From the Deacon’s Desk 1/19/2020

Dear Friends:

Today our Gospel is from the book of John 1:29-34. John’s writing is a little different from the other three. This Gospel is written two to three decades after the others. The other three Gospels are called the Synoptic Gospels. Synoptic means of one eye. This means they are very similar in content and ideas. John’s Gospel is much more affluent. It has a great deal of material and he had more time to discern his interpretation of Jesus’ life. The language can sometimes be a little confusing. The end result is the same; it’s the story of Jesus told with a little more elegance.

John the Baptist sees Jesus coming toward him. He proclaims quickly “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’”Simply put this means that John the Baptist has realized who Jesus really is. John had developed quite a following. As a matter of fact, I’ve heard that even to this day there are small groups of people in the Holy Land who believe John the Baptist is really the Messiah. Notice in the reading that John does his best to dispel this misnomer. When John proclaims “On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. Now I have seen and testified that he is the son of God.”

There is always been speculation about who or what people should follow in their quest for the one true God. We are so lucky to have Jesus as our Messiah, mediator and second person of the Trinity who dwelt among us. It is a gift given to us by God himself.

What gift can we give God to show our appreciation and gratefulness for the gift of God himself among us? I think that is something we all need to discern! It may take us a while to figure it out but I promise you it will be well worth the effort.

Peace and All Good!

Deacon Jim