May this be in the name of our loving, liberating, life-giving God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.
Happy Third Sunday of Advent to you! This third Sunday is also known as Gaudete Sunday or Rose Sunday. The Episcopalchurch.org glossary provides more insight: Gaudete Sunday is: “The third Sunday of Advent…The term is derived from the Latin opening words of the antiphon, “Rejoice (Gaudete) in the Lord always.” The theme of the day expresses the joy of anticipation at the approach of the Christmas celebration…It was appropriate for the celebrant of the Mass to wear rose-colored vestments on this day instead of the deeper violet vestments that were typically used in Advent. This Sunday was also known as “Rose Sunday.” This custom is reflected by the practice of including a pink or rose-colored candle among the four candles of an Advent wreath. (https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/gaudete-sunday/)
We don’t have any pink vestments here at St. Mary’s, but I’ve seen some pretty sweet looking ones in pictures online. But we do light our pink or rose-colored candle today and our theme is one of rejoicing. Rejoice in the Lord always! Again, I say, rejoice! We rejoice, as our collect says, in the bountiful grace and mercy with which our God comes among us to speedily help us and deliver us. And we rejoice in the powerful imagery of restoration provided by the prophet Isaiah.
The lost and dried-up areas of our lives, Isaiah tells us, will be made glad, the desert shall rejoice and new life will bloom, like crocuses sprouting up all over, singing songs as they pop their multi-colored blossoms out of dormant soil. This new joy will strengthen hands that have grown weak, and make wobbly knees sturdy. And people who are afraid will be encouraged to take heart, because God is here and comes to save.
Those who are blind will be able to see again, and those who can’t hear, their ears will be opened. People unable to stand will spring up and dance, and people who couldn’t speak will suddenly start talking up a storm of praise for the healing, restoring, and saving God.
What was a desert, will be filled with gushing water, streams and pools. Formerly arid land will now be abundant with fresh-flowing springs. And where there was no path through the dark and treacherous way, a wide, clear, smooth highway will appear, it will be named, “The Holy Way” and it will be for all of God’s people, and there won’t be any way to take a wrong turn and lose the path. All paths will lead to God’s loving care. No one will have to worry about any dangers on this path, it will be full of everyone who has been made whole, redeemed, and healed. And all those who had been sent away, or barred from entering, lost, or held back, will all join the path together singing and rejoicing in God’s healing way.
On their heads they’ll all have ten-gallon hats of joy that never fade, and they’ll be glad, oh so glad to be on this highway together, all of their sorrow and sighing long gone, blown away, forgotten for good. Woah!
These are the images that Isaiah provided for the people of Israel during the toughest of their times. These image of God’s restoration, protection, and abundant healing love to come. As it was for them in their despair and pain, so it is for us in ours, whatever it may be. During this season of Advent, we are called to look forward, to watch together for the coming of our loving God, for the outpouring of God’s love onto our fractured world, for the strength and encouragement for this journey on earth as we travel together, seeking the time, the place, the way of rejoicing foreshadowed in the coming of a young woman. A young woman pregnant and travelling, carrying her worries and concerns, our worries and concerns, pregnant with hope, with the expectation of the coming joy that this new birth, this special baby will bring.
John the Baptist new these images from Isaiah as he and others of his time watched and waited. And the life and ministry of this Christ child caused him to question and to ask if Jesus was the indeed one to come, the Messiah, or if they should keep watching and waiting. Jesus responds with echoes of the health and restoration foretold by Isaiah: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. What do you think? Look at God’s love in action in peoples’ lives, healing, and restoration. This is the one about whom it was written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare the way before you.’ The Christ child born in Bethlehem comes to prepare the way for us ALL, to traverse the deserts of our lives, and through the bountiful grace and mercy of our loving God, to transform them. To transform them into oases. To transformed them into blooming new life. To transform them into strength. To transform them into new vision, new hearing, new speaking. To transform them into new joy and rejoicing.
Siblings in the hope and joy of Christ, let us travel this highway, this Holy Way together, confident in the redemption of our lives through the coming of the Christ child. Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice! Gaudete! Amen.
