and again I say rejoice."
Let us consider some lessons from the Scripture readings for this Rose Sunday in Advent.
First, we need to learn how to access joy in our lives. Happiness is not the same thing as joy. Happiness depends upon what happens. And in the free conditions of our lives, we are not always happy about what is happening to us and to others in the world. But happiness is a temporary surface release of something deeper and more profound. In the season of Advent we are encouraged to "Rejoice in the Lord always." How do we do this? Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. This means we have to tap this interior source of fulfillment in the midst of some very challenging situations in our world. To live by joy is not to deny all of the unhappy conditions in the world; to live by joy is to believe that whatever is happening now has to be put in context with everything that happened in the past and everything that will happen in the future. And joy is based upon the faith that God is winning even while the challenging conditions of freedom are being lived out. If God's Spirit is the sign of immortal endurance, then to the know God's Spirit is to know joy. What did C.S. Lewis call the biography of his conversion? "Surprised by Joy." One of things that never ceases to amaze me is to see young children in refugee camps and in hospitals and see them smile for no apparent reason at all. They live closer to the original joy of their births. That joy gets covered up in our adult worlds. The conversion to Jesus, is to be able to access once again the original joy of life itself. And having this access to joy, enables us to function better within the conditions of freedom in our lives. So, let us learn to obey this command, "Rejoice in the Lord always."
Another Advent lesson for us today is to let ideal worlds and utopia function for us a continuous call to a better world. Let us not be too smug about what we've attained. Let us be horrified by the worst of evil. Let the ideal worlds inform the direction of our moral progress. Let the poetry of the ideal inspire us: the desert will bloom, justice and recompense will happen, people will recover from their blindness, people will learn how to walk on a direct way, the exiled shall be able to return with gladness and joy. The Psalmist proclaims God as the greatest of ideals? Why? God cares for the widow and orphan, God gives justice to the oppressed, God gives sight to the blind, God cares for the stranger and those bowed down, God gives food to the hungry, God sets the prisoner free. The ideals which we proclaim in the Advent readings remind us that anyone who is not for these ideals is not on the side of God. During Advent we have to judge ourselves harshly in light of the great ideals in life. Why? We cannot drop perfection as our standard.
What other Advent lesson is given to us today? Be patient beloved. The day of perfection, the day of Lord is not yet here. There is still a big gap between what is ideal and what is actually happening in our world. How do we survive being taunted by our ideals in the midst of some abject failures? Be patient. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit; so is patience. Patience is the power to wait in the conditions of freedom and not give in to rage and wrath to think that we can force our notion of perfection in a sudden fit of rage. Patience is the ability to honor the importance of freedom while not giving up our ideals. To refuse patience is to give into rage or a Murphy's Law fatalism; if something bad can happen, it will happen.
Another final lesson that I would cite from our readings today is this: We need to be ready for paradigm switches or conversions to what is better. We need to be ready to convert to that is which is a more adequate answer to our life situation. The Gospel lesson is the story form of a paradigm switch. Which Palestinian religious community had members who were most likely to become followers of Jesus of Nazareth? The Pharisees? No. The Sadducees? No. The Zealots? No. The Essenes. No. The followers of John the Baptist? Yes. They were the most obvious target audience to embrace the new religious paradigm of the Jesus Movement. John the Baptist in prison is the example of all of his followers who wanted to maintain his memory and his community after he was killed. When a movement loses a leader like John the Baptist how do they survive? There was no successor like John to take his place. Some important leaders in the Jesus Movement had been followers of John the Baptist. They wanted all of the members of John's community to follow Jesus too. They wanted the members of John the Baptist to understand why they had come to follow Jesus. Jesus had a special ministry that fulfilled the ideals of the prophet Isaiah. John the Baptist was a water man. Jesus was a Spirit man. John baptized with water; Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit. We are not certain whether the baptism of John was done just once; it might have been like a frequent purification ritual to symbolize the continuous need to be cleansed from sins. The baptism of the Spirit was like an interior spring of water always bubbling within. John the Baptist proclaimed an end of the world with immediate judgment; the Jesus Movement became the kingdom of heaven as the kingdom of God's Spirit who resided within the lives of those who came to know him as their Messiah.
The message of Advent reminds us that we need to be ready for the paradigm changes in our lives. We need to be ready to convert towards thinking and practice that are in the direction of fulfilling our ideals.
Today, let us Rejoice, in the midst of both unhappy and happy conditions. Let us not compromise the great ideals of life. Let us be patience on the path of perfectability. And finally, let us be willing to make conversions and paradigm switches towards the excellences of Jesus the Messiah as they become known to us. Amen.
