An Unhurried Hallow: Joy

“Darkness was cheap,
and Scrooge liked it.”
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

“The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.”
~Psalms 18:28~

Traditionally, our third candle is pink, the liturgical color that represents joy. The third Sunday in Advent has been referred to as Gaudete Sunday. As Philippians 4:1 admonishes us:

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again:  Rejoice!”

From the Latin verb gaudere, this imperative compels us to “rejoice” or “cause joy to” an occasion, to “feel or show great joy or delight” (Oxford Languages). The English offspring of gaudere doesn’t receive the positive acclamation like its fore bearer; if something is gaudy, the tendency is to feel distaste due to an extravagant display.

It calls to mind the account of David when he extravagantly danced his way into the city:

“…David danced before the Lord with all his might,
wearing a priestly garment.
So David and all the people of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord
with shouts of joy and the blowing of rams’ horns.
When he had finished his sacrifices,
David blessed the people in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Then he gave to every Israelite man and woman in the crowd
a loaf of bread, a cake of dates, and a cake of raisins.”
 ~2 Samuel 6:14-15, 18-19~

As Michal, David’s wife, looked and “saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she was filled with contempt for him…When David returned home to bless his own family, Michal…came out to meet him. She said in disgust, ‘How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!’”

Perhaps Michal’s insecurities stemmed from her own inability to be lavish, or simply from her myopic, selfish outlook on life. She was obviously embarrassed by David’s dancing and expressions of generosity toward his people when he gave cake and bread to everyone in the crowd, rather like Ebenezer Scrooge’s character before his conversion:

“Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge!
A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,
clutching, covetous, old sinner!
Hard and sharp as flint,
from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire;
secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.”

No doubt Michal felt David’s display was one of gaudy and unnecessary display, but David’s munificence toward the Lord caused such generosity of spirit, much like Ebenezer Scrooge after his rebirth from a stingy and miserly existence into the gaudy display of giving.

“I don’t know what to do!” cried Scrooge,
laughing and crying in the same breath,
and making a perfect Laocoon of himself with his stockings.
“I am as light as a feather,
I am as happy as an angel,
I am as merry as a school-boy.
I am as giddy as a drunken man.”
~Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol~

David’s response to Michal’s criticism was one of integrity and honor:

“I was dancing before the Lord…
Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this,
even to be humiliated in my own eyes!”

David’s focus was on the Lord, and he was willing to go to great lengths to celebrate and shout out his feelings about God. Does this not reflect his praise toward God and munificence toward his people reflect the season of Christmas? Is there not an endless, gaudy display of baubles, bright lights, and gifts tucked under evergreens in many homes during this season? The whole tenor of the Advent, from both among believers and non, is to “deck the halls with boughs of holly” and trim the tree and “get ready” for the Christmas holiday. While it is absolutely commercialized, I for one am among those who refuse to be embarrassed by an unapologetic display of the Christmas season, both in decorating and giving. Truly, one feels blessed to give rather than to receive!

“A generous person will prosper;
whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”
~Proverbs 11:25~

It is noteworthy that David, himself, was a shepherd in his youth. Is it any wonder that this candle is also referred to as the Shepherd’s Candle? It was “while shepherds watched their flocks by night, all seated on the ground, The angel of the Lord came down, and glory shone around. ‘Fear not,’ said he, for mighty dread had seized their troubled mind; ‘Glad tidings of great joy I bring to you and all mankind.’” Even in the midst of the dark night, joy was ignited within them.

And from a humble hillside did those shepherds seek out the baby lying in the manger, and wise men from the East began their sojourn to bring their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh—another display of extravagant giving—to celebrate the prophecy in Isaiah 9:2 coming true:

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”

This is, indeed, cause for gaudere rejoicing!

“A merry Christmas to everybody!
A happy New Year to all the world!
Hallo here!
Whoop!
Hallo!”