Advent

December 13, 2020

Scripture Reading: John 1:6-8, 19-28

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ He said,
‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord”’,
as the prophet Isaiah said.

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’ John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

Voices are crying in the wilderness in our world today that speak God’s truth if we choose to listen to them. It may be painful. It may even be embarrassing to see our lack of actions through the eyes of God’s truth.  Before we can “Make straight the way of the Lord”’, we must gain God’s guidance regarding what the straight way of the Lord is. I hear God’s truth in interviews with medical staff caring for COVID-19 patients trying to fill a gap of love hindered by the need to protect others. I observe it in faith groups who realize the church is not a building but a community of believers caring for one another and their neighbors doing whatever is necessary to share the love of God in word and deed outside of their typical environments. I see it in children carrying food delivery packages to long lines of hungry people in a nation where one out of four children are now classified as food insecure. We do not have to do everything; we do need to do something to share God’s love.

The following prayer was posted on social media recently, and the author was not noted. I searched for the author’s name to no avail.

Prayer: Dear God, I kneel down before You at this moment. Please enlighten what is dark in me, strengthen what is weak in me, mend what is broken in me, heal what is sick in me, and revive whatever peace and love that has died in me. This is my prayer for me, my family, friends, my enemies and even those who hate me. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.