May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Christmas 1999
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 24 and 25, 1999
TEXT: Luke 2:1-20, (21-38) - The Christmas Story
But the Angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find the child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.
"Guided by the Spirit he (Simeon) came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the law required, he took him in his arms, praised God, and said: 'Now, Lord you are releasing your servant in peace, according to your promise. For I have seen with my own eyes the deliverance you have made ready in full view of all nations: a light that will bring revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel.'"
ISSUE: Luke conveys the wonderful poetic story of the birth of Jesus. It is rooted in Israel's past and gives new hope for the future. the story assures that God in Christ has come to his people, not in some ethereal or spooky way, but in the human form to experience and identify with the human experience. The concluding part of the birth narrative tells how Simeon, who would not die before seeing the Savior, picks the Christ child up and holds him in his arms. The story asks us to contemplate our response to the Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
We are gathered here again this year, the last Christmas before the new millennium to once again ponder the beautiful poetic story of Christ's birth as told in St. Luke's Gospel. Tonite I would also like to speak a little about "the rest of the story" as it is recorded in Luke and with which we are not quite so familiar. That is, there is an important part of the drama or story that does not get quite as much attention as the earlier part of the story.
All of the parts of the story have their special significance. It is the story of a family in great distress and tells of a people in great distress. Our creche's and manger scenes often sentimentalize and sanitize the story. We probably even sometimes think of it as children's story, but the themes are really quite adult.
In the story the lives of Joseph and the pregnant Mary are disrupted by the oppressive government of Caesar Augustus and Quirinius the governor. While the Romans may have brought peace to this land, it was at the cost of great loss of civil and human rights to the people who were heavily taxed and controlled. The birth of Christ is set by Luke into its true historical context of a very hard and difficult time for the people.
Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where the child is born in a manger, because there is not room in the inn. The clear indication here is that Mary and Joseph had little standing. Those with greater honor and standing had taken whatever guest rooms were available in this little town of about a hundred residents. Bethlehem did not have any "inns" as such, they were merely a few rooms available in single home dwellings. Most of these dwellings did have mangers in them because animals were kept in the homes at one end of the house at night. Most peasant women did infact deliver their new born children in the manger. Jesus birth in a manger was not unusual. It was so common of a thing that one wonders why Luke even mentions it. Birth in the manger heightens the lowliness of the birth of Christ which indicates his coming to the poor, the least, the last, and the lost. But make no mistake about it. Mary and Joseph are displaced people, and are facing a time of great distress.
The manger setting is also based on a passage from Isaiah in which Isaiah 1:3. The manger is a feeding place. Donkeys and oxen know where to feed, but often people miss the feeding that God gives to them. Luke tells us that Jesus is the new food of God to sustain and bring hope, healing, and love to the people who will turn to him.
Luke tells us that the child was wrapped in swaddling bands of cloth. This swaddling was again a very common practice of the time. It was thought to make a child grow healthy and strong. It's restrictiveness to the legs and arms of the child were also considered to be disciplinary. It led even the youngest child to know that he needed to be obedient and controlled. But even though this was a very common practice, the swaddling cloths will be a sign to the shepherds that they have found the Christ. From the book of The Wisdom of Solomon 7:4-5, the richest and wisest of all of Israel's kings, King Solomon writes: I was nursed with care in swaddling clothes, for no king has had a different beginning in existence." Luke is telling us, yes the Christ was human and born like all others, yet he is royal, Son of the Most High. He is food for spiritually hungry people in very difficult times, and he is royal unlike the world understands royalty.
Jesus is born in Bethlehem, which was the city where King David, a simple a shepherd boy had been born. David had risen to great heights, and was a faithful shepherd to his people of Judah and Israel. For Luke, Jesus is nothing less in his simplicity than a Good Shepherd to the people of his time as he leads them in love and to a deeper faith and love of God.
Shepherds, though sometimes romanticized in scripture, were really considered to be a very low status and dishonorable occupation are the first learn of the Christ's birth. They praise him on earth while Angels praise him in the heavens. Both earth and sky come to worship and to adore him. God in Christ has been born; he has come to dwell with his people.
This story is one of God acting in the history of his people, in the days of Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. God comes once again to be with his people, even the most lowly, to show them the light of love and hope, and to give them the assurance that God is with them, and to provide forgiveness where it is needed. God in Christ is humble and lowly, entering the human condition in its fullest, born in a manger and dressed in swaddling clothes. At the same time his truly the royal prince of peace. The story emphasizes how the humble, simple, mundane things of life are touched by God, how royal and hopeful they can become. Jesus Christ is truly human and experienced in the hardness and difficulty of the human condition, as well as its moments of joy.
Now for the rest of the story, and the important part of my offering to you tonight. This part of the story is not so well known and discussed from Luke's Gospel birth narrative.
After just eight days, Mary and Joseph take the child to the temple as was the custom of the law. Mary is to be purified which was the religious custom after a birth had taken place. They make an offering of the poor, two turtle doves, as opposed to the lamb that would have otherwise been offered those of slightly more wealth. The male child Jesus will be named and dedicated to God. Now in the Temple is a man named Simeon, and an old widow, Anna of the tribe of Asher, who is 84 years old. For anyone to live in those days to the age of 84 was extraordinary. But the oldest people, like this widow were considered to be very wise, and in a time when most people were illiterate, the elders provided memory and history for the community along with wisdom. So Anna would be held in high regard.
Now Simeon is said to be a man of the Spirit of God. And Simeon was told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen Israel's salvation. He would not die until he had seen the Christ. When Simeon sees the child Jesus in the Temple, he goes to the child, and picks him up in his arms and embraces the child, gives thanks to God and says:
"Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word;
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou has prepared for all people,
To be a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people Israel."
The old and wise Anna validated the song of Simeon.
I suggest that Luke is telling his readers and the community that he was addressing that this is a word to the wise. These were indeed very frightening and difficult times. We know that Jesus was born, that he is God's son, the light, the love, the hope of the world. But the wise will embrace the Christ, they will take him into their arms and hold him for dear life, and live according to his word.
These are difficult times for us too in our world and in our lives. It is a scary time. But do not be afraid, God is in our midst, knowing full well our pain and suffering, our fears. Pick him up, embrace him, hold him dear, and then we can live and die in peace.
Saturday, December 25, 1999
Sunday, December 19, 1999
Advent 4
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Advent 4
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 19,1999
TEXT: Luke 1:26-38 - The Annunciation to Mary
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. . . . . . .For nothing will be impossible with God."
See also 2 Sam. 7:4, 8-16 - " I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me."
