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December 11, 2005
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October 30, 2005
This is Only A Test
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Whatever Happened to our Security?
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Sermon
Redeeming Holiday Cheer
Advent 3B
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, PA
December 11, 2005
Happy Gaudete Sunday! So here we are. You did remember that today is Gaudete Sunday, didn’t you? The rose candle has been lit. It must be the third Sunday of Advent!
Historically, today is known as Gaudete Sunday. “Gaudete” is Latin for “rejoice.” Rejoicing belongs to the Third Sunday of Advent for very good reasons. It comes from a time and tradition in the church when Advent used to have a more pronounced penitential flavor. The season of Advent originated in the fourth century as a forty day fast before Christmas. The practice of observing a fast before a feast is an ancient one, and not just religious. As it would be silly to eat a huge meal the day before Thanksgiving Dinner, so the church urged people to prepare for the great feasts of the church with a season of fasting and abstinence. In the early church, as today, the Lenten season before the great feast of Easter was one of fasting. Later, as the birth of Christ became a more celebrated feast, a season of fasting preceded it as well. Eventually the Advent fast was shortened to the four weeks before Christmas.
So fasting during Advent was saving room for Christmas. People used to moderate their eating and drinking and take on Advent disciplines. We used purple vestments in church to remind us of the somber season. As John the Baptist called out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way!”, the faithful got serious about preparation, cleaning out souls as well as homes to make room for the new birth. Gaudete Sunday came in the midst of this season of discipline marking that we had passed the half-way point. It served as a reminder to everyone to lighten up a bit, relax the discipline and remember that we are preparing for great joy. This moment of rejoicing in the midst of a penitential season was meant to be a relief to the soul. In some places they even had rose colored vestments to mark this Sunday (as we have today, compliments of Bishop Paul).
While many have mostly left the penitential nature of this season behind, it is still a time for serious soul searching and preparation. I believe we are still in need of relief in the midst of it. But I suspect what we need relief from is not severe fasting, but insincere rejoicing. I think we are in great need of relief from the false joy and happiness with which this season abounds. Wouldn’t it be a relief, if we didn’t have to have exquisitely decorated homes? Wouldn’t it be a relief, if we had one less party to go to? Wouldn’t it be a relief, if we didn’t have to find one more perfect present, didn’t have to smile cheerily when we didn’t feel like it, didn’t have to pretend? Wouldn’t it be a relief if we could escape what one journalist has called “the inescapable seasonal imperative: happiness?” *
What is happiness after all? And how important is it? Happiness researchers (yes they exist) have discovered something not so surprising for those of us who take the tenants of the Christian faith somewhat seriously. Materialistic pleasures don’t last. “Things” and “stuff” don’t make us happy. Studies of lottery winners show that after an initial euphoria that comes with winning the big bucks and buying a luxury home, the winners actually become more unhappy with life. In fact, most people report that holidays such as Christmas are not a major source of happiness for them. Rather people find happiness in relationships: with their children, with friends.
So what do we do on this Third Sunday of Advent? How do we celebrate Gaudete Sunday? How do we find relief from the holiday madness? This is where I believe a very appropriate Advent discipline comes in. What would it look like to prepare for great joy rather than being happy because the season dictates it? How might we be disciplined about our rejoicing? The passage from Isaiah gives one clue. It is certainly a passage about rejoicing. The prophet uses three wonderful and potent images of the fulfillment of a prophecy of salvation: the release of the captives, the rebuilding of the great city of Jerusalem, and the preparation of the bride and bridegroom. This good news is real. It does not call on us to put on a mantle of cheerfulness because holiday songs are playing on the radio. Rather its joyfulness comes from the redemption of an exhausted people. It is a joyfulness that knows the truth about pain and sorrow and does not deny them. It is good news with real power--power to bind up the brokenhearted, power to comfort those who mourn, power to repair the devastations of many generations. It is this power that brings about the joy. “I shall greatly rejoice in the Lord,” calls out the prophet. “My whole being shall exalt in my God.” As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with jewels, so has God “clothed me with the garments of salvation.”(Isaiah 61:10)
What are the bride and groom doing but preparing for great joy? How do they do that? They put on jewels and garlands. We are familiar with the phrase, “dress for success.” Here the prophet calls on us to “dress for rejoicing.” What would it look like during this season of Advent if instead of putting on the yuletide cheer, we put on the garment of salvation? What would it feel like if instead of searching for the perfect gift, we did some real soul searching work to prepare ourselves for rejoicing? Can we be disciplined about that? Sometimes joy comes upon us unexpectedly. But what about the rest of the time? Can we lay the groundwork for joy?
In Gail Godwin’s novel, Fr. Melancholy’s Daughter, the Fr. Melancholy character is an Episcopal priest who struggles with depression. He talks about the “grace of daily obligation.” For him, it is the day to day tasks that he must accomplish that help him through the dark times. This works not only because attending to duty keeps him going, but also because he discovers along the way that those things he does out of obligation bring him joy. That is pure grace. St. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians give us another insight about how to be disciplined about our rejoicing. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise the words of the prophets. Test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now there is an outline of a spiritual discipline of joy.
Disciplines don’t come easily. That is why they are disciplines after all. People who have disciplined prayer lives don’t pray daily because it comes easily; they pray more easily because they practice daily. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. This is not about hollow happiness. It is about practicing these things.
During this season of Advent, I have been praying regularly for a friend of mine whose adult son is dying from a brain tumor. They are both amazing people: prayerful, faithful, even joyful. My friend is no stranger to suffering. She herself lives with a chronic illness. When she became ill, she started what she calls a “gratefulness journal.” Everyday she writes about something for which she is grateful. She says:
Americans think happiness means no sadness. But to know deep, abiding joy and happiness is to understand sadness and tragedy--Happiness is borne out of [and] shaped by gratefulness. Cataloging your blessings doesn’t mean you don’t give adequate expression to what is hurtful. You review what is hurtful-- and also what is singularly delightful. *
Even now in this in-between season of Advent, as her son wends his way toward death, her family still prepares to celebrate Christmas. It is not a naïve preparation. It is a disciplined one.
Can we redeem this holiday cheer? Test it, St. Paul suggests to the Thessalonians. If it is good, hold on tight. If it is evil drop it like a hot potato. Can we redeem this holiday cheer by remembering Advent? By being aware of living in the midst? By looking for those things that bring us joy rather than clinging to the ones that add stress? Can we live into Advent as being the in-between time, or as Anglican Poet W. H. Auden calls it, the Time Being? At the conclusion of his poem, For the Time Being, which covers the seasons from Advent through Epiphany, Auden writes:
Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes—
Some have got broken—and carrying them up to the attic.
The holy and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed up, for the rest of the week—
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted—quite unsuccessfully—
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away,
Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,
The promising child who cannot keep His word for long.
… To those who have seen
The Child, however dimly, however incredulously,
The Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying time of all.
We live in the Time Being. And in truth, it is really not a question of whether we can we redeem this holiday cheer. Actually we don’t have to. It is God who redeems. We can be about the task of saving room for Christmas and let God perform the miracle. As St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians and us, “the one who calls you is faithful and he will do this!” The rose candle is lit. We are more than halfway there. Rejoice. God can even redeem Christmas.
* (Marina Pisano, “Joy, happiness: What is it? Where do we get it? And how on earth can we sustain it?” San Antonio Express News, web posted 12/4/05)
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