Advent Devotional for December 4

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Advent Devotional for Sunday, December 4

Mark 1:1-8

It bothers me that John the Baptist thinks he is unworthy even to untie Jesus’ sandals. Who could be more worthy than John? Talk about committed. He devotes everything he is and has to “preparing the way” for the One who is to come. He proclaims a message that will surely make him more enemies than friends. He even crafts his own clothes and scavenges his own food so he won’t be distracted in his ministry by the things of this world.

In our time and culture we tend to associate feelings of unworthiness with having a poor self-image. As Christians, we often try to encourage those who say they are unworthy by reminding them they are valuable because God made them and loves them.

John the Baptist offers stellar service to God and knows he is beloved. But still he says he is not worthy.

I imagine myself standing with John by the River Jordan, trying to convince him to think more highly of himself. I bet he would listen quietly and then point his finger off ahead of us both. “Just watch for the One who is coming,” he would say, “and then you’ll understand.”

When the Christ child comes, I will remember, again, that I am worthwhile. The Word will become flesh, and I will be made whole, again, in him. But am I open, with John, to for now recognizing my unworthiness? To pointing my finger away from myself and toward the One who is yet to come, the One who is all-worthy, the one who will give all things worth?

Coming God, baptize us with your Spirit. Break us out of the selves to which we cling that we might await, and then receive, our hope and our healing. Amen.

Cindy Rigby
The W. C. Brown Professor of Theology

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For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.