John the Baptist Preaches Repentance

We welcome you to our Midweek Advent Services as we gather to hear the historic weekday readings for Advent. These readings focus our attention on St. John the Baptist. On this first Wednesday, we begin with the inauguration of St. John the Baptist’s ministry according to St. Matthew. The Epistle from James 5 underscores the Baptizer’s call of “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” with “The Judge is standing at the door!” We also see in the Epistle the introduction of agricultural imagery for the return of Christ, this time as a farmer who is waiting patiently for his crops to bear fruit.