So, John the Baptist in the Wilderness. Why do we do Advent in the wilderness?
Well, maybe there's some deep thinking here about the nature of power. The Word of God comes to John in the wilderness. Luke gives us a long sentence about all the people in power; yet, the word comes to the one without power. What is it about power that makes people unable to hear a fresh word from the divine?
In the wilderness you have no power, there's no plan B. Life is raw and real and all we can do is wait and watch and hope for God to come into our lives and give us what we need. In the wilderness we know our lives depend on God. We know what the wilderness feels like.
Then John moves on; he talks about repentance and sin. Yeah, I'll acknowledge that we don't really like those words. But, here they are, in the Bible. What is sin? Well, sin is anything that kills us. It's estrangement from God and others, it's disconnection, it's definitely NOT about God's anger. God has the ability to manage God's own emotions.
So, J the B asks us to repent. To turn away from anything that kills, and turn toward the divine. So kind of a weird thing to talk about on our organizational Sunday. But maybe not. We could puff out our chests...we're a real church now! We made it! But that doesn't feel right. Instead, on this day, we choose humility. We recognize that we've made mistakes, that we don't know it all and might not have all the right answers. We choose repentance in order to welcome God into our lives so that we can be transformed.
Speaker: Aaron Vis
Scripture: Luke 3:1-6
https://www.bible.com/events/49536676