ISSUE: The passage tells of the Angel Gabriel announcement to Mary that she shall bear a son and name him Jesus. For the early church it is the fulfillment of hope that God has not abandoned his people and the promise made to King David is being fulfilled. He will be Son of the Most High. Thus, God shall be his father. The event while implying a miraculous birth still makes it quite clear that it is a human birth through Mary. Jesus comes to and in the midst of the simple and humble. With God it is clearly possible that he can come to the least, the last, and the lost to reclaim them all as his sons and daughters of the Most High.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today we begin looking at that beautiful story that Luke tells of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. I want to preface my remarks by reminding you that the Gospels are not actual biographies of Jesus' life. They are rather proclamations of new news or Good News that God is doing something in the world in order to establish God's reign. In Luke's account of the birth of Christ it is important that we not take in a mere historial sense or in a literal sense. The story is meant to tell us something theological, to express some profound meaning of God's being involved in some wonderful, miraculous, and mysterious way in human life. The story touches and appeals to children as well as adults.
Looking at the background against which Jesus' birth takes place it is important to remember what was going on. God's people, the Jewish people, were a conquered people. The Temple authorities, that is, the religious authorities, Saducees were in collusion with the Romans. The large portion of the population, maybe 98% were poor. Life was very fixed culturally. Not much changed. You lived in the moment without much expecatation. They had little control over their lives. Life was hard. Life spans were short. Infant mortality rate was very high. Diet was meagre. Pain and suffering was prevalent. Oppression was a fact of life. There was probably a longing, and a deep yearning, for deliverance, for some messianic deliverance as the people looked back to a grander time like that of David. But it is likely that there was not really much of a sense of real genuine hopefulness. You lived having to tolerate what was dealt out to you.
Into this kind of situation, Jesus comes to the scene. He begins a ministry of offering hope in terms of some healing and restoration. He challenges various things in the culture. He begins speaking of The Reign and the Empire of God coming as a new power in the midst of worldly powers. He invites a discipleship of men and women to join forces with him. Now as Luke at a later date begins telling the story and putting together the message of Christ, he seems to weave what Jesus did into the story of his birth. The birth story is something of an overture to the life of Christ.
There was a hope and an expectation that a Son of David would come to the world to carry on that dynasty which the Lesson from Samuel is about today which would be likened to a Son of God. At the time that Jesus was born there were already many stories of miraculous birth stories which centered around great historical figures like Caesar and Alexander the great. What Luke seems to be saying is that if you think they were miraculous births, let me tell you something even more grand. I can tell you about something utterly miraculous about how God comes to his people. We must remember that it is only Luke and a small portion of Matthew that tells anything about a birth of Jesus. St. Paul never mentions it. Mark has no birth narrative at all, and John's Gospel account only offers a kind of Hymn about how Jesus is the light coming into the world, that was reluctant to receive him.
There are some who would say that Luke, and also Matthew, weaves this miracle story of angels and virgin birth to kind of spare the early Christians some embarrassment about their extraordinary humble beginnings, being led by this possibly illegitimate itinerant preacher of no honorable status whatsoever. However you interpret it or manage the story, there is the wonder of it all that captures the human imagination, whether young or old.
Thus, Luke tells of the Anunciation, which is the reading for today. There is this young girl, whose name is Mary. So far as we know she had little honorable standing, and becomes betrothed (not engaged) to a carpenter, an artisan, also with little or no standing. Mary has nothing going for her. She lackes all the credentials that most people would think important. She's too young; too inexperienced; she's a woman, she has no marital status; and she is powerless. This situation is the epitomy of the mundane, if not absurd. Little could be expected from the union of these two people. What's more it will appear that Mary is the bearer of an illegitimate child which would put her in a position of dreadful shame, and might even call for her being stoned to death by the community. But God acts. The Angel Gabriel, messenger of God who had come with messages for Daniel, comes to announce to Mary that she will be overshadowed, that is protected by God as a husband protects his pregnant wife. She will bear a son, and though the child may appear to be illegitimate, he will be truly from God: he will be God's Son, and he will come as hope for his people.
What Luke is weaving in his birth story is the understanding that the world looks to the powers of the world for miracles and wonders. They are often a dreadfully disappointing and inflict real devastation. But God, in Luke's story, does his miracles and powers among the least, the lost, the last. God's powers are often worked among those you would least expect. It is Joseph, and a very young girl who is suspect of being quite shameful, that God acts. Through the acceptance of their role real love is revealed. Bad situations become redeemed. What seems dishonorable becomes honorable. What seems to be impossible happens. God comes to reclaim and restore his lost people. He enters into the human condition in a way that will reach and toudh human hearts, making them responsive. Jesus is born of a woman with all that that implies: morning sickness and painful birth. Yet to that human condition is comes hope and redemption. God comes to his people in all of their imperfection, uncertainty, and anxiety. He comes in a real genuine way that is initmate. God has not and will not abandon his faithful people.
It has been pointed out that the one event in all of our Christmas preparations that so beautifully portrays the real genuine theological content of the Christmas story is the proverbial Christmas Pageant. In some cases they are elaborately prepared and rehearsed. Yet still the angel wings get bent and their halos become crooked. Shepherds stumble and the sheep get loose. At least one child will cry and at the last moment some completely withdraw from the drama. Yet inspite of that imperfection, the message still comes through clearly. Jesus Christ gets born again. God comes in the midst of the fray, and no one misses that point. God comes and acts inspite of us. And that is because some folk and children in and with all their imperfections have the courage to offer themselves and simply to say, "Lord, use me."
The point is also made in the story by Dr. Seuss of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." Inspite of the loss of all the stuff, the decorations and presents, it is still Christmas. Hearts are still touched, and even the evil contentious Grinch becomes himself is converted, if not redeemed. God is still acting and entering into the human condition.
At Christmas many of us try to enter into a kind of fairyland. Even people who live in Southern Florida dream of a white Christmas. We deluge and indulge ourselves with presents, and decorations. Underneath it all we know it doesn't always snow on Christmas. Not everyone gets home for Christmas, and sometimes there are depressions, great losses and sadnesses that are re-enforced and realized as a result of the season. While the ovens in Germany were be stoked during World War II, military officers sang "Silent Night" -"Stille Nacht Heilege Nacht." Human suffering can and does still abound.
The world and each of us in it so desperately need Christ at various times in our lives. We need to feel loved. We need a sense of hope. We need forgiveness and reconciliation. We need to be found and redeemed. In our brokeness we need healing and hope. Christ has come, and must come again, and will come. Luke leads us to believe that Christ's coming to us is inevitable. God simply acts. We need to be responsive to him with open hearts, minds, and souls. May each of us be willing to be the mansions prepared for him, and to allow Christ to be reborn is each of us again, inspite of our imperfections. Let God in Christ reshape and remold us remembering that God is the potter, and we are the clay that can be reshaped, reformed, renewed. Mary accepts through faith the inevitable. God will work in and through her. Nothing is impossible. The barren get new life. The powerless become the daughters and sons of the Most High. "Then Mary said, 'Here I am Lord; let it be with me according to your word,'" Luke weaves a powerful story that is the overture to the whole ministry of Jesus Christ that he is truly God's Son, and light for the darkness of the world. He is the shepherd of the lost sheep. He is our hope.
