A voice of one calling: "In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. – Isaiah 40:3

Today's Scripture Reading (September 3, 2023): Isaiah 40

There are two voices in the contemporary church. It is a fact that I have struggled with throughout my career. And it is a problem that I think handicaps the church universal. The two voices are divided between the one that specifically speaks to the church and the one that speaks to the world. And it is not just that the same message is phrased differently for different audiences; it is that the message itself is often very different. Inside the church, we seem to want a very legalistic message. I know some people don't like me because I don't [usually] preach a hellfire and brimstone message. We want to hear a message that stresses our need to keep the rules, or we will be punished, and we don't want someone to come along who tells us that that is not where we should be focused.

A hellfire and brimstone message doesn't work for those outside the church. I think it did once. Not that long ago, almost everyone in the Western World had a basic understanding of the Christian faith. And when an itinerant preacher came to a community and said, "You are going to hell because of the way you are living," it was a truth that the listeners already believed was true. Those outside the church knew they didn't measure up to the standard that even they had accepted was necessary for a successful life, let alone God's. But that is a world in which we no longer live. What the world needs is a message of grace, not judgment. And that was the message that Jesus preached to sinners during his ministry.

Isaiah's words here are familiar because all four Gospels allude to them. But what is maybe significant is that Isaiah seems to indicate the voice isn't crying out in the church. It is not a voice that cries out in the Temple, the synagogue, or wherever the people were worshipping. The voice was supposed to cry out in the wilderness, barren places, and places far from God. Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to go there with God's message, preaching the message to those living far from him.

And that was precisely what John the Baptist chose to do. He was the one who became the fulfillment of these words. He went out into the nation and preached a message of repentance and the coming Messiah. But his shouldn't be the only voice. We need to join John in bringing the call of God to the barren places and to people who need to know that there is one who has already paid the price for our sin so grace can be extended to us and to anyone who is far from God but wants to come close.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Isaiah 41