Devotional 11-29-21

 Please read Malachi 3:1-4 and Luke 3:1-6

My father, Floyd Taylor, died in 2009 at the age of 80. During the last ten years or so of his life, we had  many deep theological and political conversations. He was a mature, lifelong Christian and I was questioning and growing. He wrote anonymous devotionals for his church’s newsletter, often inviting me to critique and edit. He helped me write today’s devotional.

Throughout history, humans have searched for meaning, purpose, and identity in relation to a higher power. This searching has taken many forms, including idolatry, mythology, and religion. In God’s own time, God revealed God’s self to a receptive and spiritually mature Abram. Thus began a covenant relationship between God and God’s people. Humans being human, the relationship has not always been smooth sailing. Over the centuries, prophets would predict a liberator who would protect God’s people and make the way smooth.

Again, in God’s own time, God chose a further, more intimate revelation, offering a new covenant through his Son Jesus Christ. At the time of today’s Gospel reading, John the Baptist was roaming around the area of the Jordan River preaching repentance, that God’s revelation was imminent. 

Try to imagine living in that time and place. How would you react to John the Baptist and his message? It is easier for us who have the rest of the Gospel story to guide our thinking. We know of the life and ministry of Jesus. We know some believed and changed their ways, but ultimately Jesus was rejected. Which side would you have been on?

How are we doing some two thousand years later? Is the way any more straight than it was when John was preaching? Has all humanity seen God’s salvation?  What if a John the Baptist presented today? How would we receive his witness? Would it depend on our party affiliation or political leanings?

How do we know? By God’s grace, we just come to know and believe. It may be a sudden awakening or a slow thought-out process.  After becoming a true believer and Christian we should move on in love, trust, and service.  However, the more things change the more they stay the same—we are often just as “stiff-necked” as those of old.  When we are assailed by the difficulties in life we may fall away or develop an “I can do this myself mentality.”

Jesus interceded for us through his death and resurrection and sent the Holy Spirit to support us.  During this Advent Season, I invite you to look for God’s presence. What do you see, what do you hear, that reassures you of God’s presence in your life?

Jeff Taylor