It is Gaudete Sunday (Rejoice or Joy). The third Sunday in Advent. We celebrate during Advent the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus. We also prepare our hearts for His ultimate return. We are to rejoice in the knowledge of what His coming has provided us — forgiveness and eternal life. We are to be vessels to spread the Gospel to those who have yet to hear the truth.
It’s fitting to me that this year Joy Sunday falls the day before we are supposed to come together as a nation and “select” our president and vice president. The angst, anger, turmoil is weighing on our nation to the point of near open rebellion of all authority. We, as God’s children, need to hold firm to His promises, pass on His joy telling all that God is and will always be in control.
There still are rebellious people. While Isaiah prophesied during a different time his words can be seen as speaking to life today:
Isaiah 30:9-14
For they are a rebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to hear
the instruction of the LORD;
who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word
and trust in oppression and perverseness
and rely on them,
therefore this iniquity shall be to you
like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel
that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a shard is found
with which to take fire from the hearth,
or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
He goes on to speak of the restoration of Israel, to give them Joy, a reason to Rejoice in the Lord. In the end the Lord will reign, we with all the company of heaven will sing to His Majesty. We read in the Psalms:
God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered;
and those who hate him shall flee before him!
As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away;
as wax melts before fire,
so the wicked shall perish before God!
But the righteous shall be glad;
they shall exult before God;
they shall be jubilant with joy!
Let’s put aside our anxiety and fear of the future. Let’s live in the Joy of our salvation telling all who would ask in whom we place our trust. Christ Jesus. Come Lord Jesus, come.
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