(Zech 3:14-20; Is 12:2-6; Phil 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18) J G White

10:30 am, Sunday, Nov 3, 2024, FBC Amherst

Gaudete, gaudete Christus est natus ex Maria virgine gaudete

This is Gaudate Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, time to rejoice. I so want that old Latin hymn to be sung: in four part harmony. Anyway, we are rejoicing with other songs and words. And the light of one more candle.

As on other Christian Sabbaths, we time traveled today with the Bible. Zephaniah the prophet issued promises and hopes a few hundred years before the Messiah, Jesus, was born. Sing aloud... Rejoice and exult with all your heart… Adonai has taken away the judgments against you; he has turned away your enemies. Isaiah’s words - a Psalm - are from even earlier in Hebrew history. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Then, the Gospel reading was a scene from when Jesus Messiah was all grown up, and His cousin, John, preached heavy and hard to the crowds who gathered to hear him. "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? …Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

Whew! Does not quite seem like a Christmasy message. But here it is. John seems in contrast with Paul’s words, years later, to the Christians in the town of Philippi: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone.

But there must be something to rejoice in, in the fiery preaching of John the Baptist. He certainly attracted a crowd, out, away from the towns, by the Jordan River. To those who came, he preached and taught. He baptized them. And they all kept asking John the same question. “What should we do?” The crowd of common Jews asked. The ones employed by the Roman Empire to gather taxes asked. The soldiers too, also working for the oppressive government: “And we, what should we do?”

It is a good question.

And John answered them. As one New Testament scholar put it, John says, ‘Don’t be jerks!’ (Matt Skinner) Share, share your clothing, your food, with those in need. Don’t cheat people when you are at work, collecting money. Don’t threaten people to get the bribes you are used to getting at work. That sort of thing.

Actually sounds like gentleness. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. It is all very practical. ‘What should we do?’ is all about what we do, not just what we think inside, or believe, in theory. It is the practice of faith in God. We do this; we don’t do that.

We are not meeting up with a John the Baptist today, or even Messiah Jesus, on the street corners. At least, not in the same way they were in the year 27 C.E. We still have our moments of wanting to know what to do next. What can we possibly do? In the face of the wild things going on? Prices going up. Health care going down. Political ideas getting extreme. The environment going to hell in a handbasket. Child-rearing and education getting messier. The richest still getting richer. And you and I not always improving. We still fail at joy and gentleness.

What hopes do we have for joy, real joy? Not just escape from the world for a while to something fun, or nostalgic. But deep joy over something truly wonderful. Theologian Jurgen Moltmann said, “biblical thought always understands hope as the expectation of a good future which rests on God’s promise.” A good future.

This is what our Christian practice of Advent is all about. Turning towards hope and joy. Dwelling upon the scripture promises and finding out what they might mean for our world now. Hearing anew that there are promises from God. Good News! Everybody listen.

There is something a bit humorous about Luke 3 verse 18. After John warns his followers that the powerful Messiah will soon arrive to thresh the wheat, and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire, Luke the narrator says, So with many other exhortations he proclaimed the good news to the people.

Good news? What is Good News? What is Gospel?

Is it not the news that what is rotten and terrible will get destroyed? What is evil and painful will end, somehow, some way? Chains shall Christ break for the slave is our brother,

And in His name all oppression shall cease.

Many years in Advent I reread a favourite book. It is a biography of Santa Claus, by Canadian historian Gerry Bowler. At one point, he talks about letters to Santa, and how the Canadian postal service delivers them. He quotes examples of what children request. Some of the letters are downright demanding. But then, Some would break the hardest heart, Bowler says:

You can forget all the toys this year. What I would like most of all is for my brother to get better, recover from his stroke, and speak and act like he used to and not have to take pills all the time.

Dear beloving santa,

I have some wishes that had never comed true and you are my last hope. Here are my wishes: I wish that my mom wont have saesers and have to go to the hospital again.

I wish that my tored vane would stop bleeding. I don’t want toys I just want that for Christmas. (Santa Claus: A Biography, 2005, p.108)

In a podcast about our scriptures, Matt Skinner said it well. What Jesus gets rid of - this is in Good News. What chaff do we want burned up, to save the wheat? How about addiction, fetal alcohol syndrome, gun violence? What are the things you’d say, “I can’t wait for that to be gone”? And let’s see what well-being looks like. (Working Preacher, December 15, 2024)

Along with the good news that ours is a God pointed in this direction, God with a dream of hope and peace and joy and love, is the good news that we help out. We get to help out. Christianity is as Xianity does. Not facts: it’s following.

‘What shall we do?’ Two things - at least two things, today. One, help out - ‘don’t be jerks!’ And two, rejoice!

A few of us here recently heard this story, in a book we read. The great teacher of preaching to preachers, Fred Craddock, was pastor in a tiny rural mission in the Appalachian Mountains. Each Easter Sunday evening, at sundown, would be baptisms, by immersion. After the candidates were dried and cleaned up, everyone was gathered around a campfire to warm up. A large circle around the new people. Then the ritual would begin. One by one, each person in the outer circle would make an offer to those standing by the fire.

“My name is . . . and if you ever need somebody to do washing or ironing . . .”

My name is . . . and if you ever need anybody to chop wood ...”

My name is . . . and if you ever need anybody to babysit . . .”

My name is . . . and if you ever need anybody to repair your home...”

My name is ... & if you ever need anybody to sit with the sick...”

My name is . . . and if you ever need a car to go to town . . .”

Once, when Craddock told this story to some well-healed city folk, he had to explain: “I don’t know what you call that where you come from. But where I come from we call it . . . church.”

And what else do we do? We rejoice. Funny how this is commanded, again and again, in the Bible. May you find, with Jesus, and among His own people now, some of the joy that is promised. So it won’t take much at all to prompt you to rejoice!

And you, you be one more candle of joy in our world.

Gaudete, gaudete Christus est natus ex Maria virgine gaudete