One of the nice things about being retired is that I don’t have to preach about John the Baptist during Advent. John is sort of like Tabasco sauce to my mind; a little bit of him goes a long way, and two Sundays in a row about him are way too much. Imagine John trying to make it as a Lutheran pastor. He starts his sermon: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Yep, that’s going to go over really well.

During seminary, I had a long conversation with my roommate Dennis as we tried to make sense of John. If John preached a message of repentance and Jesus also preached repentance, why wasn’t John’s message enough? We concluded that the problem with John’s message is that people couldn’t repent, at least not in the sense of a complete turn around of their lives. In a way, John was the last of the Old Testament prophets who brought God’s word to people, but couldn’t give them the power to transform their lives.

It all changes with Jesus. He doesn’t just tell people to change their lives, he brings change to their lives. With the coming of Christ sins are forgiven and we are reconciled again with God. The purpose of John the Baptist is to point us to Jesus.

Maybe in the midst of the sugar-plum holiday season we need a sour character like John to point us in the right direction. “Prepare the way of the Lord!”

Read Isaiah 40:1-5 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne