Luke 3:7-18
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”
So began our call to worship, taken from St. Paul’s epistle to the Philippians. Today is the third Sunday of Advent, which in many denominations is traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is the Latin word meaning “rejoice,” and the origin of this name for the third Sunday of Advent comes from Philippians, just as we heard it this morning.
Did you know that Advent is actually a penitential season like Lent? Just as in Lent we use the time to prepare for Easter and reflect on things like our mortality and sin, traditionally we are meant to do the same in Advent to prepare for Christmas, i.e. to contemplate our unworthiness for the gift we are being given in Jesus. Thinking about how much we need Jesus because we are sinners, helps us get ready to welcome and greet Him. Historically, when penitential seasons were strictly adhered to, as the days wore on, things could get decidedly gloomy. So – the Church provides a respite from the penance. Almost exactly in the middle of Advent, we light the pink candle on the Advent wreath, the one that stands for celebration and joy!
The theme for today is perfectly clear, both in our call to worship, the responsive reading, and in the lesson from Zephaniah which begins, “Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!” In the canticle from Isaiah, which replaced the Psalm for today, we said, “Therefore you shall draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation,” and “Cry aloud, inhabitants of Zion, ring out your joy.” Without a doubt, these are joyful passage of Scripture. But then, we get to the Gospel.
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?... 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.”
It’s hard to understand why this is our Gospel for Gaudete Sunday. But let’s look at it another way. Who else might want to celebrate Gaudete Sunday besides us? How about God? If we take that as a possibility, we have to ask ourselves: what makes God joyful?
And there is where our reading from Luke starts to make sense. In this Gospel, John the Baptist is functioning as a sort of ethical consultant. People are coming to him and asking him for advice on how they should live their lives. The crowds ask him what they should do, and he says that if they have two coats, they should give one away to someone who needs it. Tax collectors, notorious as a group for being unscrupulous and exploiting the people they collected from, ask him what to do, and he tells them to collect only what is owed and no more.
Even Roman soldiers go to John for advice. That is remarkable, that members of the occupying army are seeking out this fringe Judean prophet on the very margins of society and religious acceptability, and asking him for direction in their lives. And John provides it, freely and very specifically. He tells them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
So, what can we learn from John’s words? First, that giving from our own bounty to make others happy also makes God happy. Mother Teresa once pointed out that giving beyond our surplus, making a sacrifice for others, pleases God even more. “Give until it hurts,” she said.
And in today’s Gospel John says more than just “give”.
“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
How does this fit in with what he tells us of giving and honesty? We often think of the wheat and the chaff as two different groups of people. The wheat are the virtuous people we wish to be, and perhaps consider ourselves to be, and the chaff are the poor clueless sinners that we’re all rather afraid we’re lumped in with. So, here’s a thought. What if they’re not two different groups of people? What if we are all the wheat and the chaff?
We are all gathered in as part of God’s harvest, wheat, but not purified. In His love for us, Jesus will cleanse and purify us with His holy fire and burn away those useless things that hold us down and hold us back from fulfilling God’s will. Not a particularly pleasant or comfortable idea, but we all will face it. Before that time, we are both – wheat and chaff.
Before that time of judgement arrives, John tells us, we must not judge others, must not look for the differences we think exist between us. We must instead be honest in our dealings with others and generous to a fault – giving freely, from loving and generous hearts, because in the end, we are all alike - all equally important in the eyes of God.
This is news worth rejoicing over, worth celebrating on Gaudete Sunday. Every time we repent of our prejudices and pride, every time we stand in solidarity with the oppressed, every time we refuse to doggedly hang on to our own ill-gotten power, but instead see our brothers and sisters as our equals, and share equally with them, God rejoices.
We are Jesus followers, commanded to bear His love into the world, which we do with His help. In time, we will face Him, and find that His winnowing fork is in His hand. We need to prepare for that time, as we prepare for His birth, and we do this one interaction at a time, one conversation at a time, one relationship at a time. We are called to set aside our own preferences and our own self-interest and act with justice and kindness, with love and acceptance. No matter how small the actions we offer from our hearts, God will know, because God sees only our love - and rejoices.
Let us pray:
May God, who gives endurance and encouragement, give us the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice we may glorify our Lord Jesus Christ – and may the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace as we trust in Him, so that we may overflow with hope and love, through the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Comments