Rediscovering Christmas
Born to be Wild
Mark 1:1-8
December 9, 2007
Last week we started rediscovering Christmas by looking at the story before the story of the birth of Christ and that is the story of Zecariah and Elizabeth. Zec and Lizzy began again as they had a child in their old age (past the age of child bearing) marking the ending of the old Israel and beginning of the new Israel or the beginning of the Kingdom of God in our midst. God calls us to begin again and again and again.
This week we will continue by looking at John, Zec and Lizzy’s son. John was the way maker for Jesus. John was born before Jesus and John was called to give a taste of what Jesus would be doing after John. We are going to look at the beginning of Mark’s gospel for this. If anyone was born to be wild, then it is John. He was a wild man, literally. Turn to Mark:1. As you do, I found this prayer by child that was wonderful. It reminds me of how we are called to come into the Kingdom as little children.
Dear God,
I’m doing the best I can.
Frank
The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
I find it very interesting that Mark has chosen to begin the gospel with John. He doesn’t talk about the birth of Jesus and he doesn’t talk about Jesus’ Jewish heritage. The “good news” begins with John and how John has fulfilled the prophetic words of Isaiah. This reads:
It is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way"—
"a voice of one calling in the desert,
’Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’
Here I have a bone of contention with the NIV. If you go back to Isaiah 40:3, which is the original verse, we find that Mark has omitted the last part of the verse. Isaiah 40:3 says,
A voice of one calling:
"In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.
Where are the straight paths made? Isaiah says in the wilderness. It is in the desert. In the wild places that the way is made. It is in the brokenness of our lives. It is in the sin that the way of the good news is made.
Now it is fairly important to note something. The Greek texts from which scholars translate and we get our translations (such as the NIV, RSV, ASV, etc.) does NOT have any punctuation. Did you get that? No commas. No periods. No quotations. It is up to the scholars to discern what the text means and provide the punctuation.
Here is my issue. In the NIV the scholars have put a comma after desert instead of after calling. Listen as I read this. A voice of one calling, “In the desert prepare the way for the Lord.” Now the other. A voice of one calling in the desert, “Prepare the way for the Lord.” To be fair, John came preaching in the wilderness by the Jordan River so it is not a bad way to translate. Theologically, however, there is a whole vein of thinking in terms of our brokenness and our need for God when the voice is not just in the desert but is calling people to repentance while they are in the brokenness of their lives.
This is very important especially for us personally as we serve one another and minister in the name of the Lord.
Join God where God is working.
Where is God already at work? In the wilderness.
And so we continue.
"And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Now contrast this to what Mark says later about what Jesus came preaching. He came with the same basic message but with the slightly different twist. A slightly different emphasis.
Mark 1:15 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
Jesus preached about the need for repentance but also that God’s Kingdom was near or at hand. It was within our reach. It was being inaugurated with the coming or advent of Jesus. So John came preaching repentance but Jesus came preaching the good news of God’s arrival. Or as the scriptures call Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.
Eugene Peterson said, “When we sin and mess up our lives, we find that God doesn’t go off and leave us—he enters into our trouble and saves us.”
The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
John was a wild man. Last week, the angel told Zec that John would not taste wine nor beer. No alcohol. Here we see a man that did not eat meat and therefore never touched a dead body. I can’t imagine any woman wanting to do anything with John. Tradition also tells us that he never cut his hair. He was a wild man. Born to be wild and born to be with the wild people of Israel that desperately needed cleansing from their sins.
What this means is that John was Levite. He was a new Levite. He was set apart for God’s use. The Levites were the only tribes not given any land because their possession was to be God. God would provide for their needs. Therefore, the tithe from the rest of God’s people was to go to support these people because they were to concentrate on doing God’s work.
John wasn’t supposed to be alive. He wasn’t supposed to be born. But God had ordered it. He was given to Zec and Lizzy not as their own son but for God’s use, which is why Zec obeyed the angel and named his son, John.
