2022 Advent Guide | Week 3

Joy

Joy is one of those emotions that we wish would hang around longer than it does. Think about the last time you felt “full of joy.” Maybe it was watching your child in their school play, or seeing a new baby, or even watching your team score a touchdown. These things feel good, and they can be good. After all, God gives us emotion to explore and experience the world He has put us in, and we are wired to feel the ups and downs of this human existence. The Advent and Christmas season has its ups and downs too, but if we are honest, it seems as though the media and popular culture are trying to manufacture the feeling of joy for us. Ads tell you that you can buy your way into joy, cook your way into joy, and party your way into joy. The problem with the word I’ve been tossing around, “joy,” is that it’s not very stable; at least the way I’ve been using it. The feeling of joy, most of the time, seems like a lightning bolt of exuberance and happiness, and then is gone as quickly as it came. We need more of the thing that caused it, and eventually, we get tired, strung out, full, overwhelmed. In a nutshell, most of us aren’t actually experiencing joy at all: rather, a manufactured counterfeit joy that is based mostly on temporary emotion. Is it bad to feel happy when your team wins, or when you give and receive gifts, or when you gather with friends and family? Of course not. There is goodness in even the everyday things of this world, but let’s be careful to know what God’s Word says about what true joy really is.

Joy perceived only as an emotion misses the point. The fact that God sent Jesus into the world is news of great joy for all people (Luke 2:10). This joy isn’t a fleeting feeling, but an active reality. Jesus came to bring us joy in Him because of who He is. God is hope. God is peace. God is God is love. We can feel and sense and live in joy because God exudes Joy as part of His nature. Our attempts to be joyful show that we are innately wired to be joyful like the God who made us. We miss the point when we seek joy apart from God. The church teaches about Joy at Advent and Christmas because God’s earthly presence with us through Jesus has brought perfect Joy to the world. It was out of Joy for His people that He came.

Zephaniah 3:17

The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.

The paradigm shift that I pray for all of us this: Advent is to be joyful because we believe that God has joy for us. At the end of the parties, when people go home, and when you throw out the last piece of wrapping paper, Jesus still remains. Jesus, our Joy, who has conquered death, has called us His own and established His Kingdom on earth is still here and will be for eternity. In this reality we can have true joy forevermore. This is a reality that isn’t a fleeting emotion or situation.

This Advent, as we posture and prepare our hearts to receive Jesus, look to the truth of the Gospel story proclaimed by the angels. Be reminded that you are worth everything to God, and that He desires us to overflow with joy at the gift of His Son. The concerts, the games, the parties and gifts are a blessing to be enjoyed this Christmas. Enjoy all of them! “May your days be merry and bright!” But remember that true joy flows from eternal truth of salvation and life from God that He pours on you and I, and this is the greatest gift any of us could ever receive.

Amen
Pastor Matt   

The Book of Common Prayer Collect for the Third Sunday of Advent

O Lord Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee: Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.

Amen.

The Lectionary Readings for the Third Sunday of Advent 

Zephaniah 3:9-20
Ephesians 6:10-20

Joy Has Dawned
Lo How a Rose ‘ere Blooming

Questions to Contemplate

• What causes me the most joy at Advent and Christmas?

• Where am I not experiencing true joy because I lack the faith to believe that God is joyful over me?