Year B
Mark 1:1-8
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
No “Holiday Spirit” Here
On the first Sunday of Advent, we learned that the theme of Advent is to focus our attention on the real meaning of Christmas and how we should be preparing during these days, which we know is very different than the way the rest of the world is preparing right now. The secular world, the world without God, measures this time of preparation by the number of shopping days until Christmas, the Church measures this time in terms of the number of days remaining until the time when Jesus will return to earth in glory and power. Our way of counting during Advent can be confusing to many. Especially since the mood of Advent is much more somber than what is going on all around us. We don’t even sing Christmas carols until Christmas Eve. This confusion isn’t really surprising since we all bring our “worldly” experiences into church with us.
Through the years, I have had several ask why we can’t sing Christmas carols earlier since everyone else is. Can’t we sing at least one or two in church before Christmas Eve? Unfortunately, the result has been that we frequently come to view Advent as “so many spiritual shopping days before Christmas,” rather than seeing Advent as a time to prepare our hearts and minds for a face-to-face encounter with God in the birth of Christ at Christmas and in the day when Christ will return to usher in the fullness of God’s kingdom. For us, our preparation is different because Christmas is a holy day not just a holiday. God became one of us! Advent is the time for us to prepare for our encounter with the God of the universe, the Holy One.
How can we prepare ourselves for an encounter with the Holy One? According to Mark this morning, we start at the beginning “The beginning of the Good News about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, the story about Jesus. To help his readers in his day understand their troubled situation around 70 CE, Mark proclaims Jesus, but to understand Jesus he looks back to the scriptures of Israel. We can’t understand our faith as followers of Christ adequately without understanding our Jewish roots. Whatever God is doing in our world today, and whatever God did in Jesus Christ, should be consistent with what God was doing all along with Israel.
Therefore, Mark looks back to the words of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah was not predicting John the Baptist, but Mark sees an analogy between Isaiah’s words “A voice cries out: in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight a highway for our God,” and the preaching of John “in the wilderness.” Isaiah gives us a frame of reference for understanding John as God’s messenger who clears the way by calling God’s people to repentance. John, a preacher and baptizer called God’s people from the countryside and from the city, and from whatever occupied them, to consider for a time what it might mean to prepare for the one who is to come.
His message does not ring with the “holiday spirit.” However he does address the matter of preparing to meet the “one who is more powerful….who will baptize with the Holy Spirit, for that is what his message of repentance is all about. The Greek word for “repent” means ‘to change” – to turn and face the truth about ourselves and change the direction of our lives. And who wants to do either of those things? Yet, if Christmas is really about an encounter with the Holy One then Christmas must also be about change. Changes in our values and priorities, changes in our attitudes and changes in the way we treat others.
Catherine Meeks, in our Advent Study book ‘Walking the Way of Love’, in her chapter titled “Turn” says “repentance on a daily basis is a tough assignment for all of us. The first practice in the Way of Love is complex and difficult, and yet it is foundational to transforming not only our lives but our world. It should come as no surprise that following the Way of Love will require us to engage in daily acts of repentance. “Turning” is not a matter of simply asking God for help to do better. It is a matter of discovering what at our core is making it difficult for us to do better. It is crucial she says that we pray and ask God for help. But these petitions fall on rocky soil when they are not partnered with knowing what inner distractions are keeping us from turning to God wholeheartedly.”
She asks “How do we manage to turn” she then spends the rest of the chapter helping those of us reading to learn how to listen for that Still, Small Voice of God that provides the information about when, how, and to what one must turn. She says, the only way to fully live the Way of Love “is by letting go of all the ways we project, invent, and create ourselves and others, and instead turn ourselves over to the God whose love is perfect”. It was this that John the Baptist was calling the people of his day to do. His message was a challenge. The Son of God is coming, and time is running out to get priorities straight. Repent, turn, and bring your brokenness to God and allow God to heal your lives.
This is how we wait for the coming of the Holy One which as Peter tells us today “will come like a thief.” He says, “Therefore, beloved while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” God does not want anyone to perish but all to come to repentance and is allowing time for this. And there is no better time than Advent for us to accept this grace-filled invitation. What seems to be a long delay in Christ’s return is really God’s gracious way of saying to us, from generation to generation, it is not too late. Wait in penitence, eagerness and hope.
So, my friends, if we are looking for the holiday spirit, we won’t find it here, just yet. But if we are looking for an encounter with the Holy One-if we are looking for the presence of the living God who sent his Son to change the hearts and lives of people—then we have come to the right place. Because we are like the crowds listening to the prophet John, seeking direction for our future. John points us to Jesus, who came so long ago and who is yet coming. As in the past, Jesus may shock us when he comes and shows us who we really are before God. Our only hope is to join with John in confessing our sins and looking to the coming of the one who baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. Come, Lord Jesus. Come!