Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!
We have arrived at the third Sunday in Advent. We know this because our pepto-bismol pink candle is glowing brightly on yonder wreath. But why is it pink? Many of you know the answer but for those who don’t, the Advent candles weren’t always blue. Before they were blue they were purple. And they were purple because everybody was poor back in the thirties and couldn’t afford blue! Well, that’s only partially true. Liturgically, Advent did share the royal purple colour with Lent. And it was cheaper to not have to buy a whole other set of blue paraments. Why have 2 when 1 will do, right? Our Lutheran ancestors were both smart and thrifty! But before the candles were purple, they were red. In Germany, where the Advent wreath was invented, the candles were and still are traditionally red. Pink is a lighter hue of red, indicating a slight lifting of the penitential aspect of the Advent season. Joy breaks through and takes over the theme of the day. But joy because of what?
There was a little children’s Advent diddy in German that tells us the reason: “Advent, Advent, ein Lichtlein brentt. Erst eins, dann zwei, dann drei, dann veir, dann steht das Christkind vor der Tür!” For those who don’t sprechen it translates “Advent, Advent, a little light is burning, first one, then two, then three, then four, then the Christ child will be at the door!” And that is the reason for our joy as God’s people. The Christ child is, as St. Paul says in Philippians, “at hand” (4:5). He is near. Now of course, St. Paul is talking about our Lord’s final Advent, the blessed return of Christ our Lord to be our judge. But it works for His first Advent too. And because of all of our Lord’s ‘Advents,’ St. Paul says: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”
Now, when it comes to ‘joy’ we generally and instinctively think of happy days - and I’m not talking about the Fonz here! I’m talking about good times. Good circumstances. Family and friends around. Christmas tree glowing brightly in the living room. You come in from the cold and the house is warm and inviting. Christmas carols playing in the background. Shortbread and Christmas baking abounding. Presents under the tree. You know what I mean. All the Christmas feel-goods at this most wonderful time of the year. As nice as all these things are, this doesn’t even scratch the surface of Christian joy.
When St. Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians, when he penned those iconic and well loved words that we just heard: “Rejoice in the Lord always” he was in jail. Well, under house arrest anyways. Imprisoned for the sake of the Gospel regardless. Jail and imprisonment sounds like the complete opposite of joy. You have no creature comforts. You have no freedom. You have no fruitcake and eggnog with the family around the hearth. It is a depressing and discouraging set of circumstances to say the least.
Yet because of Christ Jesus, His birth, life, death on the cross and resurrection, His ascension and His promise to return again - because of all of this, joy always abounds for the Christian. This is completely independent of circumstances. You can always rejoice because you are a baptized child of God. The victory over sin, death and the devil is yours by faith in our Messiah who is at hand. Worldly circumstances cannot change this. The only thing that can snuff out our joy as Christians, making us doubt and despair is ourselves.
Hence, the struggle of repentance. Our Gospel reading really cuts to the heart about exactly this. The crowds of people heard about John the Baptizer. They saw his videos on TikTok and had come to see what the commotion was all about: “He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance!” (LK 3:7-8). So, it’s quite clear that St. John never took a church marketing course! ‘Johnny, if you want butts in the seats you can’t go around calling everybody a brood of vipers! It’s not nice! It’s not winsome! It’ll drive people away!’ You can imagine the stern email that John the Baptizer would have received from the church growth committee after this speech!
But I’m pretty sure I know how John would have responded to that email! And it wouldn’t have been pretty or nice or winsome! The axe is at the root of the trees you tinderbox of dead wood! Repent quick, fast and in a hurry you ‘slithery sons of Satan’! The Lord is at hand! This message of repentance is like chewing on tin foil! What gives?! I thought we were all “rejoice always” and “Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!” (Zeph 3:14). Now we get this absolute bomb of hell fire and brimstone!
You can’t sugarcoat this message of repentance. You can’t market it and make it nice and appealing to the masses. You can only proclaim it, boldly and with gusto, just as John does. This is largely the problem with all of society today. The worst sin you can commit is offending someone! You might hear words you don’t like. You might get called out on your sin and be told to change! ‘How dare you! That’s hate speech! Let’s go and get the kangaroo court to garnish your bank account!’ This is largely how our increasingly non-Christian society is responding to the stern message of repentance.
And as things get increasingly worse and non-Christian we ourselves will be tempted to despair and be pulled into the depressing rut of the world. It is then that we ourselves must hear John’s words. Repent. Repent of being sucked in to the joyless darkness of the clown world! The Lord of light and life is at hand! Recover that Advent and Christmas joy that can only be taken away from you if you let it! The Pepto-Bismol Pink candle is still burning brightly to remind us of exactly this. We belong to the Lord who is, who was and who is to come, the Alpha and the Omega, the bright morning star who has richly forgiven our sins and replaced them with eternal joy that knows no end!
So what then is our response to this? Well, what did John tell the populace by the riverside? “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance” in other words, let this amazing Advent and Christmas joy be in you all the time, all year long, always. Paul lists some more for us too “22 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Eph 5:22-23). May these fruits and more always be on display in our lives so that the unbelieving clown world might get a glimpse of the light of God’s kingdom shining through you and repent and believe.
Advent joy is because of Christ. Our Zephaniah reading tells us plainly “The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil” (3:15). Christ truly is our King who has conquered all evil for us. This gives us that lasting joy that likewise overcomes all things. The King has come and He shall come again. Take heart, the Lord is at hand. Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! Amen!
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