Gaudete: Rejoice!

The third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called Gaudete Sunday, Rejoice Sunday. It’s a moment when the solemn mood of Advent lightens a bit and we can take a bit of a breather. The candle on the Advent wreath is pink instead of sombre purple, and if we were in the tradition of pink vestments, the clergy would wear pink, or ‘rose’ as it is known, for the Eucharists today.

The lightening of mood comes from the single word: rejoice. It would have been the first word people heard as the service started, in medieval times and later when there was an introit – an opening sentence or chant – for that sentence was taken from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. We heard this as the Epistle today and you may know it as an anthem by Purcell: ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say Rejoice.’

I remember that Philippians passage from an early age as we had it often in school assemblies, and the resonance stayed with me. Although my family never went to church, I could probably have quoted that whole passage from memory, just from hearing it at school: Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again…

So it’s lovely that we are rejoicing today with Ann and Richard particularly as they celebrate twenty years of marriage and renew their marriage vows later in the service.

Today’s Gospel, though, suggests that John the Baptist was anything but a joyful figure; he preached judgment and repentance: ‘the axe is laid to the root of the tree’. John was sent to shake things up, to root out complacency and self-satisfaction. And that is how he prepares us for joy. Joy makes us get out of ourselves and our narrow preoccupations. Joy is open to sinners more than saints, to the poor and sad more than the satisfied and smug.

So this Sunday is a sort of anticipation of the full joy of the Christmas season. We are nearly there. The basis of this joy is the surprise that faith points us to, that God delights in us and chooses to be with us – God rejoices to be our Saviour, to be born into our world and dwell among us.

In trying to access that joy and make it our own it is important to distinguish it from happiness. Happiness, in the world’s terms, is dependent on external conditions – having money makes you happy, having friends makes you happy, having a nice day makes you happy – all this may be true for some and we should be grateful for happy things. But they come and go, they are subject to change and chance at any moment. On the other hand, joy is unshakeable and unassailable, because joy is to do with the certainty of God’s promises.

As the spiritual writer Henri Nouwen put it: Joy is ‘the experience of knowing that you are loved and that nothing – sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death – can take that love away’. Nouwen concludes: ‘Thus joy can be present even in the midst of sadness. There is something unshakeable to hold on to even when there is difficulty or distress that we have to face’. And our human loves are a reflection of this committed sort of divine Love

The reading from Zephaniah spoke of a great homecoming, as God’s people return from exile in Babylon. They did not return to find riches or even safety but struggle and new challenges. And yet their experience of exile had taught them of God’s unshakable love – that God rejoiced in them – indeed they pictured God as a God who sings over them, ‘God exults over them with loud singing’ is the wonderful phrase Zephaniah uses. And so they encouraged one another to sing also, as a sign of their trust and confidence in God.

I love the idea that God sings – that God expresses God’s own joy over us with loud singing: it helps us understand, I think, something of why music and singing is so important spiritually if reflects for us something that is intrinsic about God. The composer John Rutter – who is a great favourite with Ann and Richard – has made it clear in a number of interviews how crucial he thinks it is for us to sing:

“Choral music is not one of life’s frills”, Rutter says. “It’s something that goes to the very heart of our humanity, our sense of community, and our souls. You express, when you sing, your soul in song. And [a choir] is kind of an emblem for what we need in this world, when so much of the world is at odds with itself… just to express, in symbolic terms, what it’s like when human beings are in harmony.”

Wesley’s great hymn Love divine, which we will sing later, speaks of how we are transformed by worship and singing on earth, prepared for the singing of heaven: ‘changed from glory into glory… lost in wonder love and praise.’ The joy that can be ours reflects the joy that is at the heart of God: the “Joy of heaven to earth come down” in the birth of Christ.

I think the way that joy transforms us spiritually is what St Paul is getting at in the reading from Philippians. ‘Rejoice in the Lord always’. And then this sentence, ‘Let your gentleness be known to everyone’ An older translation goes, ‘Let your moderation be known to all men, the Lord is at hand’. And an even older translation is ‘Let your softness be known to all.’ Gentleness, softness, moderation. Making a habit of joy is the antidote to those familiar insecurities that makes us greedy and resentful. This again is something the world needs amidst the violence and conflict of our times. Gentleness or moderation is the cure for excess. For so many of us the approach of Christmas brings with it an excess of worry, an excess of difficult memories and sadness, even in the midst of plenty. But Christmas itself doesn’t have to be excessive or over the top. It is about being confident in God’s joy, that ‘The Lord is indeed at hand’ - our Lord and Saviour comes to us with hope and salvation.

All the struggles and strivings of the present are underwritten by hope and underpinned by joy. We are a mess quite often and the world is a mess at the moment, and yet we are called to rejoice. God is the one has committed himself to us for ever; who, in Christ wears our humanity and delights in us.

On this Gaudete Sunday, this final anticipation of Christmas, we are prepared once again for the joy that is so much more than happiness. For God’s unconditional love revealed in Jesus Christ is the joy of heaven come down to earth, and in him we - and all the earth - will be lifted up to the joy of heaven.