Waiting is a big part of the season of Advent. Our children are going through the period of waiting that gains energy as Christmas day looms larger on the horizon.

Preparing for the season is likely taking an increasingly larger part of your schedule.

Today’s scripture readings point to one of the central parts of the Advent and Christmas season. In fact, the theme is at the core of what it means to be a person of faith. It can be stated in one word.

Rejoice!

It would be difficult to overstate the emotion in today’s scripture readings. The sense of joy is explosive. Listen to Isaiah:

The root word for exult has the sense: "to spin around under the influence of strong emotion." There is a sense of incredible joy that takes over the heart, mind, soul and body of the prophet as he declares the good news that God is about to bring freedom to a people who have long been in bondage.

Do you know what it is like to "exult" in God with your "whole being?"

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The basketball team from my high school in a small town in Vermont never had a post-season. A championship for the "green and gold" was never much more than a distant hope.  A new coach and the good fortune of a few talented players being together at one time made the notion of at least being in the playoff round a possibility.   Then post-season was a reality.  Not only that, our small town team which was now called the "giant slayer" was in the championship game in our division.

But alas, when the final seconds came, the opposing team was ahead with about nine seconds to go.  Their fans were cheering and ours dejected.  Their cheerleaders were shouting for joy and ours were crying. It was still a good season though.   Making the championship game was nothing to be ashamed about.

Then it happened!

Three seconds to go and Dick Walker managed to steal the ball. Two seconds and he launched the proverbial "hail mary" from half court. The ball dropped though the net with the most beautiful "sswissh" as the buzzer went off!  The transformation of the looks on the faces of fans and cheerleaders on both sides of the gymnasium was an amazing sight. Laughter turned to tears on one side while shouts of joy went up from those who were still wiping tears of sadness from their faces on the other side.

And... there was some real exulting going on.  Eleven young men -- our classmates -- were doing some serious exulting with all their might all over the gym!

Whenever I hear the words from Isaiah, "...my whole being shall exult in my God..."  I think of those young men leaping about the gymnasium after winning the first basketball championship our town had ever won.

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How wonderful it is when good news comes after a long time of waiting.   It is especially welcome when the wait has been through troubled and difficult times.

* Perhaps you or someone you know has had the joy of a good medical report at the end of a long course of chemotherapy.

* A couple I spoke with recently experienced a time of great joy and relief when their two children who had turned up missing were found after a day long search.  Can you imagine?

* A woman I know was despairing of ever receiving a proposal from the man she had dated for four years. A creative sort of fellow, he took his sweetheart to a shopping mall in early December where Santa was listening to the wishes of children. He encouraged the woman and cajoled her until she sat on Santa's lap to tell him what she wanted for Christmas.  Santa had a small package for her in his pocket which he gave to her to open right then and there.  It was an engagement ring!

* During this time of the year there is frequently the joy of seeing family members you have not been with for some time.

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Our scripture readings this morning are a virtual eruption of joy that has been pent up for generations. The words of Mary's song (called The Magnificat), point to a promise that has been rooted deep within the hearts of God's people since God asked Abraham to believe that he would be the "Father of a great nation". There is a sense of fulfillment in Mary's song that stretches the soul. Israel has waited and waited -- and waited...

And waited...

...for the coming of the One who would bring reality to the hope of salvation every Hebrew heart has prayed and longed for.

And so Mary sings, "...my spirit rejoices in God my savior."

The Psalmist sings, "...our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy..."

The prophet cries, "...I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God..."

And Paul the Apostle writes, "Rejoice always..."

When we sing the Advent hymn, "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus", we can only begin to imagine what the word long really means.

Personally, long for me is when I have to wait more than two minutes to cross a busy intersection.  Long is when it takes a year to sell my house.   Eternity is when you are waiting for a child to come home when they are an hour past curfew.  For ever and ever is when you sit in the endodontist's chair and begin a root canal. (I know root canals are not what they used to be, but I do not foresee ever putting one on my list of "things I really must do!"

Long for God's people is generations that turn into hundreds of years that become aeons.

FINALLY...  Jesus is here and the words of the prophet will be heard from his mouth; "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news..."

Yet... it is not as though we did not need liberation. We may not come face to face with our need for freedom all that often, but the issue will surface when the events of our lives force us to examine some basic issues.

* When will I ever come to that time when I can truly enjoy the life God has given me?

* When am I going to find the time to give my children the time and attention I've always wanted them to have?

* How long, O Lord, before I get a sense for what my life is really all about?

You see friends... the things that keep us in bondage today are not the same forces that bound our ancestors in faith. Nevertheless... we are today -- in bondage. We are still in need of the freedom the first Christmas was all about. We remain in need of a message for our lives which came to the shepherds who are so long ago and so far away -- and yet so close; "...fear not for I bring you glad tidings of great joy!"

Joy is available to you and to me in this season if we will stop our hectic pace long enough to hear and embrace these essential truths:

* John tells us that Jesus is the light. In other words, Jesus is the one who comes to bring direction to our lives. I can never be who I was created to be without a relationship with the Christ who came to be light.

* The prophet Isaiah brings a promise that God can give us a robust spirit for life in exchange for the sense of oppression that comes with the multitudinous demands that come to us each day. "...to provide... the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit..." The "faint spirit" is the absolutely worn out person who attempts to pass for a husband or wife or parent when presence is called for. We can not be available for the things we would consider most important when we are in bondage to things we would never place on our list of life priorities.

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The echoes of Christmas past and the sounds of Christmas present are filled with joy and rejoicing.

* "Joy to the world, the Lord has come," the hymn declares.

* "Fear not for I bring you glad tidings of great joy," the angels cry.

* "My spirit rejoices in God my Savior," Mary sings.

My prayer for each one of us is that the joyous sounds of this season will become a challenge to us. A challenge to go deep within our spirits for reflection and refreshment. I pray that we will reflect on the question of whether we have that deep sense of inner joy the scriptures place at the heart of faith and refresh our commitment to Christ as the center of our living.

The spirit of joy in the texts is not the same thing as the "Holly, jolly Christmas cheer" of the secular celebration of commercial Christmas. One of the challenges of the texts for this week is to point our people to the joy that is the joy of freedom after a long bondage. One of the difficulties with the bondage of contemporary western culture is that the bondage is too much fun. In other words, many of our folk may not immediately recognize the bondage. The amount of credit card debt points to one form of bondage. The continuing annihilation of family life is another indicator. Parental fear for the safety of children in our public schools is yet another. Perhaps one of the greatest marks of the bondage we endure is what the words from Isaiah call "a faint spirit." We deal with this somewhat in the full text sermon for this week.