Your Joy When You Knew It Was Christmas
Zephaniah 3: 14-20
Philippians 4: 4-7
DECEMBER 15, 2024 – Third Sunday of Advent
“Rejoice … shout … exult with all your heart!”
Ok, so most of us aren’t overly focused on exulting with our hearts these days. Much less exulting with “all of our hearts.” In fact, most of you probably have only used the word exult on extremely rare occasions even though that word is defined as feeling or showing triumphant elation or jubilation. You know CHEERING with EVERYTHING YOU HAVE … CELEBRATING …. BEING NOTICED for your personal joy and happiness at something that has happened in your life. When your smile is at its biggest and no one has to say cheese if they are taking your photo.
I realize that we are officially in the church calendar season that is referred to as ADVENT. Today, wasn’t it awesome watching Kathie light the Advent candles? ADVENT whose definition is related to our anticipation of Jesus’ coming.
FYI …. The THIRD Sunday of Advent, which is today … is officially called GAUDETE SUNDAY with GAUDETE in Latin meaning rejoice! So, today is a day we can all EXULT … REJOICE IN the LORD … and be glad!!! Without any guilt or embarrassment.
But frankly, and unofficially … we can and are allowed to rejoice every single day in the Lord if we choose to do so.
As Christians we realize that Jesus already did arrive in a manger … God’s loving gift to all of humanity. We have closely followed and accept God’s expectations for our lives as taught by Jesus through His ministry and recorded in the Gospels, right. We know that Jesus went to the cross as a sacrifice for our sins and that three days later he left the tomb behind because He is Risen <<HE IS RISEN INDEED>> … I clearly know that this church obviously knows He is Risen <<HE IS RISEN INDEED>> see you know how to exult! And, 40 days later Jesus ascended into heaven. But, we also know that one day Christ is coming back so perhaps we are always in a season of Advent.
Anyhow, so yes, the church world liturgically calls the season ADVENT but for my entire life I call this season something different. The season that is officially launched when I wake up the day after Thanksgiving is the CHRISTMAS SEASON!! My little brain hits a recognition button to tell me that it is CHRISTMAS TIME and I just smile because CHRISTMAS TIME is loaded with memories. Time to find the DVD’s of Charlie Brown’s Christmas and Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, which I think I left at Colleen’s house.
CHRISTMAS TIME has what seems like a never ending playlist of songs that spark even more memories lined up with smiles … there’s BRENDA LEE’s ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ and Jose Feliciano’s ‘Feliz Navid’ that always finds me singing along with “Prospero ano y felicidad” or whatever those words are that he sings but they sound good and I certainly sing out loud … at least in my mind if I am out in public.
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart … ok, I always get those words right and I smile! Not only do I smile but I sense joy in the world. These days you can again hear the voices of Bing Crosby, Burl Ives whoever he was, Andy Williams, and can’t leave out those chestnuts roasting sung by Nat King Cole.
Do you realize that young people … you know folks born after us … have absolutely no idea what any of these great singers looked like … they don’t even know that Gene Autry was known as the Singing Cowboy … heck, the only Cowboys they might know are that team down in Dallas that thankfully is having an awful football season. Anyhow they might not even know that the Singing Cowboy gave us “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Frosty the Snowman, and of course “Rudolph” in addition to ‘Back in the Saddle Again.”
But young people and older people definitely, at least as far as I have noticed, they definitely show joy when Christmas songs are played. And, they are played everywhere and anywhere you go. Songs of joy! Christmas songs have been written to get us feeling good about the season and yes to get us anticipating something better in our lives.
When you think back to those golden years of your youth … do you remember the parades? Macy’s Parade and Gimbles? Did you have a special place to go visit Santa that brings back memories? Mine was Sattlers at 998 Broadway and I still remember this odd cup and straw he gave me one year. Rushing home every day at 5pm turning on Channel 4 right after Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve there he was with Forgetful the Elf reading letters from kids and bringing us a happy story.
Do you remember talking with your friends about Christmas? About your list? About whether you had been bad or good and realizing that you better be good for christmas’ sake?
Thankfully we have Bruce singing “You better be good for goodness sake … you better watch out … you better not cry … you better not pout… I’m telling you why …”
Ok, we’ve heard Bruce and the E-Street Band singing that song but we are here in church today and I really want us to focus in on our Christmas Season reputations. Reputations that go beyond who makes the best cookies … I went to a Christmas Cookie Walk yesterday at an Episcopal Church and they had run out of cookies talk about a Christmas disappointment … anyhow, what do your friends and family know about you and Christmas?
I know that the Ski family has become known for their gifting of Advent calendars and other faith-gifts that reflect that this is the season of Jesus’ birth celebration. I look at this sanctuary and sense the season of Christmas by what I see and when we had our Christmas sing-along anyone who came to St. Paul’s could sense the love we have for each other and our visitors. They could sense here inside this church the love we have for God in our singing of the songs of the season.
But I want you to pause for a moment or two this morning on the Third Sunday of Advent to silently ask yourself … what is your Christmas reputation? And, perhaps more importantly to remember your joy when you realized that this is the season when we are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s everlasting gift of love to all of us.
When was that moment when faith became essential? When all of the cultural trivial celebrations paled in comparison to your belief … your faith … your acceptance of God’s love in Jesus Christ born in the manger after Mary and Joseph’s journey.
That moment when you joined Paul in being able to “Be glad in the Lord always” or in the translation I use Paul is translated in EXULTING, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say REJOICE!”
Your JOY TO THE WORLD moment! When was it? How have you carried it forward from that day to this day in December 2024? Are these Sunday’s in Advent important to you? The Christmas Eve service? Do you read Luke’s Gospel, chapter 2, on Christmas?
We live in a challenging and I would like to think a transitional time in history when out of the gloom that the world has created there is this incredible opportunity for people of faith to actually step up and highlight the truth of Jesus Christ, which in itself is a reflection of God. I think the Christmas season is our perfect opportunity to begin to focus in on the truths we heard from the prophet Zephaniah today …. “The Lord is in your midst, you will no longer fear evil. The Lord God is in your midst … He will create calm with His love.”
God’s gift of love is Jesus Christ … when we truly connect the dots of our life to Jesus Christ and start to act and live as believers and followers of our Savior then God’s love will deliver a special calmness to us. John in his epistle wrote that there is “no fear in perfect love, which is the love of God through Christ.”
Jesus loved the rejected and the outcast … God through the prophet spoke about that when God said, “I will deliver the lame I will gather the outcast. I will change their shame into praise. At that time I will being all of you back.”
Friends, it is time to come back to God and Christ. It is time to celebrate Christmas not only for our cultural happiness but for the joy of our faith. We are past due in showcasing our joy in our faith to our friends by including them in our faith celebrations … by being invitational by telling our faith story on our social media.
We need to remember that “the Lord is near, don’t be anxious about anything and we need to accept the peace of God that exceeds all understanding keeping our hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.”
This Christmas season … you and I can help create faith-memories for others. We can showcase our joy in the Lord making others wonder how they too can EXULT in faith.
Jose Feliciano’s song offers us a merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year … we can have that when we reenergize our faith to the level that we feel totally comfortable in “Rejoicing … shouting … and exulting with all of our hearts” so that the world … our worlds … our circles of friends and family and neighbors can see that we believe in the reason that there is joy in the season and the means of having joy in the world this Christmas! AMEN