THEOLOGICAL CLUE

Luke, the Gospel for the Year, wants the entire story of Jesus, as he knows it, to be told, not only to Theophilus, but to the larger audience who will read his gospel. This Sunday's theological task is to retell the story of John the Baptist's ministry, so as to show John's role in the advent of Jesus in his baptism and the beginning of his ministry here on earth. John might be called the "connector," because he "connected" the prophecies of the Old Testament to the coming of Christ as the Promised One, the Messiah. He did that by preaching a "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins," adding that soon all people "shall see the salvation of God." The Second Sunday in Advent attunes the church to realized eschatology, as far as John's basic work is concerned. But…