Being Prepared

I heard this story of two young boys who were spending the night at their grandparents a couple of weeks before Christmas. At bedtime, the two boys knelt beside their beds to say their prayers when the youngest one began praying at the top of his lungs.

"I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE...
I PRAY FOR A NEW GAMEBOY...
I PRAY FOR A NEW VCR..."

His older brother leaned over and nudged the younger brother and said, "Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn't deaf." To which the little brother replied, "No, but Grandmother is!"
Today we are gathered together here to celebrate the Sunday of joy. We are celebrating the joy of God. During the past two Sundays we have been preparing for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are being called to keep alive the vision which will provides us with the hope in order for us to seek the Peace of God. The peace that only God can keep, the peace that is not the peace as we understand it. The peace that which will only come to us when we repent and turn to our God. The peace that we will have only when we take up the walk with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Joy in our hearts is not something that we can buy. Joy is not something that we can get from the supermarket. Joy is not from the Christmas presents that we will get. We from time to catch glimpses of what it is that God is all about. We from time to time come across situations where we see God’s promises coming true, and we suddenly have this great joy in our hearts.

I would like you to imagine for a minute that you are John the Baptist lingering in prison. Herod is about to have him killed. We have no doubts that John the Baptist is very much aware of what is awaiting him, although how he is going to die will be decided by Harod’s wife and daughter.

John is having serious doubts as to whether his mission in this world is completed or not. He is uncertain as to whether Jesus is the Messiah or not. So he sends messengers from prison in order to ask Jesus – “Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another.”

Again imagine for a moment how he heard the answer to his question. Imagine the joy and happiness in his heart when his own disciples reported back to him what Jesus said: “God and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. Blesses are they who take no offense at me.”

Imagine that you are John the Baptist. Imagine how you will be feeling to hear that all that you have been yearning for as child of Abraham is now coming true. The promises that have been given in the Old Testament is now coming true. You can see God working a great work through Jesus, the child of Mary, the kind of work that the prophet Isaiah spoke of in our first reading of this morning.

JOY.

Joy should never be confused with happiness. Joy and happiness is something that a lot of people in this world do get confused with. Joy is not happiness, not even contentment.

The feeling of joy is something that will overwhelm you. It is something that comes to us when we witness God at work. Whether it be in our own personal problems, in our family relationships, in our friends, in our church, in our community or in the world.

I call today’s sermon as the giving and receiving of the gift of Joy, not just to be in keeping with our Advent theme. The theme as suggested by the lighting of the Advent candles. I give it this name in order to highlight to all of us the realities of the gift of joy – that reality of Joy is something that cannot be sought or purchase, it is a gift that can be received and given by us.

Whenever we see the works of God being done, we receive the gift of joy. And whenever we allow God to do his works through us, we give to others the gift of joy, or at the very, very least – the possibility of them receiving that gift of joy from God.

This is part of what this 3rd Sunday during Advent is all about. It is about going about the work of God. It is about caring about other people. It is about praying that joy may come with the giving. It is about praying that the hand of God may be seen.

Joy is a great and wonderful thing. Joy is a thing that will overtakes us when we are traveling on the path shown to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Joy is something that will overwhelm us when we are taking our walk with our Lord Jesus Christ. Joy is not a feeling that is with us all the time, it is not continuous, at least not in this world, but it comes up whenever we see God at work. When we see the sick healed, when we see the lame cured, when we see sight given back to the blind. When we see the good news of our Lord being proclaimed to those who are poor in spirit. it comes up whenever we are doing the work of God, and understands that God is doing His work in the situations and circumstances surrounding us.

Everlasting joy will be in our hearts, so testifies Isaiah on the day of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

On that day, he testifies, the wilderness and the dry land shall be
glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall
blossom abundantly, on that day, the ransomed of the LORD shall
return, and come to Zion with singing; and everlasting joy shall be
upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and
sighing shall flee away.

There is a day coming which we are called to be prepared for, a day coming, of an eternal joy, a joy which we receive a taste of in the here and now when we receive the gift of seeing God at work, and when we do the works of God and thereby make it possible for others to have the joy of seeing him.

Blessed be the name of God, day by day. Amen