Advent Deficit Disorder - Advent, Day 18

December 20, 2006 by djackson.

Advent Readings:  Isaiah 9.8-17, 2 Peter 2.1-10, Mark 1.1-8

If John the Baptist was a walking rebuke to his own society, he is a marching insult to ours. 

A recent survey reveals that about half of us cannot imagine life without cell phones or personal computers.  For a third of us, the tab for connectedness comes to a couple of C’s a month.  Another study prophesies we will spend over a fourth of every day next year involved with some form of media.  In fact, we will actually spend more time than there is, because we will do many of these things simultaneously. 

John’s style bucked the high-tech trend.  He worked so far out in the desert that cell phone service failed.  Wifi didn’t reach the wastelands.  Blackberries fried in the blistering heat.  The Baptizer’s idea of live streaming video was standing thigh-high in a muddy river.  If you listened to him, you did nothing else; there was nothing else to do.

The message of Messiah’s advent deserved an unhindered hearing.

As Christmas draws close, the Forerunner challenges us to unplug long enough to listen to the single message of a coming Savior.  Just for a while, unplug.  Somewhere out there the Spirit speaks good news if we only stand still long enough to listen.

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