Ever wonder what John the Baptist might say were he to appear today?

After surveying the international scene, where 2,000 people die by violence every day and the gross inequities between haves and have-nots are being publicized by the Occupiers among us, we might guess that John would take on the social and moral issues of the day, loudly declaring: Quit Fighting and Start Sharing!

However, when we survey the gross negligences of modernity and compare them with those in 1^st century Palestine, things aren’t much different – John’s message to the power-hungry Romans and conniving Judean authorities could’ve also been Quit Fighting and Start Sharing!

But it wasn’t. Then or now.

On this second Sunday in Advent, we hear John proclaiming a baptism of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. For John knows, as we all do, that all sin begins in the human heart. We cannot fully address the violence of nations until we consider the aggression of the heart, we cannot fully challenge corporate greed until we consider the gluttonous spirit within. For the start of our journey to the Promised Land that John, then Jesus will usher in, begins with a call to account. It reminds us that if we really want to see violence end and sharing start it MUST begin with us. We need the same call to accountability. We need the same repentance. We need the same forgiveness.

So what’s stopping us?

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Reading

The Jews in the Time of Jesus – Stephen Wylen

Mark – NT Wright

Pastor – Eugene Peterson