John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.” Mark 1:4,7
My all-time favorite comic strip is Calvin and Hobbes. I miss immensely seeing a new version of their antics every day. In one of the classic strips, there is this little gem. The cantankerous youngster Calvin says to his come-to-life stuffed tiger Hobbes, “I feel bad that I was mean to Susie and called her names. I’m sorry I did that.”
“Maybe you should apologize to her,” Hobbes suggests.
Calvin ponders this a moment and then replies, “I keep hoping there’s a less obvious solution.”
Seeking forgiveness, mending broken relationships, confessing our wrongdoings when we have wandered off the right path is perhaps some of the most difficult actions we face as human beings. Making right our wrongs is a challenge we all face at some point. Perhaps now is the season to find the right path again.
We are now well into the Advent season. It is meant as a season of preparation. For most of us, preparations include finishing the shopping list, decorating, cooking and baking, making our plans for the Christmas celebrations.
But Advent tells of a different kind of preparation. In the middle of our hustle and bustle with eyes to Christmas, our faith story thrusts John the Baptist in our faces. And the camel hair wearing, bug eating, boisterous preacher is usually the last person we want to see. Many of us have gone to great lengths to avoid him switching off the television when the gospel hour comes on or turning our heads when we see the man carrying the sign ‘prepare to meet thy God’. Over the years John’s style of hellfire and brimstone brand of preaching has been used to threaten us, punish us, and just plain frighten us, until few of us want anything to do with it anymore.
And yet every year, as we prepare for the peace of Christmas, the faith story directs us to read accounts of the cacophony created by John the Baptist. We could ignore it, and move into something more pleasant for the season, but that is just what feeds the urgency. For John is God’s messenger sent to prepare the way of the coming of the Lord. His message? “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven has come near”. John is calling the people to prepare themselves by making things right. Calling them to live a worthy life so that the coming of the Lord might take place in a world that was ready to receive him.
If there was ever a time when there was a need for good preparation and work to make the world ready for the coming of Christ, it’s now, in 2020. Fear and anxieties, division and unrest, violence of human origin and natural disasters have ruled our lives this year. It is overwhelming.
Especially now, let us prepare a way in our own hearts. For making the world ready helps to make ourselves ready and making ourselves ready leads to making the world ready.
Repent. Find the broken places that need to be mended. Seek the forgiveness in the places you’ve been wrong. Heal the places that are hurting. Love in the places where there has been fear. Then you will be prepared for the coming of the peace of Christ into our world again.
— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Todd Hackman is senior pastor at St. John’s United Church of Christ in Monroe.
