Presence

Gaudete Sunday holds a special place in many congregations with a gathering full of music, joy, and light as we get closer and closer to the darkest night of the year. Whether your choir will sing a cantata, or your children will perform a pageant, or all the music ensembles will offer special music—let the joy ring forth! Embrace the traditions in your community for this Sunday. That is part of what presence is about—being in the moment together and honoring who we are past, present, and future.

Whether you choose to preach this Sunday or not, find ways to highlight that even though it is Gaudete Sunday, the joy we live into this day is different from the joy of Christmas Eve, because on this third Sunday of Advent, we are still waiting for the fulfillment of our joy. Gaudete Sunday, then, is a day to rehearse joy in the midst of waiting. So, if this is typically a Sunday where music ensembles take the lead, find ways to involve the whole congregation in the music-making, praying, and even proclamation. It is not only the choirs or liturgists or preacher who get to practice joyful presence—we all do!

As you prepare the visual for this Sunday, further increase the light on the altar. Add levels to create different heights on the altar to place candles or lamps. Investigate whether the church or a congregant has pink or purple candle holders to add color to the altar. Include pink cloth amid the purple to tie in the pink candle of the Advent wreath. There are so many options for adding color and light and joy to the visual space of worship this Sunday!

Consider, too, how presence calls us to corporate prayer. In all the music and rejoicing, remember that rehearsing joyful presence together also means being present to the burdens, suffering, worries, and challenges we carry with us into worship. So, create space for prayer that is radically present to the needs in the church, the community, and our world. Sit with how the offertory prayer written for this week calls us to connect presence with generosity. Weave song into your prayers. Pray together as a practice of radical presence in which we share the joy of God’s work among us by being the presence of God with one another.