Isaiah 35:1,10;
Matthew 11:2-9;
Matt 2:16

Christmas Eve in Bethlehem— that was always something special. The city always started to prepare for this feast one month beforehand. The trees were decorated with colored lights and colorful figures. Christmas trees could be seen everywhere in the stores. Saint Nicholas sought out the children to bestow gifts on them.

The climax occurred on the morning of the Christmas Eve when the Patriarch (who’s the highest rank bishop in Eastern Orthodoxy) arrived. All the celebrities of the city and surroundings would then set out to receive the Patriarch and his retinue at the entrance to the city accompanied by riders, scouts, and large crowds. The Patriarch’s entourage would slowly make its way through the narrow streets, with the whole population waving greetings form the sidelines . . . while the bells of the Church of the Nativity peeled their greetings.

But circumstances had changed by December 1987. The Intifada (Arabic for revolution) had just begun. The Palestinians were groaning under the yoke of Israeli occupation. Many Palestinians had been shot dead by Israeli soldiers. Sadness overshadowed Bethlehem as never before. So Christmas Eve 1987 in Bethlehem was, contrary to custom, very quiet.

All Christmas celebrations were canceled. No appearance of the Patriarch, and no reception of him, no Saint Nicholas, no decorated Christmas tree, no shining lights, and no Palestinian Christians on the streets.

I read to you the words of the Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb -a Lutheran pastor and theologian, in his book “I am a Palestinian Christian.” Dr. Raheb reflects on this one Christmas in his hometown of Bethlehem when his people were denied joy. Needless to mention, Palestinians have been denied joy ever since and until this very day.

Earlier this week, I had conversations with some of my folks back home and they told me that the situation is worse than ever; the currency value dropped, food is so expensive, the country is heading to inevitable bankruptcy and it seems like there aren’t going to be many Christmas celebrations in Lebanon either this year. I do not need to talk to you about Syria and Iraq, as I assume you’re well aware of the “joy” situation there as well.

As I reflected on “Joy” as the theme of this third week of Advent, I recollected in my head the last year of the life of this congregation, and I realized that we are in need of joy just as much as the rest of the world. I do not mean to be negative or ungrateful; yes we have so much to be grateful for, and we are far from war and economic crises, but we are not far from grief.

For some of us, this is going to be the first Christmas they will spend without a loved one. There are some whose health issues had kept them from coming to church and being with us. And others whose circumstances had prevented them from doing the things they love, and yet others who aren’t even capable of pursuing their normal lives.

And we come to this Sunday in Advent, the Sunday of Joy, and we expect all these pains, ours and the world’s, to disappear and be replaced by joy? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

The lectionary texts for this Sunday from Isaiah 35 and Matthew 11, both talk about joy at the coming of Christ. And you may have noticed that I have included a third passage from Matthew 2, which shows another aspect of the Christmas story that we often forget or ignore: Herod killing all male children two years old or under, in Bethlehem and in that entire region. Here is the other side of the nativity story, marked by pain and tears and by life denied to many. From the year zero -that very first Christmas in Bethlehem- to the year 1987 in the same place, to our own days, the reality of Christmas is double-faceted. There was and is so much joy at Jesus’s birth but there was and is pain as well. And so I decided to speak about the joy of Advent this morning without trying to hide the other side of the story.

In our reading from Matt 11, John the Baptizer wrestles with his agonizing doubts. He sends to Jesus and asks, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” If I were John I would have asked similar questions. If Jesus was the savior why am I still in prison? Why are the Romans still in charge? Why are my people still oppressed? Pain makes us all ask questions like: why me? Why my family? If in Jesus’s coming there is hope and there is peace and there is joy, then where is my joy?

Friends, we deceive ourselves if we think that God and grief are polar opposites. The gospel itself keeps a tight grip on both the joy and the sorrow. It’s always both. However, into such a lovely but chaotic and painful world, Christ comes!

This long awaited child’s very entry to our world came with pain, injustice and imperfection, and yet God comes into the world with and through this child. In the midst of darkness, in the depths of the night, God appears and meets us at our very point of brokenness.

That is why we must rejoice.

Perhaps it is precisely in our feelings of powerlessness, and in the reality of our imperfect lives that we can best experience the joy of waiting and anticipating the coming of Christ, who is the source of all hope, peace and indeed joy. And then, perhaps, we can notice others who are hurting too.

Friends, this world is still so broken, but there is still so much hope and so much joy left to claim. We ponder the holiness, the messiness, the courage, the anxiety, the doubts, the hope, the isolation, and the uncertainty of John and we see ourselves in there asking Jesus: “are you the one, or shall we wait for another?”

On this Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of joy, John and we are given an answer: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom.” “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”

So let us hope and let us rejoice, because in this child, born in the midst of pain, in the darkest of nights, in Him, Emmanuel, God is with us. Jesus is coming! Wait and watch. Amen.