“Hallmark” movies, especially the holiday ones, are ultimately about reconciled relationships. There’s a tension in the in lives of the characters or character and as the story unfolds the tension is generally resolved in a simple and profound way and the relationships between the characters in the story are restored. Often it involves some sort of forgiveness or reconciliation with other people or past events.

It’s emotionally satisfying because we are drawn into the stories and we start to care for the characters. And, more importantly, it touches a longing that we have in our own lives to have the broken parts of our stories transformed and restored too.

In Advent, particularly with the appearance of John the Baptizer, we see how God is going to accomplish this reconciliation between God and us, and between each other. Baptism and truth telling is a small thing, yet it has profound consequences for us and for the world in which we live. 

You can find a direct link to the sermon here.