The Hope and Promise of Joy in Christ
Posted on Dec 11, 2016 by David Whetter
Last week, we read about John the Baptist and he was confident, bold, and compelling wasn’t he? Remember how he had the courage and audacity to call the religious leaders a “Brood of Vipers?” Remember how he challenged every one to repent? And now today, only a few months later in the story, John’s tune changes. Now, he is sitting alone in a dark and dreary cell and he questions his earlier confidence and perhaps his very mission and identity, and so sends a disciple to go and ask Jesus a poignant, even heartbreaking question: are you really the one who is to come, or should we look for another?
This shift from confidence and exuberance to fear and confusion is both unexpected and a little confusing, yet it makes a certain sense, when you think about it; anticipation to disappointment and hope to desperation. This move is not unfamiliar to us. We regularly charge ahead with our dreams and plans, marching forward with optimism about the future, only to be “arrested” and caught up short, whether by cancer, or loss of employment, or the death of a loved one, or the loss of a relationship, or any of a thousand other things that cause us suddenly to stumble and lose our confidence and question our faith. And this time of year, the “manufactured” cheeriness of the season seems to belittle our challenges or even make us feel inadequate because of our struggles.
In this Advent Season, as we move Bethlehem, in anticipation of the birth of Christ child, this story of John the Baptist sharing his doubts can reassure and remind us that doubt is not the opposite of faith and it reminds us that the our Christian life is not one seamless march forward from success to success.
Today we are reminded that in Jesus, God came not as the victorious conqueror that many wished for, but rather Jesus came and comes as Emmanuel, God with us, the one who does not eliminate all our troubles but accompanies us through them. And so on this Third Sunday of Advent we stand with Christians of all time and ages, waiting. We wait with joys and with our concerns and fears and doubts, for we know that we are now in that time between his first coming and that second advent when he will heal all, right all wrongs, wipe every tear from the eye, and bring peace to the nations.
But as we wait, we are reminded today that we have been called to action. We re called to gather in community, to bring with us our joys, our deep concerns and prayers, and then we are called to go out again to work, struggle, and care, offering through our words and deeds the healing and peace that comes from the God we know in Jesus. We are called to act as we wait.
Today, is the 3rd Sunday in Advent, and it is often called “Joy” Sunday, because it is that day in the midst of our Advent season that we are reminded that in the midst of our lives, lives filled with hope, dreams, fears, confusion and doubt, that the promise of the Christ child and in the promise of his coming again, we do find the hope and promise of joy. So now I invite you to relax and listen as our choir offers us a gift of “JOY!” Amen.