As many of you know, I have a strange obsession with Hallmark Christmas movies. I countdown each year until the first new one airs and then I try to watch all of the new premieres on both the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. This year I have watched 28 of the 40 new holiday movies so far. And many of you may wonder why I would want to do that. What is it about those movies that draws me to them? They are trite and predictable, some would say corny even. I will not deny that. Yet there is something they offer that I deeply want at this time of year…perhaps even more so in 2020. They are about redemption, rediscovery, and renewal of spirit. There is usually a character who has lost their Christmas spirit. They’ve lost their sense of sharing and giving and hoping and loving. But in every movie, that character always rediscovers that part of themselves. They rediscover a joy for living, a passion for giving to others, a love of serving and sharing. They find redemption. And that is what I love about them. It’s predictable, but that’s part of what makes it so meaningful.

In our passage this week from the gospel of Luke, Zechariah speaks a prophecy over his newly born son, John. He talks about the redemption and salvation of God. And then he proclaims his son to be a prophet who will prepare the way of the Lord. And he ends with these words: “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” The word translated here as ‘dawn’ is translated as ‘dayspring’ in the King James Version. And our verse from “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” this morning begins “O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by thine advent here; disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadows put to flight.” What all that poetic language means is that we desire for Christ to come and fill the dark places with light. We long for a new morning that is different from the present day. A dayspring that allows us to start fresh with different expectations, free of past baggage, and filled with a renewed spirit. We long for the Hallmark Christmas movie ending.

2020 feels more like a horror movie than a Hallmark movie. Or, to be honest, it kinda feels like the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, where he keeps reliving the same day over and over and over. And no matter what he does during the day, he wakes up the next day in the same terrible place, unable to escape. He even tries multiple ways to kill himself, only to wake back up in the same place on the same day. This pandemic seems to drag on and on with no end in sight. And it becomes hard to hold out hope for redemption, hope for a new morning. But one important thing we learn each year at Advent is that a new morning is always coming. Just like Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day eventually wakes up on the day after Groundhog Day, we too have the hope of seeing a new morning come. Jesus’ birth is the promise of that. The first advent, the first coming of Christ, points us to his second coming. It also shows us that Jesus comes when we most are in need of him. We don’t really know when Christ will return, but what we do know is that Christ, through the Holy Spirit, comes to us in little Advents all the time.

As I was working on this sermon, I took a break to scroll through my Facebook feed and I saw a post from a friend about the new Taylor Swift album. Now, I’m not a huge Taylor Swift fan, but the way this person talked about her new album, I decided I needed to give it a listen. When I searched for it, I found the official video for the title track called Evermore. And as I listened to it, I could almost feel Christ’s presence with me. The song is a progression. It begins talking about difficulties and pain that feels permanent. The chorus at the beginning goes like this:

And I was catching my breath

Staring out an open window

Catching my death

And I couldn’t be sure

I had a feeling so peculiar

That this pain would be for

Evermore

Have you ever felt like the pain you were experiencing would never go away? Never lighten? Like you would be burdened by it forever?

The Jews of Jesus’ day probably felt a bit like that. They had been oppressed by foreign kingdoms for a long time. The Roman Empire seemed indestructible. It probably felt like they would never be free. The only shred of hope they had was in the prediction of a coming Messiah who would restore them. This prediction from Zechariah both reflects that belief as well as connects it to John the Baptist and, through association then, to Jesus. And it is in Jesus that we see the true light of God. And for the disciples and eventually for many more people, Jesus became the fulfillment of their hope. He became their dayspring, their new morning, their redemption. And that leads me back to that Taylor Swift song because the song changes at the end and in the final chorus, we see a glimpse of redemption…some might say a glimpse of Christ. Here are the words to that final chorus:

And I was catching my breath

Floors of a cabin creaking under my step

And I couldn’t be sure

I had a feeling so peculiar

This pain wouldn’t be for

Evermore

A new morning had come. The Dayspring has visited.

Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, prophesied that his son would prepare the way of the Lord and that the Dayspring, the new morning, was coming. That prophecy is still true for us today. The Dayspring came in Jesus Christ and we still bear the blessing of that. But our world is still far from redeemed. A new morning is still needed every day.

This is the 3rd Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is Latin for ‘rejoice.’ This is the Sunday during Advent when we remember the coming joy of Christ’s birth and the promise of an even greater joy coming when Christ returns. But I don’t think that is all there is to it. I don’t think that our only hope rests in a coming joy that may be close at hand or may still be far off. Our hope is in a joy that is always ready to be revealed with each new morning.

Real life is definitely not like a Hallmark Christmas movie. Nothing ever resolves as easily or as smoothly. But the one thing that Hallmark Christmas movies remind me is that there is always a chance for things to change for the better. There is always a new morning coming that is full of possibilities. And with those possibilities comes joy. Every new morning offers us the opportunity for joy because the story of that day has not yet been written. Now, that doesn’t mean that we can ignore everything that came before. There will be past pain that lingers into the new day. But the truth that Zechariah and Isaiah were both proclaiming is that a day is coming, maybe tomorrow, maybe many tomorrows from now, when joy will come with the new morning and the pain that seemed ever present will hurt a little bit less. And while some days it may feel impossible, like the pain and trouble will never end, the promise of Jesus is that a joy comes in the morning. A new day is always just around the corner, with new possibilities and new hope. It may not happen as quickly and smoothly as a Hallmark Christmas movie makes it look, but the joy is out there.

Brothers and sisters, no matter where you are in life right now, whether it be a place of pain or a place of happiness, joy is coming for you. It is right around the corner. There will still be challenges. There will still be pain and heartache. But a new morning is always just around the corner bearing with it the hope of joy. For the Lord is faithful. As the prophet Isaiah foretold:

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy…For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

The joy of Christmas is the fulfillment of that promise and the hope that for all of us a new morning is at hand, filled with peace and joy and love. May we all be patient as we await the new morning. And may we, in the meantime, discover glimpses of God’s joy in each new morning. O Come, thou Dayspring! Amen!