by Jenny Kwan
The materials from A Sanctified Art* for the 2nd week of Advent invite us to slow down and perceive how God is actually at work, not how we may wish God were working.
I invite all of us to consider what we wish deep down the world to be, to confront our disappointment that the world doesn't match our own visions, to consider that God is working toward something even better than we can possibly imagine, and to grapple with the very real pain of waiting.
Expected Messianism vs. Actual Messianism
The materials reference the beginning of Matthew 11. John the Baptist is imprisoned by the government of Herod. We have to imagine the fear and disappointment that drives John the Baptist's doubt: "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?" (Matthew 11:3)
The materials go on to point out that Jesus answers indirectly: "Jesus answered them, 'Go tell John what you hear and see: The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them—and blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me!'” (Matthew 11:4-6) Jesus tells John to see for himself the miraculous healing underway.
What is striking is what Jesus does not say. John the Baptist had previously prophesied that the Messiah would bring fire: "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire!" (Matthew 3:12) Jesus does not talk about any winnowing fork, nor does he say that he is about to burn chaff. No. To answer John the Baptist's question, Jesus only talks about healing.
That tension is pronounced through the remainder of Jesus's ministry and life before crucifixion. Consistently, the people of Roman-occupied Judea challenge Jesus: if He really is the Messiah, then why isn't He killing all of the Romans? Where's the restoration of Israel as an earthly kingdom? And really, for most people, where's the wrath?
Enemies and Punishment (Left and Right)
I contend this: expected Messianism—what the Kingdom of God looks like—is universal, even among secular atheists. We all have visions of a better world, and we all have clear ideas as to who and what the enemies of that better world are. And yes, most of us have preconceived notions of what needs to happen to those enemies: violence, vengeance, and retribution. In other words, wrath.
In the USA, visions for that better world can be roughly divided into a political Left and a political Right.
Leftist visions are often framed in terms of material justice and liberation. But the vengeful parts of me want to see swift and fiery justice against the rich, the fascists, the racists, or the sexists. In any case, we want them torn down, at best forcibly converted, with a dose of what we imagine to be justice.
Right-leaning visions often seek moral purity or market efficiency. For conservative Christians, the word "unnatural" does a lot of heavy lifting against cultural deviants or sexual minorities. For fiscal conservatives, the perfect world eliminates the weak and unworthy. No matter who the enemies are, the desire for wrath and punishment as justice looms large.
We have this in common across the political spectrum: We seem to hunger for a bloodthirsty form of justice.
Humility and the Third Way of God
I'm not saying that God does not judge. But I have to imagine that a God that cried out, "Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing," (Luke 23:34) is not One who would want us to be cheering like hooligans in a Roman Coliseum.
We must embrace humility. We have to remain open to the possibility that whatever our visions of paradise are, no matter how Scripturally founded they may seem to us, our visions are woefully inadequate. I have to assume that my vision for the world is not God's vision.
You may or may not share my vision for the world. Maybe even hearing my vision turns you off. In which case, I would ask, what's your vision? What counts as paradise for you? And for you, what is justice? How do you feel about the world being very far from your vision?
I offer this: God, in His infinite compassion and wisdom, has a form of justice that is far beyond what we imagine. I believe that Jesus responded to John the Baptist without mentioning wrath at all because He wanted John to see that actual Messianism is far beyond even his prophecy. Whatever John the Baptist thought the Messiah would do, at least there and then, he was wrong.
As a reminder, Jesus doesn't berate John the Baptist. He understands that we are frail and limited, and is patient with us even as we clamor for Him to use the winnowing fork.
This divine patience is what we are called to embody, and to do that, we must first understand the bodily machinery of our own impatience and impulse—the very forces that drive our clamor for wrath.
The Limits of Fear and Wrath
The materials by A Sanctified Art call us to courage in the face of fear. I want to build on top of that: fear is closely related to anger (wrath), and I call for patience in the face of that fear and anger.
Urgency and the Sympathetic Nervous System
Where do fear and anger, flight and fight, come from? The somatic foundation of anger is the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). When the SNS is activated (sympathetic activation) we get the impulse to flee or fight. These impulses are often deeper than emotion. We get:
Dilated pupils
Increased heart rate
Relaxed airway muscles
Slowed down digestion
Liver activation (use of glycogen stores)
This SNS is also activated for emotions like surprise, shame, disgust, and contempt. These emotions are particularly corrosive if left unattended.
No matter the specific impulses and emotions, all SNS activation has one thing in common: urgency—in order to survive, we have to act and we have to act now.
This system of snap judgment and fast action is only a part of who we are.
Unfortunately, when activated by emotional and social danger, this urgency leads to chronic SNS activation, which fuels "diseases of civilization" like chronic inflammation, heart disease, and digestive issues.
Who among us feels great urgency about the sins of the world, about the fact that the world isn't as it should be? That urgency may take the form of anger. It may take the form of fear. It may even take the forms of shame or contempt. These emotions and impulses are useful when faced with imminent threat, the kind of physical danger that we've largely solved in this world.
But urgency doesn't help solve the complex issues of our day. In modern society, acting from a place of urgency usually causes more harm than good. Our problems are too complex and require too much finesse. Solving them requires us to use all of our faculties, not fall back to the one system in us that is founded in urgency.
