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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!” 

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Spring Will Come in God’s Time

a Lenten Devotion by Beth Evanko

Romans 12:12. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.

The songbirds, the crocuses, and the buds of the forsythia are welcome signs of Spring after Winter especially an icy windy one. These are signs of hope that after the cold, tiresome days of Winter there will be the warm sunny days of Spring. A gardener understands this sense of hope when he plants bulbs in the Fall. He sows them in the cold ground knowing that he will have to wait until Spring to see them burst out of the sun-warmed soil. He patiently waits through the endless frozen days of Winter confident that when the temperatures rise and the ground warms, the crocuses, daffodils, and tulips will explode in fireworks of color, a spectacular reminder of God’s majesty and creativity.

We as children of God need this patience too as we pray for God’s will to be done during this time of uncertainty in our lives. We plant the bulb of prayer in times of struggles and trials in ground that appears to be frozen. We must be faithful and patient knowing that in God’s time the Spring will come, and the bulb of prayer will burst forth. So, as we wait in our Winter of struggles and trials, we know that we are sustained by God and that Spring will come. In Colossians 1:11, the Apostle Paul writes, “God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient!” Our patience and faith will give us an abundant display of beauty. May these words from Thomas Chisholm strengthen us through those winter days of prayer as we look to Spring and the end of our uncertainty.

Pray on! Pray on! Cease not to pray,
And should the answer tarry, wait;
Thy God will come, will surely come,
And He can never come too late. — Thomas Chisholm

What to Tell the Children About Easter

A Lenten Devotion by Dianne Sefter 

Matthew 20:13 

 People brought little children to him, for him to lay his hands on them and say a prayer.  The disciples turned them away, but Jesus said, “Let the little children alone and do not stop them coming to me; for it is as such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”  Then he laid his hands on them and went on his way. 

In the 30 years that I taught in a Christian preschool, some parents would confide that the most difficult story to tell (or NOT to tell) their children was the story of Christ’s death on the cross.  Easter was “fine and dandy with sugar candy”, its commercialized Easter Bunny, and egg hunts.  Families enjoyed dressing up and going to church on Easter Sunday, and would maybe add Palm Sunday to the list, if they were not frequent churchgoers.  The topic of the cross and the events of Holy Week were put on the back burner, and oftentimes, left to the preschool to teach. 

But what to tell the little ones?  Especially if some parents really didn’t know what they believed, which seemed to be the real crux of the problem if the subject arose.  How do you talk about the events of Holy Week without recognizing the force of evil in the world, and its specific target of God Himself? After a little digging, most of these questions arose from those who didn’t really believe that there was such a thing as sin in the world. Therefore, why the need for a Savior, Christ, to die for it?  In other words,  “Let’s just skip to Easter…” 

As for the little ones, they were fascinated with Children’s Bible stories of the Last Supper, the washing of the disciples’ feet, and the Garden of Gethsemane, all of which we reenacted.  Whenever we talked about Jesus on the cross, we always followed up with the sentence- “BUT, He didn’t stay dead… Three days later, what happened?  HE ROSE AGAIN!”  In this way, the events of Holy Week ended with the victory, anticipation and joy of Easter morning, which we celebrated the whole week afterwards with stories like “The Road to Emmaus” and “Breakfast on the Beach”.  

It is easy to take the road that the disciples took when the children really wanted to know who Jesus was- keep them in the background, don’t let them get close to the Truth, and “this is serious business, we have no time for play….”  But Jesus said, “Let them come to Me- this is what I want my kingdom to be like.  Questions and all…” 

Drawing Closer to God

Lenten Devotion by Pastor Dave McElwee 

 When looking to the season of Lent, one can look at Joel 2:12-13, which states: 

 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, 
    “return to me with all your heart, 
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 
     and rend your hearts and not your garments.” 
Return to the Lord your God, 
    for he is gracious and merciful, 
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; 
    and he relents over disaster.” 

 If you look back in previous weeks, this passage is one that comes up continually, for good reason, as this passage relates well to this season. 

 Lent is a season of preparation; one of two such seasons in the Christian year, the other being Advent. This season is one where the faithful are called upon to prepare to meet the Resurrected Lord on Easter. Early in the church’s existence, this was also a time when new members would practice the spiritual disciplines as they prepared to be baptized at dawn on Easter. 

 All too often today we are tempted to use this season as a means of kicking a bad habit. We talk about what we are giving up for Lent, often then indulging on Easter. I am guilty of doing that very thing when I would give up donuts for Lent, only to over indulge on Easter morning. 

 The reason for giving something up is meant to help us grow closer to God. As the prophet Joel noted, the reason for the fasting, weeping, mourning, and the rending of hearts and clothing was to draw closer to God. The giving up of something is meant to free us to draw closer to God. This idea is why some would take on a new spiritual practice instead of giving something up.  

 At this point, we can see that Easter is coming. Now is a time to intentionally draw near to God. Take the time, either through refraining from something or taking something new on and seek God. As the prophet said, return to the Lord your God. For though we do not deserve it, God is reaching out to us and gives us hope through the suffering, death, and ultimate Resurrection of Christ. 

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