Children of God.  People of Advent.  We’ve been considering questions through these weeks of Advent so far.  How do we wait well?  In what or in whom is our peace?  We’ve said that it’s important that we are asking the right questions.  It is also important that we are listening to the questions which God’s Word poses of us. So here’s the question for today, right from our text from John.  “What then, should we do?”  Now you may be saying, “I thought we were supposed to be talking about joy, not being given more tasks to do!”  We are going to be talking about joy and good news is before us today.  The thing about joy – and it is the same thing about hope and peace and love as we light our Advent Candles – joy is not just something for us to experience for our own benefit.  Joy needs to be shared.  We know what it’s like to share joyous news.  They used to say, “I want to shout it from the rooftops!”  We may want to shout it, sing it; maybe even dance it. 

It's good to be able to sing together, isn’t it?  In Christ alone, we sing, my hope is found.  It’s good to be able to hear God speak to us from God’s Word.  “He himself is our peace,” talking about Jesus of course.  “Make me a person of peace,” we pray.  We sang this prayer last week.  Today we hear, “The Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.  With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” (Is 12:2b-3)  Isaiah 12 is a song.  Someone has called it “A Song to Sing on the Day of Salvation,” which, for the follower of Christ, is every day.  We have a song to sing.  It’s a joyful song.

There’s another song that goes like this, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.”  Perhaps before we go any further we should talk for a little while about what joy means in our faith; what salvation means.

The last thing I want to hear this morning is a message from someone saying, “You have to find your joy!”  I feel that I have quite enough to do already without you laying that on me.  Things are difficult for many people in many different ways.  Salvation in Jesus is my joy every day.  The joy of salvation in Jesus is not dependent on circumstances, which, as we know, can be dire.  My joy in Jesus does not mean that I should go about every day cheerful or wearing a plastic smile.  My joy in Jesus does not mean I turn away from suffering or am called to act like bad things didn’t happen or aren’t happening.  We rejoice with those who rejoice, and we mourn with those who mourn. My joy in the salvation of Jesus is not something I have to find.  I received it first when Jesus found me.  My joy in the salvation of Jesus is not something that anyone can ever take away from me, nor will it ever be taken away from me to the ages of ages world without end, amen!

This is our joy, children of God.  This is the joy of being in Christ.  Being saved in Christ.  Being delivered in Christ.  Being rescued in Christ.  My joy in Christ is being rescued from shame/guilt/my own worst tendencies/self-absorption/turning inward/misdirected passions/despair/turmoil (or whatever we want to call the opposite of peace)/meaningless existence/fill in the blank.

I have a song to sing, no matter my circumstances.  This is assuming, of course, that we are not ok with circumstances, that we are not ok with the status quo.  This is one of the reasons I love that we light our Advent Candles during the shortest days of the year.  I like that they burn defiantly in the midst of circumstances that can be quite dark, to say the least.  Lighting these candles is a signal that we reject the status quo, that we are not satisfied with business as usual, whether it’s in our world, our country, our city, or our hearts.  We’re not just singing Pollyannas in here, covering our ears and averting our eyes.  If we are tempted in that way, then we can be thankful for John the Baptist coming screeching into the parking lot and bursting through our doors with the hair and the clothes and saying something like, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

Let’s not be too hard on the crowds coming out to see John.  We have seen the crowds, and they are us.  They wanted to hear John’s sermon of repentance and forgiveness.  They recognized the need for something beyond themselves for rescue.  They didn’t react badly to John’s rather unorthodox preaching methods – insulting one’s congregation being generally frowned upon.  But what is really going on here?  Vipers were not known for being or doing anything good.  John is not so much insulting or questioning the crowd’s parentage but making the point that in and of themselves, they have nothing to contribute toward their own rescue/deliverance/salvation.  It’s all God.  It’s all Jesus.  John recognizes that there is a lot of bad fruit around and the status quo is not acceptable.  This is the bad news.  “Something has gone wrong,” as someone has written.  “Something has gone wrong, but a remedy exists.  Something has gone wrong, but you are not far from the kingdom… Here is where the joy resides, not in the denial of brokenness, but that brokenness is not the last word.  It is not the defining word.”  The message has been heard remember, “Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)

A Saviour.  A Redeemer.  A Rescuer.  This is who God is.  The good and fitting and proper response to our rescuing God.  Trust over fear.  Singing and shouting because “Immanuel.”  God is with us.

This was Isaiah’s message in Isaiah 12.  How could the prophet speak of thanks and trust and joy in the middle of the situation Judah found itself in?  The kingdom of Israel divided.  The people of Jerusalem and all of Judah under threat from an Israel-Syria alliance.  King Ahaz of Judah looking not to Yahweh for help but to his own ingenuity – his own ability to forge an alliance with the Assyrian empire for help.  Isaiah looks forward to a time when rescue will come.  In doing so, he also looks back.  “You will say in that day: I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, and you comforted me.  Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the LORD GOD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.” (Isaiah 12:1-2)  This is our story.  This is our song.  God is a saving God. 

