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Thursday, December 08, 2005
Road Work Ahead
Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8
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This second week of the Advent season, we focus on the mission of John the Baptist who answered God's call to "prepare the way" for God's new Messiah. Kind of a wild man, John caught everyone's attention and shook them out of spiritual lethargy.
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For half a year drivers on two of Alameda's main streets slowed down, merged lanes, and muttered unkind words. The orange "Road Work Ahead" signs were far from beautiful, but they steered us through a major street beautification project. And the end results are indeed easy on the eye.
When John the Baptist came preaching his message of repentance and spiritual renewal, his words were far more upsetting than our bumper-to-bumper discomfort.
But he used the same image to describe what he was up to. He'd been sent to "prepare the way of the Lord," to pave the road for God's new Messiah!
Mark, telling John's story, quotes the very same image from Isaiah's old prophecy. Then he slips in a phrase from Malachi, the very last prophet in the Hebrew scriptures.
Now, after 400 years of prophetic silence, John steps up and speaks up for God. His message is stern: God's people need to turn back to God from their foolish ways. They need to confess their sins and be baptized.
Baptism wasn't a new deal. If a Gentile wanted to become a Jew, two or three rituals had to happen. For a man, (1) Circumcision would symbolically cut out his sins. For a man or a woman, (2) Sacrifices would pay for their sins, and (3) Baptism would wash their sins away.
The shocker was that John said even Jews had to go through these steps. It's not about your lineage, but your life! It's not about hearing the truth, but having a true heart! It's not about nice words, but good deeds!
Parenthesis: Every week of Advent has a theme. This week's is Love. John the Baptist hardly seems to embody love. Maybe not at first glance; but look again.
Like Malachi, John told the truth to everybody from peasant to priest -- even when it hurt. And that might be the most loving thing you can do when serious problems are afoot.
Real life teaches us that denying the truth doesn't make it false. Ignoring a problem never makes it go away. Tough love requires reality checks.
That alcohol is killing you... Those careless remarks are killing your marriage... This refusal to forgive and forget the past is killing your future....
So John the Baptist shone bright with the truth of God's law, guidelines for good living. But he couldn't hold a candle to God's grace that came with Jesus.
Talk about your beautification project! John's "road work" paved the way for the arrival of God's Light of Life, who warms and brightens our world, full of grace and truth.
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:34 AM
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