by Marcia Mount Shoop
Isaiah 11:1-10; Matthew 3:1-12
“The kind of love who is coming, John the Baptist says—is the kind of love who can see right through you—straight to your heart—straight to your “alarmed aloneness.”
This good news is not about hellfire, it is about the freedom for us to be who God made us to be and actually trust each other with that self–to be our true selves and be truly together–the peaceable kingdom in the human realm.
John the Baptist wants us to prepare for the warmth and curiosity towards each of us that Jesus will bring. He is asking us to stop with the self-sabotage. Stop with the “no matter how much it costs me” I will protect myself from… whatever it is that you are protecting yourself from because of the hurt you carry.
John the Baptist says the hurt you are doing to yourself, you are doing to the world. And a healer is coming who is asking us to see ourselves differently–to see who God made us to be. To see ourselves and to see each other as God sees each of us.”
Watch the full GCPC service on 12/4/22 here
(Scripture and sermon begin at 39:10)