Joy that costs

Zephaniah 3:14-20
A Song of Joy
14 Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you,
he has turned away your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall fear disaster no more.
16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands grow weak.
17 The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
18 as on a day of festival.
I will remove disaster from you,
so that you will not bear reproach for it.
19 I will deal with all your oppressors
at that time.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.
20 At that time I will bring you home,
at the time when I gather you;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes, says the Lord.
Philippians 4:4-8
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Rejoice in The Lord always! And again, I say Rejoice!
Someone asked me to read these words recently at a funeral service.
I wasn't sure...
But as I read them, I realised, yes, they are appropriate.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
While we may,often, feel nothing like rejoicing, the fact remains that God is with us.
And that, in every situation,God brings peace, as only God can, a peace that is beyond our comprehension, beyond even our imagining.
The kind of peace that only God can bring.
Rejoicing in the Lord does not necessitate false smiles and putting on our brave face.
It consists of the acknowledgement that God is near, always in our midst.
And, because of that, whatever circumstance we find ourselves in, we can rejoice in the accompaniment of God.
This Sunday is known as Gaudete Sunday.
The Sunday we light our pink candle.
The Sunday we focus on the JOY of Advent.
As the news unfolded on Friday of yet another massacre of children and their teachers and carers, this time in Connecticut, I wondered how churches could bring a message of joy today - joy - the focus of our Lectionary texts.
But let's listen again to that letter to the Philippians and see how it does speak even into the most painful of experiences:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
A word of assurance, a word of calm, a word of comfort, a word of peace and, even - a word of joy!
And our reading from the Old Testament prophet, Zephaniah focuses on joy too.
The prophet looks forward to a day when there will be rejoicing - outward and inward.
Rejoicing because the Lord is near and because the Lord has turned things on their head, defeated the enemy, gathered the people of God and brought them together in safety and in peace.
A time for which we hope.
A time which, in faith we anticipate.
That time is most clearly not yet just as it wasn't yet in the time of the prophet.
But it is a promise that will be fulfilled for the people of God.
And, in the meantime?....
God chooses a virgin to bear a son and to call him Jesus, for he will be the Saviour of the world.
In this season of Advent, we celebrate a light that came into the darkness.
A light that could not be extinguished.
A light that many, many times in human history has sputtered and flickered and fought for survival.
But has not been put out.
And we remember that light is at its most effective in times of darkness.
We can barely see the lights on the tree in our well lit sanctuary this morning.
They hardly show up in competition with all the other light.
But in the darkness of the midweek service, they come into their own.
I say again - Light is most effective in times of darkness.
This third Sunday in Advent, we are not invited into a joy that is shallow or fleeting.
We are invited, rather to experience the gentlest stirrings of a joy that is fragile yet lasting.
A joy that is borne out of pain.
Listen again to the words of Zephaniah:
17 The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
18 as on a day of festival.
I will remove disaster from you,
so that you will not bear reproach for it.
19 I will deal with all your oppressors
at that time.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.
20 At that time I will bring you home,
at the time when I gather you;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes, says the Lord.
The promised restoration that the prophet preaches and the joyful response come after suffering and loss.
It is restoration following loss.
Rejoicing following despair.
Our call today is not to somehow experience joy at all costs.
But to experience joy that costs.
Joy that can only be felt when despair has been known.
Joy that can only be felt when pain has been a part of life.
Hope, peace, joy and love are the themes of Advent - symbolised by our Advent candles - hope,peace, joy and love - not emotions to be forced and indulged - but realities to be anticipated.
Promises of God and of the reign of God.
Advent is a time of looking ahead, not so that we can be all warm and fuzzy at Christmas.
But so that, in sharing the pain and despair of our world and the reality of our lives, we can know the longing for that joy that promises to bring healing and balm and restoration.
Of course, in that looking forward, we may well want to ask: How long O Lord?
But that, too, is a question born out of hope.
A question we are moved to ask because our hope is in the God who honours and fulfils promises.
A God who promises joy.
A God we trust, even when all the signs seem contrary.
A God who promises joy even today.
A God we trust to deliver promises, even when all the signs seem contrary.
And so, in the darkness of today's world, we CAN preach joy.
And see the candle of advent joy courageously piercing that darkness, refusing to be extinguished.
This Advent, may you know joy,hope, peace and light - the gifts of God for all God's people.
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