Mark 1:1-8
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,make his paths straight” ’
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
Well, he was an eccentric one, John the Baptist.
Picture him: An ascetic wilderness man. A brazen preacher, crying out -- dressed in camel’s hair of all things, eating dinners of locusts and wild honey.
Yeah. He was an eccentric one, John the Baptist.
But it’s not as if people shied away from him, running off to avoid encountering someone so weird. The text in Mark describes droves of people going out to meet him in the wilderness – the whole Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem. This eccentric preacher had an audience. He had the attention of the people.
And what was he doing out there? His actions were eccentric too. He took people into a simple river of all places – the Jordan River to be exact – and he made it a place of ultimate life-change. It became a place of repentance, which literally means to turn around. He brought people into the water, and even though their feet probably moved back home in the same way they got there, in a very real sense, they left moving in a different direction.
And as strange and unique as those actions may sound, there was probably no place more significant to do them than the Jordan River. That river had a history with the people in their sacred stories. The people told each other the story of how the Israelites had miraculously crossed the Jordan River under the leadership of Joshua, finally entering the Promised Land after wandering around in the desert for forty years. That certainly sounds like a place of new direction.
The people told each other the story of Naaman. Maybe you remember that one from Sunday school. Naaman was a commander of a foreign army who developed leprosy. He was told to go to the prophet Elisha in Israel for healing, and Elisha gave him an eccentric command too: “Go, wash in the Jordan River seven times and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” Naaman thought this was a ridiculous command, and he was angry about it too. But he eventually entered the waters, and left the Jordan River restored. Again, that certainly sounds like a moment and place of new direction.
So as eccentric as his actions were, John the Baptist was tapping into a tradition, and he was transforming it anew for a present movement of life-change.
But beyond what he was doing out there, what was he saying out there? His message was eccentric too. All four gospels associate John with a passage from the prophetic book Isaiah. John is the one in the wilderness crying out, “Prepare the Way of the Lord! Make his paths straight!” And this message of preparation wasn’t passive by any means. The message was to “Repent!” – “Turn around!” Pay attention! “The Kingdom of God is at hand!” Something incredible, life-altering, and cataclysmic was on the horizon. Get ready! Enter this water and move in a different direction! Leave here, and live in expectation!
And although each gospel tells John’s story with different nuances, they all speak of him as a forerunner to Jesus – one who is preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry. Here John says, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” What an eccentric message! “Get ready! Prepare! Because another Baptizer is coming – one so powerful that I am not worthy to bend down before him and even untie his shoes. Get ready! Repent! Turn around! Make your life a preparation to meet this one who is coming! The Kingdom of God is at hand! It’s more near than you can imagine!”
What a strange, eccentric message.
And so here we are in the Advent and Christmas season of 2011, and we’re profoundly distanced from whatever happened historically in that river. And yet, we’re somehow connected to it. Maybe it’s more near to us than we can imagine.
As eccentric as he is, John the Baptist is an important figure in the Christian tradition, and in the season of Advent, we always consider his witness. And it makes sense to do that. Advent is a season of preparation, and John the Baptist teaches us to prepare the way for Christ’s coming.
This week, as I looked at this passage, I learned something that peaked my curiosity. The word that gets translated here as “prepare” – Prepare the Way of the Lord – can also be translated, “Keep in readiness.” “Keep in readiness.” That’s strange too. It got my attention. It adds a new layer of meaning,doesn’t it? “Keep in readiness the Way of the Lord.” We’re called to prepare. But we aren’t called to prepare once. We’re called to “Keep in readiness.” That means we’re preparing all the time. That must mean that Christ is coming to us all the time. We need to be ready – ready to prepare his way and ready to recognize him as he is graciously revealed to us again and again.
And our faith teaches us to follow his Way. Somehow the Christian life involves preparation for the Way, and once that Way is revealed, we’re called follow in it. We prepare. . . we follow. . . prepare. . . and follow. These are somehow the rhythms of Christian living. These are somehow the rhythms of Christian discipleship.
What a strange, eccentric way to live.
