Hope peace joy love

These are the themes of our advent candles.  Today we lit the third candle on our advent wreath…the candle of joy, the pink candle

As many of you know the season of Advent used to be purple.  Advent and Lent were both considered times of preparation…getting ourselves and the church ready for our Lord’s incarnation or resurrection. In one Sunday in Lent and this Sunday in advent the opening words of the ancient Latin service were “REJOICE”.  We see that same word that features in our first and second readings today.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ”! Cries Paul in Philippians

“Cry out for joy, for God is among you!”!  Cries the psalm.

The theme here is easy to follow; to Rejoice in the presence of God, but not only to rejoice always, but to pray always and give thanks always.  This is the will of God for us. To cultivate a Spirit of joy, prayer and gratitude that we may be blameless in spirit, soul and body…to hold fast to what is good and abstain from every evil.  To be joyful, prayerful and grateful.

Now this doesn’t mean viewing the world with rose coloured glasses.  After all, the call of Advent to be awake, to be aware, to be vigilant and act on it.  That’s where John the Baptist comes in…the action. 

Now I’ll admit that I poke fun at John for his outrageous style and his fire and brim stone preaching style, but there is no doubt that he drew a crowd and that he got results and that his ministry was authentic and beneficial.

 John starts out his preaching in our gospel reading today with “you brood of Vipers!” but our gospel ends with the words “So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.”  Interesting, because when I think of John the Baptist, good…news doesn’t spring to mind.  I think of him more in terms of bad news.

But perhaps it’s just that we just don’t know Good News when we hear it anymore?  The people who flocked to John by the Jordan came to be washed spiritually clean by the famous prophet.  To be purified in the waters of the Jordan and made acceptable once more in the eyes of God.  It was an opportunity to receive a new start, and one many people queued up for.  John preached with fire and baptized with water calling people to act on their faith and not simply sit on their laurels.

“ Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; Even now the axe 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 is not enough simply to exist, nor even to bear fruit…John tells us we must bear fruit worthy of repentance, good fruit.  It was not enough for the people to come and be baptised, they had to live a life that reflected that cleansing.  They had to repent.  To look at their lives, admit their wrongdoing and amend their lives…change for the better in order to avoid, what John describes as the wrath to come.

And it’s those words we hear and focus on…wrath, unquenchable fire…who is chaff and who is grain.  It’s those descriptions that often put us off John the Baptist.  However, we all have chaff and we all have grain…that is what it means to be wheat…chaff and grain.  To be human…bad and good.

It’s just that we are used to focusing on the good and avoiding anything unpleasant, by all means possible.  Yet, if we take away our initial reaction to dismiss John’s fiery words, we will see that what he is saying is necessary; and indeed both gentle and forgiving.

You all know I garden, I grow things from seed and with many seeds I tend to be a bit haphazard, plonk ‘em in and hope for the best.  However, when I’m growing something I am especially fond of, or is rare or pricy, I take extra care.  

When those beloved seeds burst forth there are some whose leaves cannot break through the protective seed cover.  I have to gently peel away the chaff in order for the seedling to thrive.  

Peony’s and other flowers can get bud bound, when the petals are damaged and they tighten around a blossom restricting it’s ability to bloom.  One has to carefully tear away the damaged layers to let the blossom bloom. 

More dramatic still, I had a potted tea rose which, when I brought it in for winter, became brittle.  Leaves spotted, stems dried up and the beloved plant looked like it would die.  It was like John’s teaching  “ every tree that doesn’t bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  To save the rose I had to cut it right back…to bare inches of green stem and get rid of every damaged stem and leaf to prevent any disease spread. 

It looked brutal and the poor plant looked beyond hope. 

Of course, as you may guess removing the damage, getting rid of any chaff, and placing it in a new situation with sunlight and nutrient dense water and my yellow rose is blooming again.

What John is saying is harsh, but it is also good, honest advice.  Advice that will prune our damaged perspectives and desiccating sins back to bare stems…a drastic and uncomfortable procedure that will allow us to regrow heathy and strong once more. 

 

But as John reminds us, we cannot just sit back on our accomplishments, or God’s, and be pleased with how we’ve turned out, we must repent and change our ways.  After all that lovely rose wouldn’t grow back healthy and strong on a diet of salt and neglect. 

We have to bear good fruit, righteous actions, and godly living to thrive in the garden or face pruning once more.

So, like the people of John’s time we call out “what then should we do?!” 

Based on John’s harsh and dramatic preaching you can almost imagine those newly baptized bracing for something big, something massively challenging to prove their faith, but john is practical …gentle even, far more then Jesus sometimes. 

John doesn’t tell the crowds to give away all their possessions.

“In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise. ’ Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’”

John is reminding them, us, that to live out our baptised life in faith we must be aware of those around us, treating others with kindness, justice and compassion.  These are the fruits God wants to see from us.  These are the good fruits that we can each bear that will indeed feed the world.

 To do this though, we must repent and see those areas in our lives; our thoughts words and deeds that are damaged and preventing our ability to bear good fruit.  The damaged leaves and petals that bind us and prevent us from blossoming. 

Advent is an excellent time to take a good hard look at ourselves, not at where we fail, where we sin, where we fall….but at what is preventing us from thriving.  That is repentance and that is not an easy task; to look within and discern what is healthy and what is not.  Nor is it easy to decide where to prune and how much to peel away.

 Fortunately, we have a master gardener who can see not just the damaged stem, but who seeks for the pregnant bud…that tiny point that, with the right care, can regrow the whole plant.

Despite his off putting and unpleasant preaching, John does have good news and we do have many reasons to rejoice.  We tend to compare the readings from Philippians and John and choose to pay attention to Philippians, because it is more palatable.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

 

These are wonderful and joyful promises, but they do not exist in a vacuum. They are paired with fiery John the Baptist because to gain that peace which surpasses all understanding we sometimes need a bit of care.  A trim here, a prune there, a healthy dose of fertilizer so that we can be healthy inside and out, confident in God’s care and able to bear good fruit for the care of our neighbours.

Rejoice this day and give thanks because it is good news that God is able to cut, winnow and gather.  God knows that we are notoriously poor at taking care of ourselves, I certainly am, so I am deeply grateful for a Great Gardener who both trims and provides supports to help me, us grow strong and bear good fruit.

We do need to take time to reflect and seek out the sin in our own lives, but we also take time to rejoice and give thanks.  To break the fast and have a party, because we do have so much to be thankful for.

So even though our candles may be the blue of hope rather than the violet of penitence, today we take time to repent and to rejoice for the Good News that comes at Christmas, tends to us each day and will come again at harvest time.

Thanks be to God.