Advent Week 3 -Joy

We’ve come to the third Sunday of Advent when we celebrate “Joy.”  It marks a turning point in the Advent journey – marked by the pink (or rose) colored candle – and the inclusion of maybe just one traditional Christmas hymn. (Can you guess which one?)

But what we recognize and celebrate this week is not cultural or commercial Christmas joy.  The joy we celebrate this week is the joy that is the light of our faith placed next to the lights of hope and peace.  Ours is joy that is felt when things aren’t perfect; joy that is felt despite or in the middle of loss and pain; joy that - despite our wilderness feelings of oppression, broken-heartedness, mourning and spiritual depletion - finds us and meets us there.

We’re talking about the great joy of knowing Christ – and the difference that He makes in our lives.  The joy of knowing, as Paul says, that “the one who calls you is faithful.”  The joy of the One to whom we were first introduced and then called to point others to – through our lives lived in faith.

Think about “joy” while you read the scriptures for this week.  Pray about them and let’s talk about them together – on Sunday or any day.  And may the joy of the light Advent shine in your life today.