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