Karl Barth is a man who wrote a lot of books. A lot of books. In his professional life, he wrote eight publishable pages a day. Can you imagine doing that? That added up to volumes and volumes of writings – writings of theology to be exact. Karl Barth is generally characterized as the most influential theologian of the 20th-century.
In his study, Barth kept a painting of John the Baptist right where he could see it. And in that painting, John stretches out a finger – a very long finger pointing away from himself. In the fourth gospel, John says about Jesus, “He must increase. I must decrease.” Barth kept this painting in his study to remind himself that all these volumes and volumes he was producing shouldn’t ultimately point to himself but to Christ, the one he was writing and writing about. John was Baptist was preparing the way – keeping in readiness – always pointing and witnessing toward the one who was forging the Way for us to follow. Karl Barth to be this kind of witness too.
So here’s a question: Do you ever think of yourselves as witnesses? Well, let’s face it. The words “witness” and “witnessing” get a bad rap sometimes. Maybe they conjure up pictures of people who think they’re always right, have everything figured out, and want to hit people over the head with it. Images of “Bible Thumpers” come to mind – people who seem to use their faith against others, pushing them down -- people who seem to use faith as a weapon against those who share their own humanity.
But maybe there’s a way to witness that affirms what is most human.
Have you ever considered how important you are? You -- you strange, unique, eccentric people? Have you ever considered it? Have you ever considered that you have been chosen and empowered to be a witness, a witness like John, pointing to the one who forges a Way for us to follow, pointing to the one who shows us what it means to be fully human? We point to Jesus Christ who Karl Barth called the True Human. We’re challenged to be human in the same way Christ lived his humanity. That’s a witness. And though we stumble and make mistakes, we look to him as our example. He leads us in our attempt to be human. We keep in readiness for him. We expect him around every corner. And when we find him, we’re called to follow him..
And where do we find him? Don’t we somehow find him in the lives of our fellow human beings? “As much as you do good to the least of these – the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned – you do it to me,” Christ says. Christ is always beyond us, but don’t we somehow also find him in each other?
Friends, wherever there is need, wherever there is humanity, there is Christ. Keep in readiness to receive him always. Wherever there is greed, wherever there is malice, wherever there is selfishness, wherever there is hatred, wherever there is sin, there we find actions that are inhuman. Point to Christ in those places. Witness to him there. Point to Christ in the inhuman systems such as these. Point to Christ in the inhuman places within yourselves. And keep in readiness for him to show up again and again. Be ready for him to baptize you into a new direction.
Have you ever considered how vital you are? Have you ever considered that your need and your humanity witnesses Christ’s presence to the world? Your lives and stories just might reveal his Way to others. Keep in readiness. Prepare his Way. Watch for him to come to you – to enrich you, to turn you around - any second. He is more near than you can imagine.
What wonderful, eccentric things to believe!
Have you ever considered that you are ministers, ministers and proclaimers of good news? You are part of a faith and a tradition that takes part in eccentric actions. How strange they are!
How eccentric it is that we baptize each other? How strange it is that we’re told to remember our baptism – that we’re invited to ultimate life-change every day as Christ comes to us ever anew. Have you ever considered that baptism is a type of ordination? You have been ordained to live as Christ’s faithful ministers– as God’s own children – when you were brought to waters of baptism by others.
Some of you were baptized as infants or young children, some of you as adults, and there may be some of you who haven’t experienced the physical act of baptism, but who are nonetheless beloved children of God who are being called ever anew to keep in readiness and follow.
In baptism, you have been ordained as ministers and witnesses. How will you live out that identity? How will you keep in readiness, always remaining open to Christ’s presence, which will form and transform that identity? How will you live out such a strange, incredible calling?
Well, you will certainly be eccentric ones, Pasadena Presbyterian Church.
Picture yourselves: Loving, living into a human calling, wearing deeds of justice and kindness, eating dinners of fellowship and broken bread.
Yeah. You’re eccentric ones, Pasadena Presbyterian Church.
Keep in readiness.
Amen.
