Opinion/keep the faith: The difficulty with John

© Rick Cinclair, T&G team of workers/Rick Cinclair WORCESTER - The Rev. Nathan D. Pipho, Trinity Lutheran Church Thursday, December 13, 2018. [T&G Staff/Rick Cinclair]

one of the more peculiar figures in the scriptures is the locust eating, camel hair wearing, barren region wandering John the Baptist. for two Sundays in a row each year, on the second and third Sundays within the liturgical season of introduction, Christians who study the Revised common Lectionary (RCL) journey John the Baptist within the appointed Gospel readings.

The reality is, John the Baptist has always been an awkward visitor.

The early Christian neighborhood struggled with John the Baptist's popularity. In many ways he became greater commonly generic and diagnosed than Jesus of Nazareth. Theologian William Brosend aspects accessible is extra old witness to John than to Jesus. Scriptures well known a few of Jesus' first disciples had been disciples of John. In his missionary journeys Paul encountered those that had been baptized into John's baptism.

Addressing this reality, all four gospels characteristic John prominently in ways in which outline John's function as one sent to prepare the way for Jesus. in the very first chapter of the Gospel of John (no relation to John the Baptist) spiritual authorities requested John point clean, "who are you?" To which John spoke back: "i'm not the Messiah" (John 1:19-20). To clarify his identity the authorities pressed John and requested him a second time, "who are you? What do you say about yourself?" John responded, "i'm the voice of one crying out within the barren region, 'Make straight the way of the Lord'" (John 1:23). The Gospels make clear that John the Baptist turned into no longer the Messiah, he prepared the way for the Messiah who would comply with.

Christians nowadays proceed to battle with the issue John poses. now not John's message of the coming of Christ which we celebrate, but John's message of repentance because the solution to put together for the Messiah. John regarded, in keeping with the Gospel of Mark, "proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." Repentance turned into no longer optional, nor turned into it to be taken lightly, for as we examine within the Gospel of Luke the crowds who flocked to John had been chastised for now not taking his message of repentance to coronary heart. "You brood of vipers!" he scolded them, "who warned you to flee from the wrath to return? endure fruits beneficial of repentance."

The Greek observe we translate into English as repentance can even be understood as "a modified heart and intellect." A Lutheran pastor colleague these days wrote that repentance "means naming our fears, sins, prejudices, complicity, and feelings of helplessness." He then added this: "To repent is to stop blaming others for the woes of the realm and to delivery taking responsibility for our area in it."

listening to John's name to repentance during this introduction season, what may it seem like for us to repent nowadays? What if we understood repentance as the strategy to cease blaming others and begin taking accountability for our place in our household, our place of work, our group, and our nation? What if we understood repentance as the naming of our fears, prejudices, and feelings of helplessness? What if we repented of our need to tackle everything ourselves, to head at things alone, and refuse the help it really is all around us?

even though John's call to repentance is awkwardly positioned on our social calendars within the break season after Thanksgiving, it is perfectly positioned within the advent season before our get together of the delivery of Jesus. In repentance we open our hearts and minds to the work of Jesus Christ as our savior. Repentance speaks the certainty of our human brokenness and our want for a savior to heal, unite, and e book us. Our want is specially clear during this Covid-19 world through which we locate ourselves separated this holiday season from household, traditions, and routines and so a lot in our lives has been disrupted. might we repent this 12 months of simply how lots we've taken without any consideration?

In religion, we receive John's call to repentance as a gift asserting that peace and hope is not present in our own efforts, however is found in the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. In repentance, with hearts and minds became towards the arriving mercy and beauty of God in Christ Jesus, may also we echo John's most effective witness in the scriptures. As Jesus walked towards him, John declared, "right here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). certainly may additionally it's so!

The Rev. Nathan D. Pipho is the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Worcester. Sermons and different writings can be found online at nathanpipho.com.

this article at first appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Opinion/keep the faith: The issue with John