Oh, So Gentle!

Some time ago, a magazine ad for a certain automobile part depicted a very big, macho-type man, with huge muscles bulging out of his T-shirt. In his arms, he gently cuddled a tiny baby. In bold print, the advertising slogan above him read, “So powerful, but oh so gentle.”

In today’s Gospel Lesson, John the Baptist is announcing the coming of the Messiah to the crowds gathered on the banks of the River Jordan. “A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people who were beginning to think John might be the Christ,” Luke tells us. So John declared before them all, “Someone is coming, Someone who is more powerful than I am” who “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Lk. 3:15,16).

To help us prepare for our annual celebration of the coming of that Powerful Someone, it will be helpful to reflect on the New Testament’s basic presupposition about God, and about God’s Grace, and about God’s abiding Presence in our world and…