-Renee Roederer, Director of Young Adult Ministries at Pasadena Presbyterian Church
Picture him: An ascetic wilderness man. A brazen preacher, crying out -- dressed in camel’s hair of all things, eating dinners of locusts and wild honey.
Yeah. He was an eccentric one, John the Baptist.
But it’s not as if people shied away from him, running off to avoid encountering someone so weird. The text in Mark describes droves of people going out to meet him in the wilderness – the whole Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem. This eccentric preacher had an audience. He had the attention of the people.
And what was he doing out there? His actions were eccentric too. He took people into a simple river of all places – the Jordan River to be exact – and he made it a place of ultimate life-change. It became a place of repentance, which literally means to turn around. He brought people into the water, and even though their feet probably moved back home in the same way they got there, in a very real sense, they left moving in a different direction.
And as strange and unique as those actions may sound, there was probably no place more significant to do them than the Jordan River. That river had a history with the people in their sacred stories. The people told each other the story of how the Israelites had miraculously crossed the Jordan River under the leadership of Joshua, finally entering the Promised Land after wandering around in the desert for forty years. That certainly sounds like a place of new direction.
The people told each other the story of Naaman. Maybe you remember that one from Sunday school. Naaman was a commander of a foreign army who developed leprosy. He was told to go to the prophet Elisha in Israel for healing, and Elisha gave him an eccentric command too: “Go, wash in the Jordan River seven times and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” Naaman thought this was a ridiculous command, and he was angry about it too. But he eventually entered the waters, and left the Jordan River restored. Again, that certainly sounds like a moment and place of new direction.
So as eccentric as his actions were, John the Baptist was tapping into a tradition, and he was transforming it anew for a present movement of life-change.
But beyond what he was doing out there, what was he saying out there? His message was eccentric too. All four gospels associate John with a passage from the prophetic book Isaiah. John is the one in the wilderness crying out, “Prepare the Way of the Lord! Make his paths straight!” And this message of preparation wasn’t passive by any means. The message was to “Repent!” – “Turn around!” Pay attention! “The Kingdom of God is at hand!” Something incredible, life-altering, and cataclysmic was on the horizon. Get ready! Enter this water and move in a different direction! Leave here, and live in expectation!
And although each gospel tells John’s story with different nuances, they all speak of him as a forerunner to Jesus – one who is preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry. Here John says, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” What an eccentric message! “Get ready! Prepare! Because another Baptizer is coming – one so powerful that I am not worthy to bend down before him and even untie his shoes. Get ready! Repent! Turn around! Make your life a preparation to meet this one who is coming! The Kingdom of God is at hand! It’s more near than you can imagine!”
What a strange, eccentric message.
And so here we are in the Advent and Christmas season of 2011, and we’re profoundly distanced from whatever happened historically in that river. And yet, we’re somehow connected to it. Maybe it’s more near to us than we can imagine.
As eccentric as he is, John the Baptist is an important figure in the Christian tradition, and in the season of Advent, we always consider his witness. And it makes sense to do that. Advent is a season of preparation, and John the Baptist teaches us to prepare the way for Christ’s coming.
This week, as I looked at this passage, I learned something that peaked my curiosity. The word that gets translated here as “prepare” – Prepare the Way of the Lord – can also be translated, “Keep in readiness.” “Keep in readiness.” That’s strange too. It got my attention. It adds a new layer of meaning,doesn’t it? “Keep in readiness the Way of the Lord.” We’re called to prepare. But we aren’t called to prepare once. We’re called to “Keep in readiness.” That means we’re preparing all the time. That must mean that Christ is coming to us all the time. We need to be ready – ready to prepare his way and ready to recognize him as he is graciously revealed to us again and again.
And our faith teaches us to follow his Way. Somehow the Christian life involves preparation for the Way, and once that Way is revealed, we’re called follow in it. We prepare. . . we follow. . . prepare. . . and follow. These are somehow the rhythms of Christian living. These are somehow the rhythms of Christian discipleship.
What a strange, eccentric way to live.