SEASON: Advent 4
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 19,1999
TEXT: Luke 1:26-38 - The Annunciation to Mary
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. . . . . . .For nothing will be impossible with God."
See also 2 Sam. 7:4, 8-16 - " I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me."
ISSUE: The passage tells of the Angel Gabriel announcement to Mary that she shall bear a son and name him Jesus. For the early church it is the fulfillment of hope that God has not abandoned his people and the promise made to King David is being fulfilled. He will be Son of the Most High. Thus, God shall be his father. The event while implying a miraculous birth still makes it quite clear that it is a human birth through Mary. Jesus comes to and in the midst of the simple and humble. With God it is clearly possible that he can come to the least, the last, and the lost to reclaim them all as his sons and daughters of the Most High.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today we begin looking at that beautiful story that Luke tells of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. I want to preface my remarks by reminding you that the Gospels are not actual biographies of Jesus' life. They are rather proclamations of new news or Good News that God is doing something in the world in order to establish God's reign. In Luke's account of the birth of Christ it is important that we not take in a mere historial sense or in a literal sense. The story is meant to tell us something theological, to express some profound meaning of God's being involved in some wonderful, miraculous, and mysterious way in human life. The story touches and appeals to children as well as adults.
Looking at the background against which Jesus' birth takes place it is important to remember what was going on. God's people, the Jewish people, were a conquered people. The Temple authorities, that is, the religious authorities, Saducees were in collusion with the Romans. The large portion of the population, maybe 98% were poor. Life was very fixed culturally. Not much changed. You lived in the moment without much expecatation. They had little control over their lives. Life was hard. Life spans were short. Infant mortality rate was very high. Diet was meagre. Pain and suffering was prevalent. Oppression was a fact of life. There was probably a longing, and a deep yearning, for deliverance, for some messianic deliverance as the people looked back to a grander time like that of David. But it is likely that there was not really much of a sense of real genuine hopefulness. You lived having to tolerate what was dealt out to you.
Into this kind of situation, Jesus comes to the scene. He begins a ministry of offering hope in terms of some healing and restoration. He challenges various things in the culture. He begins speaking of The Reign and the Empire of God coming as a new power in the midst of worldly powers. He invites a discipleship of men and women to join forces with him. Now as Luke at a later date begins telling the story and putting together the message of Christ, he seems to weave what Jesus did into the story of his birth. The birth story is something of an overture to the life of Christ.
There was a hope and an expectation that a Son of David would come to the world to carry on that dynasty which the Lesson from Samuel is about today which would be likened to a Son of God. At the time that Jesus was born there were already many stories of miraculous birth stories which centered around great historical figures like Caesar and Alexander the great. What Luke seems to be saying is that if you think they were miraculous births, let me tell you something even more grand. I can tell you about something utterly miraculous about how God comes to his people. We must remember that it is only Luke and a small portion of Matthew that tells anything about a birth of Jesus. St. Paul never mentions it. Mark has no birth narrative at all, and John's Gospel account only offers a kind of Hymn about how Jesus is the light coming into the world, that was reluctant to receive him.
There are some who would say that Luke, and also Matthew, weaves this miracle story of angels and virgin birth to kind of spare the early Christians some embarrassment about their extraordinary humble beginnings, being led by this possibly illegitimate itinerant preacher of no honorable status whatsoever. However you interpret it or manage the story, there is the wonder of it all that captures the human imagination, whether young or old.
Thus, Luke tells of the Anunciation, which is the reading for today. There is this young girl, whose name is Mary. So far as we know she had little honorable standing, and becomes betrothed (not engaged) to a carpenter, an artisan, also with little or no standing. Mary has nothing going for her. She lackes all the credentials that most people would think important. She's too young; too inexperienced; she's a woman, she has no marital status; and she is powerless. This situation is the epitomy of the mundane, if not absurd. Little could be expected from the union of these two people. What's more it will appear that Mary is the bearer of an illegitimate child which would put her in a position of dreadful shame, and might even call for her being stoned to death by the community. But God acts. The Angel Gabriel, messenger of God who had come with messages for Daniel, comes to announce to Mary that she will be overshadowed, that is protected by God as a husband protects his pregnant wife. She will bear a son, and though the child may appear to be illegitimate, he will be truly from God: he will be God's Son, and he will come as hope for his people.
What Luke is weaving in his birth story is the understanding that the world looks to the powers of the world for miracles and wonders. They are often a dreadfully disappointing and inflict real devastation. But God, in Luke's story, does his miracles and powers among the least, the lost, the last. God's powers are often worked among those you would least expect. It is Joseph, and a very young girl who is suspect of being quite shameful, that God acts. Through the acceptance of their role real love is revealed. Bad situations become redeemed. What seems dishonorable becomes honorable. What seems to be impossible happens. God comes to reclaim and restore his lost people. He enters into the human condition in a way that will reach and toudh human hearts, making them responsive. Jesus is born of a woman with all that that implies: morning sickness and painful birth. Yet to that human condition is comes hope and redemption. God comes to his people in all of their imperfection, uncertainty, and anxiety. He comes in a real genuine way that is initmate. God has not and will not abandon his faithful people.
It has been pointed out that the one event in all of our Christmas preparations that so beautifully portrays the real genuine theological content of the Christmas story is the proverbial Christmas Pageant. In some cases they are elaborately prepared and rehearsed. Yet still the angel wings get bent and their halos become crooked. Shepherds stumble and the sheep get loose. At least one child will cry and at the last moment some completely withdraw from the drama. Yet inspite of that imperfection, the message still comes through clearly. Jesus Christ gets born again. God comes in the midst of the fray, and no one misses that point. God comes and acts inspite of us. And that is because some folk and children in and with all their imperfections have the courage to offer themselves and simply to say, "Lord, use me."
The point is also made in the story by Dr. Seuss of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." Inspite of the loss of all the stuff, the decorations and presents, it is still Christmas. Hearts are still touched, and even the evil contentious Grinch becomes himself is converted, if not redeemed. God is still acting and entering into the human condition.
At Christmas many of us try to enter into a kind of fairyland. Even people who live in Southern Florida dream of a white Christmas. We deluge and indulge ourselves with presents, and decorations. Underneath it all we know it doesn't always snow on Christmas. Not everyone gets home for Christmas, and sometimes there are depressions, great losses and sadnesses that are re-enforced and realized as a result of the season. While the ovens in Germany were be stoked during World War II, military officers sang "Silent Night" -"Stille Nacht Heilege Nacht." Human suffering can and does still abound.
