Again I Will Say, Rejoice
Third Sunday of Advent
December 17, 2007
Rejoice.
It’s the Third Sunday of Advent. Gaudete Sunday. It’s the Sunday when we burn the rose-colored candle on the Advent Wreath.
Why? Because it’s a day for rejoicing. That’s what gaudete means … it’s Latin for rejoice. Going back to the Middle Ages, this day’s service would feature a line that began, “Rejoice…” Gaudete.
This rejoicing comes in the midst of Advent, which has its penitential aspects. It’s a time of reflecting on all aspects of our lives, on all aspects of the Christian message, on the beginning and end of the Biblical story, the strength and the weakness in our characters, how it all fits together, the future and the past, the good and the bad, the present and the hereafter.
That’s a reason for the color of the season. In many churches it is violet, the same color we use for the penitential season of Lent. In our church, it’s good old Sarum blue, an Advent color that was used in England’s Salisbury Cathedral in the Middle Ages, back before there was a Church of England.
Blue and violet suggest penitence. But today, on gaudete Sunday we burn a rose-colored candle—a bit like putting on our rose-colored glasses—as a reminder of the joyful aspects of this season. Life is never all penitence, it is never all sadness, it is never all joy.
It is always a bit of each, just in different amounts and ratios. When we are brilliantly joyful, we are fooling ourselves if we think there will be no sadness. When we are at the depth of despair, it can take the greatest faith to convince us that there will be joy again. That is one of the promises of Christ, which we feel in these rather warm days of Advent.
My week has felt like Advent in miniature—beginnings and ends, joy and sadness, the need to rely on the promise of Christ. I attended my niece's graduation from Auburn University. An ending for her, but a beginning of what I know will be a successful career. I held a pre-marital guidance session to help a couple end one stage of their lives and begin a new one together. I felt the loss of a family friend. I had talks with many people in the parish, including talks about illnesses--simple and life-threatening. About losing a family member. I visited a nursing home. I had discussions about death and about funerals. I wrote checks from the rector's discretionary fund to help people through this difficult time of year. I took time to read and meditate on Scripture. I managed to find some time to spend with family and friends.
Oh yes, I was ordained a priest. And I had my first Eucharist as a priest on Wednesday.
Although ordination marked a new beginning in my life and ministry, it was also the ending of something. I am no longer a deacon in our church. We do say that once a deacon, always a deacon. And there’s much truth in that. A deacon is called upon to be the link between the church and the world. To constantly remind us of the needs of the sick and the poor, the widow and the orphan. Those are things that Deacon Stan does exceptionally well. They are things that I pray that I will continue to do in my ministry.
Obviously, this is the beginning of a new stage in my ministry and, by extension, the life of this parish. I say that because all ministry is done in the context of community. There is no such thing in our church as a Eucharist with only one person. There only is ministry together, in community.
This was one of the themes of the ordination service on Tuesday night at the Cathedral Church of the Advent. At the consecration of each priest, Bishops Parsley and Miller laid on hands, along with many other priests—more than I was able to count. But before that, we were asked to make promises.
Among those promises were these:
That we would undertake to be faithful pastors to all whom we are called to serve, laboring together with them and with our fellow ministers to build up the family of God. That we would be diligent in the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures. And that we would persevere in prayer, both in public and in private, asking God’s grace, both for ourselves and for others, offering all our labors to God, through the mediation of Jesus Christ, and in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit.
These were powerful promises, but promises not unique to the priesthood. We all are called upon to pray. To be faithful in our ministries. To live upright and wholesome lives. And to offer all our labors to God.
Let me read to you the charge made by the bishop to me and to the other new priests, in language from the Prayer Book. It tells us about the role of the priest and of the people church. He said:
"My brother, the Church is the family of God, the body of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit. All baptized people are called to make Christ known as Savior and Lord, and to share in the renewing of his world. Now you are called to work as pastor, priest, and teacher, together with your bishop and fellow presbyters, and to take your share in the councils of the Church.
"As a priest, it will be your task to proclaim by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to fashion your life in accordance with its precepts. You are to love and serve the people among whom you work, caring alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor. You are to preach, to declare God’s forgiveness to penitent sinners, to pronounce God’s blessing, to share in the administration of Holy Baptism and in the celebration of the mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood, and to perform the other ministrations entrusted to you.
"In all that you do, you are to nourish Christ’s people from the riches of his grace, and strengthen them to glorify God in this life and in the life to come."
That, my friends, is a powerful vision of the Church and its mission. One line is worth repeating: “All baptized people are called to make Christ known as Savior and Lord, and to share in the renewing of his world.” This was the message of John the Baptist. Recognize Jesus as Lord. Repent—that is, turn away from sin and toward the Lord.
John says we must become ministers of the Lord. He told the Jews that they could not get away with just claiming to one of the Chosen People. He tells us that we cannot just claim to be a Christian. We are to become ministers— to bear fruits worthy of repentance. Being a regular attendee at the 10:30 service isn’t enough. We are to be the sort of people who would give a coat to a poor person in winter, give food to the hungry, be honest in our work.
You don’t need to be an ordained priest to do that. God can raise up priests from the stones in the street. Here’s what God wants: He wants us to love and serve the people one another, caring alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor. He wants us to let our gentleness be known to everyone. He wants us to have faith and not worry about anything.
And he asks us to do one more thing— Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
Amen.
