John the Baptist | Tom Johnson | Advent | December 10, 2017

The schedule of Scripture passages for the second week of Advent brings us to John the Baptist who, like Mary and many of the other great characters of the Bible, was a nondescript, on-the-margins-type person whom God chose instead of the big-shots of the world. John came with an Old-Testament mandate to make “crooked places straight and rough places plain,” which speaks of addressing the crookedness, corruption, and brokenness of the world. His whole being was a confrontation of the system he was addressing. John came to help people see what they couldn’t see, and to understand what they didn’t understand. We need those same awakenings and healings. In Tom’s words, “John brought a huge confrontation on not seeing. Things are at stake here: people I don’t see, sin I don’t see, injustices I don’t see.” The passages for this week, this Sunday are Isaiah 40:1-11, Malachi 3, and Mark 1:1-8.