The world and each of us in it so desperately need Christ at various times in our lives. We need to feel loved. We need a sense of hope. We need forgiveness and reconciliation. We need to be found and redeemed. In our brokeness we need healing and hope. Christ has come, and must come again, and will come. Luke leads us to believe that Christ's coming to us is inevitable. God simply acts. We need to be responsive to him with open hearts, minds, and souls. May each of us be willing to be the mansions prepared for him, and to allow Christ to be reborn is each of us again, inspite of our imperfections. Let God in Christ reshape and remold us remembering that God is the potter, and we are the clay that can be reshaped, reformed, renewed. Mary accepts through faith the inevitable. God will work in and through her. Nothing is impossible. The barren get new life. The powerless become the daughters and sons of the Most High. "Then Mary said, 'Here I am Lord; let it be with me according to your word,'" Luke weaves a powerful story that is the overture to the whole ministry of Jesus Christ that he is truly God's Son, and light for the darkness of the world. He is the shepherd of the lost sheep. He is our hope.
Sunday, December 12, 1999
ADVENT 3
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: ADVENT 3
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 12, 1999
TEXT: John 1:6-8, 19-28 - "There was a man sent from God, whose name is John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light."
ISSUE: John's ministry captured the attention of the early church, as well as the people who came to know him. He was a striking contrast to the luxurious temple priests. He was attractive to the so many people who were fed up with the shame of their lives. John offers the beginning hope and purification for the age to come, with confident hope that the Christ will come for the salvation of his people. John played an important role then as the church and its people are called upon today. It is our role to bear witness to the light of Christ. This week we move from our need for repentance to our prayer to be "stirred up" by the power of God to be witnesses in the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the Advent Season, John the Baptist is really an important figure, as the forerunner of Jesus Christ. His message to prepare for the coming of the Lord, for one that John himself is not unworthy to tie the thongs of his sandal. Last week, I addressed the "repentance" aspect of John the Baptist. John called people who came out to see him in the wilderness to repentance, or change. Keep in mind that the people who came out to see John were the poor, the dispossessed, the disenfranchised. These were people who were fed up with being the people of shame. John calls these people to change their lives, and to be baptized to enter into a rite of purification and readiness for a Lord who would lead them out of their shame and if ready to greet him, they would enter into the Kingdom of God.
I also attempted last week to make us all aware of our need for change, and for a renewed readiness to accept the savior. We live in a period of history and in a country where the wealth and affluence is beyond anything or any country has ever before experienced in the history of the world. Inspite of how we think in this country that our wealth is the be all and end all of existence, we find that there are still great spiritual needs that need to be attended to. We still are the people of violence and cruelty. There is still a lurking evil in humanity, and in the human spirit that forces us to recognize that the human spirit, the human soul is in need of God's presence in our midst. We must attend to the fact that it must be genuine and sought daily in and through prayer: God be with us and help us to change that we may live in union with you, and truly be your people bearing witness to your love.
In the Gospel account today, from the Gospel of John, we have still another account of the work of John the Baptist that takes us a step farther in our need for repentance and redemption. Remember that John's Gospel account was the last of the Gospel accounts to be written. It has a very spiritual dimension to it, as it speaks to a people who have moved beyond the eyewitnesses to the John the Baptist, Jesus, and even the disciples. It is a call to be faithful and to stand firm in the teachings of Jesus Christ and loyalty to him, especially in a world where they may come to know significant persecution.
In this Johannine account, John the Baptist is bearing witness to the light. He is not the light, says the Gospel writer, but he comes to bear witness to the light. He has a very specific role beyond even just calling for repentance, but for witnessing to the light, to hope, to the coming of the Savior. Now the Temple authorities, who are anticipating some kind of a messiah, need to know John's identity. Who is he, and why is it that so many of the people are going out to him. Let me insert here that since so many people were going out to see John, he was developing a following of disciples. This discipleship may have sometimes caused confusion in the early stages of the development of Christianity. It has to be clarified that John is not the messiah, not the Christ, but only a forerunner of something greater yet to come. Thus, John Baptist in the story confesses that he is not Elijah, even though he as that prophetic image. He is not the prophet expected. Remember that Moses had said that "He (God) will send you a prphet like me from among your own people, and you are to obey him." (Deut 18:15f) John makesw no claim to be that prophet. All that John in his great humility claims is that he is "a voice crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord.'"
Another thing important about John the Baptist was that he was a priest, and he was the son of a priest, Zechariah. He was a rural priest of protest, and was not acting like the traditional priesthood. He protested the luxury and the decadence of the Temple priests in Jerusalem. They had become know for their luxurious living, their greed, even for beating peasants. They were by and large not a nice group of people. John's poverty and humility was a striking contrast to that along with his call for repentance and change, for the need for a new spirituality. John was not dressed in fine linens and living in luxury. He lived in the wilderness. the place of evil spirits, and he ate locusts, wild honey, and dressed in animal skins.
John is baptizing, which was very popular act in these days among various cults. John's baptism is for purification, readiness for something grand, renewing, and just to come to people enveloped in injustice and shamefulness. John was unique, and his identity uncertain. Since John was looking for someone else to be the Messiah, the Christ, the one expected, then he himself was not seen as much of a threat to the Jerusalem authorities. But make no mistake about it, John was a significant prophetic priestly character for the early church, as he was the one who ultimately pointed to the one who was the Christ, Jesus. He is the voice and humble personality crying in the wilderness of evil for people to change and to accept Jesus Christ as their savior and their Lord. John calls for an inner holiness. He calls for repentance and change, but John also alerts and points to the search for the world's true light.
The importance of John the Baptist for us today is that John is the forerunner of what the church is meant to be in the world today. John is the epitomy of the church's role in the world today. Mind you, John made no claim for being a "hot-shot" or "big shot." He was not the Christ, not Elijah, not Moses. He was but a simple humble voice in the wilderness of evil and injustice calling for change among his own. He reduced their shame and called them to be honorable. He led them to the light, the light that was coming into the world, Jesus the Christ.
How do we carry on our priesthood in the world we live in. At our Baptismal Service we say to the newly baptized: "We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood." We all share, like John, in the priesthood. We dwell in the household of God, but we still live in a wilderness that can be quite deceiving and hostile. We live in a world that sometimes looks good and feels good, but there are subtle evil spirits that attack and destroy human souls and life. There is a long way to go for the human spirit to know its redemption. John knew well that people had to change. We know well even today that we can be very destructive and have very destructive behavior. As the church we have to make changes. So often we are ingrown. We are not open really to those in need, nor are we truly sensitive to human need and involved. We think basically of ourselves and our own needs. We enjoy thinking like the Jerusalem Temple authorities, who looked down upon the dispossessed, the sinful, the afflicted and the poor. We have to move away from the world at times and reclaim our spiritual side. We need to reclaim humility. We are not Elijah, Moses, or Christ. We are only those who look to the light and for the light.
