Scripture: Luke 3:1-6 (NRSV)
Growing up and hearing this part of Luke, I always envisioned a hairy, smelly guy who had not showered in a while, coming up out of the dessert after eating strange things to survive there. I remember thinking, “did people really take this guy seriously?” Did they think he was a “madman”? He quotes from Isaiah, so although he may have looked quite scruffy, he proves to have studied the Scripture and to be knowledgeable in that realm. Does that make him more credible? He proclaims: “and all people will see God’s salvation” (v. 6). He was calling everyone, all people, universally, everyone without distinction, and declaring they would ALL see the salvation of God. How radical was that? John stood at the door of a new age of grace, welcoming all. I’m wondering, do I do the same?
God, give me the grace and courage to be bold and radical like John. Open my heart and mind to realize the universality of your grace, your open door extended to all as John proclaimed so many years ago.
Scripture: Luke 3:1-6 (NRSV)
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”