Hear the words of the Collect for the Fourth Sunday in Advent:

O Lord, raise up, we pray Thee, Thy power, and come among us, and with great might succor us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, Thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us.

May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be alway acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. In the name of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost. Amen.

The Propers for today have the theme of how to live a Christian life at their center. The Collect for today begins with the greatest obstacle we face in trying to live the life that Christ would have us live, and that obstacle is our own sinful human natures. I know from personal experience that I am a sinner and that I can do it very well. And again from personal experience I know the truth of Saint Paul’s thought contained in Romans 7:19:

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Saint Paul wrote this after he had been converted, and well into his Christian ministry. This means that in his daily life he too struggled with doing what God wanted him to do instead of doing what he wanted to do. This tells us that we should not put the Apostles, our forefathers, our clergy, including me, or ourselves on too high a saintly pedestal for it will just be a long way for them, or me, or you to fall when we find out that they were not as perfect as we made them out to be. This does not mean that there were not Apostles, forefathers, clergy, or people who are not saintly. It means that none of them, or us, is as perfect as we would both like to be, or make ourselves out to be.

I am reminded of the story of the man that walked by the monastery every day. He heard the singing of the monks, looked through the gates and saw the beauty of the grounds, and how the monks helped those in need outside the monastery. He believed that this would be heaven if he could just get in there, but the gates were always closed and locked.

But one day he saw the abbot at the gate and asked him how it was to live with so many saints. The abbot answered, “The saints fall down and the saints get up. The saints fall down and the saints get up.”

The man was devastated to learn that these saintly monks would occasionally fall into sin. Yet, after a while he understood what the Abbott said, and took comfort in knowing that even saints struggle with sin, just like he did.

This is our hope as well in trying to live saintly lives. The man realized that God helped all who get up from their sins and continue to try and live the life that Christ calls them to live. God’s grace abounds for us anew every day when we recognize our sins and ask God for forgiveness through the sacrifice of Christ on The Cross. We can, and should, try to be perfect, just as Christ was. But we are not God and we will never be perfect. So we must constantly turn ourselves back to Christ and begin again, just as the saints did, and do. We must get up when we fall down.

And this leads us directly to the Epistle for today, and the reason that we should sing and rejoice everyday of our lives. Christ’s love and forgiveness are there for us no matter what we do, or have done. We are to live our lives as Saint Paul says in Philippians 4:4: Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

We do not have to be Christian sourpusses. We have Christ’s grace to fill us every moment that we accept it. If that is not a reason to rejoice I do not know what is?

In that grace Saint Paul instructs us how we are to rejoice in Philippians 4:5 to 7:

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

We rejoice, not in the ways of the world with drink, riotous behavior, and such, but in moderation of life. Using the things of this world as they were meant to be used, not extravagantly or wastefully, but in making our lives better and happier and fuller.

We are to live our lives in the expectation that Christ is returning, not tomorrow, but today. How would our lives change if we did this? I know the change would be something this world had never seen before.

And this is just what the Apostles and saints of the Church did. They changed the world one life at a time by helping that person live the life that the saints of the Church were living. They were only living their lives as Christ lived His, and in the process they changed the world. This is what we are called to do, change the world one life at a time, starting with our own.

We begin this life being “careful for nothing,” as Saint Paul says. This means that when the world looks at us it does not understand how we can be so gracious in forgiving those who have harmed us, helping others to our own detriment, and to depend on God for everything. The world sees us as gullible people being taken advantage of. God sees us as His hands, His voices, and His arms here on earth.

We continue in prayer, day and night. Calling upon God to lead us through the direction and support of The Holy Ghost. We ask Him for all that we need in this world and He does indeed see to our needs. The world cannot understand how we can do this, but we can understand the truth of Proverbs 15:15:

All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.

Our physical lives cannot be independent of what is happening in the world. But, our internal lives not only need to be, but can be, independent of those events. We do not have to go around with long faces because we think that this world is all there is. We know better, and therefore should live better lives because of this knowledge.

The cautionary tale in all of this is to know where this joy comes from, and that is Jesus Christ. We are to be as John The Baptist was, always pointing to Christ and leading as many others as will let us, to that knowledge as well. It is not anything that we naturally posses, or naturally do that allows us to live this type of life. It is Christ alone that fills us with this ability, and not ourselves.

May we ever embrace Christ and His Cross, so as to live the life He would have us live, not only today, but for eternity. Amen,

The Rev. Canon John Jacobs