Tag Archives: baptism

Getting it all so wrong!

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

John 1:29-34 “Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”

The primary purpose of the church is to provide access to Jesus Christ.

That Jesus may be born in individual hearts and from individual hearts have his way in human affairs.

After that the purpose of the church is not to be a moral compass 🧭 although many people think it is.

Rather, it is to say to the world as the Gospel says to us today: Look 👀, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Did you catch that? He seeks to take away the sins of the world.

The world wants to nail you to your sins. Nail me to my sins. Nail everybody. You must be held accountable.

But not Jesus. Jesus doesn’t want this to happen because accountability in eternity is too severe!

So out of love and to save us, Jesus seeks to be nailed for your sins, my sins, our sins.

Do you see it? Accountability doesn’t disappear 🫥

He seeks to take responsibility, to be held accountable on your behalf. What love is this?

“I did not die on the Cross for you to bear the burden of your sins.”

And once he takes responsibility, you’re set free, cleansed, washed clean in the blood of Christ, redeemed.

And when he does this for you he acquires you…

And when this really happens for you… you’ll love ❤️ him to bits!

The mission of the church is not primarily about being a moral compass. It’s about salvation.

It’s about saving us all from God’s Justice.

Human imperceptibility – the sign of God’s greatness

John expects… anticipates…

For John what is about to unfold – God in Jesus – is decisive.

John’s Jesus clearly carries a threat.

“Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming?”

“Even now the axe is laid to the tree so that any tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire.”🔥

“His winnowing fan is in his hand, he will clear his threshing floor…”

So how did this threat unfold in real life back then?

How did this “retribution” as John calls it unfold?

How was the tree cut down and thrown on the fire? Bearing in mind that we’re not really talking about a tree but about real people whom the tree represents – a people to be cut down and thrown on the fire.

How was the wheat separated from the chaff in the lived experience of the people back then? In their history?

I’d say they hardly noticed it happening or that it had happened… and that’s my point!

So, while the language and the images are strong, at times scathing, the threat unfolded in the lives of the people very gently, almost imperceptibly.

In fact it was so gentle that many probably didn’t even realize that it had happened!

This human imperceptibility is one of the signs of God’s greatness.

What happened was that they missed the significance of Jesus… they didn’t connect with him… they didn’t grasp his identity. He went over their heads so to speak.

They just went on doing what they had always been doing.

And in so many places… spaces… hearts and minds… the same pattern will reemerge this coming Christmas.

But God will have been and gone!

Indeed, the kingdom of God is always close at hand.

Finally… empty pews and empty churches – a sign of the death of religion or a people being cut down and thrown on the fire?

Do you really think that God is no longer active?

There’s only one response to that 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