Steve-o's Devos: Getting A Little Wet

If you are paying even a little attention to the news these days it seems like there is very little "good" about it. For many the spectre of homelessness, joblessness, and any other number of "-lessnesses" are poised to overwhelm them. How fascinating it is then that we find ourselves in the season of "Advent" in the time of the Church. Advent is that season that helps us refocus our lives. It is a time to prepare for something wonderful that is about to happen. It is a period of pregnant expectation and longing for change. You might say that we have many signs that are pointing to the way things need to be in our world, and yet we still need a nudge to remind ourselves about this very thing.

In Jesus' day, there was a guy called John who headed off into the desert and began preaching. You would think that this makes little or no sense. Why would someone with a message for everyone to hear go outside of the city to proclaim it? If John's message was so vital, why not head to the very centers of his faith to allow others like him to hear it?

As it is with John's proclamation, so it is with our ministry at By the Way. So often it seems odd that we would go away from a church group to be in the midst of people who would never set foot in the church door. We talk with people who find it hard to believe that anyone really cares about them and prays for them on a regular basis. It is a reality that we discover whenever we walk the streets of Nashua with a flyer or some other advertisement that can be posted in a work location or in a school. It is the thought that somewhere a calm, soothing voice reminds people that they are loved and cared for and that God is calling them into community for a new purpose.

This is the case with John's proclamation (which you can read by clicking the title of our blog today). John's message seems harsh but he takes a simple element, water, and turns it into a symbol that serves as a reminder of a person's need to change. John baptizes people in the Jordan River. His is a symbol of washing away the outer detritus of life, the dirt and dust of living, that cakes the outsides of the people's bodies. He calls them, and us, to "repent", to give up our old ways of thinking and to expand our worldview so that we can be ready for someone who has a message even more earth shattering than John's. That person is Jesus, and John says that his baptism is one only of water, but that "the one" to come will drench us in God's spirit.

What an image that is! Imagine being soaked to the bone in God's grace. Imagine being so completely overwhelmed by God's love that your own hope can never dry out or up.

This is what this preparatory season is all about. It's about cleaning out our lives so that we can be overwhelmingly grateful for the gift of a small baby born of a teen mother in a run down barn. Out of scarcity will come a gift of abundance.

Are you ready to get wet? Amen.