Mark 1:1-8

"I will send my messenger ahead of you to open the way for you." 

Reflection by William C. Green

God does not change. Our understanding of God changes. Love for our spouse, partner, or children may not actually change. What that love means and asks of us certainly changes. Forgetting this, we can confuse something different with something lost.

As one writer puts it, "Truth is like a spiral staircase. What looks true on one level may not be true on the next higher level."

Jesus was not, in truth, the Messiah expected by the prophets and John the Baptist. Instead of being received and recognized royally, he was announced by a disheveled man in the desert. Then, instead of baptizing John, Jesus asked John to baptize him.

It's not that the prophets had been wrong about the awesome promise of God, or that John was deluded about the coming of the Savior. Both spoke truth, but that truth appeared differently on the next higher level, when Jesus actually appeared. He was magnificent—but hardly in the way anticipated in the first Advent of the Messiah.

Our experience and love of God find expression in new and different ways. We may not have been wrong before, but a higher level of truth awaits us. The season of Advent looks forward to nothing less!

Prayer

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, prepare our hearts and minds for the new truth that awaits us in the birth of Jesus. Amen.

About the Author William C. Green is Vice-President for Strategy and Development, Moral Courage Project, NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and the author of 52 Ways to Ignite Your Congregation: Generous Giving.

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