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Why Not Rejoice

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by Rev. Gene McCallips 

Isaiah 12:2-6 New Living Translation 

See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.” With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation! In that wonderful day you will sing: “Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Tell the nations what he has done. Let them know how mighty he is! Sing to the Lord, for he has done wonderful things. Make known his praise around the world. Let all the people of Jerusalem shout his praise with joy! For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among you.” 

The Advent theme of joy is celebrated during this week. If you were raised in the Roman Catholic Church and your local parish used the Latin Mass, you might remember that this Sunday is known as Gaudete Sunday, a Latin term meaning “rejoice.”  

Of course the word “advent” implies that there is or was a coming event of significance. Like “We lived on a farm near Potters Mills before the advent of rural electricity!” The early Christian Church determined that there was a spiritual and pragmatic need to create a season of preparation before the celebration of the Savior’s birth. They believed that it would be far too easy to make this celebration into something that tried to simply create a time of feeling good without any real connection to the spiritual reality that was the real meaning and significance of this holiday! Perhaps some might seek to make money off of these good feelings without any understanding or appreciation that this baby would be born to eventually redeem all of humankind from the power of Sin with a capital “S”! 

In Luke 2:10, the angel announces Jesus’ birth to the shepherds, saying, “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” This message captures the joy of Advent: God’s promise fulfilled in the birth of Christ. 

Advent joy calls us to pause and appreciate the presence of God in our lives, looking forward to the fullness of joy that Jesus Christ Himself brings into a human life! This joy isn’t merely happiness—it’s a profound, resilient gladness that is rooted in God’s love and His promises. 

So why should we rejoice beyond the reason for the season? I mean it looks like the world is going, as the phrase goes, to Hell in a “handbasket”?? By the way, that phrase did not originate with the 2011 CD of the same name by Meatloaf! It may go back to the days when the guillotine was used to execute criminals who were presumed to be on their way to Hades. But, I digress.

Are not you tempted to despair at the moment if you ever watch, read or listen to the news?? I mean when we look at any area of our society aside from genuine science, it seems that someone has opened the doors of the asylums and that the inmates are now running the place. For instance, why can’t a letter go from our area to Harrisburg without going to Altoona and Pittsburgh first?? 

Why does a young guy without a medical degree get to decide if a procedure that my doctor has deemed necessary, will be paid for by my health insurance? Seems to me that my doctor, with 10 years of training and 20 years of practice experience, should have the last word!  That some kid fresh out of college gets to make the call on whether my insurance company will pay for this procedure is just plain nuts!  

Oh, and even more insane, is that fact that some people are calling the young man who shot an unarmed man in the back on a Manhattan Street a “hero”?!? He is no hero by any stretch of logic! What has our nation come to when anyone could call a cold blood murder of an unarmed man a “hero”?? 

How can we rejoice when living in such an upside down world?  During a time where depression is at an all-time high, why in the world would we try to whip up anything resembling “joy”?? 

And yet the Apostle Paul would write to the church in Philippi: “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.” The first readers of that letter, probably expected that since Jesus was resurrected not too long ago that He would no doubt also soon come down from heaven to bring the Kingdom of God to earth. They did not realize that they and you and I were given a somewhat related job description: to make the Kingdom of God visible during our lifetimes.

Ok, now about those shepherds. I’ve never met a real shepherd? The shepherds of the first century were the no-bodies of their time. If you couldn’t get a job anywhere else—you could probably qualify as an apprentice shepherd. I bet that one or two of the shepherd’s in this scene were apprentices! 

 

During the middle of the night, the darkest time, the sky became bright with too many angels to count and the shepherds encountered angels. So, this Sunday’s candle on the Advent Wreath is also known as the Shepherd Candle to highlight the joy the shepherds experienced when they received the good news about Christ’s birth. The no-body’s now had a champion—a Savior! Rome would be on the way out once this little guy grew up and they could finally rejoice—even the no-body’s! 

You and I can rejoice too! In the chaos that is America in 2024-2025, you and I are preparing to celebrate the birth of the One whom we know as Savior and Lord! Even when we feel like we’re the nobody’s, we know that the angels came to proclaim blessings beyond imagination. 

We can be confident that no matter how crazier things may seem in the coming years, there is One who has revealed Himself in the Book of Revelation with these titles: 

  • Him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 

  • Him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 

  • Him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 

  • The Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze? 

  • Him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. 

  • Him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 

  • The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 

If you realize that this is the Living God revealed as the Risen Son,  The one to whom you have bowed your whole life—you can rejoice! You can look forward to hearing the words which we sang earlier: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And again, I say, “Rejoice!” 

How is God Working?

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Devotion by Rev. Gene McCallips

To many persons in current society, it might seem that anyone suggesting that there is a God and that he is faithful to his promises, must be some kind of a religious fanatic or at least a preacher who makes his or her own living off the delusions of simple folk. I must admit that when I was in my teens, I too thought that trusting God was something like fairy tales that didn’t always have a good ending. Later as a young adult I came to the end of all of what I thought were my strengths. I came to a point of realizing that I could not in myself for any and every set of circumstances that can arise in a person’s life. I humbly took a knee in the living room of my apartment and asked Jesus Christ to take control of a life that was broken in so many ways. My trust in my intellectual and physical gifts had failed me and now I looked to a higher power that I had hoped was there for some time—but whom I could not name. The good news was that God did not ask me to clean up my act completely on day one—he loved me just as I was. In response to that transformative love, I wanted to live to please him!

As a new Christ follower, I realized that most of my negative impressions of “church” people had come from a lack of exposure—that it was, in effect, a different form of prejudice and bias. I began to trust God for simple things and even a few much, much larger decisions that I knew that I had to make. I grew haltingly at times—three steps forward and four steps back. Thankfully I was nurtured by those who had both wisdom and patience. And as a result, my faith in God grew steadily because I was in a community of faith that valued relationships and gradual growth over outright performance. 

Years later, I would sit beside the Rev. David Wilkerson of “The Cross and the Switchblade” fame. I was serving at the time on the Board of the Harrisburg, PA Teen Challenge center on Front Street. The occasion was a graduation ceremony at The PA Teen Challenge Center in Rehrersburg, PA. To say the least, I was more than a bit nervous. I wanted to show this great man of faith whom God had used so powerfully that I too was a man of faith. Heaven provided the perfect opportunity when storm clouds began to gather to the west.

Now if you’re familiar with Berks County in PA, you will know that when storms get captured in the glacial mountain valleys of the Commonwealth that they rarely turn around. I noted the clouds to the great man of faith and uttered the words: Well, David, I believe that the Lord will make that storm dissipate before it gets here to these holy grounds”. Imagine my surprise when Wilkerson matter-of-factly said, “I think we’re gonna get drenched, Gene!” I was crest-fallen and absolutely slack-jawed. Was he putting down my faith? Nope, he was just being a good observer of the laws of nature put into place by our Creator! It didn’t just rain—it poured and I never saw David Wilkerson again!

So, what’s the lesson? Does God still do miracles? Absolutely, I have witnessed many genuine sovereign miracles performed by God’s hand. But he also works within the laws of nature that he alone constructed and placed into operation. And most, importantly, we need to be aware when we are using God’s name and reputation to simply show-off and exalt ourselves rather than God.