The key to being a vital prophetic priesthood in the world is know Jesus Christ as truly our Lord. It is to know the story. It is to say the prayers, and become a prayerful people. It is to recognize our need to change, to confess, to be a people who confess that we are too enamored with the world's affluence. It is a call to loyalty, faith, commitment, and sacrifice. The church, and we are the church, in the world today, if it is really to be the church has to reclaim its sense of being missional, of being well trained people who pray to be 'stirred up" with the power of God. Note that the collect for today calls for God to "stir up His power and come among us." Some of us might say God forbid that God should stir us up to revive us. We like our comfortable sleepy ways.
Aren't you a little bored of all the uproar over whether or not it is constitutional to say prayers in school, when it is difficult to get people to say a prayer at a church meeting. We are offended that our children are not able to pray at school, when I suspect that we really don't do much about it in our own homes, and maybe even in our own lives. We are frequently thinking in terms of how things look on the outside, and not aware of what needs to be done in our own hearts and souls that we can become really people of God in the world who are spontaneous in our ability to communicate the loveliness of God in our lives.
It is, I think, somewhat discouraging that Christian churches often resort to begging and imploring their members to give sacrificially, and to take active roles in leadership. Isn't it somehow a little demeaning to think that we have to beg for leadership, and have bingo, fifty-fifities, fund-raisers, gambling of various kinds to keep the church of Jesus Christ as we know it alive in the world. We don't see ourselves as the church differentiated from the world. We see ourselves merely as another charity, as opposed to the the witness to the Light.
There are times when we may well forget and discount just how important we are as baptized members of the church. We are called to witness through prayer, giving, through study and knowledge of the Scripture. We need to seek a deeper spirituality and closeness to God in our own hearts so we can impart a true witness of love, care, concern for God' s world. It is important for us to recognize how God has worked in and through our lives and how to express that to others.
Many years ago now, when I was a young man in Seminary, some friends of mine and I would go caving in the Tennesse hills. And we'd crawl around in some very narrow passages which were often muddy. They were cold and dank. What's more they were so dark when the lights had been turned out. Darker than a million cypress swamps. For fun we'd experience the utter darkness by putting out our carbide lamps. Let me tell you it always felt good to relight them. After several hours in the cave, it felt even better to come to the entrance and see the sunlight once again. In a cruel and dark world, John the Baptist attempted to lead some people to the light of Christ. Since John that has been the work and mission of all those who are in the eternal priest of Christ, to lead the world toward the light, the light that is coming into the world. It is truly a special calling. May God stir up his power and come among us that we may be worthy to continue in this vocation.
SEASON: ADVENT 3
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 12, 1999
TEXT: John 1:6-8, 19-28 - "There was a man sent from God, whose name is John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light."
ISSUE: John's ministry captured the attention of the early church, as well as the people who came to know him. He was a striking contrast to the luxurious temple priests. He was attractive to the so many people who were fed up with the shame of their lives. John offers the beginning hope and purification for the age to come, with confident hope that the Christ will come for the salvation of his people. John played an important role then as the church and its people are called upon today. It is our role to bear witness to the light of Christ. This week we move from our need for repentance to our prayer to be "stirred up" by the power of God to be witnesses in the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the Advent Season, John the Baptist is really an important figure, as the forerunner of Jesus Christ. His message to prepare for the coming of the Lord, for one that John himself is not unworthy to tie the thongs of his sandal. Last week, I addressed the "repentance" aspect of John the Baptist. John called people who came out to see him in the wilderness to repentance, or change. Keep in mind that the people who came out to see John were the poor, the dispossessed, the disenfranchised. These were people who were fed up with being the people of shame. John calls these people to change their lives, and to be baptized to enter into a rite of purification and readiness for a Lord who would lead them out of their shame and if ready to greet him, they would enter into the Kingdom of God.
I also attempted last week to make us all aware of our need for change, and for a renewed readiness to accept the savior. We live in a period of history and in a country where the wealth and affluence is beyond anything or any country has ever before experienced in the history of the world. Inspite of how we think in this country that our wealth is the be all and end all of existence, we find that there are still great spiritual needs that need to be attended to. We still are the people of violence and cruelty. There is still a lurking evil in humanity, and in the human spirit that forces us to recognize that the human spirit, the human soul is in need of God's presence in our midst. We must attend to the fact that it must be genuine and sought daily in and through prayer: God be with us and help us to change that we may live in union with you, and truly be your people bearing witness to your love.
In the Gospel account today, from the Gospel of John, we have still another account of the work of John the Baptist that takes us a step farther in our need for repentance and redemption. Remember that John's Gospel account was the last of the Gospel accounts to be written. It has a very spiritual dimension to it, as it speaks to a people who have moved beyond the eyewitnesses to the John the Baptist, Jesus, and even the disciples. It is a call to be faithful and to stand firm in the teachings of Jesus Christ and loyalty to him, especially in a world where they may come to know significant persecution.
In this Johannine account, John the Baptist is bearing witness to the light. He is not the light, says the Gospel writer, but he comes to bear witness to the light. He has a very specific role beyond even just calling for repentance, but for witnessing to the light, to hope, to the coming of the Savior. Now the Temple authorities, who are anticipating some kind of a messiah, need to know John's identity. Who is he, and why is it that so many of the people are going out to him. Let me insert here that since so many people were going out to see John, he was developing a following of disciples. This discipleship may have sometimes caused confusion in the early stages of the development of Christianity. It has to be clarified that John is not the messiah, not the Christ, but only a forerunner of something greater yet to come. Thus, John Baptist in the story confesses that he is not Elijah, even though he as that prophetic image. He is not the prophet expected. Remember that Moses had said that "He (God) will send you a prphet like me from among your own people, and you are to obey him." (Deut 18:15f) John makesw no claim to be that prophet. All that John in his great humility claims is that he is "a voice crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord.'"
Another thing important about John the Baptist was that he was a priest, and he was the son of a priest, Zechariah. He was a rural priest of protest, and was not acting like the traditional priesthood. He protested the luxury and the decadence of the Temple priests in Jerusalem. They had become know for their luxurious living, their greed, even for beating peasants. They were by and large not a nice group of people. John's poverty and humility was a striking contrast to that along with his call for repentance and change, for the need for a new spirituality. John was not dressed in fine linens and living in luxury. He lived in the wilderness. the place of evil spirits, and he ate locusts, wild honey, and dressed in animal skins.
John is baptizing, which was very popular act in these days among various cults. John's baptism is for purification, readiness for something grand, renewing, and just to come to people enveloped in injustice and shamefulness. John was unique, and his identity uncertain. Since John was looking for someone else to be the Messiah, the Christ, the one expected, then he himself was not seen as much of a threat to the Jerusalem authorities. But make no mistake about it, John was a significant prophetic priestly character for the early church, as he was the one who ultimately pointed to the one who was the Christ, Jesus. He is the voice and humble personality crying in the wilderness of evil for people to change and to accept Jesus Christ as their savior and their Lord. John calls for an inner holiness. He calls for repentance and change, but John also alerts and points to the search for the world's true light.
