Rejoicing as we Wait

This Sunday is the third Sunday in Advent. Historically, the third Sunday in Advent is known as Gaudete (Latin for “Rejoice!”) Sunday, based on the first word of the traditional Introit (something like our processional hymn) for that day.

The emphases of the first two Sundays in Advent are repentance and longing, preparing for the coming of the Lord. However, the tone shifts on the third Sunday, changing the focus from the need for the Lord’s coming to the promise of his coming. Repentance and longing shift to hopeful expectation, believing that God intends good for his broken creation – forgiveness of sins, new life in the present, and hope for a fully restored cosmos in the future.

This Sunday’s Old Testament reading comes from the prophet Zephaniah. Zephaniah wrote in the late 7th century BC, just before the reforms of King Josiah were instituted. The first two chapters are words of judgment against Judah and surrounding nations, indicting them for their rebellion against God. In the third and final chapter, however, the prophet speaks words of hope, preparing the people for the Lord’s favor in the midst of judgment. Zephaniah exhorts the people, “Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!”

This is a wonderful text for Gaudete Sunday, but it is also read each year at the Easter Vigil. At the vigil, we begin with Genesis 1, then we hear several readings from the Old Testament highlighting significant moments in Israel’s history – the flood and crossing the Red Sea – and then several readings from the prophets, including Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones. The final reading is always this text from Zephaniah 3, in which the prophet calls the people to rejoice, for God is acting to restore Israel, demonstrating his radical, powerful love for his people.

As Christians, we believe that this promise was fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. So, in a sense, we can experience the fulfillment of the promise, all the while we long for its final fulfillment. We rejoice because of Jesus’ work on our behalf, yet we also cry out in the words of Charles Wesley’s great hymn, “Finish, then, thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be. Let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee.”

We look back to the work of Jesus, and we look forward to the ultimate completion of the work of Jesus. All the while we live in the present believing that the cross and resurrection has unleashed the power of God, and that we can know and experience that power now. However, sin, evil, and death are still very much a part of our world as we long for day when God’s kingdom will, finally, come, “on earth as it is in heaven.”

This Gaudete Sunday, then, let us rejoice because in Jesus God’s promise to His people was fulfilled. Through his cross and resurrection we can know forgiveness and new life, and through the Spirit we can participate with God in his continued work in our own lives and in the world around us. We also, though, continue to long for him to come, to complete that which he began on the first Easter morning.

Gaudete!

Chris