Sunday Readings: Isaiah 61.1-2, 10-11; 1 Thessalonians 5.16-24; John 1.6-8, 19-28
Now the questioners had been sent from the Pharisees and asked John the Baptist, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John the Baptist answered, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal (John 24-27).
Sunday’s gospel features the prophetic voice of John the Baptist, a man sent from God to give witness to the light and prepare Jesus’ way. The Baptist has the same purpose as the whole gospel of John’s gospel—that all might believe in Jesus through him.
The Baptist is a witness to the existence we may take for granted, the light that rises with the sun each morning, the air we breathe. To testify to the light is to raise people’s consciousness that the life and light in which we live reveals God and is God’s gift.
John anticipates one greater than he is coming. He insists that “Among you stands one you do not recognize.” The words come down the centuries to haunt and taunt us into recognizing where we see Jesus among us.
Our current political scene has awakened voices that divide us. What if this Christmas season we attempt to listen and learn from those we only know by stereotype?
Ours is the task of recognizing God at work in that hardest of all places to see—in ourselves, in our passion for justice, in the events of our history, in our own unrelenting efforts to hold our families and communities together. We live in an unfinished drama and unfolding mystery that is God’s life-giving presence with us.
- Whose voices today help renew and revive you?