St Margaret's Church Prestwich

Rev Sue preached this Sunday on the third Sunday of Advent, 15 December 2024. Here it is for you again:

I meet up each month for lunch with a group of friends. Usually Wednesday lunchtimes are fairly quiet – this week the pub was full, mostly with people celebrating Christmas, although from the church perspective we’re still in Advent. Every year we have these dilemmas – when to put up the Christmas tree, to have the Christmas flowers and to bring out the crib? How do we live with one foot in the church and the other in the world?

Today is called Gaudete Sunday, after the Latin word for Rejoice. Traditionally it was a day when the colour of the altar cloth and vestments was rose pink, we would light a pink candle in the Advent wreath, and we would have a day off from the Advent fast and the Advent themes of repentance and judgement. But there’s something going on beyond needing a break – after all Advent is only three and half weeks long this year compared with the six and a half weeks of Lent. It’s gone in a flash, so why interrupt it? Or to look at it the other way, why don’t we choose a Sunday after Christmas to celebrate the joy of Christ’s birth, surely a more logical time? And why pick a gospel reading about John the Baptist and Repentance? The clues are in unpacking what we mean by joy.

Like hope and love, joy is a word that has lost much of it’s meaning in many contexts. The joy of giving, for instance, often translates as an encouragement to shop,  The word is sometimes used indistinguishably from happiness, fun and gladness. We need to pull it back reclaim its original meaning.

The New Testament reading offers us a clue. It starts off “Rejoice in the Lord always”. Joy is something we can choose, or at least cultivate. It is not a fleeting emotion, it is a state of mind. Happiness, on the other hand, is a response to the things that happen in our lives – it’s a natural reaction, beyond our control. But being happy helps us to fill our reservoir of joy, so that in times of difficulty or unhappiness, joy is still there, because it is possible to be joyful, even when we are sad or afraid or disappointed. When Paul encouraged the church in Philippi to rejoice always, life wasn’t treating him well. He was in prison in Rome awaiting trial.

St Francis was an inspirational leader but he was usually  prepared to take things to their logical conclusion, often to the dismay of his followers. This story is told about perfect joy.

One day Francis was on a long journey with his companion Brother Leo. It was winter and it was so cold that their bodies shivered and ached. Francis never missed an opportunity to teach his brothers, so he asked Leo about perfect joy. Is perfect joy in setting an example of holiness? Is perfect joy in performing miracles? Having great knowledge? Preaching the gospel? He went on and on like this asking him, “Where is perfect joy?… Where is perfect joy?…” And all the time as they were walking in the snow and bitter cold!

By this time all that Leo could think about was hot soup, a warm fire, and exchanging news with friendly hosts, but he was well aware that that’s not the answer Francis wanted! Finally, he pleaded, “Father, I pray you in the name of God to tell me, where is perfect joy?!”

Francis answered,

If we arrive at our host’s house soaked by the rain, frozen, muddy, and hungry, knock on the door and the doorkeeper says, “Who are you? I don’t know you!” And he closes the door in our faces so that we must stay outside all night long, freezing to death. If we endure this mistreatment without being upset or complaining, but we think humbly and charitably about the doorkeeper, believing that God is in charge. If we bear these injustices patiently and with cheerfulness, thinking on the sufferings of Christ for us. O Brother Leo, here is perfect joy!

Francis wasn’t saying that we should look for suffering, or that suffering gives us joy, but if we can be our best selves when there is every reason to be fed up, irritable and complaining we are demonstrating that we have true joy that is deep rooted and not dependent on external factors.

At first glance the gospel reading seems a strange choice for Gaudete Sunday, but tucked away at the end of the reading, it reminds us that John proclaimed the Good News to the people. Although he starts off by preaching about the wrath to come, when the crowds ask him how they should respond, he is surprisingly gentle. If they had more than they needed, they should share. If they were in positions of authority, soldiers or tax collectors, they should stop extorting money. They were to stop doing the things that most of their peers did, taking, or keeping, more than their share. This particular passage doesn’t mention joy, but think about Zacchaeus. He too was a tax collector. He was quite short, so when Jesus came to his home city of Jericho he climbed a sycamore tree to be able to see him. Jesus paused as he passed by, and invited himself to Zacchaeus’ home. Zacchaeus was delighted, and spontaneously offered to give away half his possessions, and to pay back anyone he had overcharged four times the amount. His repentance and generosity sprang from the joy of the encounter with Jesus.

One source of joy is being accepted and being forgiven. Penitence, the realisation that we have done wrong, is initially, of course a time for sadness, as we come to terms with the fact that we are not the loving, truthful or patient people we thought we were. We feel guilty and ashamed of our behaviour. But the more frequently we reflect on our lives, the more we notice the things that are not right, but also the more willing we are to rejoice that the Holy Spirit has pointed the out to us, and that through our faith in Christ we are completely forgiven.

You have probably heard of the practice known as the Examen. It is a very effective way to build up your reservoirs of joy, especially if you practice it every day. The idea is to become aware of God’s presence, and then reflect on the day, both the things that gave you pleasure or made you happy, and the things that didn’t go so well. Our emotions can signpost us to discovering what God wants us to do, and it is that feeling of being in tune with the Holy Spirit working in our lives that is the bedrock of joy.

John began by berating his listeners as he knew that guilt can be a useful prompt towards repentance. But as soon as it has done its job, it should fade away. Shame, on the other hand, is rarely useful. I don’t know whether any of you have heard this year’s Reith lectures on BBC Sounds. They are by Gwen Adshead, a psychiatrist who has worked her whole career with people who have acted in a very violent way. Her patients have been in prisons and in hospitals like Broadmoor, and in the broadcasts she reflects on the meaning of evil. Although she doesn’t mention it in the lectures, she is a Christian, and like me, a Franciscan. She has firm views about shame. When asked about whether prisoners should be encouraged to feel ashamed of their crimes she replied, “No. It’s very straightforward. Making people feel bad about themselves doesn’t improve their chances of rehabilitation. It actually decreases them, and the irony is that we have some excellent work from the States that shows us very clearly that shame is a powerful driver for violence. So actually, shaming people more is unwise and isn’t going to help us.” Those who say “you should be ashamed of yourself” are wrong. Shame kills joy and makes us less likely to do the right thing.

So the message that calls us to repent is indeed good news. If we look through the lens of gratitude, we will rejoice that the Holy Spirit has enabled us to be aware of our sins, and that our sins are forgiven, and that we can have a fresh start. Joy is both a protection against the negativity that causes us to sin, and a response to the fact of our forgiveness. By deliberately practicing self-reflection and gratitude we can increase our joy until maybe we will reach that point that Paul tells us about – rejoicing in the Lord always!