Today’s reading: Mark 1:1-8
And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. (v. 5)
the preparer is calling for
a team
of workers to make the way
ready for the Lord’s arrival;
from the desert he’s calling out
and expecting us to be brave enough
to come there
to join him,
to make our way out of our lives
(to depart our addresses, our shopping lists,
our errands, our city streets)
to add our voices to his
he’s ready to pour the water
on our heads,
soak us from top to toe,
tell us stories of the One who will
soak us inside and out
let’s not make the prophet come
hunting for us where we sit.
(he is waiting for us… not us for him.)
listen—-
he’s calling now,
from the wildernesses of our lives,
all the places with rock-strewn paths
twisted roadways,
crags and valleys—-
we must go out to him,
must leave behind the countrysides
and cityscapes we thought were our homes,
must find that peaceful
dangerous
place
where we can hear the call,
where we can plunge into the river,
where we ourselves can speak
the words, “make ready!”
A Moving Yarn 