By Rev. Dr. Charles J.
Tomlin, DMin.
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist
Partnership
Advent C, November 29,
2015
“Now is the time! Here
comes God's kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good
news!" (Mk. 1:15 CEB)
“For he who is about to
approach these holy and dread mysteries must be awake and alert, must be clean
from all cares of this life, full of much self-restraint, much readiness; he
must banish from his mind every thought foreign to the mysteries, and on all
sides cleanse and prepare his home, as if about to receive the king himself. "
----- John Chrysostom (circa. 390 AD).
I’ve
only gotten to shake the hand of one American President. I got to shake President James Earl “Jimmy”
Carter’s hand once while he was active as President and another time,
afterwards, as our former 39th President. The second time he was at a Baptist meeting in
an Atlanta meeting I attended where he was signing his new book.
As
some of you know, Jimmy Carter still faithfully teaches a Sunday School class several
times a year at his home church, Maranatha Baptist Church, in Plains
Georgia. But I’ve never been to it. However, I think it would be quite
interesting to watch or listen to a former President talk about faith in very
personal terms.
The
first time I got to shake President Carter’s hand was in March of 1978, out in
front of Wait Chapel at Wake Forest University.
I was scheduled to have a doctor’s appointment that day in Winston-Salem
and left home early to see if I could get a seat for the President’s
address. By the time I arrived around 8
am, the unreserved area of the chapel was already filled and there were many
people standing outside in the courtyard awaiting his 9 AM address. I joined them and waited and watched for the
President to arrive.
The
President made his address that morning mostly about America’s concern over the
Cold War (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=30516). As he exited the chapel he walked toward my
right. Most of the large crowd began to push toward
the roped line, reaching out to shake his hand.
Realizing I was too far back, also remembering that the President
arrived from the left, I merely walked toward the rope at the left side of the
courtyard where hardly anyone was standing.
Suddenly, as I had hoped, the President turned back toward my direction,
still shaking hands. As he passed by President
Carter looked me in the eye, smiled, and shook my hand.
It
was not only amazing to watch this unfold, it was also quite an education to
arrive and hour before the President did, and to observe and watch some of the
preparations being made for his soon arrival.
The route of his entrance was corded off. Television Cameras were stationed in
place. All kinds of Secret Service
agents were on the roofs of every building.
Police were everywhere.
Well-dressed large men with Sunglasses where standing around in the
crowd. Helicopters were flying in the
air and dignitaries were standing in wait for him at the door. Of
course, the campus grounds at “Wake” were even more immaculate than normal.
LOOK BEYOND YOUR ‘WORLD’
When
someone important is coming to visit, there is a great need to prepare and
ready ourselves. This is not just
something American’s do for the visit of a President, but this is something
that has been done for Kings, Pharaoh’s, and heads of state since the beginning
of civilization. It is this need to make
the right kind of preparation that the gospel of Mark opens with. Mark’s theme is based upon John the Baptizer’s
message which quoted the great Hebrew prophets of Moses, Isaiah and Malachi,
crying out “Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight (Mark
1:3).” Although each of the four gospels
tell us about the preaching of John the Baptist, only Mark opens with this call
to prepare ourselves for the coming of someone very important
Mark’s
approach to the gospel is as unique, distinctive, if not somewhat ‘strange’ way
to begin to prepare for this Advent and Christmas season. Think
about it this way: We are much more familiar with the gospel according to Luke,
which gives us warm stories about the
Shepherds along with the picture of the birth of the baby in a manager. We are also more familiar with Matthew, who warned Joseph with angelic visits or
lead the Magi with a star. We are even
more familiar with the lofty gospel of John’s very poetic and theological witness to “Word that became flesh and dwelt among us,” (Jn. 1:14) than we are accustomed to celebrating
Christmas with Mark’s most original word
as the very ‘beginning of the gospel’ (Mark 1:1).
