Preparing for the Coming of Christ

This week’s Advent readings are about sin– of all things!– and confession of sin as the necessary preparation for the coming of Christ

Mark 1:2-5: “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from [all over] were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Sin is not a popular topic these days. And yet, the Advent message is clear: there are obstacles in our lives and in our communities that hinder Christ’s coming—rough spots that need to be smoothed over with understanding, crooked places that need to be straightened out with truth-telling, molehills that have become mountains among us, valleys of misunderstanding and bad behavior that need to be raised up, acknowledged and confessed.

May God give us the grace to name these obstacles as the sins they are. May Christ give us the courage to make our confession—to him and to each other—so we can find comfort and healing. And may the Spirit enable us to grow in love so that the glory of the Lord can be revealed among us.

(excerpt from Ruth Haley Barton's eReflections)

The "Wildness" of God

Since my sabbatical, I think I've gotten better at not being such a control freak. I have been diligently trying to trust God and allow Him to lead, provide, direct, guide...all of that stuff. But I still haven't mastered it - and I'm not alone. Here is an excerpt I read this morning from the Daily Office (quoted from Richard Rohr):

"Believe it or not, we are threatened by such a free God because it takes away all of our ability to control or engineer the process. It leaves us powerless, and changes the language from any language of performance or achievement to that of surrender, trust and vulnerability...that is the so-called "wildness" of God. We cannot control God by any means whatsoever, not even by our good behavior, which tends to be our natural instinct...That utter and absolute freedom of God is fortunately used totally in our favor, even though we are still afraid of it...It is called providence, forgiveness, free election or mercy...But to us, it feels like wildness - precisely because we cannot control it, manipulate it, direct it, earn it or lose it. Anyone into controlling God by his or her actions will feel very useless, impotent and ineffective."

We have to believe that by surrendering and trusting God, it is totally in our favor. God desires good things for us. He can be trusted. He has proven Himself to be faithful. Lord, forgive us for times we doubt and want to take control of the reins again.

Seeing Ourselves in the Story

I have about 6 books I am reading at the same time...well, not exactly at the same time but you know what I mean. One of those is called, Velvet Elvis written by Rob Bell. As you may know, I started a new series this past Sunday on Baptism and why it is important to our faith. We asked a few questions such as "What is God like? What is sin and where does it come from?" We looked at the creation story and the fall of Adam and Eve because they chose poorly and ate from the wrong tree.

We know the story well, sometimes too well - meaning that we forget to apply it to ourselves; that we are not that much different from Adam and Eve. Here is what Rob Bell says: "Is the greatest truth about Adam and Eve that it happened or that it happens? This story is true for us because it is our story. We have all taken the fruit. We have all crossed boundaries. We have all made decisions to do things our way and then looked back and said to ourselves, What was I thinking? The fruit looked so good to Adam and Eve for those brief moments, but the consequences were with them for the rest of their lives. Their story is our story. We see ourselves in them. The story is true for us because it happened and because it happens. It is an accurate description of how life is."

I hope that we can begin to see ourselves as we listen again to the story of the Bible. It will be a fast series (only 4 weeks), but maybe God is preparing our hearts to enter more fully into the story since I will preach a year-long series on the Bible starting January 1, 2012.