Dear Friends,

This Sunday will bring us to the third week in Advent. This day has traditionally been called “Gaudete” or “Rejoice” Sunday.” “Gaudete in Domino semper,” Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians. “Rejoice in the Lord always.”

In many churches, the penitential purple/blue of the season is put aside this weekend, in favor of a lighter, happier rose. The lectionary readings call for exuberant celebration and worship. "Rejoice and exult with all your heart!" the prophet Zephaniah instructs us. “Shout aloud and sing for joy,” says the prophet Isaiah.

And yet, in our Gospel reading, we have a return appearance from John the Baptist who wakes us up with cries of vehement condemnation of the people flocking to him, “You brood of vipers!” "Repent!" And then he tells them this:

"Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." (Luke 3:9)

As I ponder these words, I wonder why people were even drawn to John the Baptist. We are told that his words were eagerly absorbed by the crowd, as rain on parched soil. They were Good News - they strengthened the people and gave them courage.

Until very recently, such words about a coming wrath have not had that kind of resonance with me. After all, Jesus came after John to show us a God who is pure love, and for me, that is the deepest truth. Of course, we need to come to terms with the harsh realities that our individual and collective choices have created, but who doesn’t resist an image of ourselves as possible chaff to be burned with unquenchable fire?

The Message (MSG) contemporary translation of Luke’s gospel has invited me to work with the wheat-from-the-chaff image in a new way. It tells us that the One who is to come “will make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God: everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

For me, hearing John’s message in these terms, it no longer feels like a threat. Rather, it feels like a promise. And with this realization in mind, I offer you this poem by Steve Garnaas-Holmes that landed in my inbox this week:

Abandon your cruel cartoons.

God is not coming at you with an ax.

What's unfruitful in your life?

What gets in the way?

God (hallelujah!) removes it.

What do you do again & again

that doesn't help,

doesn't deepen life?

God (thank you Jesus!) gives you

permission to cut it out.

God is not a punitive bully

looking for firewood.

God is a gentle gardener,

looking for sweet fruit

Let her lop off the dead branches,

uproot the nasty weeds,

clear the brush,

clean up the garden for you.

Sit by the fire.

Enjoy the warmth of your freedom.

Rejoice,

Amelie+