Mark’s
gospel was probably the very first gospel
written and it is the only gospel to call itself ‘the gospel’ which means ‘good
news’. None of the other 3 gospels,
Matthew, Luke nor John, actually called themselves a gospel. They all talk about the gospel, but they do
not name their writings as such. This
fact should at least make us want to consider why Mark’s gospel begins as it
does. It should also make us want to consider just
how important, if not even more ‘original’ to the core of the gospel and to the
Christmas message, Mark’s beginning of
the gospel is.
What
Mark tells us right up front is what Christmas must be about. This is ‘the beginning
of the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son…’ (1:1). This means that the original Christmas is not
about Christmas parties, not about Christmas music, not about Christmas
decorations nor is it even about gift-giving, or about time with family for the
holidays, as good and wonderful as all of these things are. Mark’s
gospel, as the original gospel of Christmas, reminds us what the good news should be about: the ‘good news about Jesus Christ,
God’s Son.’ We can’t really
prepare for any kind of genuine Christmas celebration unless advent prepares
our own hearts for Jesus Christ.
Prepare? Now you may wonder why should we still ‘prepare’ ours hearts for the meaning of
Christmas, when the good news about Jesus Christ has already come and gone? Is to prepare for Jesus now just some
superstitious or superfluous tradition like is still being observed in the
archaic, medieval-like, Christmas traditions in Europe where some will prepare
for a fictional ‘baby Jesus’ who will come to put gifts under their Christmas
tree just like Santa Claus? Is the
Christmas season anything more than some nice, warm, mythical and magical
images of home, religion, or even ‘dreamy’ secular longings for world peace, or
is there something else this season of preparing and waiting is supposed to be about?
Many
people like the very eccentric scholar at Chapel Hill, Bart Ehrman, would say
that during Advent there is nothing else to prepare for, since the claims of
the Jesus are only mistaken exaggerations
(http://www.strangenotions.com/how-jesus-became-god-a-critical-review/)
. He’s a very strange Bible teacher indeed, who
doesn’t see anything of value in the Bible except to study what people used to
believe, since he was once a believer in Jesus himself, but is no more. Even
though Professor Ehrman, a noted historical scholar of the biblical world, has
refuted other wild interpretations which claim Jesus never existed, to him
Jesus is just another would-be messiah who failed and whose death ended in horrible,
tragic defeat. Jesus the Christ means nothing to him as a
matter of faith, love, or expectation of hope.
Like some families even around us, but hopefully not among us, Bart
Ehrman may still even celebrate Christmas, as a nice family tradition, but his
celebrations have nothing to do with really preparing his heart for the coming
of this Jesus who is still the unexpected messiah.
Is
there anything we need to be preparing for?
The Christian hope and part of
the Christian message spoken by Jesus himself is that ‘this Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the
same way that you saw him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11 CEB). Mark has Jesus referring to this too, when
Jesus speaks of the ‘day’ when ‘everyone will see the Human One, (the
Son of Man, NRSV) coming in the clouds
with great power and splendor” (Mk. 13: 26). Even Jesus admits he doesn’t know when, nor
did he tell us exactly how this would happen (Mk 13:32). But Mark’s gospel, along with Matthew and
Luke, who are following his lead, have Jesus telling his disciples and us to ‘watch out’ (Mk 13:33), to ‘stay alert’ (Mt 24:42), and to be ‘praying’ (Luke 21: 36), because we really don’t know when he is coming (Mk 13:33-34). Jesus spoke like this because he said it will
be like the coming of ‘a thief’ ‘in the
night’ (Matt 24:43). We don’t know
when. We are only told that somehow,
someday, he will come.
But
the second coming of Jesus is not the
only thing this season of Advent asks us to prepare for. Jesus is not only ‘this same Jesus who will come’,
but Jesus is also the ‘Spirit of
Jesus’ (Acts 16:7) who keeps coming,
and coming, and coming again (Jn 14:3) whenever we fully and freely open our
lives up to his restoring, reconciling, and redeeming presence. But how do we do this? This strange other-worldly ‘baptizer’
may answer that too.
