Third Sunday of Advent Luke 3:7-18 Zephaniah 3:14-end

The third Sunday of Advent is also called Gaudete Sunday – ‘gaudete’ being Latin for ‘rejoice’. The theme of the day expresses the joy of anticipation at the approach of Christmas. There is a shift in focus: from ‘The Lord is coming’ to ‘The Lord is near’. The day’s theme is marked by an altogether lighter mood and the readings focus on rejoicing in the Lord and the mission of John the Baptist; one step closer to Christmas. The traditional colour is pink, so many Advent wreaths have one pink candle among the purple season of Advent, to mark the joy of the good news. The prophet Zephaniah, in the passage for today, calls out to the people to rejoice: ‘Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!’ There’s no holding back, it seems, in this proclamation that the liberation that the people have been longing for is near.

In the season of Advent, we have been approaching this moment, first from a long way back, with the Patriarchs – beginning with Abraham – and then the Prophets, now focussing on John, the herald of the Messiah. We can now almost touch him, as it were, as he is so close to being revealed. Yes, in today’s reading from Luke, Jesus is to arrive on the scene shortly as an adult, not as a baby. But that’s not the point. The point is, that he is the Saviour whom the world needed to come and set us free from the power of sin and death and to give us hope for the future. Even if we may feel that it’s all wrong chronologically, for God that is no problem; he is not restricted like that, as time belongs to him. So at this moment in Advent, we are reminded of the journey towards meeting Jesus Christ, and how the story of his mission begins. I have used the image of a pair of binoculars before, to illustrate how we are seeing closer what was first far off and blurred, now coming into focus: the birth of Jesus that we are celebrating at Christmas. In this day and age, it may be a dark time; what with some upsetting events in the world, we may be wondering how his arrival – as we are looking forward to the celebration of his birth – may make a difference. How can we see hope and peace in a world that is so broken? Among all the clutter and noise of today’s state of affairs in the world, we may have lost the sense of hearing the still, small voice of God, revealed in a new-born baby. He is Emmanuel, God with us, offering peace in our hearts and restoration of our relationship with God and our neighbours. What about our longing for the healing of past hurts and failures? If we are feeling weary with the weight of today’s demands, God is saying, with this little baby, that he knows and cares and wants to carry us through. If we wish for change in God’s direction, if we want to have real peace, then we may pick up on the invitation to listen, and hear, to watch and see. He is on his way. God, in Jesus, is coming to be with us. So let us rejoice! Amen.