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Rejoice, Rejoice

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Rejoice, rejoice - John the Baptist

This week is about ‘joy’ or ‘rejoicing’. It’s called Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete in Latin, means ‘rejoice’ and this Sunday is represented by the pink candle on the Advent Wreath. The delight of Christmas, amid the sombreness of Advent, because in the birth of Christ, the Lord, our God, is in our midst. ‘Joy to the world, our Lord is come’, as the Carol has it.

And if you look, our readings today are about joy, rejoicing or gladness. The Lectionary even has some cheerful verses from an OT prophet! The passage is from Zephaniah, and we only have one other reading from Zephaniah in our 3-year cycle of readings. So, it would be a shame not to look at what he says.

Fear not

In earlier verses, Zephaniah does talk about the coming destruction of Jerusalem and Israel and of other nations too. So, not quite so cheerful. But here he’s telling the people of Israel to ‘fear not’. Fear not. Perhaps you can think of other ‘fear not’ verses in the Bible because there’s quite a few of them…

Here he tells them to ‘fear not’ because the Lord’s coming is something to rejoice about, not to be fearful over. He doesn’t suggest that all evil has been vanquished but that Jerusalem no longer needs to be paralyzed by fear – and therefore should be ready and able to act. The Lord is presented as a warrior – but a warrior who will bring deliverance rather than pillaging and plundering. A king who brings about a peaceable world.

We might usually think of God as all-knowing and all-powerful. How often do we think of God singing? Zephaniah did. He talks of a singing God who sings because he’s taking delight in those who are forgiven.

A character trait

But it’s worth just thinking about the word ‘rejoice’. Rejoice is not the same as happiness. Happiness is an emotion. It comes and goes depending on circumstances. Rejoicing is deliberate and intentional. It’s a character trait. It’s intentional with a sense of purpose and meaning, including finding meaning in suffering.

If you think about the words of the Advent Carol, ‘O come, O come, Emmanuel’, we’re asked to rejoice whilst Israel is mourning in lonely exile; to rejoice whilst in the gloomy clouds of night; to rejoice whilst in death’s dark shadow. These are tough things to ask.

Entirely reasonable

Looking at our other reading, from Luke, we’re with John the Baptist again. And he’s talking about imminent judgement again. And we might have this picture in our head of John the Baptist as a hard, wild-looking man demanding the impossible. But that’s not what we see here. He might still look wild, but John, shockingly, is being entirely reasonable – even if the last verse of our reading implies that he went on a bit and in the first verse he calls them all snakes!

And we might have to ask why judgement qualifies as good news anyway. After all, this is the Gospel, the good news, as told by Luke. How can judgement be good news for us? Well, maybe we need to see it in the light of Mary’s song, the Magnificat, which Luke has shared just a couple of chapters earlier.

Because Mary’s Magnificat talked about the radical upending of society. ‘He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.’

Our part to play

And, here, for John the Baptist, judgement seems to be less about punishment and more about bringing the world into that better order. That it will be purer than it is now. That judgement meant liberation and redemption. That one day, God will reorder – and that is the good news. And thinking about what Lee preached about last week, God knows we need that, don’t we?

The challenge John levelled was that we each have our part to play in making that happen. It’s not good enough to look at everyone else and not at ourselves. Abraham showed his faith not by what he said but by what he did. But just claiming to be descended from Abraham isn’t enough. We might carry his DNA, but his behaviour and character in the past doesn’t get us off the hook now.

What shall we do?

John says to the crowd that who you are is demonstrated by what you do. And they got the point. The crowd cry out: ‘what shall we do’. And the tax collectors ask: ‘what shall we do’. And the soldiers asked: ‘what shall we do’.

Despite initially not pulling any punches, John then seems to set the bar pretty low. He doesn’t have unreasonable expectations, as he essentially tells them all to be nice, don’t exploit anyone and do your jobs as best you can…

John doesn’t tell the Tax Collectors not to collect taxes – but to do it fairly. He’s not the crazy man setting unreachable targets – but says do what you do to the best of your abilities. He’s clear that this won’t earn you salvation – but it will help bring about a just society, the kind of society sung by Mary.

What can I do?

And ‘the people were filled with expectation’. The people were not fearful but motivated at this way of thinking about judgement. Expecting an impossible demand, instead, he gives a reply which makes them think ‘we can do this’! That the question was not what should I do – but what can I do?

None of it should have been a surprise. It was just a different way of saying love God and love your neighbour. That didn’t arrive with Jesus – you can read that back in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. John just spelt it out for them.

What’s true for the crowd then, the tax collectors, the soldiers, is true for us now. Share resources, don’t be greedy and don’t abuse your power. We too should ask not what should we do – but what can we do? Not to earn salvation – but as a mark of the salvation, the forgiveness, that we’ve already received.

Righteous and pious

The historian Josephus described John as ‘a good man who commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as righteousness towards one another and piety towards God’.

What can we do to be more righteous with each other and more pious with our God? That same joyful, singing God sent his Son with gifts greater than either the crowd then or us now, could possibly imagine, with the breath and power of God to change everything. And that is very good news for all of us.

I could have finished there but instead I want to end with this poem based partly on our passage from Zephaniah…

As on a day of festival – by Jan Richardson

Call it

the waters of salvation

or the garlands of gladness.

Call it

the grave-clothes

falling away

or call it the loosing

of the chains.

Call it

what binds us together:

fierce but

fragile but

fierce.

Call it

he will rejoice over you

with gladness;

call it

he will renew you

in his love;

call it

he will exult over you

with loud singing

as on a day

of festival.

Call it

the thin, thin place

where the veil

gives way.

Or call it this:

the path we make

when we go deep

and deeper still

into the dark

and look behind to see

the way has been lit

by our rejoicing. Amen

‘Rejoice, rejoice’ was delivered by Ian Banks at St John with St Mark, Bury on Advent 3, December 15th, 2024. It was based on Zephaniah 3:14-end and Luke 3:7-18.

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