Read: Luke 1:68-79; Malachi 3:13-18; Philippians 1:18b-26
Our Advent candle wreath that we use at church has five candles, three are purple, one is pink and the large one in the center is white. Purple has traditionally been the central color of Advent. This color signifies repentance and fasting. The Christian custom of withholding from oneself food or some other desire is a practice wherein Christians demonstrate their devotion to God and sanctify their heart and body. Purple is also the liturgical color for Lent, which likewise incorporates a time of contemplation, repentance, and spiritual preparation. Purple is also the color of nobility and the supremacy of Christ, who is recognized as the “King of Kings.” So, purple in this use illustrates the expectation of and welcoming of our King, who is celebrated during Advent.
The first purple candle is the “hope” candle, as we look forward to the coming of the promised Messiah.
The second purple candle that we will light this Sunday is the “peace” candle as Jesus is the “Prince of peace” who brings peace to the world and makes peace between God and sinners.
Then the third candle is pink. Pink is the color used during the third Sunday of Advent. Pink represents “joy” or triumph and this candle exhibits a transition in the season of Advent away from repentance and towards celebration.
The fourth candle is purple again and represents “love” the love God showed the world by sending His one and only Son.
Finally the fifth central candle is white, this is known as the “Christ” candle and is a picture of the purity, light, restoration, and holiness of Christ. White is also a representation of victory and demonstrates how the Light of the world came into the world and banishes the darkness.
Like many aspects of what we do in worship, the advent wreath is a picture that helps us tell the gospel story. Much as communion, baptism, or the dialogical way we structure our services.
It almost seems though that there should be another candle, one that sits between the “peace” candle and the “joy” candle, because between these two themes comes “gratitude”.
Now obviously there are only four Sundays in advent, and so we use four candles, but many services will alternate the “peace” candle for a “thanksgiving” candle from year to year, but I think the story is better told when we walk the path from peace to gratitude to joy.
Often we think that gratitude comes from being joyful. As I sit at my kitchen table and look around at my family, it brings me joy, and so I am thankful. Or perhaps I recently heard some good news about a sick friend who is on the mend which causes me joy, and then I feel thankful. But it seems looking at our scripture passages from today that there is a good reason that the “thanksgiving” candle comes before the “joy” candle, and modern research seems to back up this ancient wisdom.
Brene Brown a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work says,
“In my 12 years of research on 11,000 pieces of data, I did not interview one person who had described themselves as joyful, who also did not actively practice gratitude.
For me it was very counterintuitive because I went into the research thinking that the relationship between joy and gratitude was: if you are joyful, you should be grateful. But it wasn’t that way at all.”
What she found was that every person who described their life as “joyful,” also regularly practiced some form of active, tangible gratitude in their everyday lives. For some, this was a gratitude journal, for others this was sharing thanksgivings with their family daily in prayer. For others, it was setting a specific time every day to remember something they were grateful for.
Joy is not the result of a positive outcome or circumstance in life. If that were the case, then our joy would be tied to external circumstances which we have minimal control over. This is closer to a description of happiness.
Rather, joy is something deeper and from the heart. It comes from living a life of gratitude, and this is not natural; being grateful is a decision and something that is practiced. When we can be grateful in all circumstances, then we can be joyful in all circumstances.
Yet this true gratefulness that leads to joy can only come when we are at peace with God and with one another.
Look closer at the contrast between the Malichai passage and the song of Zechariah, (emphasis mine).
“Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” ~ Malachi 3: 16-18
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” ~Luke 1:68-79
The coming of the Savior brings peace between God and His people, opening them to be able to live for and serve God in thanksgiving fear turns to joy! Paul’s letter to the Philippians highlights how these themes flow from one to another.
“I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.” ~ Philippians 1: 3-5
Even among trials and suffering he is able to say,
“But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.” ~ Philippians 1: 18-19
And joyful thanksgiving comes from the peace that Christ brings and how the people of God demonstrate that peace to one another,
“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” ~ Philippians 2: 1-5
The Heidelberg Catechism is organized into three parts, somewhat echoing the picture of the Advent wreath; Part one is Misery, part two is Deliverance and the third part is Gratitude, asking the great question “how then shall we live?” It begins,
Lord’s Day 32
Q & A 86
Q. Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace through Christ without any merit of our own, why then should we do good works?
A. Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, is also restoring us by his Spirit into his image, so that with our whole lives we may show that we are thankful to God for his benefits, so that he may be praised through us, so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ.
Peace in Christ,
Jory
Reformed in Tualatin 