A Gospel Sandwich

Mark 1:21-28

They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. 

This Gospel lesson is called an “inclusio” in Biblical studies.  I just call it a Gospel sandwich.  It’s got two slices of “teaching with authority” bread, on either side of an “unclean spirit exorcism” filling.  Mark’s trying to get us to understand that we need to eat it all together… that you can’t take out the filling and just eat the bread and you can’t tear off the bread and just have the filling. 

When I first read this lesson I tore off the bread and just had the filling.  I zeroed in on the unclean spirit stuff and started making my list and checking it twice writing down everyone I knew who was naughty and not at all nice!  I wanted my unclean spirits to cry out “are you here to destroy us” and I wanted to say them “damn straight I am!”  But this lesson is not just about the filling.  Jesus tells us we must eat this sandwich as a whole. 

There’s a popular little quote going around by Rev. Benjamin Cremer that says, “The moment we Christians start looking for an authoritarian “strongman” to lead us is the moment we stop looking for the One who leads by washing feet, who rides a donkey instead of a warhorse, and who tells his followers to put away their swords and take up their crosses instead.”  Right on... but I think he's beating around the bush so he comes across as being as obsessed with the bread as I was with the filling.  Again Jesus insists, we must eat this sandwich as a whole. 

When Mark made this Gospel Sandwich to explain what Jesus was all about, he was letting us know FIRST that from the very top of the sandwich, from the beginning of everything we do… down to the very bottom of the sandwich, to the very end of all we do… Jesus’ teachings hold it all together.  Jesus' teachings are that God’s love is for all of humanity and all of creation… that everyone, from every race, creed, and country has been, and is, being wrapped in a Divine loving embrace that can’t be undone.  That’s the bread, and to be a whole sandwich, we obviously MUST have the bread.  

But this sandwich also teaches that there will inevitably be times when the unclean spirit jumps up and yells, “What have you to do with us?”  This lessons teaches us that those are NOT the times for subtlety or gentleness.  So, “when Christians start looking for an authoritarian strongman to lead us”… that’s not the time to beat around the bush... it's the time to say clearly and strongly that those people have STOPPED BEING CHRISTIAN!  That’s the middle of this Gospel sandwich and to be a whole sandwich… we must have that middle as well. 

By making this lesson into a Gospel Sandwich Jesus is showing us that real, solid, clear boundaries… standing up to, and calling out evil… saying out loud and with clarity that “This behavior is Christian and This behavior is simply NOT”… Those things are NOT outside the realm of love; they are actually an essential part of the realm of love… you guessed it… like a sandwich made of both bread and filling!  This Gospel Sandwich teaches us that dealing clearly and firmly with unclean spirits… calling out a thing for what it actually is with clarity and without hesitation, IS just as critical a part of our calling as followers of Jesus as surrounding everyone we meet (including those with unclean spirits) with God’s Divine love.  Jesus is again calling us to eat the whole Sandwich!  

In my lifetime, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a time where hearing, digesting, and putting into daily practice the lessons of this Gospel sandwich were more crucial.  We are surrounded by men and women whose words and actions end up frankly being best described as those of unclean spirits!  I’m a science guy, as you know, but things are so far gone that the best way I’ve found to describe what they are doing, even in this modern age, is to call it the work of unclean spirits and that makes this Gospel Sandwich a sandwich for 2024!  It calls us to confront the words, actions, and policies of those with evil spirits directly and clearly.  It calls us to remember that Jesus himself calls us in this lesson to use clear and firm boundaries IN ORDER TO love our neighbors.  AND this Gospel Sandwich also calls us to remember, that even those with evil spirits, are also surrounded by God’s unconditional love.

This Gospel Sandwich calls us to practice a kind of love that is not at all watered down.  It is both a love that surrounds all things in this world unconditionally.  And it is also a love that cares so much about our neighbors that, in that love, we will find ourselves compelled to call out their evil spirits for what they are.  To not rely on subtlety to get the message across to them because in love, we want them to be free!

 

Mark built this Gospel Sandwich to help all of us understand those two drastically different looking facets of love, see how they are used by Jesus, AND how they are inseparably intertwined with one another.  Mark built this Gospel Sandwich to then teach us that as we eat, digest, and practice this Sandwich as a whole, we are walking Jesus’ Way.  He built this Gospel Sandwich so that as we eat it as a whole, each day we will find that it becomes easier to reflect God’s love, both in the way that tells the evil spirits to just “shut it” AND in the way that draws those same evil spirits into a love wide enough, even for the likes of them… and therefore, even for the likes of us!  Amen.  

Good News Begins in Baptism NOT in Fear

Mark 1:4-11

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Here we are at the beginning of the year and here we are at what Mark calls, “The Beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”.  The beginning for Mark happens as Jesus comes up out of the water, and God says “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  For Mark it didn’t start with the manger, shepherds or any angels heard on high.  It starts, with Baptism.  It starts with God saying to Jesus, “With you I am well pleased.”  But well pleased about what?  I mean, up to this point Jesus hadn’t done… well anything!   No healings, no miracles, no walking on water, no water into wine, nothing!  He’s maybe been helping out his step dad with the Goldstein kitchen remodel but that’s not really heaven-opening stuff.  So what has Jesus DONE to make God so pleased with him?  The answer is… NOTHING!  Jesus has done absolutely NOTHING to make God well pleased with him!  And THAT, my non-fundamentalist, Lutherpalian friends, is the WHOLE point!  THAT is what makes this GOOD news!

