2nd Sunday in Advent
Mark 1:1-8
U-Turn
1 ¶ The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, "Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way;
3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight--"
4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
5 And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, and had a leather girdle around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey.
7 And he preached, saying, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Saviour Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
Do you remember the old Johnny Carson show?Johnny Carson had a side-kick who opened each show with a phrase that never varies. Ed McMahon bursts forth the introduction, "Here’s Johnny!!" Then the talk man comes forth from the wings to entertain his audience and TV viewers. As the herald of the show, Ed McMahon plays an important role in getting the show off the ground with gusto.
Jesus was coming to stage the greatest drama the world would ever witness. It would unfold the mighty act of redemption. While he was in the wings there was a man out front preparing the people for his entrance. His name was John. He was a big man. He had gusto !! And his remark as Jesus was stepping forward to assume his major role on the stage of history was simply, "Here comes Jesus!!!"
John’s job was to make people ready for the coming of Jesus. John made the people ready by preaching a baptism of repentance. He wanted the people’s hearts to be ready to receive the grace of God that was coming in the form of a person name Jesus. He wanted the people to know, to believe that they were sinners in the eyes of God, that they needed the redemption that was coming in the form of this peasant carpenter.
John was asking the people to look that their own lives, to see their need for the one who was coming.
John the Baptist asked the people to repent, to look at their lives of sin, and then repent, to make a U -turn, to turn away from their sins.
U-turns in our spiritual lives are permitted unlike on the highways of our state.
With Jesus we are permitted even encouraged to make U-turns. We are to repent, to turn away from, to turn around from those sins that hinder the work of Jesus in our lives.
We do this not to make ourselves worthy of Jesus, but because of his love and forgiveness for us, our repentance comes forth. Repentance does not bring forgiveness, but forgiveness brings repentance.... It was a turning point of the whole life of man toward... not done in the hope that God might respond but was itself a response to the news that God has acted first.
We repent, we make u-turns in life because of the great love God has for us, we accept his forgiveness, then we change, then we turn around, then we repent.
This concept of repentance or metanoia only occurs in this chapter and verse in the whole of Mark’s gospel. Mark wants to make the point that repentance is very important. It marks the stage for the coming of Jesus in our lives.
In repentance; we are turning back to the ideal, the way God created us to be. Our repentance is accepting and acknowledging that we are sinners, who need the forgiveness of almighty God.
In our act of repentance, we are turning to God, asking him in a sense to recreate a new person, one who is more like what God intended us to be in the first place. In the act of repentance we are taking the I, that personal pronoun out of the picture, and replacing it with a three-letter word, G O D , God.
In our act of repentance, we are declaring that we are no longer relying on ourselves, but we are surrendering to God, so that he may, through the waters of our baptism, recreate a new me, a me who is closer to the image that God created me to be at the beginning of time.
There is an old Hindu parable that illustrates very well what I am trying to say.
There was a motherless tiger cub who was adopted by goats and brought up to speak their language, emulate their ways, eat their food. In fact, the little tiger cub believed he was a goat.
However, there came a day when a king tiger happened along and all the goats fled in terror. But the little cub lingered behind, afraid and yet somehow unafraid. The cub brayed a bit and then nervously nibbled at the grass.
The king tiger laughed and asked the small tiger what he meant by this masquerade. He said nothing, only bleating once again. So the king took him to a pool of still water and forced him to look know at the 2 reflections side by side. But the little one failed to see any significance to it.
When this failed, the king tiger hunted down a young deer and brought some of the raw meant to the young tiger.
At first the cub recoiled from the strange taste. But he kept licking and soon sunk his teeth deep into the raw flesh. His tail began to swing wing, and his claws began to dig into the soft earth.
A roar began to swell deep in his throat. He glanced over at the king tiger and he began to realize he was indeed a cool cat."
Repentance for us is the same thing. When we repent and turn, or make that u-turn back to what God intended for us to be then, we are cool cats. In sin, we are less than God intended for us to be. In Christ, in our u-turn, we are becoming more and more like God intended us to be at the beginning of time.
We are given the power by Christ to repent, to make that u-turn, but sadly many of us are like the geese in the following fable by Kierkegaard.
"The geese in a certain farmyard decided to gather together every seventh day. At that time one of the ganders would mount the fence and preach to his fellow geese about their lofty destiny. The pulpit goose would recall the-exploits of their forefathers and praise God for the gift of flight bestowed upon them. The congregation of fowl would flap their wings in hearty agreement. This routine happened every week.
After each assembly the geese would break up and waddle to their respective places in the farmyard and eat the grain the kind farmer had scattered on the ground for them.
On Monday morning the geese would chat about Sunday’s sermon and discuss what might happen if they took to the skies once again. They might get lost or even worse, they might get shot. There was little doubt among them that the best thing was to linger in the farmyard with its security.
The sermons would stir them and that was sufficient. It was good to hear what they could be and do as long as they need not do it or be it. All the while they didn’t realize they were being fatten for the holiday table of the farmer and his friends."
I wonder how many of us are like those geese? Do we think about all that we could be, but do nothing about it? We can fly and soar with Christ, but we must repent first, we must make the u-turn.
I wonder how many of us think that the pastor is talking to the person next to me in the pew and not to me? I wonder how many of us just don’t get it?
All of us must make the u-turn, not just once, but on a daily basis, for each day I sin and must repent and to Christ for forgiveness.
As John says in our gospel lesson, we must be ready for the one who is coming. And as we learned last week, we don’t know when he is coming in the future.
We know he is coming as a Babe born in the manger during this Christmas season, we know he comes to us in the word and the sacraments, but what we don’t know is when He will return for his final coming.
We must constantly make that u-turn to repentance.
A man visiting a school offered a prize to the pupil whose desk he found in the best order when he returned.
"But when will you return?" a pupil asked.
"That I cannot tell," the man answered.
A little girl who was known for her unkempt desk announced she was going to win the prize.
Her classmates laughed at her.
"But I mean to clean it the first of every week "
"But suppose he comes at the end of the week?"
"Then I will clean it every morning," she continued.
"But. he might come at the end of the day."
For a moment she thought and then said, "I know what I’ll do. I’ll just keep it clean. "
I’ll just keep it clean or in other words, I will always make my u-turn of repentance.
" Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight--"
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale December 2, 2002
