Scripture Readings for January 3, 2024

1 John 2:29-3:6, Psalm 98:1, 3-6, John 1:29-34

Twice in today’s Gospel, John the Baptist says he didn’t know Jesus but he recognizes him as Son of God because he did see the Spirit come and stay with him. Well, to me that sounds a lot like our circumstances. We don’t really know Jesus either. By which I mean the presence of God right here in this world. As I have often suggested, we too easily think of God as distant, a divine entity off in heaven somewhere to whom we prayer when our life situation turns in the wrong direction. We haven’t been effectively taught that the God of Jesus, his Abba, is present to us here and now. Yet that is exactly what the Christmas story is all about. The divine born as a child, helpless, dependent on the people around him for his every need. God sanctifying human life by being present in it.

Can we, like John the Baptist, recognize the Spirit in the people we meet? That’s really what the author of 1 John is trying to help us do. He’s exhorting his community to stay true to their belief in Jesus as Son of God. He makes the case that once a person has come to know Jesus and what Christian life is all about that person wouldn’t go back to his or her former way of life. I think our challenge isn’t that much different. We need to recognize the Spirit’s presence in ourselves and others. We know people aren’t perfect but surely we recognize that all of us are trying to do the right thing, care for others, love our children and live a good life. That’s what the Church means when it says we are the Body of Christ in the world today. It isn’t just a nice platitude but rather the way of seeing the world as a place of God’s presence and activity. Aren’t we all trying to make the world and our lives better? Isn’t everyone regardless of religion or background, hoping for a better future. Don’t we feel a desire for life that is good and could be even better. That’s the Spirit John the Baptist could see in Jesus, a divine presence, that signaled a real change from the norm of his time.

1 John makes that point by saying, “Beloved, we are God’s children now.” This is the time to live out that reality as the Psalm says by not being “lawless” but, “sing to the Lord a new song” recognizing that Jesus has taken away our sins and the guilt that weighs us down. We are beloved children of God and can forge new paths. We just have to recognize the Spirit that stays with us, as it did with Jesus. The Spirit John the Baptist saw in Jesus we can see too, in ourselves, in others and accept that Spirit as the life God gives us each day. As children of God we too can baptize with the Holy Spirit, by bringing new life to ourselves and others in how we approach and conduct daily life. As the first letter of John says, “what we shall be has not been revealed,” but “we are God’s children now.” We are the people who can make God’s Spirit active in this world. Let’s do it.