Year B Advent 3 2020 Always, Ceaselessly, In All Things

 Year B Advent 3, 13 December 2020

Live and Video from St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Always, Ceaselessly, In All Things”

Collect: Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.

May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.

John 1:6-8,19-28

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. 

Really, Paul? I mean, come on!

Yes, really. Friends, pick up your Bible and read about St. Paul. He is first introduced at the end of chapter 7 of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, where he was the coat check boy for the stoning of St. Stephen. (I am not making that up. Go read it.) Then at the beginning of Chapter 8 he takes more of a lead role in persecution. Then in Chapter 9 he has his conversion experience on the road to Damascus, and pretty much most of the rest of the book is devoted to his missionary journeys and wrestling with the powers that be in the early church about who was in or out and how to behave if everyone is allowed to be in. He becomes the focus and spotlight except for a few instances when that is Peter.

But if you follow his story, if anyone had a right to complain, it would have been St. Paul. He did not have it easy. Beatings, trials, and shipwrecks. Imprisonment and abandonment. So much to happen for one man, when he is just trying to share a message of love and hope to everyone.

So listen to his words from that perspective.

Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. 

If Paul can say that and mean it, then it makes me pay attention.

In light of this year, it is a message I know I need. 

Rejoice always. Let nothing hinder your joy! This is Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of Joy in Advent. Our candle is pink not purple to demarcate JOY! Gaudete is merely Latin for REJOICE!

But Rock, there is so much bad, or sad, or wrong. Sure there is. I would be a fool to say that there wasn’t. But I promise you this, it is even bigger if that is what you choose to look at. 

But I am not asking you, nor is St. Paul, to necessarily be happy. Now, I want you to be happy. But happy is fleeting. Happy is how you feel in the moment. 

You are not happy at the funeral of a loved one. In the moment you are sad. But when all is said and done, JOY is deep down and in your bones. JOY is that feeling that you are glad you knew them, glad that they lived, glad that your lives intersected and that you thank God for them and that the world is a better place because they existed. JOY is the whole kit and kaboodle, and if we are in God through Christ we are Joyful. “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice!”

Pray without ceasing. For some of us that is easy. I have a constant monologue going with God in my head most of the time. But when I get down to praying, the monologue ceases. And that is when I begin to listen. I listen when I read the Psalms. I listen when I read the paper, or rather news online. I listen when I read emails or get anxious phone calls. And God speaks to me through and in all of that. I hear God’s gentle and sometimes not so gentle urgings to get up and make a difference in the world. Pray without ceasing means to not be talking at God, but to make my whole life, what goes on in my mind, what goes on in my heart, what comes out of my mouth, what I accomplish with my hands and the sweat of my brow, all of that together can be a prayer. I pray that it is. Pray without ceasing.

Give thanks in all circumstances. A story is told of the Beatles song, “Getting Better.” If you know the contractual deal the Beatles had, Paul McCartney and John Lennon early on agreed that they would share credit as Lennon/McCartney in their songs. Now some songs like “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Come Together” are truly John’s, and “Yesterday” is truly Paul’s. But the story goes that “Getting Better” began mostly as Paul’s, and he brought it in for the gang to hear. Paul started singing, and John after listening for a while started adding antiphonal parts.

I have to admit it’s getting better

A little better all the time

But John added on to that.

I have to admit it’s getting better (Better)

A little better all the time (It can’t get no worse)

Some days we are like Paul, McCartney that is. “I have to admit things are getting better.” And we can be thankful in that. We can rejoice, we can pray ceaselessly. We can thank God things are on the upswing.

And some days we are like John, “It can’t get no worse.” And even then we can be thankful. When we find ourselves having hit rock bottom, we can thank God that the bottom is solid. Friends, even in the midst of tragedy, we need not let it overwhelm or overcome our JOY and our THANKFULNESS. If nothing else, “It can’t get no worse.” Let nothing get in the way of your JOY. Let nothing halt your PRAYERS. And THANKFULNESS is psychologically and spiritually one of the healthiest practices you can have. In your darkest hour, if you can find one ray of hope, you are not fully defeated. And then, thank God for that single light that shines in your darkness.

John the Baptizer was born into a dark time. And his story and his cousin’s story are interlinked. Now did he feel less than because his cousin, Jesus, would take over the spotlight? There is nothing in the Bible that says that he ever felt that way. In fact, he knew who he was, and the calling of God on his life was to point to the true light, Jesus, his cousin. 

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

When the religious powers that were the gatekeepers of the time were sent to check out John and his curious ways, they did want his bona fides. Are you the Messiah? No. Are you Isaiah or a prophet? No. When pressed to give an answer to who he was, he responded, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’” He quoted Isaiah there. He knew who he was and why he was there. He knew the upheaval to which he was the precursor or the forerunner. He knew that all of creation had been waiting for this day to come, and in the fullness of time it did.

He could do it with JOY knowing that it was the first domino in a string that leads to us and through us today going on to the culmination of history and all of creation. He could do it PRAYERFULLY and THANKFULLY even in his darkest days. When in his jail cell, and the demons of doubt had him question of Jesus if Jesus was truly the one, Jesus did not need to give him a yes or a no. Jesus quoted Isaiah as well and told him all that was happening. Luke 7:22 “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.”

John was such a person of faith, like St. Paul, that Jesus’ answer screamed YES! So even in his jail cell before his execution John could be JOYFUL, PRAYERFUL, and THANKFUL. 

Friends, in these hard days, and on this day when we were supposed to be together, may we adhere to Paul’s admonition. Especially in these days. Look through and beyond what is being shoved in our faces. Worry, Doubt, Fear. I would trade them for JOY, PRAYER, and THANKFULNESS any day of the week. 

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Even in, ESPECIALLY IN, 2020. Amen.