“Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea….” If you remember the old “Pepto Bismol” commercials, you may remember those stomach ailments being sung to a little tune. The tune was followed up by something like, “Pepto Bismol coats and soothes so that you can get fast relief when you need it most.” And in some ways, that’s not a bad way to think about the 3rd Sunday of Advent.  

This coming Sunday is the 3rd Sunday in Advent. If you follow the way that the candles on an Advent wreath are lit, you might know that this 3rd Sunday is the Sunday of the pink candle. 

The reason for the pink candle is that the season of Advent used to involve some pretty heavy spiritual disciplines, things like fasting for days at a time or even committing to less sleep so that there would be more time to pray. So after two weeks of these heavy disciplines, many churches decided to give people a little bit of a reprieve and told them to relax their Advent disciplines.

They did this so that people could feel the relief of Advent. This was a relief that came not from tummy ailments, but a relief that came because you could relax a little. 

Today, Advent isn’t a period of extreme spiritual disciplines. In fact, it may even be a good idea to think of some extreme things to do this Advent. But we can still feel the same kind of relief.

We feel relief when we realize that Christ has died for us. Because of Him, we no longer have to offer pure lambs in sacrifice. Because of Him, we no longer have prescribed prayers to say for certain sins. Because of Christ, we can feel the relief of knowing that God loves us for the sake of Christ. And that should be a relief.

And so when you show up to church this Sunday in your best pinks (that’s a local custom we have here), remember that Pepto Bismol jingle and that it’s all about feeling the relief when you need it most.