LOOK WITHIN YOURSELF
If
we are going to ‘prepare’ our hearts
for Jesus, we may not be able to get away from the ‘world’ like John did—we may
not even be able to be inspired beyond ourselves by looking up at the stars
under a wilderness sky, or to contemplate consider life’s greater meaning, nor
have the depth or ability to reconsider or hear again powerful words of the Hebrew
prophets. All this might seem too far away from us, but
there is one place John asked the people to go which caused them all to come
flocking to hear his message. We can go
‘there’ too. John ‘shouted’ for the people to prepare their own hearts with a genuine
look within themselves so they would have a ‘change of hearts and lives’, not
so God would condemn them, but because
‘God wanted to forgive them’ (1:4) and call them to an even greater baptism than water, offering them a ‘baptism with the Holy Spirit’ (1:8).
In
Mark’s ‘beginning of the gospel’ we
don’t even have to wonder what kind of “baptism”
this Holy Spirit baptism means. It’s
not some superficial, Pentecostal extremism about speaking in tongues or
dancing on hot coals of fire, but it’s about what happened to Jesus next in
Mark’s powerful introduction.
Moving from John’s baptism to the Baptism of
Jesus, Mark introduces us to the kind of baptism Jesus whole ministry is
about. “While he was coming out of the water,” the text tells us, “Jesus
saw heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down on him”
(1:9). That’s a powerful picture of
spiritual baptism, but there’s more: “And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I
find happiness” (1:10).
While
there is of course something unique about Jesus’ baptism as “God’s Son”, there
is also something very un-unique and un-special about it. This is the voice God wants us to ‘prepare’
to hear, to prepare to understand and to receive into our own lives. In the more traditional language of the
Bible, God wants us to hear him call us his ‘beloved’ child or children.
In
one of the most powerful books on the meaning of the Christian life, the late Henri Nouwen, wrote “The Life of the
Beloved” for a Jewish friend, in order to help him understand the meaning of
the Christian life. Nouwen pictures the
“life” of a Christian as the baptized ‘beloved’
whose life is now lived like the taking, blessing, breaking, and giving
the bread of communion. It’s an
unforgettable, powerful image and this series of quotes from him sums up what
it means to be baptized, not just with water, but to be baptized ‘spiritually’
as the ‘beloved’ of God: “Aren't you, like me, hoping that some
person, thing, or event will come along to give you that final feeling of inner
well-being you desire? Don't you often hope: 'May this book, idea, course,
trip, job, country or relationship fulfill my deepest desire.' But as long as
you are waiting for that mysterious moment you will go on running
helter-skelter, always anxious and restless, always lustful and angry, never
fully satisfied. You know that this is
the compulsiveness that keeps us going and busy, but at the same time makes us
wonder whether we are getting anywhere in the long run. This is the way to
spiritual exhaustion and burn-out. This is the way to spiritual death…”
“….the real
"work" of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that
says good things about me…..To gently push aside and silence the many voices
that question my goodness and to trust that I will hear the voice of blessing--
that demands real effort. ….., you have to keep unmasking the world about you
for what it is: manipulative, controlling, power-hungry, and, in the long run,
destructive. The world tells you many lies about who you are, and you simply
have to be realistic enough to remind yourself of this. Every time you feel hurt, offended, or
rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself: 'These feelings, strong as they
may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right
now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God's eyes, called the
Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting belief.” (Henri J.M. Nouwen, Life
of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World as quoted at (http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/9477-life-of-the-beloved-spiritual-living-in-a-secular-world).
In
his commentary on Mark, theologian NT Wright tells of a famous movie-maker who
got into a huge legal dispute with his mentor and guide. “The
younger man simply couldn’t handle criticism, and ended up rejecting the person
who had helped him so much. When it was
all over, a close friend summed up the real problem. ‘It was all about an ungenerous father,’ he
explained, ‘and a son looking for affirmation and love.’ (From Mark for Everyone, Tom Wright, WJK Press, 2004, p. 4).