The importance of John the Baptist for us today is that John is the forerunner of what the church is meant to be in the world today. John is the epitomy of the church's role in the world today. Mind you, John made no claim for being a "hot-shot" or "big shot." He was not the Christ, not Elijah, not Moses. He was but a simple humble voice in the wilderness of evil and injustice calling for change among his own. He reduced their shame and called them to be honorable. He led them to the light, the light that was coming into the world, Jesus the Christ.
How do we carry on our priesthood in the world we live in. At our Baptismal Service we say to the newly baptized: "We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood." We all share, like John, in the priesthood. We dwell in the household of God, but we still live in a wilderness that can be quite deceiving and hostile. We live in a world that sometimes looks good and feels good, but there are subtle evil spirits that attack and destroy human souls and life. There is a long way to go for the human spirit to know its redemption. John knew well that people had to change. We know well even today that we can be very destructive and have very destructive behavior. As the church we have to make changes. So often we are ingrown. We are not open really to those in need, nor are we truly sensitive to human need and involved. We think basically of ourselves and our own needs. We enjoy thinking like the Jerusalem Temple authorities, who looked down upon the dispossessed, the sinful, the afflicted and the poor. We have to move away from the world at times and reclaim our spiritual side. We need to reclaim humility. We are not Elijah, Moses, or Christ. We are only those who look to the light and for the light.
The key to being a vital prophetic priesthood in the world is know Jesus Christ as truly our Lord. It is to know the story. It is to say the prayers, and become a prayerful people. It is to recognize our need to change, to confess, to be a people who confess that we are too enamored with the world's affluence. It is a call to loyalty, faith, commitment, and sacrifice. The church, and we are the church, in the world today, if it is really to be the church has to reclaim its sense of being missional, of being well trained people who pray to be 'stirred up" with the power of God. Note that the collect for today calls for God to "stir up His power and come among us." Some of us might say God forbid that God should stir us up to revive us. We like our comfortable sleepy ways.
Aren't you a little bored of all the uproar over whether or not it is constitutional to say prayers in school, when it is difficult to get people to say a prayer at a church meeting. We are offended that our children are not able to pray at school, when I suspect that we really don't do much about it in our own homes, and maybe even in our own lives. We are frequently thinking in terms of how things look on the outside, and not aware of what needs to be done in our own hearts and souls that we can become really people of God in the world who are spontaneous in our ability to communicate the loveliness of God in our lives.
It is, I think, somewhat discouraging that Christian churches often resort to begging and imploring their members to give sacrificially, and to take active roles in leadership. Isn't it somehow a little demeaning to think that we have to beg for leadership, and have bingo, fifty-fifities, fund-raisers, gambling of various kinds to keep the church of Jesus Christ as we know it alive in the world. We don't see ourselves as the church differentiated from the world. We see ourselves merely as another charity, as opposed to the the witness to the Light.
There are times when we may well forget and discount just how important we are as baptized members of the church. We are called to witness through prayer, giving, through study and knowledge of the Scripture. We need to seek a deeper spirituality and closeness to God in our own hearts so we can impart a true witness of love, care, concern for God' s world. It is important for us to recognize how God has worked in and through our lives and how to express that to others.
Many years ago now, when I was a young man in Seminary, some friends of mine and I would go caving in the Tennesse hills. And we'd crawl around in some very narrow passages which were often muddy. They were cold and dank. What's more they were so dark when the lights had been turned out. Darker than a million cypress swamps. For fun we'd experience the utter darkness by putting out our carbide lamps. Let me tell you it always felt good to relight them. After several hours in the cave, it felt even better to come to the entrance and see the sunlight once again. In a cruel and dark world, John the Baptist attempted to lead some people to the light of Christ. Since John that has been the work and mission of all those who are in the eternal priest of Christ, to lead the world toward the light, the light that is coming into the world. It is truly a special calling. May God stir up his power and come among us that we may be worthy to continue in this vocation.
Sunday, December 5, 1999
Advent 2
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Advent 2
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 5, 1999
TEXT: Mark 1:1-8 - THE BEGINNING OF THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST.
"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."
ISSUE: Unlike a biography, Mark's Gospel is a "proclamation" of the Good News. It is presented like an announcment that The Son of God has come, and the sins (debts) of the world shall be forgiven. There is the forerunner, John the Baptist, who goes before The Son of God to call all people Jew and Gentile alike to repentance, change and readiness for the new Kingdom. The problem today is that not too many people are aware of the need for change. Change what when everything seems so good, i.e. affluent. Yet much festers under the surface that needs our attention as we embrace the renewed coming of Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Gospel reading for today is difficult for us to really appreciate, but struggle with it along with me.
We begin today at the beginning, at the very opening verses of Mark's account of the Gospel. Throughout the year we will be giving special attention to Mark's Gospel account. It is the shortest of the accounts and is thought to be the oldest account that we have of the story of Christ's mission and ministry. The Gospel of Mark is rather straightforward, and is written in the style of a "proclamation." It is not a biography of Jesus. Mark takes no time to tell us about Mary and Joseph and the details of Jesus' birth. Mark does not need Mary and Joseph, and their ancestry to give Jesus the honor status. Mark sees Jesus as the one who was to come, Son of God, and that is honor enough.He goes straight to the core of it all: This is the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God."
In these times whenever something special happened, the government would issue a proclamation. A proclamation was sent to the people and they announced various things. They reported military victories. They sometimes reported the birth of a new royal child. The reported the amnesty or the ascendancy of a new monarch. Mark is proclaiming Good News of the coming of The Son of God. Obviously, he uses a royal form of proclamation to give credence and honor to the fact that Jesus as Son of God is indeed royal. And in these times the coming of a monarch was reason for the people to get ready, and to prepare, and shape things up in their area of that aniticipated coming. Thus, a messenger is sent ahead to herald that coming, and quoting from Isaiah and Malachi: "See I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."
Around Jerusalem was the prophet John, who was referred to as John the Baptist. John plays something of the role of the hearld of the goodtidings. He is the one preparing the way, and who is a figure very much like Israels favored and most honored prophet Elijah. He fulfills Malachi's statement (4:5) Before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes, I will send you the prophet Elijah . . ." John wears animal skin, a coat of camel hair and a leather belt, as proclaimed of Elijah 2Kings1:8) "He was wearing a cloak made of animal skins, tiked with a leather belt." John is preaching and teaching in the wilderness, that is, he is standing outside the controlled stuctured society. He is calling people out of the routine into a place to give special attention to the message of hope, that will also stand outside the normal routine ways of the world.
