1 The good news of Jesus Christ - the Message! - begins here, 2 following to the letter the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Watch closely: I'm sending my preacher ahead of you; He'll make the road smooth for you. 3 Thunder in the desert! Prepare for God's arrival! Make the road smooth and straight! 4 John the Baptizer appeared in the wild, preaching a baptism of life-change (repentance) that leads to forgiveness of sins. 5 People thronged to him from Judea and Jerusalem and, as they confessed their sins, were baptized by him in the Jordan River into a changed life. 6 John wore a camel-hair habit, tied at the waist with a leather belt. He ate locusts and wild field honey. 7 As he preached he said, "The real action comes next: The star in this drama, to whom I'm a mere stagehand, will change your life. 8 I'm baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. His baptism - a holy baptism by the Holy Spirit - will change you from the inside out."
Today we are reminded not to rush headlong into our celebration of Christmas. To not start the celebrating until we have had time to be still and discover again how deep is God’s love.
We are reminded that we may well need to clean up our own act first, to come to repentance and open ourselves to change, before we can really celebrate Christmas.
Repentance - sounds like pouring cold water on a happy time, but it isn’t. It is the way to make a happy time happier. For it opens us to the joy of forgiveness and the joy of Christmas. God waits for us to come to repentance, so God can love us in a way which makes a real difference in our lives. So God can soften our hard hearts and make us more loving, as God is loving.
There is something of Scrooge in all of us.
We are reminded today to confess this
so we can truly celebrate the mystery
of Christmas.
Prayer thoughts for the week:
“Lord, help me be open to changing my mind and heart, so your love can
be at work in me and through me. Keep me from thinking I don't have any
Scrooge in me, and help me to confess and be forgiven.”
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