Advent 2
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near ... Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
-- Matthew 3:2-3
John's message was one of repentance or redirecting one's priorities if one was to recognize the kingdom of heaven or the power of God's rule in one's life. He quoted Isaiah 40:3 in telling people they must make preparation in order to receive God. John's dress drew obvious comparisons to Elijah (2 Kings 1:8). Tradition held that Elijah would come again and usher in the new age of God's presence in the world (Malachi 4:5). The popularity of John's call for repentance is seen in verses 5 and 6. When John saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, those whose practice of the faith had found its accommodation with the world, he challenged the sincerity of their repentance. He charged them with relying on their spiritual heritage (Abraham as our father) and challenged them to "bear fruit that befits repentance...." Like Jeremiah 11:16, John compared Israel to a barren olive tree whose leaders had failed to guide them in producing the expected fruit. John saw his baptism not as an end in itself but as a preparation for receiving the one who would come after him. For Matthew, the question was not whether God had entered the world in the birth of Jesus, but why the political and religious powers and the people failed to recognize and receive him. The encounter with God in this world can be one of both promise and peril. The Christ will baptize with the Holy Spirit, the power that enables a person to fulfill God's promise in life, and with fire, the judgment that falls on one's inability to receive God's gifts or to use them in the fulfillment of God's promise. God gives the church the freedom to reject the hope of God's presence or to receive it. The difference depends on our willingness to repent of the arrogance that blocks our receptivity to the entirely new thing being born into the world.
-- Matthew 3:2-3
John's message was one of repentance or redirecting one's priorities if one was to recognize the kingdom of heaven or the power of God's rule in one's life. He quoted Isaiah 40:3 in telling people they must make preparation in order to receive God. John's dress drew obvious comparisons to Elijah (2 Kings 1:8). Tradition held that Elijah would come again and usher in the new age of God's presence in the world (Malachi 4:5). The popularity of John's call for repentance is seen in verses 5 and 6. When John saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, those whose practice of the faith had found its accommodation with the world, he challenged the sincerity of their repentance. He charged them with relying on their spiritual heritage (Abraham as our father) and challenged them to "bear fruit that befits repentance...." Like Jeremiah 11:16, John compared Israel to a barren olive tree whose leaders had failed to guide them in producing the expected fruit. John saw his baptism not as an end in itself but as a preparation for receiving the one who would come after him. For Matthew, the question was not whether God had entered the world in the birth of Jesus, but why the political and religious powers and the people failed to recognize and receive him. The encounter with God in this world can be one of both promise and peril. The Christ will baptize with the Holy Spirit, the power that enables a person to fulfill God's promise in life, and with fire, the judgment that falls on one's inability to receive God's gifts or to use them in the fulfillment of God's promise. God gives the church the freedom to reject the hope of God's presence or to receive it. The difference depends on our willingness to repent of the arrogance that blocks our receptivity to the entirely new thing being born into the world.
