December 14, 2025 | Third Sunday of Advent @ Holy Trinity Lutheran Church – Buffalo, NY
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
We are just one week away from the longest night of the year, which is December 21. Can’t you just feel the darkness? Several times recently, I’ve been really tired in the evening and think I’m ready for bed yet it’s only 8:30pm!
Today is Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is Latin for “rejoicing”. Lighting the 3rd candle on the Advent wreath speaks to us of the reality and complexity of our lives and that Jesus comes to us in the middle of it all to be for us Emmanuel … God is with us. This is not a question (as in “Is God with us?”), but a declaration of fact. This is not a religious platitude just to make people feel better.
This simple act of lighting a candle reminds us that the light of Christ shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it (John 1). Aren’t there times when we really need some light in whatever darkness we’re experiencing?
We know that Christmas Eve is just 10 days away! We know to expect the joy of the birth of Jesus. Yet we are still living in this season of Advent. This time of Advent is important! While Advent isn’t as grand as Christmas or Easter, Advent carries so much reality as it actually resembles the patterns and complexity of our lives. Advent is a season of hopeful expectation … of watching … of waiting. It is a time of profound honesty as we acknowledge that, for many of us, this is not a season of peace and joy and hope. This is a season where we hold in tension hope and fear … confidence and doubt … rejoicing and struggle … light and dark.
It is in Advent that we sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” but we don’t entirely know what that means. In our worship services, we say the Lord’s Prayer as we pray “thy kingdom come” but we don’t often know what we are to do to help that come about or how we are to be in the meantime while we wait, watch, hope, and expect.
When will Jesus come to us? How will we know when he has?
John the Baptist was faced with these questions, too. He recognized that the kingdom of God was coming through Jesus and it wasn’t some distant or unknown future. Instead, it was happening and it was happening now!
We heard that disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus with questions. They asked if Jesus was the one they’ve been waiting, watching, hoping, expecting to see? Are you, Jesus, the promised messiah, or do we go back to waiting, watching, hoping, and expecting?
Jesus told them to “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” Essentially, Jesus was saying not to just accept his “yes” or “no”, but to see for themselves the action of the kingdom of God that is present and active.
This is our call in Advent, too. As we pray “thy kingdom come” and as we sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”, we see for ourselves the light of Christ in the midst of the darkness around us. We see the fingerprints of the Holy Spirit moving in the life of this congregation. People are engaging in the ministry in really cool ways. Many of you have completed statements of intent for your giving next year. We have received checks and promises of checks to help with our capital needs. Thank you!
We continue to sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” and we continue to pray “thy kingdom come” even as we recognize that he already has and will continue to come to us. A good practice for Advent is simply noticing. Where do you see or even might you see God doing something? Then share with someone else. That sharing with someone else is really important! If you’re not used to sharing this kind of thing with other people, consider telling someone you’re more comfortable with.
We hear in Isaiah where God said, “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?” Maybe the “new thing” that God is doing is a huge, life-changing, transformative thing. Maybe it’s not. But maybe the “new thing” is welling up within you, within your relationships, within your sphere of influence, within Holy Trinity.
We can get stuck in trying to find ways to fit Jesus into our understanding of acceptability and tradition and “the way we’ve always done things.” But we can also boldly move in faith. In the movie “Miracle on 34th Street,” they defined faith as believing in things when common sense tells you not to.”
Faith in Jesus calls us to notice the presence of the Holy Spirit, and to be bold to risk and take action even when it doesn’t necessarily make sense.
In the name of Jesus. Amen!
Epicurious Lutheran 