On December 16, Pastor Jim preaches on Luke 3:7-18.

Okay, I’ve gotta be honest, John the Baptist wears me out. He’s a bag of downers. He preaches fire and condemnation. He wouldn’t last a week as a Methodist preacher.

And yet, maybe I’m being hasty. Maybe there is some hope in his message. Beyond the name calling and the threats and the, let’s face it, animosity, maybe John does indeed speak for God to us.

The passage ends with John describing Jesus as standing on his threshing floor with a winnowing fork in his hand ready to separate wheat from chaff; the wheat destined for the granary and the chaff destined for “unquenchable fire.”

And then in the very next verse, in the ultimate non sequitur, Luke wraps up the passage this way: “So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.”

I’m going to hang on to that. I hope to see you on Sunday. We’ll think together about what this “good news” could possibly be.