Jesus Interruption - Day 1

Lent 2011 - The Jesus Interruption
Each week of this season, we will be entering into the experience of an individual whose life was interrupted by an encounter with Jesus. This week - John the Baptist (John 1:19-23).


WHO ARE YOU? they asked John.

Immediately we are confronted with an challenge to our identity. Who are you? In that unique way the Gospel According to John has, truth is accessed in one penetrating moment, driving the question like a needle into a vein to draw out identity, being, life.

Who are you?

It is a question that demands an answer, and will not leave us alone until we offer one. Stubbornly insistent, the question prods and pokes and goads us until we know and can say out loud that we are somebody, there is a "me" here, I am a person. And even in answering the question, we affirm that we are worth something. Because we are, we matter.

Who are you?

Medidate on it. Think deeply about it. Pray the question - Who am I?

Can I conceal myself for evermore?
Pretend I'm not the man I was before?
And must my name until I die
Be no more than an alibi?
Who am I?
(from the musical "Les Miserables")

Lent is the season to reveal, not conceal; it is a season to seek the truth, and peel away pretension. Start at the core - Who are you?