“Come Gaudete – Rejoice With”
We come to the midway point of Advent, although this year there are but 8 days left before Christmas is here.
The third Sunday of Advent is called “Gaudete” which is Latin for the word “Rejoice”. If you are using an Advent wreath, the Rose candle is what is lit today. In the middle of the Advent season, we pause in our reflections and meditations to “rejoice” – to be joyful in remembering why we are celebrating Advent in the first place.
You may remember
that for many centuries in the church Advent was marked by repentance and reconciliation
– a time to “prepare for the Lord’s coming”, like a person would prepare for
someone’s coming visit by cleaning things up before they come. Now, in the middle of this season, the house
is clean, and our hearts also. We have
been preparing, cleaning up if you will, and we take a moment in our preparation
to enjoy what lies ahead – we rejoice!
The Prophet
Isaiah of the Messiah and in his coming, a time to Rejoice:
The
spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor,
to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and release to the prisoners,
to announce a year of favor from the LORD
and a day of vindication by our God.
I
rejoice heartily in the LORD,
in my God is the joy of my soul;
for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation...
Do you
remember that at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, when at his hometown
synagogue, he spoke the words of this prophecy and applied them to himself?
(Luke 4:16-19). Jesus echoed the words
of Isaiah’s prophecy and told his friends in his hometown, “Today this
Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21). Jesus announced to those who knew him only as
Mary and Joseph’s boy who had grown up among them that he was the promised
fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.
If we allow
Christ to enter into our own Advent heart it will be because we have learned to
“rejoice” and “to come” to Him, and call him to be “with us”. That’s what this mid-point Advent Sunday of Gaudete
means. It is an invitation to COME, for
God is now WITH us. No wonder we are
told to “rejoice heartily in the Lord”.
The words echo the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian church as
he said: "Rejoice! The Lord is
at hand!" (1 Thes 5:16, 23).
This is the
invitation for us today. “Come”… “Come and
behold him, born the King of Angels”, for the Lord Jesus is “With”
us… “You will call him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us’”.
The angel said to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the
power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will
be called holy—the Son of God. (Luke 1:35).
The Lord Jesus invited his disciples to “Come and See”(John
1:46), and when he selected them to be his disciples he called them “to
be with him” (Mark 3:14).
Today, let
us enter into the worship of rejoicing.
Let us come
to the table and worship Christ who has come to us.
Let us know
that Christ is with us.
Let us
rejoice!
Peace
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