Thursday, December 15, 2011

People Get Ready

I'm still trying to get caught up on posting sermons. Here is my sermon from 12/4 (2nd Sunday in Advent). Enjoy.

We like to get credit for good stuff that happens, don’t you agree? I think it’s just human nature to want to be known as the one who got the job done. Especially if you’re new. You know, if a new boss comes in and suddenly profits go up by 20% in the first year. Or a politician, a freshman congressman, who comes to Washington, and acts as if their arrival marks the beginning of government. And we are usually quick to give that credit. We like the new.

I spent yesterday, and pretty much every Saturday since September watching college football. Coaching is a great example of someone seeking credit or acclaim. This time of year there is always a lot of talk about National Championships. That got me thinking about the last 2 National Champions, which just happen to be from this state. In both cases the head coach was in his second year with their team. In terms of football, that means that likely more than half of the players on the team were there before that coach arrived on campus. They are players recruited by someone else, another coaching staff. But the current coach gets the credit for winning a championship. And that’s not to say that Saban & Chizik don’t deserve credit, they do. But did you hear either one of them or could you imagine either of them or any other coach saying something like, “Yeah, we did good, but the coach before me, well, he really prepared the way for me to come in here and take this team to a championship.” I’ll go out on a limb and say, you will never hear a football coach, or a politician, or a business leader, say anything like that.

And how often have you heard of someone like that, someone who comes into a struggling team or business to take over as the coach or boss, how often have you heard them referred to as “savior”? “He’ll be the savior of our team!"

Well, the true savior did arrive and the Bible makes it clear that He had some prep work. He had a messenger to prepare the way.

Mark 1: 1-8

I want to start by looking at verse 1. Our passage begins with these words: “The beginning of the good news of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” It’s an interesting way for Mark to start his gospel. For one thing, there is no verb, which means, it’s not really a sentence. It’s almost like it’s a title. And that is what many scholars believe, that this opening verse is meant as a title. This brings an interesting question. Is this the title of the opening? The prologue? Or is it the title of the entire gospel? I like the idea that Mark is titling his entire account of the Gospel of Jesus, “The Beginning”. The story of Jesus life, death & resurrection is just the beginning. That’s the truth, it is just the beginning. It’s an account of the first 3 years (or 33 years) of the influence this Palestinian Jew which has lasted 2000 years so far. It is the beginning of Jesus’ Gospel.

This brings another interesting point about this opening verse. The word Gospel, or Good News as some translations interpret the word. The word used there, in the original Greek is euaggelion. It means Gospel or Good News. We get our word Evangelism from this word. It is interesting because of it’s use in the Greco-Roman world.

It was used mainly as a term of celebration. Which makes sense, good news is cause to celebrate. In 9 BC, the birthday of Caesar Augustus was hailed as euaggelion. Augustus was hailed as a god, so his birthday, it was written, “marked the beginning of good news (euaggelion) for the world.” The term was also ordinarily used in describing victory in battle. And it, again, figures into the stories of the lives of the Roman emperors, since they were the leaders of the military. Add to that Mark’s use of the phrase “Son of God,” which was used to refer to the Roman emperor since they were seen as and worshiped as gods, and this is a very provocative title. “The Beginning of the Victory of Jesus, the real Son of God.” It was a slap in the face of Rome.

And it would have been an important slap for Mark’s first readers. Many scholars believe that Mark wrote his gospel during or just after Rome’s siege and ultimate destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Imagine being a Christian in Jerusalem as it was surrounded by Roman soldiers. Food and water supplies were all but cut off. And what food was in the city was burned by Jewish zealots to try to provoke the city to fight. So you are suffering through this military siege when you pick up a scroll and read about the Victory of Jesus, the Son of God. I imagine it would serve as quite a morale boost.

Mark begins his gospel by quoting the prophets (The text mentions Isaiah, but he also throws in Malachi.) to tell of the one coming to prepare the way for Messiah. That someone, of course, is John. “John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness.”

It’s interesting to me that Mark does not begin with the story of Jesus’ birth. We begin with an adult John awaiting an adult Jesus.

We start with John in the wilderness dressed in camel hair wearing a leather belt. This description is, again, important for Mark’s first readers. It would call to their mind the prophet Elijah. 2 Kings 1:8 describes Elijah as “a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist.” Mark’s description of John would immediately cause his readers to recall this scripture. Which would lead them to another scripture. Malachi 4:5 where the prophet Malachi predicts God will “send the prophet Elijah” before the coming of Messiah. Tie that with the Isaiah passage he quoted earlier and early Christians have a picture of a prophet come to prepare the way for the coming Messiah. Mark encourages his readers, including us, to look back to the promises of God throughout the scriptures.

So, we have John in the wilderness, preaching repentance. Calling on the people of Judea to confess their sins and repent. The Greek word translated as repent is metanoia, which means to change one’s mind. John’s message tells those coming to hear him that to prepare for the coming Christ, they must confess their sins and repent. And he gives them a symbol, an outward sign to demonstrate their confession and decision to turn away from their sins. He uses the Jordan River to perform a ritual washing. Baptism.

John’s message could not have been easy to hear. Actually, John’s message is not easy to hear, or to preach. In fact, it got him in trouble with most of the institutions of the day. The Temple officials saw him giving away for free something that told people they didn’t need to go to the Temple and buy animals to sacrifice. That’s how they made their living. He offends the political leaders, as well. He condemns Herod’s illegal marriage and it gets him killed. Preaching repentance, challenging people to look at their own sins, confess and repent, is not an easy thing to do, or, in many cases a popular thing.

But it is the message John preaches to us. And it is not easy to hear, either.

I mentioned last week that Advent is a season of already & not yet. Jesus came to earth, now we await, in the present, his future return. 3 phases of time, 3 phases of the Gospel. The past, the present, the future.

The prologue to Mark’s gospel echoes this. He begins by looking back to the scriptures, back to the prophets. Back to the sinfulness of Isreal, which was the focus of the prophets. Then he turns the reader’s attention to the present. The ministry of John. His message of repentance. And then a look to the future. John’s future was the coming of Jesus’ ministry and then beyond to the coming of the Holy Spirit. “I baptize with water, but one will come after me who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”

It also gives us a pattern as we look at our own lives in light of John’s message of repentance. As we prepare ourselves for the coming Christ in this time of Advent. Past , present, future. Our sinful past, our present need for repentance, and our future eternal life with Jesus.

But there’s more to our present than just a need for confession and repentance. John’s life gives us another model. John came to prepare the way for Jesus’ ministry. But he’s not the only one. We are preparers as well. We are called to prepare the way for Jesus’ return. To prepare ourselves, but also to prepare the world. And we can do so with the same message of confession and repentance.

Of course, it’s a tricky message to bring to the world. Confess & repent. It’s a hard message to preach and it’s a hard message to hear. It was, Jesus’ message too. “The Kingdom is near. Repent and be saved.” Somehow Jesus softened it a little from the harshness of John. I think we can do that as Jesus did. Jesus preached repentance while teaching and demonstrating love. It’s a tough tightrope to walk, but I think we can do it.

First, we must look at ourselves. Confess & repent.

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