Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
Philippians 4:4
The third week of Advent marks a period of joy. Many of us light pink candles in our wreaths, reflecting the old tradition of pink vestments and altar hangings on the third Sunday of Advent, a moment of joy in the midst of a “mildly penitential” season. This week comes in the midst of a season of joy, in many ways and for many people. But it is also a time when it can be hard to find joy.
As a priest, I find myself subscribed to a number of different churches’ email newsletters, and this week of joy seems also to be the week of Blue Christmas services, services designed for those who are mourning or in grief, or those for whom the holidays are simply a difficult time, for one reason or another. The Blue Christmas service is an antidote to a world pushing joy and cheer during the holiday season, to a culture that insists that you have happy holidays, when happiness may be the last thing you feel. I imagine that for some of you reading this, mid-December truly is a season of unadulterated joy, in which case I’m delighted for you! But I know that for many of us, there is a note of pain or grief, anxiety or sorrow that is playing in your heart, still audible beneath the eleven-hundredth repetition of the line: “Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring ting tingling too!”
This week’s theme of joy is not an insistence that you feel joy, that you be filled with holiday cheer. It’s an invitation to rejoice. Joy is an emotion, and a fickle one. It’s harder to pin down than contentment or satisfaction, or even peace. Joy comes seemingly out of nowhere, in moments ordinary and extraordinary, and overwhelms us, and then departs.
Rejoicing is something different. Rejoicing is something we can choose to do, however we feel. It is a practice of giving thanks and celebrating. Rejoicing is easy when we’re feeling joyful. It’s harder when we aren’t, and it can feel hypocritical or fake. But rejoicing is not about pretending to be cheerful, or faking forced joy. It’s about recognizing that our lives are always mixed: that even in our moments of greatest joy we carry some sorrow, and even when life is hardest there can be things to celebrate. We rejoice during the darkest days of the year because we know that even in the midst of deep darkness, there is some reason to rejoice.