December 17, 2007
Rejoice.
It’s the Third Sunday of Advent. Gaudete Sunday. It’s the Sunday when we burn the rose-colored candle on the Advent Wreath.
Why? Because it’s a day for rejoicing. That’s what gaudete means … it’s Latin for rejoice. Going back to the Middle Ages, this day’s service would feature a line that began, “Rejoice…” Gaudete.
This rejoicing comes in the midst of Advent, which has its penitential aspects. It’s a time of reflecting on all aspects of our lives, on all aspects of the Christian message, on the beginning and end of the Biblical story, the strength and the weakness in our characters, how it all fits together, the future and the past, the good and the bad, the present and the hereafter.
That’s a reason for the color of the season. In many churches it is violet, the same color we use for the penitential season of Lent. In our church, it’s good old Sarum blue, an Advent color that was used in England’s Salisbury Cathedral in the Middle Ages, back before there was a Church of England.
Blue and violet suggest penitence. But today, on gaudete Sunday we burn a rose-colored candle—a bit like putting on our rose-colored glasses—as a reminder of the joyful aspects of this season. Life is never all penitence, it is never all sadness, it is never all joy.
It is always a bit of each, just in different amounts and ratios. When we are brilliantly joyful, we are fooling ourselves if we think there will be no sadness. When we are at the depth of despair, it can take the greatest faith to convince us that there will be joy again. That is one of the promises of Christ, which we feel in these rather warm days of Advent.
My week has felt like Advent in miniature—beginnings and ends, joy and sadness, the need to rely on the promise of Christ. I attended my niece's graduation from Auburn University. An ending for her, but a beginning of what I know will be a successful career. I held a pre-marital guidance session to help a couple end one stage of their lives and begin a new one together. I felt the loss of a family friend. I had talks with many people in the parish, including talks about illnesses--simple and life-threatening. About losing a family member. I visited a nursing home. I had discussions about death and about funerals. I wrote checks from the rector's discretionary fund to help people through this difficult time of year. I took time to read and meditate on Scripture. I managed to find some time to spend with family and friends.
Oh yes, I was ordained a priest. And I had my first Eucharist as a priest on Wednesday.
Although ordination marked a new beginning in my life and ministry, it was also the ending of something. I am no longer a deacon in our church. We do say that once a deacon, always a deacon. And there’s much truth in that. A deacon is called upon to be the link between the church and the world. To constantly remind us of the needs of the sick and the poor, the widow and the orphan. Those are things that Deacon Stan does exceptionally well. They are things that I pray that I will continue to do in my ministry.
Obviously, this is the beginning of a new stage in my ministry and, by extension, the life of this parish. I say that because all ministry is done in the context of community. There is no such thing in our church as a Eucharist with only one person. There only is ministry together, in community.
This was one of the themes of the ordination service on Tuesday night at the Cathedral Church of the Advent. At the consecration of each priest, Bishops Parsley and Miller laid on hands, along with many other priests—more than I was able to count. But before that, we were asked to make promises.
Among those promises were these:
That we would undertake to be faithful pastors to all whom we are called to serve, laboring together with them and with our fellow ministers to build up the family of God. That we would be diligent in the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures. And that we would persevere in prayer, both in public and in private, asking God’s grace, both for ourselves and for others, offering all our labors to God, through the mediation of Jesus Christ, and in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit.
These were powerful promises, but promises not unique to the priesthood. We all are called upon to pray. To be faithful in our ministries. To live upright and wholesome lives. And to offer all our labors to God.
Let me read to you the charge made by the bishop to me and to the other new priests, in language from the Prayer Book. It tells us about the role of the priest and of the people church. He said:
"My brother, the Church is the family of God, the body of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit. All baptized people are called to make Christ known as Savior and Lord, and to share in the renewing of his world. Now you are called to work as pastor, priest, and teacher, together with your bishop and fellow presbyters, and to take your share in the councils of the Church.
"As a priest, it will be your task to proclaim by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to fashion your life in accordance with its precepts. You are to love and serve the people among whom you work, caring alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor. You are to preach, to declare God’s forgiveness to penitent sinners, to pronounce God’s blessing, to share in the administration of Holy Baptism and in the celebration of the mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood, and to perform the other ministrations entrusted to you.
"In all that you do, you are to nourish Christ’s people from the riches of his grace, and strengthen them to glorify God in this life and in the life to come."
That, my friends, is a powerful vision of the Church and its mission. One line is worth repeating: “All baptized people are called to make Christ known as Savior and Lord, and to share in the renewing of his world.” This was the message of John the Baptist. Recognize Jesus as Lord. Repent—that is, turn away from sin and toward the Lord.
John says we must become ministers of the Lord. He told the Jews that they could not get away with just claiming to one of the Chosen People. He tells us that we cannot just claim to be a Christian. We are to become ministers— to bear fruits worthy of repentance. Being a regular attendee at the 10:30 service isn’t enough. We are to be the sort of people who would give a coat to a poor person in winter, give food to the hungry, be honest in our work.
You don’t need to be an ordained priest to do that. God can raise up priests from the stones in the street. Here’s what God wants: He wants us to love and serve the people one another, caring alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor. He wants us to let our gentleness be known to everyone. He wants us to have faith and not worry about anything.
And he asks us to do one more thing— Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
Amen.
posted by Michael+ at 3:11 PM
