prepare the way

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Today I have the pleasure of participating in a panel discussion about sharing faith in a medical setting. This will be a lunch time discussion at Rochester General Hospital from noon to 1 today in the TWIG Auditorium, which is slightly past the front desk on the left. If you're available during that time, I think you'll find it an interesting discussion. The other panelists are a patient and two doctors at RGH, each with their own perspective and experience.

Today's reading skips forward in the story of Jesus to John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, who was called as a prophet to prepare people for Jesus. We read the last couple of days about the promise of John's birth, and now we skip forward to his ministry.

God bless,
Sam

Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, ²during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

³He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ⁵Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; ⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”