First, we need to learn how to access joy in our lives. Happiness is not the same thing as joy. Happiness depends upon what happens. And in the free conditions of our lives, we are not always happy about what is happening to us and to others in the world. But happiness is a temporary surface release of something deeper and more profound. In the season of Advent we are encouraged to "Rejoice in the Lord always." How do we do this? Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. This means we have to tap this interior source of fulfillment in the midst of some very challenging situations in our world. To live by joy is not to deny all of the unhappy conditions in the world; to live by joy is to believe that whatever is happening now has to be put in context with everything that happened in the past and everything that will happen in the future. And joy is based upon the faith that God is winning even while the challenging conditions of freedom are being lived out. If God's Spirit is the sign of immortal endurance, then to the know God's Spirit is to know joy. What did C.S. Lewis call the biography of his conversion? "Surprised by Joy." One of things that never ceases to amaze me is to see young children in refugee camps and in hospitals and see them smile for no apparent reason at all. They live closer to the original joy of their births. That joy gets covered up in our adult worlds. The conversion to Jesus, is to be able to access once again the original joy of life itself. And having this access to joy, enables us to function better within the conditions of freedom in our lives. So, let us learn to obey this command, "Rejoice in the Lord always."
Another Advent lesson for us today is to let ideal worlds and utopia function for us a continuous call to a better world. Let us not be too smug about what we've attained. Let us be horrified by the worst of evil. Let the ideal worlds inform the direction of our moral progress. Let the poetry of the ideal inspire us: the desert will bloom, justice and recompense will happen, people will recover from their blindness, people will learn how to walk on a direct way, the exiled shall be able to return with gladness and joy. The Psalmist proclaims God as the greatest of ideals? Why? God cares for the widow and orphan, God gives justice to the oppressed, God gives sight to the blind, God cares for the stranger and those bowed down, God gives food to the hungry, God sets the prisoner free. The ideals which we proclaim in the Advent readings remind us that anyone who is not for these ideals is not on the side of God. During Advent we have to judge ourselves harshly in light of the great ideals in life. Why? We cannot drop perfection as our standard.
What other Advent lesson is given to us today? Be patient beloved. The day of perfection, the day of Lord is not yet here. There is still a big gap between what is ideal and what is actually happening in our world. How do we survive being taunted by our ideals in the midst of some abject failures? Be patient. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit; so is patience. Patience is the power to wait in the conditions of freedom and not give in to rage and wrath to think that we can force our notion of perfection in a sudden fit of rage. Patience is the ability to honor the importance of freedom while not giving up our ideals. To refuse patience is to give into rage or a Murphy's Law fatalism; if something bad can happen, it will happen.
Another final lesson that I would cite from our readings today is this: We need to be ready for paradigm switches or conversions to what is better. We need to be ready to convert to that is which is a more adequate answer to our life situation. The Gospel lesson is the story form of a paradigm switch. Which Palestinian religious community had members who were most likely to become followers of Jesus of Nazareth? The Pharisees? No. The Sadducees? No. The Zealots? No. The Essenes. No. The followers of John the Baptist? Yes. They were the most obvious target audience to embrace the new religious paradigm of the Jesus Movement. John the Baptist in prison is the example of all of his followers who wanted to maintain his memory and his community after he was killed. When a movement loses a leader like John the Baptist how do they survive? There was no successor like John to take his place. Some important leaders in the Jesus Movement had been followers of John the Baptist. They wanted all of the members of John's community to follow Jesus too. They wanted the members of John the Baptist to understand why they had come to follow Jesus. Jesus had a special ministry that fulfilled the ideals of the prophet Isaiah. John the Baptist was a water man. Jesus was a Spirit man. John baptized with water; Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit. We are not certain whether the baptism of John was done just once; it might have been like a frequent purification ritual to symbolize the continuous need to be cleansed from sins. The baptism of the Spirit was like an interior spring of water always bubbling within. John the Baptist proclaimed an end of the world with immediate judgment; the Jesus Movement became the kingdom of heaven as the kingdom of God's Spirit who resided within the lives of those who came to know him as their Messiah.
The message of Advent reminds us that we need to be ready for the paradigm changes in our lives. We need to be ready to convert towards thinking and practice that are in the direction of fulfilling our ideals.
Today, let us Rejoice, in the midst of both unhappy and happy conditions. Let us not compromise the great ideals of life. Let us be patience on the path of perfectability. And finally, let us be willing to make conversions and paradigm switches towards the excellences of Jesus the Messiah as they become known to us. Amen.
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