ADVENT - A SUNDAY TO REJOICE

Cherylyn Radford, Interim Bowridge Site Pastor

We are approaching the third Sunday of Advent. This week we light the candle of joy and we celebrate together. Those of us not from liturgical backgrounds are all asking the burning question, why a pink candle? The other three are purple, so why pink on this particular Sunday?

It all goes back to early church tradition. Advent is typically a time of penance and reflection. A sober time to wait for the coming savior, but at the halfway mark, there is a shift. This is a week of celebration and joy. Purple is the colour of reflection. Pink is the colour of celebration. So for this week of celebration, we have a pink candle.

This Sunday where we celebrate joy even has a special name in the liturgical calendar. Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete comes from the Latin word “rejoice.” This Sunday got its name because often at the beginning of the third Sunday of Advent the passage from Philippians 4:4 is read. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4)

And this week we DO rejoice. We pause for a moment from somber reflection and we rejoice that the king has come. We take time to rejoice in God’s goodness and his continual provision for his children from the garden of Eden to today. We peek over to the manager and we see the child born for us.

Gaudete Sunday reflects the tension between waiting for something and celebrating what already is. And that so beautifully reflects life. Almost all of us live in this tension of beauty and sorrow. We have so much to celebrate and yet, there is so much sadness as well. And balancing it can be tricky.

In my own home, as I pull out my mother-in-law’s recipe for cherry cheesecake in her absolutely perfect handwriting, I reflect on all the Christmases we have had without her and my Father-in law. It wouldn’t be Christmas without that amazing dessert, but at the same time, it reminds us that we are not able to sit around her table and eat it together. And while we rejoice that my husband’s parents are in heaven, we mourn the fact that my sons never knew their grandpa and barely knew their grandma.

That tension of joy and sorrow is found in every home and will be there until Jesus comes again. It is part of being human. And one that our saviour understood. As he taught and lived with his followers, he was always aware of the purpose of his time on earth. It was to die.

At his birth the angels proclaimed “joy to the world,” but that joy came at a high cost. It would end in death. So we do rejoice. And we celebrate even in sorrow, knowing that one day this too shall end and we shall live in endless rejoicing.

So as we go into the week where we will celebrate joy, may we do so wholeheartedly. Let us rejoice in Jesus who understands what it means to live in this tension and who sympathizes with us. He rejoices with us, mourns with us, and he invites us to do the same with those around us.