John the Baptist

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. ~ Luke 1:57-58

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? ~ Malachi 3:1-2

Today is the feast day of John the Baptist - that locust eating, camel's hair wearing cousin of Jesus. The guy who told everyone to repent and then baptized them.

My favorite image though of John is him calling out the hypocritical religious leaders: "You brood of vipers!" Oh, and then when he called out Herod for marrying his brother's wife. (he paid for that one)!

Repent indeed!

I admit that I love it when John is telling them to repent, but I also have a lot of conflicting thoughts about him.

Like, is that repentance just for those obvious sinners like Herod and hypocritical religious leaders? It isn't something we talk about as much, repentance - to turn back to God. At least, it my experience I wonder how often we think of it in terms of our own need for it. We confess our sins during worship, but what does our own need repentance look like? MY own need for it?

It feels easier when, like that street corner preacher, or John himself, we want others to repent.

We aren't all John. We aren't all called to go around telling others they need to repent without (as Jesus said) getting the log out of our own eye.

Instead of John, it is Jesus who is the one we follow. Jesus doesn't stand on the bank of the river (or the street corner) and bellow at us to repent.

Yet following Jesus begins there: to turn back to him. And when we do, we turn to our neighbors not in judgment, but in love.

Rather than bellow at others to repent of their sins, may I turn to them in love just as you have loved me. Amen