The non-elite people begin venturing out into the desert to hear John, and his heralding message. He himself makes no claims to honor, only to declare that one far more honorable than himself will come, who sandal thongs he is unworthy to stoop down and tie. Again notice the great honor and royal status being proclaimed here. John says that he will baptize, cleanse, immerse the people with water, but the great one will baptize them with a holy wind or spirit. The baptism of John is for all both Jew and Gentile alike. Now, at the time there was a liturgy of baptism for Gentile people who converted to and accepted the Jewish God, Yahweh. They had to be purified from the past idolatry and uncleaness. Jews themselves, however, because of their ancestry were not required to be baptized. What John is (and Mark too) declaring is that all people need cleansing and preparation to receive the Christ. You cannot depend upon you birthrite and ancestry. Each and every person has to make their ready preparation to receive the Christ.
Now John calls for a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. The need for forgiveness in these times was quite significant. Who were these people who came out to hear John. They were the non-elites. They were the expendable people. They were the people without land and status. They were the beggars, the prostitues, the people who were the dispossessed. Taxes were quite high. Many people lost everything that they had. Sin was debt. They were all in debt. To be forgiven from sin was analgous to being released from indebtedness. Remember in the Lord's Prayer it reads in many translations, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive the debts of others." The very idea that one was coming who would forgive them their debts meant that they were about to come upon an age where they would be restored to dignity and worth again. This was what the coming of the Empire of God was all about. You had to be ready, and be made clean, and prepared to step into the Kingdom of God. And there you will receive and be baptized into The Holy Spirit of God. John comes bringing hope to a forlorn, disenfranchised people, preparing them and readying them to follow the coming King, and step into his Kingdom. John is the realization for these people of Ezekiel's vision of new hope and life for Israel (36:25), "I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you. I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart. I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my law and keep all the commands I have given you. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. . . . " And so here was the beginning and anticipation of something new and wonderful. It was a great message of hope for an alienated and destitute people.
In the beginning, I said that this Gospel passage was a difficult one for us today to grasp. It's difficult because so many of us think, if not all of us at one time or another, are not at all sure that we want to or need to change anything. Politically we seem strong. The economy in this country is reported to be the richest of any economy of any economy or era in the history of the world. So John (and Mark) calling the world to repentance and readiness, calling for cleansing and renewal, for preparedness for the coming of the Christ seems hollow. It seems unimportant, irrelevant. It seems that Jesus already came and everything just seems to be fine, with a few glitches here and there, but what does it have to do with me.
There is something that haunts me. There is this man that seemed to have everything, well almost. He had a nice family, and there are pictures of him dancing with family and friends. He had a really good job, and money in the bank. He had a nice home. He was comfortable it seemed to say the very least. Every external thing anybody seemed to know about him appeared to be normal and fine, and he appeared to be without problems. Then why di he take the yoke of the Egyptair plane and apparently turn it nose down and plunge it into the sea along with more than two hundred other people. I know the investigation of that terrible incident is still in porcess, although reports seem so clear that there was some deliberate action taken to cause the destruction.
Why is it that often people who seem to have so much, and who are by the world's definition so blessed will take some destructive path of action? Why will a man or woman suddenly take flight from their families and abandon them? Why do people and children take perfectly wonderful bodies and minds and destroy them with drugs and alcohol? How is it that people who are relatively well off and affluent can see pictures of other lands and people starving or oppressed and not feel some compassion that calls for action of some kind? How is it that we can run up and down the stairs, and yet never notice that for some people stairs are a barrier for handicapped people? Good as we may seem to be, and as good as things around us may be there is still underneath of it all a greed, an inability to sacrifice for one another significantly. There is a rigidness in our complacency and self-satisfaction.
I am reminded of pre-school age children who will fight over a toy. They see sharing as loss, not as opportunity for growing friendship and enriched relationships. It is frightening to the small child to give something up and share. That mind set seems to carried over into adult life sometimes, if not quite often.
There are those of us who cannot let go of their racial and class prejudices. We cling to a sense of superiority that says if I accept others, then somehow I will be diminished. Inspite of the fact that the varieties of cultural thinking, and different wasy of seeing things and doing things can and do enrich us all.
Isn't it curious to you, it is to me, that we have some of the best schools in the world, the most beautiful and attractive homes, the beautiful cities. Still, there are those many pockets of hatred and violence so severe that it is warlike.
There is an inclination to think in terms that tell us that they things that are wrong in the world are always someone else's fault. Never our own.
Is it not just possible that we need to take a look deeper into the human heart? Don't we sometimes have to recognize that there is still a desperate need for the human to think human more deeply about what we are doing and how the human heart may need to be changed? The human spirit may very well need to look at Christ again, to recognize a need to be opened to change and new ways of seeing and feeling about life. The non-elites of Jesus time recognized their poverty and so longed for restoration to dignity and place. I am believe that we all need this restoration in every age, and especially in this age where we have learned to cover-up and avoid, and have become in many ways so insensitive to a deeper human need to be closer to God.
Don't you sometimes feel like we need to say and pray: God help us. God come again and be with us. God our stark crass individualism and our affluence has blindedness us. We are in the dark when comes to know what we should do. Lord Jesus Christ come again, renew us, open our eyes to see you in the world around us, and help us to receive a new heart, mind, soul that gives us our true human dignity, and that embraces your Holy Spirit. Help us to get our act together, because there are times when we are so destructive without realizing it.
The Gospel is about Good News. The Son, one who has the qualities of God has and will come among us. We need to be ready to make the appropriate changes, the repentance, that renews a right spirit within us so that we become resonant with him.
SEASON: Advent 2
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 5, 1999
TEXT: Mark 1:1-8 - THE BEGINNING OF THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST.
"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."
ISSUE: Unlike a biography, Mark's Gospel is a "proclamation" of the Good News. It is presented like an announcment that The Son of God has come, and the sins (debts) of the world shall be forgiven. There is the forerunner, John the Baptist, who goes before The Son of God to call all people Jew and Gentile alike to repentance, change and readiness for the new Kingdom. The problem today is that not too many people are aware of the need for change. Change what when everything seems so good, i.e. affluent. Yet much festers under the surface that needs our attention as we embrace the renewed coming of Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Gospel reading for today is difficult for us to really appreciate, but struggle with it along with me.
We begin today at the beginning, at the very opening verses of Mark's account of the Gospel. Throughout the year we will be giving special attention to Mark's Gospel account. It is the shortest of the accounts and is thought to be the oldest account that we have of the story of Christ's mission and ministry. The Gospel of Mark is rather straightforward, and is written in the style of a "proclamation." It is not a biography of Jesus. Mark takes no time to tell us about Mary and Joseph and the details of Jesus' birth. Mark does not need Mary and Joseph, and their ancestry to give Jesus the honor status. Mark sees Jesus as the one who was to come, Son of God, and that is honor enough.He goes straight to the core of it all: This is the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God."
