Begin Again: Tell What You See and Hear

In our scripture this week, John the Baptist, the wild prophet of the wilderness, now sits in prison. The man who baptized Jesus, who proclaimed the kingdom breaking in, now stares at stone walls and wonders:

Did I get this wrong?
Is Jesus really the one, or should we keep waiting?

And honestly? Who among us hasn’t had that moment? Who hasn’t looked around at the world—at suffering, at systems that refuse to change, at injustice that grinds people down—and thought, 

Where is God in all this? Should we keep waiting, or is this it?

And Jesus? He doesn’t shame John for asking. He doesn’t demand simple faith or offer easy words. Instead, he says:

Look. Listen. John, it’s happening. A new world is breaking forth. Right now. Even in the struggle. Even in the waiting. Even in the mess.

And that’s where we find ourselves, isn’t it? Standing in a world that feels too heavy, too broken, too much. We see people hurting. We see greed swallowing up whole communities. We see exhaustion in each other’s eyes. And yet—God moves now. Not in some distant, polished future, but here, in the raw, complicated, realness of today.

So this Sunday, we lean in. We claim hope, not because it’s naïve, but because it’s powerful. We wrestle with doubt, knowing that questions don’t make us weak—they make us honest. We open our eyes and ears to the Spirit moving in the places we least expect.

As James Baldwin says, “It is necessary, while in darkness, to know that there is a light somewhere, to know that in oneself, waiting to be found, there is a light.” So what if we lived like that light is already here? What if we dared to trust that goodness is already breaking through?

So bring your whole self—there’s room for all of it. There’s room for you. And together, we will experience what God is doing.

See you Sunday.

Peace,
Pastor Katie