Crying in the Wilderness

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ He said,
‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord” ’,
as the prophet Isaiah said.

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’ John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing. John 1:19-28

Crying in the Wilderness

The Messenger from the Holy One

will not walk in expensive shoes

will not look like your neighbor

but will come as a rare stranger.

The insider rarely hear God's word

the soft and coddled are too insolated

the ones who walk out in the cold

out on the edge they find the Spirit.

Those who win and lord it over others

rarely have something to teach us

check the dark alleys the byways

for the Holy One visits these places.

Come, let go of all the pretence

stand beyond the rim of comfort

hunger for a while and be thirsty

God draws near to the humble heart.