“PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD”

December 8, 2002
Mark 1:1-8       Rev. Sue Yarber          

 

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God” wow…now that’s an introduction.

 

The word “gospel’ meaning “good news or glad tidings,” in Mark’s time, was used by Roman authorities to brag of their military victories and other assertions of worldly power.

         

Kings and military victors were described as “being in God’s favor. Caesar was eulogized as a “divine man” on Roman coins.

 

The “Gospel” of Jesus Christ is a powerful introduction…a divinely anointed leader of the Jews… not exactly a concept that the Romans wanted to think about.

 

The description of John the Baptist echoes a description of Elijah in 2 Kings 1. Elijah was a mighty prophet who challenged the king of his time. John’s foretelling of the Savior also challenges the political powers of his time.

         

All of the Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem went out to see John to be baptized.

 

In the gospel of Mark the writer makes a distinction between the Judean countryside, the marginal space in which many Jews live, and Jerusalem, the center of Jewish power.

 

Jesus is the Savior that appears from the margins. He is an unknown figure, from questionable social origins, in a remote place, and, yet, it is through him that God’s voice speaks to the world.

 

Why is it that I find this simple tension in Mark between the wilderness of John and Jesus, on the one hand, and the temple’s Jewish leadership, on the other, so interesting?

 

I find the tensions between the margins and the center in Mark’s gospel compelling. Perhaps, it is because I have felt on the margins all of my life. As a little girl I used to pray for the Mother Ship to come and get me. I thought it was a bad joke being dropped on this strange planet with strange creatures, other humans that did not seem to think or feel as I did.

 

I was dying of terminal uniqueness…a lesbian, who was not athletic and a bit on the nerdy side, books being my earliest form of escape. I was depressed and felt hopelessly alone.

 

All I ever wanted was to fit in and be a person among people.

 

My faith has enabled me to belong today...praise God. Jesus came to me from the margins and helped me find a way to celebrate who and what I am. I still live on the margins, the edges of the mainstream, largely, because I choose to today.

 

There is, indeed, good news in the beginning of Mark. God speaks to us from the margins not the center.

 

Sometimes we live on the margins because of our choices. Our values differ from the mainstream values.

 

For instance, we might choose to live a life committed to ecologically sound choices, seeing the earth as a gift from God, resources to be utilized, respected and preserved. We live in a world in which dominance over the land has been mistaken for dominion of the land. The earth is seen as a commodity to be used for our financial benefit. It doesn’t matter who or what gets slaughtered in the process.

 

Sometimes we live on the margins because others put us there for whatever reason.

 

Many of us have faced rejection, alienation and separation because of whom we love or because of our gender identity. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia…they are all ways of denying another’s divine spark.

 

GOD CHOSE TO COME INTO THIS WORLD, TO LIVE AMONG US, ON THE MARGINS OF LIFE, NOT AT THE CENTER.

 

Preparing the way of the Lord involves a decision to live by values outside of the norms of the world.

         

If we are to meet Jesus and recognize his significance it will be when we look to the margins of our world. We will question the decisions of worldly rulers. We will view them through a lens of love and peace. Are the actions of our political leaders loving, do they act to preserve the dignity and worth of all people?

 

Here in this church community, this amazing body of Christ, how do we understand this commitment to the margins?

 

Every time we educate ourselves on issues affecting the transgender community, we see Christ in folks that are, often, denied their humanity, much less the divine presence of Christ within them.

 

Every time we conduct a school supply, toy or clothing drive, we reach out to the poor and marginalized and find Christ there.

 

Part of finding Christ at the margins is understanding that going to people on the edges is what Jesus did best. By seeing ourselves as instruments of hope and peace we learn about what it means to experience Christ’s love.

 

Jesus was born in a humble setting, a simple bed of hay, not in a posh hotel waited on by servants. His very life started on the margins and ended on the margins. Most importantly, Jesus chose to live his life on the margins.

 

He challenged religious authorities, defied social conventions, called people to live out a new ethic. There was nothing mainstream about the man called Jesus, from Nazareth.

 

The decision to live life at the margins is made when we clearly see that there is a life beyond this one. When we understand that the spiritual journey happens inside of us. There is no point in being transfixed on worldly power or circumstance. The race for material items will not provide us happiness and security.

 

I am not saying that we don’t care. In fact, just the opposite, we care deeply. God loves us so much that God became human. Surely, the human condition is of great interest to God. Jesus spent his life addressing the problems of people.

 

John predicts Jesus’ coming and echoes the words of Isaiah 40. “Make a highway for our God”. I love that image because it reminds me that we have to clear a space within ourselves and among ourselves for God to come in and move us. Making room for God is not a passive process.

 

What is overgrown and needs to be cut out in order for God to enter? Are you clinging to resentment or harboring a grudge? Do you have unfinished business that desperately wants your attention? Do you hang onto feelings and thoughts about being unworthy? Is happiness this elusive thing that you get a rare glimpse of now and then?

 

The brush that grows in the pathway of God and blocks it needs to be cut out of our spiritual lives.

 

Sometimes it is hard work to clear the path and we may need help to lift the heavy blocks in our way. God gives us each other and we can haul the blocks away. Prayer is the key and if the stone can be rolled from the grave there is nothing that will stand between you and God’s grace. Prayer is your rolling power.

 

GOD GIVES US GRACE, THE FREE GIFT OF JESUS THE CHRIST, BUT WE MUST OPEN OUR ARMS TO THE CHRIST CHILD. Advent is all about laying down our burdens and cares so that we will be ready to hold the precious baby who will bring us hope and peace.

 

John the Baptist lets the world know that a greater one is coming.

John states that he was not worthy to “untie the sandals of the coming one.” Sandals and feet, in those days, were particularly nasty, dirt roads and camel dung…ugh!

 

Servants washed the filthy feet of guests as an act of hospitality. John was saying that he was not worthy to be the servant of Jesus. Later Jesus, himself, washed the feet of his disciples, in order to model servant leadership.

 

THROUGH SERVANTHOOD WE DISCOVER THE CHRIST WITHIN OURSELVES.

 

What does it mean to serve another? How do we represent Christ to another person? Looking at life through the lens of love, meeting folks where they are and entering into their experiences with them is a start at service.

 

You cannot serve a homeless person a meal without encountering their human vulnerability, vulnerability just like yours.

 

You cannot watch a small child open a Christmas gift that you bought without remembering the wonder of expectation and hope.

 

There is a reservoir of compassion and hope that flows through each of us.

 

THROUGH SERVANTHOOD WE DISCOVER THE CHRIST IN OTHERS.

 

When we realize that we can be a part of the solution to life’s trials and troubles by simply reminding folks that they are divine creations, made in God’s image and likeness, we have experienced the joy of sitting in the presence of Christ.

 

It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that allowed Jesus to make his life at the margins. Healing the sick, dining with the tax collectors and sinners, challenging the authorities and defying social customs to reach out to God’s beloved children. That was Christ’s mission. The mission of hope and peace is ours also. The spirit dwells within each and every human heart. It is here among us.

 

We are called to represent Christ at the margins and we are called to find Christ at the margins. Do you hear their faint voices, the homeless, the hungry, the war –torn, the beaten, those with HIV and those who are alone? They are saying “Prepare the way of the Lord!”

 

 They gather to say, “Look past my dirty clothes, my emaciated body, my oppressive government, my bruises and scars, my HIV status, my loneliness. See only Christ, the heart of love, living on in me. Prepare the way of the Lord!”