Brief synopsis of the readings: Speaking through the prophet Zephaniah, God proclaims that the judgement against the people has been removed and there will be no more misfortune. God will rejoice in his people and remove all disaster. In Luke’s Gospel we see a crowd gathered around John the Baptist. They asked what they should do and John responded that the person who has two coats should give to the one who has none and anyone with extra food should share. When even tax collectors and soldiers asked John, he told them they should not use their power to abuse others. They began to ask among themselves if John was the Messiah. He told them that he (John) was not the Messiah but there will be one to come who is much greater. While John baptizes in water, the one to come will baptize in fire.

But what if I give one of my coats to a poor person and I lose the only one I have left? What if I’m too generous with excess food and miscalculate down the road? Is this what is expected of me? Well… Part of being a person of faith means that we are sometimes called to push against fear. The reality is that if everyone follows John’s advice we need not fear losing our one coat because there will always be someone who has an extra.

And I believe more of this message comes through to us than we think. The usual understanding from our reading of John the Baptist is that only the poor came to see him; the crowds with extra coats and food aren’t there. After all, who would listen to a crazy man like this?

But that’s not what we see here. Among those who asked John what to do were tax collectors and soldiers. For background, tax collectors and soldiers were nearly uniformly hated. Nobody likes paying taxes but tax collectors of the time held great power and little accountability. Unlike today the taxes they collected didn’t fund schools and other needs: all the money went to Rome. This wasn’t just taxation without representation, it was taxation without benefit. The tax collector was normally a Jew who was employed by Rome; he owed a certain amount to Rome and everything else he collected (extorted) was his to keep. Rome didn’t care how much he collected as long as they got their share and the tax collector could pretty much demand whatever he wanted. If someone felt cheated by the tax collector he was out of luck.

And the soldiers? They were there to keep the peace and ensure nobody rebelled against Rome. Beyond that they could treat the people pretty much as they pleased. There were no citizen review boards and if an ordinary person felt abused or taken advantage of by a soldier he really had no recourse. In the passion narratives we see how cruelly Jesus was treated by the soldiers.

And yet in today’s Gospel we see some of these people asking John how they should live their lives. Now they were likely a small percentage of the tax collectors and soldiers but still they were there. I like to think that despite all their power and despite all they had to do to get their position, there was still a glimmer of light in their darkness.

That may be on purpose. The 3rd Sunday of Advent is often called “Gaudete Sunday” or “Glorious Sunday.” It’s a reminder that in the midst of Advent, a time of darkness, there is also joy. Lest we fall into despair at this time of year, Gaudete Sunday gives us a brief “puff of hope.” So let’s give ourselves a break here and recognize that no matter what is happening in our lives there is cause to rejoice.

The beauty of joy, like the beauty of hope, is not evidence based. This year Gaudete Sunday falls on December 15th and we still have six more days of decreasing sunlight. But the promises made in our first reading still apply. But more to the point, it provided enough light for some of the powerful people (who had tremendous power to bring darkness to the poor) to seek the light.

And so let us rejoice in our desire to seek light and God’s power to provide it. During those times when we feel ourselves dipping into despair let us remember this. When those of us who live in places where all faiths are protected and we find ourselves getting caught up in fabricated campaigns that claim there is a “war on Christmas” let us recognize that this is about ratings and greed, not faith. Let us recognize that we cannot be told what or how to believe. When we feel surrounded by people who insist that “it’s never been this bad” and “we must be in the last days” let us remember that God has never abandoned us and never will.

Finally let our joy help us recognize that God’s light can penetrate even the deepest darkness we can imagine. We see in history countless people who, like the tax collectors and the soldiers, ask John the Baptist how they should live. We read about Oskar Schlindler whose conversion saved 1200 Jews (and all their descendants) during World War II. But we can also look around us and see people who saw and followed that glimmer of light that penetrated layers of fear, or addiction, or greed, or just plain hate. When we look at the tax collectors and soldiers I like to think that they turned their lives around. But I also like to think that some of the poor and marginalized saw them in a new light. Perhaps they were able to build on what John told them and encouraged that light.

The next time we see a tax collector or a soldier, or anyone who abuses their power, let us remember that their darkness will never conquer our light, but our light may well penetrate their darkness.