This week, I'm preaching on Isaiah 40:1-11 and John the Baptist in Mark 1:1-8. The theme is "Messengers of Hope". As I've been preparing and praying, I've been on the lookout for people or situations that bring hope to us, even hope in the most unlikely ways.
The descriptions of John the Baptist remind me so much of homeless men that I encountered almost daily when living in Philadelphia. He dressed in what he could find - animal hides. Men who are homeless wear what they can find - discarded coats and trashbags. He scavenged for food, grubbing up bugs and stealing honeycombs. These men scavenge for food as well, grubbing up discarded food in dumpsters and leftover handouts from guilt-stricken passersby.
If John the Baptist calls us to repent for the time of God's coming is near, wouldn't the homeless men and women of our nation call us to do the same? What about the starving children in lands of famine? Or evacuees from natural disasters? Or fly-covered women and men with rotting wounds in refugee camps?
What is it that I need to repent of? Where is the hope in this call to shuv, to turn around, to begin a new way of life?
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