Dear friends in Christ: We welcome back Margaret Ellsworth, Forward Movement’s Content Marketing Manager, as our guest author this week.
At my house this week, my kids are practicing for lighting the Advent wreath at church – and they are excited to be the one to light the pink candle! As Richelle Thompson tells us in Preparing the Way: “Traditionally, the third Sunday in Advent is known as Gaudete Sunday (or Rose Sunday). The name comes from the psalms, “Rejoice in the Lord;” gaudete is the Latin word for rejoice.”
Reading that name immediately gets a melody for “Gaudete” stuck in my head, from a choir performance long ago. This song joins the mental playlist that’s been running on loop since Thanksgiving – all the Advent/Christmas songs that I’ve sung in choirs over the years.
I know, I know, it’s Advent still, and we aren’t supposed to rush ahead to Christmas – right? But any of us who are singing in church choirs have already had Christmas carols stuck in our head for weeks. Which makes perfect sense – If we don’t start rehearsing our harmonies and descants now, we won’t be ready to fill the church with joyful noise on Christmas Eve!
Our readings for Gaudete Sunday are even full of singing. Isaiah tells us:
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing.
And we respond with the Magnificat, Mary’s joyous song of praise:
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
There’s an interesting counterpoint in these songs together – singing of a promise both expected and fulfilled. Isaiah sings of a wilderness that will rejoice and blossom; Mary sings of a God that has filled the hungry with good things. Just as we wait with longing this season for Christ to come again, we rejoice in the knowledge that he has already come to dwell with us.
We’re not leaving behind what we heard at the Jordan River last week: the insistent call of John the Baptist urging us to repent, to change our lives, to keep awake for Christ’s coming. But just as we practice “watchful expectation” throughout the season, so too can we practice rejoicing in the midst of the waiting. So we will recognize the joy of the Word made flesh when it arrives – on Christmas Eve, or in the world to come, or in the daily inbreaking of grace in our lives.
I wonder where you will find opportunities this week both to repent, and to rejoice. And I wonder what songs of joy and justice are stuck in your head this week.
Yours faithfully (and musically!)
Margaret Ellsworth
Content Marketing Manager
More from our ministry:
Look for God’s coming in your daily life with the AdventWord community
Get a head start on Lent with this devotional: Honest to Goodness
A gift for anyone who loves beautiful prayer: Saint Augustine’s Prayer Book