And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
And here we have the directional sign. Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit poured out for all followers in all places on Pentecost. John considered himself to be nothing compared to Jesus. John points the way for Jesus to come to baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with the consuming fire of God.
The followers of Jesus have been born to be wild as well. More accurately perhaps we have be reborn to be wild.
Reborn to be Wild.
We may not be called to wear camal hair clothing and eat locusts for lunch. But we are called to be in the wilderness of peoples’ lives. That is where are called to be. In the mess of people’s sins, mistakes, bad choices, and even despair is where Jesus is already at work. We are called to be there to show them where God is working and show them the love of God. After we all are messes anyway.
I have the privilege to get to know you and hear your struggles and every single one of us is a mess. There are those of us that struggle with anger and depression, we have suffered through and are suffering financial crisis sometimes born out of our own bad choices and sometimes because we have experienced situations that were beyond our control. Regardless we feel like failures.
Some of us have struggled and even continue to struggle with various addictions and dependencies. We have wayward children that have made stupid choices that have brought us shame. Most of us here have endured or are continuing to endure the devastating effects of divorce whether it is our own or someone close to us. We are messy. We are messed up.
Some of us are weary of life. We have left a trail of broken relationships. We have family members that are knowlingly destroying any chance of peace and harmony in our lives. They make our lives a living hell. Some of us have stolen, cheated, lied, shoplifted, scammed, and just plain manipulated others to get what we want. We’ve broken more promises than we can count. We feel like ungodly midgets in a world of spiritual giants. We compare ourselves to others and think that everyone else is saturated with God except us.
Our bodies are broken down and we wonder if we can go on. In Jesus’ day, this would be a sign of unfaithfulness. We don’t rely on the words of men but instead trust in God.
Sometimes we feel like the mess of our lives disqualifies us from an authentic spiritual life. If we are not part of the born to be wild crowd, then there is no such thing. And guess what? We are just what God wants to use. We are either in the wilderness or have just come out of it and are about to go into it.
This is Christmas time. It is the season that people are the most depressed and sad. It is when we realize how much of lives have not even come close to our expectations. This isn’t the way it was supposed to turn out. I’m a failure. I’m miserable. Except it is supposed to be the season for hope. The season that we remember a child born in a manger and realize that there is hope for all of us: each and EVERY one of us. Like Frank, we are trying to follow Jesus the best we can.
If God could use a guy like John with his matted, dirty hair and foul smelling breath and a body that was hot and sweaty and smelled like your worst nightmare, then God can use you and me. John stood at the Jordan River baptizing the people who would turn toward God. They had been told by the priests that they were hopeless. Sadly not much has changed over the years. But John says, “Leave the wilderness of your sin behind and enter anew into the Promised Land.” Jesus says, “Enter the Promised Land of God’s love, grace, and mercy. You have hope if your hope is in me.”
We are a mess just like everyone else around us except we have hope. We have a promise. We are called to be reborn to be wild.
Here’s the assignment. Look for the wilderness around. Who is hurting? Who is broken? Even if you are feeling hopeless, maybe getting out of yourself to help someone else will help you. What wild situation is God calling you to step into to perhaps bring a word of peace? Where might you be the voice crying, “In this wilderness prepare the way of the Lord?” Where might God be directly you to be light where there seems to be none?
Walking by a pet store to school, a young boy had stopped to stare at four black puppies that were playing together. He pleaded with his mom later that day to let him have one. “I’ll take care of it. I promise. I will even use the money from my allowance that I’ve saved to buy it.”
The mother knew full well what would happen but decided that it was time for her son to learn this lesson in responsibility. “Okay, but I expect you to take care of it.”
After getting the money together and making sure he had enough, the pet store owner took him to the puppies and asked him to choose. After a moments, the boy said, “That one in the corner.”
“Oh no,” said the owner, “ not that one; he’s crippled. Something is wrong with his leg. He can’t run and jump and play like the others. Choose another.”
Without saying a word, the boy reached down and lifted his pant leg to reveal the chrome leg brace to the owner.
“No,” the boy said firmly, “I think I will take the puppy in the corner.”