To be perfectly clear, I don't differentiate between fear and anger and shame and contempt, not for the purposes of driving transformative change. The feelings themselves do matter, of course, but they are only part of the picture. We are not only our feelings. Solving the massive problems of our day requires using all of our skills and talents. Emotions offer valuable information, but they are only information. We have to use the totality of our hearts, minds, souls, and strength to face the challenges before us.
Transcending urgency requires mastering the machinery of urgency within us: the SNS. The path is through somatic healing and contemplative practice, which help us integrate the SNS and act as whole beings. Meditation and its Christian cousin, contemplative prayer, are clinically proven to integrate SNS response with the rest of our bodies.
(I have an agenda, and that is to get you to meditate, ideally with me in community!)
Patience vs. Wrath, Capital Virtue vs. Capital Vice
Curiously, medieval Christian theologians understood this urgency deeply. They developed a system of capital vices (the 7 deadly sins) and capital virtues to help name the spiritual challenges that pull us away from the Divine. Each of the capital vices (or deadly sins) has a corresponding capital virtue to oppose it. Knowledge of these provides tools for navigating towards a Godly life.
Anger, when ungrounded from Godliness, is the capital vice of Wrath (Ira). How do we escape the sin of wrath? Well, anger is expressed in the body as urgency, so the opposite is the capital virtue of Patience (Patientia).
The Sin of Wrath: An Addiction to Vengeance
The sin of Wrath is not the feeling of anger, but the inordinate desire for vengeance and retribution. This "inordinate desire" is the key: the impulse to wipe out the source of the suffering right now, which is what happens when the SNS runs amok.
Wrath is considered a capital vice because it instantly destroys Charity (Love) toward neighbor and clouds Reason. When we act out of wrath, we become fragmented, and this leads to fragmentation of the world community, the body of Christ.
In my modern view, wrath is not limited to anger. Fear may lead to wrath also: if I cannot tolerate distress and I must flee, I cut off the possibility for right connection to community. Contempt may lead to wrath as well: it may be simply too much for me to deal with the difficult person in front of me, so I roll my eyes and dismiss them. Disgust and shame operate similarly: get this away from me and end this now. Ultimately, it's about feeling better in the moment by any means necessary.
The Virtue of Patience: Endurance as Spiritual Fortitude
This expansive view of wrath requires a comprehensive solution: patience.
Patience is not a passive waiting. It is an active spiritual discipline, classified as a part of the cardinal virtue of Fortitude (Courage). Patience is the spiritual muscle that allows the soul to endure present evil and suffering (whether political persecution or personal grief) without being crushed by despair or driven to the sin of Wrath.
This core function maps directly to our somatic work: it creates the necessary pause between our perceived injury and our response, giving the rest of our system time to catch up.
It is the discipline that says: "I will tolerate this distress, and I will wait for a response that utilizes my entire, holy self, not just my survival brain."
Theologically, this patience is an act of Imitatio Christi (imitation of Christ), for God is patient and slow to anger (Exodus 34:6). This divine patience is the ultimate model for mutual aid. It allows us to prioritize restoration over immediate retribution. Patience is the bridge from John the Baptist’s fragmented vision of a judging God to Jesus’s holistic vision of a healing God.
Closing: The Pause That Saves
Friends, we have seen that the urge for political salvation—the need to destroy the enemies of our better world—is fueled by the same urgency that drives our personal addictions, rage, and compulsion to fragment. When we act out of that urgency, we are choosing Wrath, and we become isolated.
But Jesus's answer to John the Baptist—a quiet list of healings—invites us to choose the Discipline of Patience. Patience is the necessary pause that allows us to integrate our survival systems with our spiritual and rational selves. It is the work of becoming whole so that our actions—whether political, personal, or communal—come from a place of Fortitude and Love, not flinching fear.
This Advent, let us practice the patience required to endure the pain of our waiting without giving in to the temptation of Wrath. Let us create that pause, so that we may perceive the genuine, slow work of restoration God is actually doing—a work that promises healing for the marginalized and, ultimately, integration for our own fragmented souls.
Discussion Prompt
I offer these prompts for your reflection as you move into the discussion or activity portion of this evening. Take time to sit with these questions, allowing them to move past your intellectual mind and into your body.
Locating the Urgency of Wrath (The Fight Impulse): Reflect on a recent situation—political or personal—where you felt the compelling, SNS-driven urgency to lash out, condemn, or impulsively act (your fear or Wrath). Where in your body did you feel that urgency demanding immediate action? (Was it heat, a raised pulse, a tight jaw, or a surge of fragmented energy?)
Naming the Cost of Fragmentation: When you act out of that urgency (your fear or Wrath), what spiritual or relational faculty is the first thing you lose? (Is it humility, the ability to listen, the capacity for empathy, or self-control?)
The Practice of Patience (The Pause): What specific, small discipline—a somatic check-in, a deep breath, or a moment of contemplative prayer—can you consciously practice this week to create the necessary "pause" between the stimulus of suffering and your response? This discipline is your attempt to choose Patience over impulse.
Jenny Kwan is a member of Haven Berkeley. She is a queer, first-generation Chinese-American trans woman who is passionate about building true solidarity through mutual aid. Her work focuses on the intersection of ancient Christian spiritual disciplines (like contemplative prayer and virtue ethics) with contemporary somatic and psychological healing practices. She believes that the inner work of trauma recovery is the essential foundation for effective social justice and genuine community.
*In Advent 2025 Haven is sharing a devotional called “What do you fear?” by the folks at A Sanctified Art. You can receive access to these materials by contacting Leah, or by attending a Haven service in Advent 2025.