As we continue to approach Christmas day, our joy grows deeper and deeper. It mimics the joyful anticipation of the Shepherds who journeyed to Bethlehem before anyone else…
Third week of Advent, Joy or Rejoice:
In some traditions, those who observe Advent devote the first two weeks of Advent to remembering Jesus' promise to return and renew Heaven and Earth. Then, during the last two weeks of Advent, these communities focus on the birth of Jesus. More than any other week during the Advent season, week 3 represents a shift in attitude and tone. Moving from reflections of hope, repentance, and fear of the coming Judge to joyful rejoicing at the coming of salvation and the kingdom of God.
These Advent rhythms mirror our experiences in our personal journeys to the Babe in Bethlehem. Some days the brokenness of our world is more than we can handle, some days we feel defeated because of our sin, and others we long for the day when God will finally make all things new and wipe every tear from our eyes.
This week of Advent helps us shift from penitential reflections to joyful celebration because God has come to save us and to be with us, and He will come again… that is what this week symbolizes…Joy…because the Lord is near and He invites each of us to draw close and encounter Him anew.
As we continue to approach Christmas day, our joy grows deeper and deeper. It mimics the joyful anticipation of the Shepherds who journeyed to Bethlehem before anyone else…in this third week during advent, which is also called Gaudete Sunday, we, like the shepherds, celebrate. Gaudete, from Philippians 4:4 (“Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, 'Rejoice'”) is a Latin word that means "rejoice" or praise.
We celebrate the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Messiah giving us much reason to truly rejoice. Unlike fleeting happiness, this joy is deeply rooted in the assurance of salvation and the peace that comes from God's presence and faithfulness…. after 400 years of silence, He came, came for each of us not just the privileged…That Jesus makes all things new is a reason to celebrate and rejoice. Whether you participate in Advent or not, there is beauty in reflecting upon how Jesus delivers these virtues to the world and to our lives.
I would like to share my Sunday advent reflection with you. It caused me to consider and reflect on the ways I express my joy or rejoicing on all that God has done and is continuing to do in my life. In this account 1 Chronicles 15:28 we see David express Joyful praise…Rejoicing with his whole being. David, the worshipper, the man after God’s heart, the one who wrote many psalms of praise unabashedly expressed his joy to the Lord for the many ways he had encountered God and in this particular account, for the way God was with them as they relocated the Ark of the Covenant. Now I am not advocating this become a common practice in our church, but I couldn’t help but think of what it would be like to rejoice in ways David did here and on more than one occasion…To rejoice and express joy in our own personal ways, in our own spaces…to let it out and shine in the world around us
I invite you to read through this reflection, prayerfully, thoughtfully, with an openness to the Spirit of God in you…Is there something new He is birthing in you… a new freedom you have not experienced in your celebration of your relationship with Him?
"The sanctuaries of our churches-indeed of our bodies-no longer “resound from early morning”. When did any of us ever think to praise God with “dancing and leaping” as David did? When did we last sing and make melody to the Lord with all our heart as Paul recommends in his letters to the Ephesians? Or “Clap our Hands” or “Shout for Joy” as the psalmist describes? We tend to regard this kind of worship as primitive, outmoded. Although we were created body and soul, modern man is disembodied in his ritual. Laughter and play are conspicuous in their absence from our worship, despite the fact that we were created playful.
Wisdom- the first of all creation and God’s endless delight according to Proverbs, was “at play everywhere on [God’s’] earth. Worship for many of us is a thing of leaden seriousness; for our children it is all too often an incomprehensible tedium”. If anyone shouted with delight in the presence of the Lord in the tabernacle, the Ark of our times, they would be put out of our church very quickly!
Yet it is the child in us who can most truly live in a state of becoming- untrammeled by the past, always open to growth and change. It is the child in us who can sense what Meister Eckhart calls the perfection and stability of eternity, where there is neither time nor space, neither before nor after, “but everything present in one new, fresh-springing now where millenniums last no longer than the twinkling of an eye”
It is the child in us who can truly be open to God’s constant invitation to be born again, to be part of the creation which is itself constantly being recreated. It is the child in us who can thrill to a sense of closeness to the Source of all creation. Without a sense of wonder, our praise of God will be sterile." December 15 reflection Sacred Space, Advent 2024… Further reflection Psalm 63, 100.
Be blessed this advent season my friends!! May you experience the deep satisfying Joy only God can give. I pray you will find new freedom to express that Joy to the world around you. A world that so needs to see the light and life only Jesus can bring.
Warmly,
Melody
I also would like to share this song that really moves me, literally, and expresses that playful expression of Joy. Click HERE.
