Advent 2A - Additional Thoughts - All Things Must Change

From William Loader's "First Thoughts" found here:

John and Jesus are on about the same thing, even though John does not lose his status as preparing the way, nor Jesus, his as the superior one. John is in the outback, the traditional place of preparation and transition. Jesus heads out into the populated world. John calls for repentance. This has less to do with feeling sadness or remorse and more to do with a total change of attitude and direction. Both John and Jesus called for radical change, not just in preparation, but because it entailed a choice that God and God’s way rules from now on.

More than a nice story about mass baptisms out in the wilderness, this is about a new order breaking forth. When we choose to follow God, we choose to abandon our own ways. When we follow His plan for the future, we leave the status quo methods we are used to. God is doing a new thing, and it requires that we are willing to change our very patterns of thinking and being.

It appears as though the Pharisees and Saducees were willing to identify themselves with this new movement of God, but were unwilling to change--unwilling to abandon the religious structures to which they were accustomed.

Is it possible that the repentance we need in the church today is not a repentance from sin, but a repentance of our structured ways of 'doing church'? While God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, we find that His means of interacting with His creation is always changing. While the Gospel message remains unchanged, the methods of preaching that message changes again and again. God is always doing a new thing, and we must be willing to change in order to be a part of His plan!