At connecT we are having a 2 month advent. We thought it would be good to stay a little longer with the advent themes. One character who will be stretching our thought is John the Baptist. Now what can I say, one crazy dude (cf. Matt 3: 4) I have always imagined he looked a bit like Charles Manson with out the 'dark side'. But honestly, can we handle prophets like John? How many prophets have we really met, do they sit in our churches and sing quaint hymns and take their turn on the morning tea roster? How do we make sense of John - a crazy dude with something to say?
'You brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?' (Matt 3: 7)
2 comments:
I wonder how many churches would welcome a straggly-bearded, locust-eating wild-looking desert dweller today? I suspect not many. We often promote comfortable respectability, and dislike anyone who disturbs things. A modern version might be a disrupter of rostered orderliness or merely quietly eccentric. He or she might make us feel vaguely uncomfortable, which is as it should be.
John the Baptist has always intrigued me. Here is a weird dude telling the ‘Old Testament Church’ to ‘turn around and go back to God’ (repent). ….but hang on, he was telling that to the ‘Old Testament fundamentalists’ (the Pharisees) as well as the laity!!!! The Pharisees kept the ‘Law’ perfectly (or so they thought), rarely sinned and knew their bibles inside out…..yet Jesus called them ‘Sons of the Devil’ and John the Baptist called them ‘a brood of vipers’……I wonder if John the Baptist appeared today…..would he say the same to today’s fundamentalists?????
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