You know, the more I read the Bible, the more impressed I am with the authors. It's as if they were guided by the Holy Spirit or something! As you probably know by now, my church has been focusing for quite a while on the book of Luke. And for the last month we have been in Chapter 1. Yes... I said that for the last month we have been in Chapter 1. Our entire Advent season has focused on the birth narratives of John the Baptist and Jesus found in that extremely long chapter.
As a church in the midst of revitalization, we have been talking a lot about who we are and what God has for us over the past several months. But for Advent, we have simply been trying to listen, to prepare, to open our hearts to what God might have next for our little congregation. But how, exactly, do you do that?
Such preparation involves prayer, reading scripture, developing true community, opening your hearts to the needs of the world around you, looking for where God might be at work. But it seems during this Advent season I have been led to focus on John the Baptist's message... that salvation comes through the forgiveness of sins. It comes through the nine months of listening after doubting God's word. It comes as a nation turns its heart back to the God who called them out of darkness. It comes as God's people seek to once again live out the Covenant God laid before them.
It comes from giving ourselves a good cleaning, inside and out. And that can take scrubbing, reaching into dark and dingy corners, peeling back hidden layers and forgotten messes.
May God give us the courage to continue to prepare our hearts this Advent season and to hear the words of John the Baptist, the promise that salvation comes through the forgiveness of sins.
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