What
kind of ‘voice’ do you hear within yourself? Is it a voice of condemnation or a voice of
affirmation and love? It’s very hard to
get those ‘negative’ voices embedded from our childhood out of our head, especially
during the Christmas season, but this is what spiritual baptism into the truth of Christmas is about. For Jesus, baptism was about hearing that
voice, not of Joseph from Nazareth, but the voice of his true Father, the God
who is the Father who unconditionally loves us all. Are you prepared to hear such a voice? Even when the voice of the Spirit is trying
to convict or convince of the truth about faith or the truth about ourselves,
it is the voice that say, “You are my beloved child.” Preparing yourself to hear this voice
within your own heart, is at the core of what being a Christian and being
Christian is all about. That is the true
‘spirit’ of Christmas.
LOOK AROUND AND SEE THE
NEED
But
hearing God’s voice of affirmation does not shelter us from the trouble,
temptations and struggles of living in this world. That’s why ‘immediately’ or ‘at once’,
Mark tells us that ‘the Spirit drove
Jesus out into the wilderness’ where he was ‘tempted’ and tested by Satan
(Mark 1; 12-13). Even being God’s ‘beloved’
does not protect nor prevent us from facing great suffering, pain, or temptation. In fact, being the ‘beloved of God’ may sharpen that pain at times, because we wonder
‘why’ a God who calls us his ‘beloved’ would allow such things to happen to
us.
While we can never specifically
answer ‘why’ evil, suffering, or pain happens to us, what we can know is that
it is this very ‘unanswered’wilderness of pain that prepares us to minister and
care about the suffering of others. This is
exactly where Mark’s gospel takes us next, as the final step in our initial
preparation for Advent. He tells us how
Jesus begins his ‘ministry’ preaching the ‘nearness of God’s kingdom’ which is
a call to ‘trust’ God’s good news
(1:15 CEB). We come to trust God’s good
news, not when we get all the answers we want in life, but when we ‘follow’
Jesus, just as those very first disciples were called to do. To put down their ‘nets’ to catch fish, and
to pick up their ‘nets’ of love to go out and ‘catch’ people who need help,
healing, and the ‘good news’ of God’s grace and love preached for them (See
Mark 1: 16-20).
There
is no doubt that what drew people to Jesus was that he not only had a powerful
message, but that he also had an authoritative method, of help and healing that
challenged the ‘demons’ of evil in Jesus’ day.
For me, the presence and promise of Jesus is that his love, care, and
compassion still challenges and dispels the demons of our age; loneliness,
carelessness, heartlessness, and cruelty, either in the name of religion,
government, or individual callousness.
When we hear God’s true voice of ‘affirmation’ in our own hearts, we are
then ‘prepared’ to take that voice and share it through loving deeds of
ministry in the world, as we follow Jesus in his way.
Of
course, we’re not Jesus. We don’t have
to be. But we can follow Jesus, and this
is right at the heart of what we should be ‘prepared’ to do and to be. I’ll never forget how a very gifted business
woman in the churches I’ve served, once said to me. She once involved her Sunday School class in
the annual “Toy Store” Mission that the Baptist Association hosted and I had
spoken about. Her class adopted a struggling
family and showered them, not only with gifts, but with time, visits, prayers
and love. After the Christmas season was
over, she came to me and said, “Pastor,
we will never feel like we have truly celebrated Christmas ever again, unless
we have somebody we can help and love.
Thank you for invited us to be a part of this wonderful ministry.”
This
is what Mark opening words are preparing us for; not just to believe in who
Jesus was, but to prepare our heart for following and living Jesus in our own
lives. You really can’t say you know
Jesus, unless you follow Jesus. To
follow Jesus, you must look beyond your own world, look deep within yourself and hear God’s
voice of love, and then, look around you and see and respond to the needs of
those who need to see, hear, and know that Christmas is not just a season, but
it’s a gift that’s being ‘unwrapped’ in us.
Amen.
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