In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Ah, the Gospel of Mark!  As I think you know, we begin a new liturgical year with the season of Advent.  Each year we focus on a particular Gospel.  Last year, we focused on Matthew.  And now, with this Advent, we are beginning the year of Mark.  The Gospel according to Mark is considered by scholars to be the first Gospel written.  At least parts of it were probably written as early as the year 55 . . . and it’s certainly the shortest Gospel.  It doesn’t contain any of the stories we know about the archangel Gabriel coming to Mary, or about the birth of Jesus.  Nope, the Gospel of Mark begins with a bang with the appearance of John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness . . . and it continues on at a rather breakneck speed until a rather abrupt and ambiguous ending.  An old friend of mine once told me that this is his favorite Gospel.  He never explained why, but I think I know . . . my friend is not the meditative sort; he doesn’t like to sit around and think deep thoughts; he likes to get things DONE . . . and Mark is an action Gospel.  Mark tells us about a Jesus who is always busy doing stuff.  Instead of telling us what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, for example, Mark is likely simply to say, “Jesus taught” or “Jesus preached” and then tell about something else Jesus DID. 

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is always on the move . . . making short one-line proclamations, and then moving on.  This is because, as Mark tells the story, Jesus embodies the breaking in of the Kingdom of God into this world.  In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus doesn’t so much TALK about the Kingdom . . . as he IS the Kingdom, the expression of it in this world.  As you all know, we Christians now profess to believe that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine.  This is an understanding that was wrestled from the faith experience of the earliest Christians.  But it wasn’t universally understood or agreed to from the very start of the Christian movement . . . it took a long time for people to understand, articulate, and agree that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine.  And it IS hard to hold both natures in mind when we think of Jesus.  Most of us, I suspect, emphasize either Jesus’ divinity or his humanity when we think of him . . . focusing on one nature or the other, according to our needs and prayers at the moment.  Well, if you consider the different Gospels you may notice different emphases in them, as well.  In the Gospel of John, for example, Jesus is very clearly divine.  In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is most clearly a human being.  He may the living, breathing, walking Kingdom of God, but he is also very clearly a man.  I suspect that this is another reason why the friend I mentioned to you earlier favors this Gospel; in Mark he encounters a Jesus that he recognizes as a fellow traveler on this earth.

So . . . with that little bit of background, this morning we begin the Gospel of Mark.  “Behold!  I send my messenger before you; he will prepare your way.  A voice crying in the wilderness . . . .”  John the Baptist appears in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Notice that the announcement doesn’t occur in Jerusalem, the capitol of David, or in Rome, the capitol of the Romans . . . the announcement is not made in the Temple, the formal religious center of the Jews, nor is it made by the high priest.  No, John the Baptist appears in the wilderness . . . why?  Because truth often comes from the edges of society . . . from the poor and the marginalized . . . from those who are not at the center of society.  The establishment is seldom ready for the truth.  The truth must come from the edges . . . from the desert places in society.  And so John the Baptist appears in the wilderness.

John comes proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Oftentimes I fear we think of the word repentance as a fancy word for regret – as if saying “I repent of my faults” is a fancy way of saying “I’m sorry for what  did” – and I say I fear this understanding because it’s wrong.  Repentance is so much more than being sorry and regretting past actions.  Sorrow and regret may be the BEGINNINGS of repentance, but they are not the whole of it.  True repentance means turning our life around.  True repentance is more than emotion and desire; it is action.  True repentance means actually turning around, turning away from our old, wrong-headed way of living, turning toward new life and LIVING it.  For us Christians, the new life we are turning toward and living is a life of letting go . . . letting go of all our small-minded selfishness, and surrendering to the will of God in Christ.

The Gospel text this morning tells us that all the people from the countryside and all the people from Jerusalem . . . everyone . . . come to John and are baptized in the river Jordan.  ALL the people? . . . EVERYONE?  Well . . . maybe not ALL the people.  But, clearly we’re being told that John’s preaching is extraordinarily successful . . . I wonder why?  Well, there are a couple of reasons that I can think of.  First of all, as I’ve pointed out to you, he comes from the outside.  John is most definitely not a member of the establishment . . . he stands on the margins of society . . . where we all know, whether we like it or not, truth is likely to be spoken.  As fearful as this truth may be, as much as this truth may call us to change, this truth still draws us because it speaks to the truth embedded in our own hearts.  Another possible reason why John is so successful is that in his preaching he’s free from a personal agenda.  John proclaimed, “After me comes one mightier than I am, whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and unfasten.”  John is not attempting to create a movement to lead . . . he is not campaigning for any office . . . he is simply trying to prepare the way of the Lord.  John has let go of his small-minded selfishness, and is surrendering to the will of God.  He has let go of his own ego needs . . . he is free from himself . . . and so he can point beyond himself.  He can point to Jesus . . . and call us, too, to let go . . . and look beyond ourselves.

I’m aware that this language may sound a little off-putting to some of us.  Not that long ago the spirituality of the church might be described as that of self-denial.  When I was a little boy, I was taught a lot about maintaining personal disciplines, about denying myself certain pleasures, and about offering any suffering I experienced to God.  Now, there IS a kind of wisdom in these teachings, but it is NOT a wisdom rooted in self-hatred.  Unfortunately, however, that’s what these teachings came to look like to a lot of people:  self-hatred.  And so, there was, at least in the developed western world, a rebellion against a spirituality of self-hatred and a turning toward a spirituality of self-fulfillment.  Now, there is a kind of wisdom in these teachings too, but it is NOT a wisdom rooted in egocentricity.  And unfortunately, that’s what some of the teachings of self-fulfillment have come to look like to me . . . rooted in me, me, me, and I, I, I.  Both these polls – self-hatred on the one hand, and self-centeredness on the other – are spiritually flawed.  And John the Baptist is NOT an example of either of them . . . John’s is an example of spirituality that we are called to follow, an example of self-transcendence.  In transcendence there is both denial and fulfillment . . . denial of what is flawed in us, and fulfillment of what is best in us . . . and there is FREEDOM.  John is free, and so is free to look outside of himself and recognize and acknowledge the truth of Jesus Christ.  John is able to move beyond himself and point to Jesus.

Here we are at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, near the beginning of Advent, being called to prepare the way for the Lord.  We’re called to get ready for Christ’s coming.  How are we to do this?  Well, there are many ways, but we certainly couldn’t go wrong by following the preaching and example of John the Baptist.  Let us remember that the truth we need to hear may come from surprising and unexpected sources, not from officials and authorities and people in power.  Let us be open to possibility.  Let us remember that the truth of Jesus Christ calls us to repent, to turn and live into new life, and that in Christ there is forgiveness for our sins and the promise of freedom.  Let us be open to change.  Let us remember that through the grace of God we receive the power to look outside of ourselves toward the Kingdom of God, the power to transcend ourselves and to call others to join us on the journey.  Let us be open to Christ.

Amen.

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