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Advent 9: Prepare - but how? ...

Monday, Dec 9, 2013. Advent is a preparation time. It is a time where we are all called to prepare for what God does for us. It is a time where we are called to prepare for Jesus.

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John the Baptist …

We hear about preparations for Jesus in the bible, when we hear about John, the Baptist, in the gospel of Luke:

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

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‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” (Luke 3: 1-6) John the Baptist is proclaiming baptism of repentance. It is a sign to show what happens in our life. A sign of repentence. That means: change. We do not continue with wrong things. We stop them. We start good things. We start good exercise, start to develop good habits. How to? … **

Many things are pretty clear. We should not steal any more. We should not lie any more. Being clear and truthfull is one of the basic exercises of this preparation. But there is much more.

The Old Testament shows more than 1000 years of preparation, to learn what it means to repent. It was a times of exercise for the people of Israel. They got to know the eternal God. They learned from him. They lived with him. They experienced his love and grace, but also his justice and anger. We need to learn from them, to learn about the Lord.

But the New Testament offers us an even deeper community with the Lord than the Old Testament could offer. By the Holy Spirit, God comes close to everyone, who believes in Jesus. His way to the cross opened a door, which brings us close to God, even closer than the heights and brilliant parts of the Old Testament.

In all of this, our path is still this “prepare the way of the Lord”. It will take us a lifetime, to carry out this preparation. We will experience sincere struggle, with ourselves, and with others. But we will also experience the power of God, his special power, his special love, his special peace. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts

jn_en_2013_12_09.txt · Last modified: 2017/06/18 16:48 by 127.0.0.1