Advent Evening Prayer in the Week of Gaudete - The Third Week of Advent

(Audio)

Zephaniah 3:14-20; Isaiah 40:1-8

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Third Sunday in Advent is titled Gaudete, which means “Rejoice!” At first appearance, however, the Gospel reading appointed for Gaudete may not sound all that joyful, for it is the account of John the Baptist in prison awaiting his inevitable execution having sent his disciples to Jesus asking, “Are you the coming one, or do we wait for another.” Truly, when we are in the midst of trials and tribulations, crises of health, unemployment, marital strife, persecution, and suffering, we too may be troubled by the voices of our fallen human reason and worldly wisdom and the temptations of our Satanic foe to succumb to doubt, hopelessness, and despair. While these things are most certainly not joyful, our Lord calls us to rejoice nonetheless for they will pass and we will persevere, and more than that, victory is already ours, if unseen and unexperienced in full at the present time.

It was to Judah and Israel in such a time that the prophet Zephaniah was sent. Judah was already being threatened by the Assyrians, and now Zephaniah and Jeremiah were promising that it was going to get a whole lot worse before it got any better, warning of the coming of the Babylonians who would destroy Jerusalem and the temple and take into captivity the best and the brightest of Israel. These nations were being raised up by the LORD in judgment upon Israel and Judah for their sinful idolatry and apostasy. Yes, it was the LORD God who raised them up and permitted Assyria and Babylon to conquer his people; it was his judgment upon them. However, the LORD did not hate his people, but he loved them. That is why he would not leave them in their apostasy, but he would use their sorrow and suffering to crush their pride and to break their hardened hearts that they should return to him in repentance. Then he would restore them and turn his wrath against their enemies.

What does this mean? The LORD uses your trials and tribulations, your suffering, sorrow, and persecution for good, to discipline and chasten you and to call you back to him in repentance that he might restore and bless you. I am not saying that these things are good in themselves, but that the LORD uses them for good. The Scriptures are replete with examples of such. Most notably, perhaps, is Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and left for dead. At the end of his lengthy and eventful story, after revealing himself to his brothers who were terrified that he would avenge himself against them, Joseph said to them, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” As St. Paul has written, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Then, he lists all sorts of trials, tribulations, sufferings, and persecutions we experience and he concludes, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

God loves his people. God loved Israel and Judah, even when they broke his commandments and worshipped other gods. Though he punished them, though he disciplined them, he promised that he would restore them and bless them and defeat their enemies. God loved Joseph and his brothers and, though he permitted them to suffer the result of their sin, the LORD saw them through their suffering and he delivered them. More than that, the LORD was with them in and through their suffering, just as Jesus was with his disciples in the boat as the wind and the waves roared and crashed around them. They had nothing to fear. Joseph and his brothers had nothing to fear. Israel and Judah had nothing to fear. You and I have nothing to fear.

That is why we are called to rejoice always, even in the midst of suffering. Our Lord is with us. He has defeated all our enemies – sin, death, and Satan – and now he uses the tribulations he brings against us for his own good purposes and ends. “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline,” says the LORD, “so be zealous and repent.” Even though the exile was decades away, and the coming of Christ several centuries away, the promises of the LORD prophesied by Zephaniah stand as completed in the eyes of the LORD: “The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.”

We rejoice that Christ has come and taken God’s judgment from us, and that he continues to come into our midst, granting us the remission of our sins. We are also called to cast away our fear, because Christ is in our midst and has driven away our enemies by His death and resurrection. Moreover, not only are we called to rejoice, but God himself rejoices and exults over us as we receive the salvation of Christ. In the midst of our enemies, as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, our Good Shepherd feeds us and cares for us and protects us. First, we are invited to the Supper, which is a “foretaste of the feast to come.” Second is the actual “marriage supper of the Lamb” where all the redeemed will dwell with Christ forever.

Still, we are in exile in this world. We are but strangers here, heaven is our home. The believer is hated and despised by the world in the life. Yet, on the Last Day believers will be exalted before the eyes of the unbelieving world when God restores our fortunes and grants us the crown of eternal life. This week we beholdespecially that Christ will come again and bring full restoration to believers, while at the same time bringing judgment on those who reject him and his church. “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.