Transformation

Walmart flowers on my desk. 
They are sprayed red, and I think that is so strange.

He went into all the region around the Jordon, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Luke 3:3

According to the devotional I read today, John proclaimed the repentance for the forgiveness of sins as a means of preparing the way for the Lord.

And why would we prepare the way for the Lord?  So that the world can be changed?  So that we can fulfill God's mission?  Yes, to all of those.  God will and does transform the world.

It is, in fact, the mission of the United Methodist Church -- to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. 

When you read that, does it sound like something that we need to do for someone else?  Make someone a disciple?  Change the world?  Is there anything in that mission about the need for us to seek forgiveness?

What does one have to do with the other?

Could it be that the transformation of the world begins with you and me?  Could it be (and I think it is) that God's goal is to transform the world through us?  Through each of us?  And that for that to happen, we first need to repent so that we ourselves can be transformed?

I think repentance and forgiveness is a way God removes the barriers that come between God and each of us, and between each of us and each other.

Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.