In these times whenever something special happened, the government would issue a proclamation. A proclamation was sent to the people and they announced various things. They reported military victories. They sometimes reported the birth of a new royal child. The reported the amnesty or the ascendancy of a new monarch. Mark is proclaiming Good News of the coming of The Son of God. Obviously, he uses a royal form of proclamation to give credence and honor to the fact that Jesus as Son of God is indeed royal. And in these times the coming of a monarch was reason for the people to get ready, and to prepare, and shape things up in their area of that aniticipated coming. Thus, a messenger is sent ahead to herald that coming, and quoting from Isaiah and Malachi: "See I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."
Around Jerusalem was the prophet John, who was referred to as John the Baptist. John plays something of the role of the hearld of the goodtidings. He is the one preparing the way, and who is a figure very much like Israels favored and most honored prophet Elijah. He fulfills Malachi's statement (4:5) Before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes, I will send you the prophet Elijah . . ." John wears animal skin, a coat of camel hair and a leather belt, as proclaimed of Elijah 2Kings1:8) "He was wearing a cloak made of animal skins, tiked with a leather belt." John is preaching and teaching in the wilderness, that is, he is standing outside the controlled stuctured society. He is calling people out of the routine into a place to give special attention to the message of hope, that will also stand outside the normal routine ways of the world.
The non-elite people begin venturing out into the desert to hear John, and his heralding message. He himself makes no claims to honor, only to declare that one far more honorable than himself will come, who sandal thongs he is unworthy to stoop down and tie. Again notice the great honor and royal status being proclaimed here. John says that he will baptize, cleanse, immerse the people with water, but the great one will baptize them with a holy wind or spirit. The baptism of John is for all both Jew and Gentile alike. Now, at the time there was a liturgy of baptism for Gentile people who converted to and accepted the Jewish God, Yahweh. They had to be purified from the past idolatry and uncleaness. Jews themselves, however, because of their ancestry were not required to be baptized. What John is (and Mark too) declaring is that all people need cleansing and preparation to receive the Christ. You cannot depend upon you birthrite and ancestry. Each and every person has to make their ready preparation to receive the Christ.
Now John calls for a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. The need for forgiveness in these times was quite significant. Who were these people who came out to hear John. They were the non-elites. They were the expendable people. They were the people without land and status. They were the beggars, the prostitues, the people who were the dispossessed. Taxes were quite high. Many people lost everything that they had. Sin was debt. They were all in debt. To be forgiven from sin was analgous to being released from indebtedness. Remember in the Lord's Prayer it reads in many translations, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive the debts of others." The very idea that one was coming who would forgive them their debts meant that they were about to come upon an age where they would be restored to dignity and worth again. This was what the coming of the Empire of God was all about. You had to be ready, and be made clean, and prepared to step into the Kingdom of God. And there you will receive and be baptized into The Holy Spirit of God. John comes bringing hope to a forlorn, disenfranchised people, preparing them and readying them to follow the coming King, and step into his Kingdom. John is the realization for these people of Ezekiel's vision of new hope and life for Israel (36:25), "I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you. I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart. I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my law and keep all the commands I have given you. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. . . . " And so here was the beginning and anticipation of something new and wonderful. It was a great message of hope for an alienated and destitute people.
In the beginning, I said that this Gospel passage was a difficult one for us today to grasp. It's difficult because so many of us think, if not all of us at one time or another, are not at all sure that we want to or need to change anything. Politically we seem strong. The economy in this country is reported to be the richest of any economy of any economy or era in the history of the world. So John (and Mark) calling the world to repentance and readiness, calling for cleansing and renewal, for preparedness for the coming of the Christ seems hollow. It seems unimportant, irrelevant. It seems that Jesus already came and everything just seems to be fine, with a few glitches here and there, but what does it have to do with me.
There is something that haunts me. There is this man that seemed to have everything, well almost. He had a nice family, and there are pictures of him dancing with family and friends. He had a really good job, and money in the bank. He had a nice home. He was comfortable it seemed to say the very least. Every external thing anybody seemed to know about him appeared to be normal and fine, and he appeared to be without problems. Then why di he take the yoke of the Egyptair plane and apparently turn it nose down and plunge it into the sea along with more than two hundred other people. I know the investigation of that terrible incident is still in porcess, although reports seem so clear that there was some deliberate action taken to cause the destruction.
Why is it that often people who seem to have so much, and who are by the world's definition so blessed will take some destructive path of action? Why will a man or woman suddenly take flight from their families and abandon them? Why do people and children take perfectly wonderful bodies and minds and destroy them with drugs and alcohol? How is it that people who are relatively well off and affluent can see pictures of other lands and people starving or oppressed and not feel some compassion that calls for action of some kind? How is it that we can run up and down the stairs, and yet never notice that for some people stairs are a barrier for handicapped people? Good as we may seem to be, and as good as things around us may be there is still underneath of it all a greed, an inability to sacrifice for one another significantly. There is a rigidness in our complacency and self-satisfaction.
I am reminded of pre-school age children who will fight over a toy. They see sharing as loss, not as opportunity for growing friendship and enriched relationships. It is frightening to the small child to give something up and share. That mind set seems to carried over into adult life sometimes, if not quite often.
There are those of us who cannot let go of their racial and class prejudices. We cling to a sense of superiority that says if I accept others, then somehow I will be diminished. Inspite of the fact that the varieties of cultural thinking, and different wasy of seeing things and doing things can and do enrich us all.
Isn't it curious to you, it is to me, that we have some of the best schools in the world, the most beautiful and attractive homes, the beautiful cities. Still, there are those many pockets of hatred and violence so severe that it is warlike.
There is an inclination to think in terms that tell us that they things that are wrong in the world are always someone else's fault. Never our own.
Is it not just possible that we need to take a look deeper into the human heart? Don't we sometimes have to recognize that there is still a desperate need for the human to think human more deeply about what we are doing and how the human heart may need to be changed? The human spirit may very well need to look at Christ again, to recognize a need to be opened to change and new ways of seeing and feeling about life. The non-elites of Jesus time recognized their poverty and so longed for restoration to dignity and place. I am believe that we all need this restoration in every age, and especially in this age where we have learned to cover-up and avoid, and have become in many ways so insensitive to a deeper human need to be closer to God.
Don't you sometimes feel like we need to say and pray: God help us. God come again and be with us. God our stark crass individualism and our affluence has blindedness us. We are in the dark when comes to know what we should do. Lord Jesus Christ come again, renew us, open our eyes to see you in the world around us, and help us to receive a new heart, mind, soul that gives us our true human dignity, and that embraces your Holy Spirit. Help us to get our act together, because there are times when we are so destructive without realizing it.
The Gospel is about Good News. The Son, one who has the qualities of God has and will come among us. We need to be ready to make the appropriate changes, the repentance, that renews a right spirit within us so that we become resonant with him.
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