I came across an old gospel song that was new to me called “We’ve Come This Far By Faith.”  We’ve come this far by faith.  We’ve come this far by trust.  It goes, “We’ve come this far by faith/ Leaning on the Lord/ Trusting in His holy Word/ He’s never failed us yet/Oh oh oh can’t turn around/ We’ve come this far by faith.” We remember God’s saving acts in our own lives.  Isiah remembers the song that was sung when the children of Israel were delivered.  When a way was made through the sea, and Moses and the Israelites sang a song to the Lord – “The Lord is my strength and my might/song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” (Exodus 15:2), Isaiah looks back.  Our joy in the Lord looks back

Our joy in the Lord also looks ahead.  Isaiah looks forward to a time when the kingdom of David will be nothing but a stump – a time of desolation and dissolution.  Isaiah looks forward to a young woman with child, bearing a son and naming him “Immanuel.”  God with us.  The presence of God is our joy.  Isaiah looks forward to a time when the house of David is nothing but a stump, but a “shoot is going to come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.  The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding.” (Is 11:1-2)  With righteousness, he will judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.  Our righteous and faithful vine who will say, “Abide in me (remain in me/rest in me/live in me) as I abide in you.” (John 15:4a).  God with us.  Our joy.  “Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 12:6)

Our joy, rooted and founded and grounded in our saving, delivering God, looks back.  Our joy looks ahead.  One eye on the past.  One eye on what is to come.  Two feet planted firmly in the present.  “With joy, you will draw water from the well of salvation,” Isaiah proclaims. (v3)  Water is life.  Immanuel is life.  This is the thing about drawing water from a well.  It’s a daily act.  You go to the well to draw water from it.  The joy of my salvation/deliverance/rescue is not only based on a prayer that I prayed as a child as I went to bed or a prayer that I made at summer camp and told my camp counsellor about right afterward, or my following my Lord through the waters of baptism shortly after that.  Do not get me wrong.  Those are all significant events in my life and in my faith.  The joy of my salvation is also drawing water from the wells of salvation every day because I need those waters every day. I need to run to that well every day because He is my joy.

Which brings us back to the question with which we started.  What then should we do?  Every day.  This is an imminently practical question, and it’s a good one.  You may be saying, “Well, this is a great image and all very poetic, but what would that practically look like in my life and in our lives together?”  I’m glad you asked!

Isaiah gives an answer in v4.  “Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted.”  The call is to turn to him each day.  To call on his name.  To thank him in the ways we do that as individuals and in groups of two or more remembering that he is with us.  To make his deeds known.  Remember the line that Paul wrote to the churches of Ephesus about living for the praise of his glory; in other words, to make who God is known in our words and in our deeds.

Or to put it in other terms, to bear fruit worthy of repentance.  John the Baptist was a serious man.  We want to be people who take our joy seriously.  I want to be serious about my joy!  The presence of God with us calls us to be present to one another.  “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, Rejoice.” Phil 4:4 We heard this in our reading from Philippians this morning.  This rejoicing is meant to look like something.  It’s not just so we can get together and shout and sing.  That’s good and right, too.  This is not an either/or proposition.  “Let your gentleness be known to everyone, the Lord is near.” Phil 4:5  Living in the joy of the good news of salvation in Christ looks like something.

What then should we do?  Take this seriously, says John.  John gets most specific here.  This is good.  John doesn’t just say, “Go make the world a better place,” or “Go share the gospel,” or “Go work for justice.”    John brings our joy into the everyday.  “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” (Luke 3:11)  I have to say I have a lot more than two coats.  How many do I need?  John is calling for a radical reorienting of our lives that puts into question anything we have, clothing or food-wise that’s over and above what we need.

1. What kind of people might God make us?  Tax collectors.  Don’t cheat.  Don’t look to get as much as you can for yourself.  Soldiers.  Don’t use your power and authority for your own gain.  Don’t seek to improve your own lifestyle based on the suffering and exploitation of others.  Things are bad in many places and ways.  If we’re doing ok, make sure we’re paying attention to those around us who are not.  Start by giving stuff away and sharing.  Small steps.  Doable.  World-changing?  Why not?  God is present with us.  Let us ask God to help us be present to others.  Let us ask God to help us.  Let it start with those closest to us and spread out from there.  We have a chance here at Blythwood this Christmas to share what we have internationally through the Shared Gifts of Hope campaign.    

In the good news that comes to us of Jesus, our Emmanuel (our God with us), we have a new way of being and a new way of doing every day.  May we each daily draw deep from the wells of salvation this Advent and always.   Amen