Tag: Joy

RE-JUBILATION

“Re-jubilation” is a word that I made up to describe what Advent Season and Christmastime are all about.  The four weeks of Advent before Christmas and the twelve days of Christmastime are all about rejuvenating our Christian joy each year.  So, we can use the word “re-jubilation” to best describe the annual rejuvenation of the Joy of Christ within us.

Around the advent wreath, we light the four candles to mark the weeks before Christmas.  Remembering the great gift of the First Advent of Christ and looking forward to Christ’s return at his Second Advent to come, we light the candles on the wreath that each symbolize a specific grace of God.  And the four graces symbolized by the candles of this special holiday wreath are Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.

While most Roman Catholics use purple candles for the Advent wreath, most Protestants use royal blue, representing the hope of our Messiah King, Jesus Christ.  Traditionally, the third Sunday in Advent was a pink candle to represent the joy of the season.  In fact, among traditional Catholics, the third Sunday of Advent is called “Gaudete Sunday” and Gaudete is Latin for “Rejoice.”  And this refers to the biblical exhortation to always “Rejoice in the Lord” because “The Lord is near” and is offering us “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding” through daily prayer to “guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (See Philippians 4:4-7).

So we rejoice always because of the nearness of our Lord to us through prayer by the power of the Holy Spirit.  However, we also need to be reminded each year of the Heart and Center of our rejoicing.  We need to be reminded and re-jubilated by the grace and truth of the Incarnation of God the Son for the sake of the world. 

“Do not be afraid, for I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah,the Lord.”

Luke 2:10

So let us not be afraid, and let us rejoice always, because we have good news of great joy for all people:  Jesus the Christ, our Lord and Savior, was born to us, lived and ministered among us, was crucified and raised for us, and will return for us to establish God’s kingdom in its fullness.  Thanks be to God!  Hallelujah!

May we be RE-JUBILATED during this Advent Season and Christmastime!  May we be re-jubilated in the gospel, and may we be filled with the four graces of hope, peace, joy, and love. 

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and rightspirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willingspirit.

Psalm 51:10-12

All of this re-jubilation in Christ is indeed the greatest gift any of us could ever receive during this special time of year.  And, through an attitude of gratitude and deeds of charitable service, we are called to let this wonderful gift overflow through us to others.

Good Advent & Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!! Pastor Tim

BORN TO ETERNAL LIFE

On the Fourth Sunday of Eastertime a few weeks ago, which also was Mother’s Day, I shared a story in my sermon that many people asked me for a copy. So, I thought I’d include it in my article for the June issue of our Olive Branch newsletter.

This wonderfully imaginative story is about fraternal twin babies in their mother’s womb discussing life after delivery, and while it’s originally attributed to the great Dutch theologian Henri Nouwen, there are many different variations of it. The following is the version I used for my sermon…

One of the twin babies asked the other, “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Of course. There has to be something after delivery. And maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.” “Nonsense” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?” The second said, “I don’t know exactly, but I feel there will be more light there than here. Not that faint red glow we sometimes have here. Maybe we will be able to move around more freely and journey to places we just can’t understand right now. And maybe we will have other senses that we can’t yet understand.” The first replied, “That’s absurd! Ridiculous! This umbilical cord supplies everything we need. But the umbilical cord is too short, so life after delivery is to be logically excluded.” The second insisted, “Well I think there is something, and maybe it’s just different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this umbilical cord anymore.” The first replied, “Absolute nonsense, and furthermore, delivery is the end, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but oblivion. It takes us nowhere.” “Well” said the second, “I trust in Mother, and when we get to meet her in the after-delivery, she will show us all these amazing things.” The first replied, “A Mother? You actually believe in a Mother?! That’s laughable. If a Mother exists, then where is She right now?” The second said, “She’s all around us. We are surrounded by Her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live and move and have our being. Without Her this small confined existence of ours would not, and could not, exist.” And the first said, “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.” To which the second replied, “Well sometimes, when you’re in silence, and you focus and really listen, you can feel Her Presence.”

This ‘embryonic’ mortal existence we are journeying through is temporary, and one of my preferred terms for our physical death from this world is “Born to eternal life.” And you know it’s been said that we are spiritual beings having a human experience — an experience that is so very brief in the grand scheme of things.

However, the good news of the gospel of Christ our Good Shepherd leads us to the supreme joy and hope of heaven. Therefore, the reality of heaven (an eternal existence of true and never-ending happiness) is a central part of the honest-to-goodness gospel of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So simply because we live in a cynical and jaded time, we as Christians should not shy away from or downplay this great Easter truth and grace of eternal resurrection life. Rather we should embrace this heavenly faith, and then live lives of compassion and service in the name of Jesus. Because Christ is risen and because we too shall arise through him, we must live our lives right now according to the Word of the Lord in Micah chapter 6…

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

Jesus is risen beyond this impermanent existence, and we are his sheep who are to hear him and follow him for the sake of a better world for all people and for an eternal heavenly future by his grace.

Together in Christ, Pastor Tim