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The Upload

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I pray you have had a blessed week.

For the next two Sundays, we will read two different versions of how John the Baptist, in the wilderness, proclaimed his baptism of repentance. This week, we will read Mark’s version (Mark 1:1-8) and next week we will read John’s version (John 1:6-8, 19-28). As we will hear, the key word in John’s preaching was “repentance.” The Greek word that we translate as “repentance” is “metanoia,” which literally means to turn, to change, to reverse oneself. In scripture, this Greek word implies much more than a mere change of mind; it involves a whole reorientation of the personality.

Now, John says that to prepare ourselves for Christ’s coming we ought to repent. John is saying, if we want to be ready for Jesus, we have to change our ways. We have to change our direction and be willing to go whatever direction God is going. But change is difficult for us, and even when we know we are heading the wrong way, we often find it impossible to change our ways. In fact, we often prefer not to change.

As a pastor, I have a lot of people come to me and talk about what they are doing in their lives, and many times, even when they know what they are doing is wrong, I hear things like, “Well, I know I should not do this, or that, but God is merciful, right? He will forgive me, right?” Well, of course, God is a God of mercy and love and God will forgive us, but the truth is, we have a God who loves us so much that he was willing to become human for us. He was willing to come and live among us so we might truly know him, and then he was even willing to die for us.

During this Season of Advent, we are reminded not only that God has already come to us and that God is already with us, but we are also reminded that God is coming to us again! This is fantastic news! And so, because we know he will come again, we ought to be asking, what must we do to be ready? And according to John the answer is, “Repent.” It is time to change our ways. It is time to turn around and start looking for answers to the problems of this world, not from governments and politicians, but from God and God’s word. It is time for each of us to say, Lord, I am ready to change, open my heart and my mind to your ways so that I might be an agent of change in this world. We are those who have been called to “clear the paths,” as Isaiah said. So are you ready to start clearing new paths?

God will come and fulfill all of God's promises, whether or not we do any of these things, but knowing God is on the way, why wouldn't we want to do them?

Have a blessed week!

Shalom,

Pastor Dave

Tags: Weekly Word