Fly Right (45 of 49)
Lectionary, Year C, Advent 2
Christopher B. Harbin
Luke 3:1-6
Who needs to hear this? It has long bothered me that the message of the church seems directed at the wrong people. We like to talk into a vacuum or an echo chamber. We like to shame people who are not among us. We condemn those we cannot see and who cannot hear us. Then word leaks out, and the world hears a message it cannot receive. It can't receive it, because we were never in any kind of dialogue. We were just talking to ourselves about others to make ourselves feel superior. After all, if those horrible sinners somewhere out there gave our God any credit, they would be here among us, we think. How do we do a better job of communicating the gospel when we are not even sure to whom we are actually speaking? When we don't even know those we should be addressing?
John the Baptist came along with a discordant message. He did not come into Jerusalem to speak to the chief priests, scribes, and other leaders of the Sanhedrin. He did not make his way to Herod or Pilate. He kept to the out-of-the-way places of the uncultivated hillsides, but people started seeking him out, anyway. This was where John had heard God speaking to him, and this was the region where he continued speaking to those who would listen.
They were people who lived far from the halls of power. They were, however, people interested and even invested in following Yahweh. They were looking for the coming of Yahweh's Messiah. They had a desperate need for something new and different from a life of subjugation under the Romans. They were Jews, after all. They were invested in seeking Yahweh's redemption. They were concerned with doing all the right things to cultivate Yahweh's goodwill on their behalf. They were seeking release from occupation. They wanted freedom. They wanted independence. They wanted the blessings of living as the prized people of Yahweh.
John came among them preaching about a baptism of r ...
Lectionary, Year C, Advent 2
Christopher B. Harbin
Luke 3:1-6
Who needs to hear this? It has long bothered me that the message of the church seems directed at the wrong people. We like to talk into a vacuum or an echo chamber. We like to shame people who are not among us. We condemn those we cannot see and who cannot hear us. Then word leaks out, and the world hears a message it cannot receive. It can't receive it, because we were never in any kind of dialogue. We were just talking to ourselves about others to make ourselves feel superior. After all, if those horrible sinners somewhere out there gave our God any credit, they would be here among us, we think. How do we do a better job of communicating the gospel when we are not even sure to whom we are actually speaking? When we don't even know those we should be addressing?
John the Baptist came along with a discordant message. He did not come into Jerusalem to speak to the chief priests, scribes, and other leaders of the Sanhedrin. He did not make his way to Herod or Pilate. He kept to the out-of-the-way places of the uncultivated hillsides, but people started seeking him out, anyway. This was where John had heard God speaking to him, and this was the region where he continued speaking to those who would listen.
They were people who lived far from the halls of power. They were, however, people interested and even invested in following Yahweh. They were looking for the coming of Yahweh's Messiah. They had a desperate need for something new and different from a life of subjugation under the Romans. They were Jews, after all. They were invested in seeking Yahweh's redemption. They were concerned with doing all the right things to cultivate Yahweh's goodwill on their behalf. They were seeking release from occupation. They wanted freedom. They wanted independence. They wanted the blessings of living as the prized people of Yahweh.
John came among them preaching about a baptism of r ...
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