Third Sunday of Advent: Joy

My old choirmaster would choose one of two hymns to close out the annual Advent Lessons & Carols service, with one of them being Isaac Watts' Joy to the World. It was a glorious hymn to sing as the choir processed out of the sanctuary to the narthex, walking in the aisles surrounded by joyfully singing congregants. I could feel my face smiling as I sang the lyrics:

Joy to the world! the Lord is come; 
Let Earth receive her King; 
Let every heart prepare him room,
And  heaven and nature sing,
    (And heaven and nature sing)
And heaven and nature sing,
    (And heaven and nature sing)
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

But we often forget that there are lyrics in the 3rd verse (sometimes omitted in the singing of the carol) that remind us of why we are singing, and why The Lord has come:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

Our joy, our infectious, lively joy, is because the Lord has come to remove our burden of sin and sorrow through His Gift of Grace. And the thorns that infest the ground are the thorns that choke out the seeds of faith, as Christ shared in the Parable of the Sower: "Other seeds feel among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them." (Matthew 13:7 ESV).

Advent is a season of hope, peace, and today, joy. The joy of knowing our Lord has come. The joy of knowing that all of our sins, all of our sorrows, all of the weeds of life, are removed, because as the 3rd and 4th line of the 3rd verse assure us,

He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

John writes in the first verses of his Gospel, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:5 ESV). The darkness - the curse - will be overwhelmed and consumed by The Light. In receiving this true King of the Earth, we welcome that Light, and welcome it into the dark corners of our life, where the sin, sorrow and choking thorns can be exposed, and wiped away. 

JOY to the World! 

Follow John's Advent journey here on his blog, johnscoffeehouse.blogspot.com, or on Facebook, johnscoffeehouse.