Karl Barth is a man who wrote a lot of books. A lot of books. In his professional life, he wrote eight publishable pages a day. Can you imagine doing that? That added up to volumes and volumes of writings – writings of theology to be exact. Karl Barth is generally characterized as the most influential theologian of the 20th-century.
In his study, Barth kept a painting of John the Baptist right where he could see it. And in that painting, John stretches out a finger – a very long finger pointing away from himself. In the fourth gospel, John says about Jesus, “He must increase. I must decrease.” Barth kept this painting in his study to remind himself that all these volumes and volumes he was producing shouldn’t ultimately point to himself but to Christ, the one he was writing and writing about. John was Baptist was preparing the way – keeping in readiness – always pointing and witnessing toward the one who was forging the Way for us to follow. Karl Barth to be this kind of witness too.
So here’s a question: Do you ever think of yourselves as witnesses? Well, let’s face it. The words “witness” and “witnessing” get a bad rap sometimes. Maybe they conjure up pictures of people who think they’re always right, have everything figured out, and want to hit people over the head with it. Images of “Bible Thumpers” come to mind – people who seem to use their faith against others, pushing them down -- people who seem to use faith as a weapon against those who share their own humanity.
But maybe there’s a way to witness that affirms what is most human.
Have you ever considered how important you are? You -- you strange, unique, eccentric people? Have you ever considered it? Have you ever considered that you have been chosen and empowered to be a witness, a witness like John, pointing to the one who forges a Way for us to follow, pointing to the one who shows us what it means to be fully human? We point to Jesus Christ who Karl Barth called the True Human. We’re challenged to be human in the same way Christ lived his humanity. That’s a witness. And though we stumble and make mistakes, we look to him as our example. He leads us in our attempt to be human. We keep in readiness for him. We expect him around every corner. And when we find him, we’re called to follow him..
And where do we find him? Don’t we somehow find him in the lives of our fellow human beings? “As much as you do good to the least of these – the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned – you do it to me,” Christ says. Christ is always beyond us, but don’t we somehow also find him in each other?
Friends, wherever there is need, wherever there is humanity, there is Christ. Keep in readiness to receive him always. Wherever there is greed, wherever there is malice, wherever there is selfishness, wherever there is hatred, wherever there is sin, there we find actions that are inhuman. Point to Christ in those places. Witness to him there. Point to Christ in the inhuman systems such as these. Point to Christ in the inhuman places within yourselves. And keep in readiness for him to show up again and again. Be ready for him to baptize you into a new direction.
Have you ever considered how vital you are? Have you ever considered that your need and your humanity witnesses Christ’s presence to the world? Your lives and stories just might reveal his Way to others. Keep in readiness. Prepare his Way. Watch for him to come to you – to enrich you, to turn you around - any second. He is more near than you can imagine.
What wonderful, eccentric things to believe!
Have you ever considered that you are ministers, ministers and proclaimers of good news? You are part of a faith and a tradition that takes part in eccentric actions. How strange they are!
How eccentric it is that we baptize each other? How strange it is that we’re told to remember our baptism – that we’re invited to ultimate life-change every day as Christ comes to us ever anew. Have you ever considered that baptism is a type of ordination? You have been ordained to live as Christ’s faithful ministers– as God’s own children – when you were brought to waters of baptism by others.
Some of you were baptized as infants or young children, some of you as adults, and there may be some of you who haven’t experienced the physical act of baptism, but who are nonetheless beloved children of God who are being called ever anew to keep in readiness and follow.
In baptism, you have been ordained as ministers and witnesses. How will you live out that identity? How will you keep in readiness, always remaining open to Christ’s presence, which will form and transform that identity? How will you live out such a strange, incredible calling?
Well, you will certainly be eccentric ones, Pasadena Presbyterian Church.
Picture yourselves: Loving, living into a human calling, wearing deeds of justice and kindness, eating dinners of fellowship and broken bread.
Yeah. You’re eccentric ones, Pasadena Presbyterian Church.
Keep in readiness.
Amen.
-Renee Roederer, Director of Young Adult Ministries at Pasadena Presbyterian Church
No comments:
Post a Comment