we have met the enemy

Friday January 18^th, Luke 3: 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.  All too often we slip back into our old ways and twist even such good news as this into an image of God getting rid of all the “bad apples” in this world which is usually meant to be, “them” whoever the “them” of the moment happens to be.  As Pogo so eloquently put it however, “we have met the enemy and he is us!!”  The Baptized life is an “us and them” not an “us vs. them” life.  It is the “us” that needs to have the chaff taken from us and purged, it is the “them” we are called to greet as brothers and sisters in Christ, chaff and all and in that way open the door to the possibility of the them dealing with their chaff also. In this way, creation is healed, one relationship at a time, starting with you and I.