Zeph 3:14-20 Canticle 9 Phil.4:4-9 Luke 3:7-18
Lectionary Link
St. Paul was a Jew who came to follow Christ and became an apostle to found communities in cities in the Roman Empire. He lived as a member of a religious minority preaching and leading minority communities in an Empire which proclaimed the Caesar as a god and son of a god.
So what does Paul write to the church in Philippi? 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.
How can we rejoice Paul? We're a small minority and if we let our identity be known too widely, we could face persecution.
Today is Rejoice Sunday in the season of Advent. And we might have difficulty following the "rejoice" command if we are facing major challenges in our personal lives and in the life of our country.
And this is where we have to know the direction of rejoicing? Rejoice in the Lord. The Lord of the Roman Empire was the Caesar. Don't rejoice in him; rejoice in the ruler of the interior kingdom of God, the Risen Christ, because he can be found wherever one is and in any circumstance.
The Jesus Movement was the embracing of an alternative reality in the midst of the Empire reality of the Caesar. We are still a part of the Jesus Movement; we cannot identify the Lord Risen Christ with any political party or leaders in this world. The Jesus Movement is an interior movement of the Holy Spirit, a parallel realm within which we can know a different kind of identity, what Paul also called our heavenly citizenship. If the Caesar seems to be close at hand within the soldiers inhabiting the land, St. Paul wrote that the "Lord, Risen Christ, " is even nearer. And the nearness of the Risen Christ gives us the uncanny freedom to be free from worry, when logic often seems tells us that we should be worried. The Lord Risen Christ gives us the freedom continually to offer thankful prayers with our requests to God. The Roman Caesars required praise and tributes; Paul suggested that God is the Lord who deserves our thankful prayers.
What might characterize the most winsome way of living? Gentleness. Paul tells his community that they can live gentle lives. And this is not some effete weakness; this is knowing how to access the inner charisma of the original joy like the smile of a sleeping baby. Gentle charisma is winsome; it not a sign of weakness and this is how we are to melt the hearts of the people we live with, with winsome gentleness, which is the strength to check our egos and make room for others and tend to them with care.
Paul and the Philippian church lived in the "Pax Romana" Empire. The Roman Peace, which was accomplished by the success of the Roman armies. If you crucify all opponents, you might call it a peace, because everyone is living in the fear of violence.
Paul spoke of the inner kingdom of peace that we have access to because of the Risen Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the greatest secret of the mystical experience is to know interior peace in a place below all emotions and sentimentality. Our emotions can be tamed by the experience of this deep peace of God which is a bedrock experience of knowing that one has been baptized by God's Spirit.
Many years after Paul wrote, the Gospels were written to trace the genealogy of the knowledge of this kingdom and realm of the Risen Christ through the presence of the Holy Spirit. And the genealogy in knowing the kingdom of the Risen Christ included the figure of John the Baptist who taught us some important lessons.
John taught us to accept rebuke when we are religious hypocrites; when we try to replace love and justice with religious piety and performance of ritual. Rather than trying to look religious, John asked people to do the obvious good deeds, to share food and clothing, to be honest and don't use power to bully people. And John encouraged us to know ourselves, like he knew himself. He knew that he was not the Messiah, and he knew his role was to point to the Messiah who would baptize with the Holy Spirit to initiate people into the kingdom of God. To make people aware that the kingdom of God has always already been the fact of the universe.
Today, we are invited to rejoice, because we live in the realm of God. And we are invited to live winsome lives of gentleness so that people can come to know the gentle and peaceful life of God within them.
Blessed Mary is the saint of our parish, and she has been known in transhistorical appearance, as we remember on this day, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. As Blessed Mary came to Juan Diego in her appearance as our Lady of Guadalupe and brought peace, healing, and identity to the people of Mexico, and to all people who are threatened by the empires of oppression, let us know that Blessed Mary is also praying for us to know joy in knowing that the Risen Christ is born within us. Amen.
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