A WORD FROM THE PASTOR

Birthmark and Perfection

A man married a very beautiful woman who had a birthmark on her left cheek. She had always thought of it as a beauty spot, but her husband saw the birthmark to be a sign of imperfection, a flaw. It began wearing on him so much that all he could see was that birthmark. He could not see her beauty, her graciousness, or her great personality. He could only focus on what he perceived to be a flaw.
He pursued her until she finally submitted to surgery to remove the so-called flaw. The birthmark eventually faded, but so did she. That birthmark was tied to her identity and shortly after its removal, she died. The man who sought perfection ended up with nothing. In the Advent season, we don’t seek perfection and end up with nothing. That is not the Savior whom we are waiting and preparing for.

That is not the God that we come to worship today.

When we think about Advent and hear words like "repentance" and "perfection," many times we get negative connotations in our minds. But today’s Gospel tells us that is something positive. Repentance means to change the direction of your life. John the Baptist asked those people, asking us today, to practice charity, honesty and social justice to receive the Messiah. It means to say - start walking toward God, his vision, his aim, and his goal for your life. In this way, repentance is a relationship. True repentance brings us closer to God and to have close intimacy with God.

Are we ready for this close intimacy with God?