God is not just pleased, but WELL pleased, simply and only because Jesus is God’s Child… simply and only because they are forever bound together in love.  And here’s why Jesus’ Baptism is not just the Beginning of the Good News for Jesus, but is the Beginning of the Good News for you and me as well… YOUR BAPTISM IS NO DIFFERENT THAN JESUS’ BAPTISM!

When any of us come up out of the water, whether sprinkled, poured, dunked, or hosed down from head to toe… each and every one of us pleases God… not for anything that we’ve done or anything we will or won’t do in the future, but simply because we are, like Jesus, God’s child!  God declares here on earth what has already and always been true in heaven… That God is not just “regular” pleased with you, but “Well Pleased” with you… WELL PLEASED that you and God are bound up together in an infinite and unbreakable love beyond all human understanding. 

Now I know that the “unlimited and unbreakable Divine love” sort of Christianity (a.k.a. genuine Christianity) isn’t the sort that the LOUD and ANGRY people like.  They would rather you live in constant fear that God will be disappointed in you, smite you, or abandon you to hell for all eternity if you poke even one pinky toe outside the lines they’ve drawn.  They want you live paralyzed by worry that “If I fail, if I go the wrong way, if I’m misled somewhere, if anything leads me off the path, then God won’t like me anymore.”  

BUT Mark’s Gospel makes it clear, GOOD NEWS does not begin in FEAR!  GOOD NEWS begins in Baptism and that Good News is that you JUST CAN’T MESS UP BAD ENOUGH FOR GOD TO EVER STOP LOVING YOU!  That GOOD NEWS is that you have been set FREE!  FREE from the worry and fear that God could ever be disappointed in you, smite you, or abandon you to hell for all eternity for poking a pinky toe outside the lines.

Remembering that GOOD NEWS is an excellent place to begin 2024.  A year where fundamentalists, Christian Nationalists, and all the other merchants of fear (who are Legion) will be raising their already loud, angry, and relentless sales pitch to never before imagined levels in this country.  They will be hard-selling their product of “paralyzing fear” to us and our neighbors with whatever it takes:  confusion, hatred, bait and switch, bombast, threats of violence and actual violence as well.  They will be selling this paralyzing fear falsely labeled as “christianity” and trying to get you and your neighbors to believe that the best thing… the faithful thing… for us all to do this year is to stay home, lock the door, keep our heads down, keep quiet, and toe whatever line they draw.  

They are selling it but I’m telling you, “DON’T BUY IT!”  It’s a load of manure!  It’s actually not anywhere near as good as a load of manure.  Manure you can at least compost and put on your garden.  What they’re selling is a toxic sludge no one needs!  They will be selling it loudly and relentlessly this year BUT YOU DON’T NEED IT!  Why?  Because you are Baptized!  Because your Baptism has set you free from all they're selling!  Instead, let us all begin this year with a relentless determination to live into the GOOD NEWS that begins in Baptism and not in Fear!  

What’s that look like?  Well in that department, I think the loud and angry people can actually be quite helpful.  They have become almost perfectly anti-Christ in their positions.  So, if you listen to what they say (and they’re so dang loud you can’t help but here them) and then live into your Baptism by trying different ways to do the opposite, you'll be off to a good start.  When they loudly proclaim hatred, we’ll dream up new ways to be about love.  When they call people vermin, we’ll know exactly the people we need to reach out to in welcome.  When they promote violence, we’ll embrace non-violence.  When they want us to be exhausted, stay home alone, and out of the way, we’ll know we need to get up, gather here, recharge one another for the week ahead and live in the world like the fearless, bold, forever loved, baptized children of God we are!  Let us not make this a year where we are held captive by fear!  Let us make 2024 a year where we live powerfully into the GOOD NEWS of God’s infinite and unbreakable love for all of creation!  After all... WE ARE BAPTIZED!  Amen.  

A Ricky Bobby 8lb 6oz Baby Jesus Christmas

Tonight we’re here to talk about the Dear Lord, Baby Jesus.  We’re here to ask him to use his baby Jesus powers.  We’re here to pray to the dear, tiny, infant Jesus with his golden fleece diapers and tiny balled up fists… the version of Jesus we like the best… to pray to the 8lb 6oz newborn infant Jesus, who don’t even know a word yet, just a little infant, so cuddly (but still omnipotent) and to thank baby God for all his power and grace.

I can see almost all of my regulars are completely baffled right now, but you’ll be okay.  THIS sermon is for people who aren’t regulars.  This sermon is for those of you, who knew right away that was from the movie Talladega nights, when Ricky Bobby said grace for their family feast of Domino’s, KFC, and Taco Bell.  This sermon is mostly for those of you who laughed at that Will Ferrel bit because to you, it looks almost exactly like the Christianity you see in the world today!  But here’s something you didn’t see coming… I think it’s hilarious for EXACTLY THE SAME REASON!    

There really ARE lots of very loud, very public, Ricky Bobby type people out there who like the dear, tiny, infant, baby Jesus best.  They like that version best, I think, because the tiny, infant, baby Jesus with his golden fleece diapers and tiny balled up fists “don’t know a word yet.”  And because he “don’t know a word yet” they can believe that the little, baby Jesus loves what they love and even more importantly… hates who they hate.  They like the infant baby Jesus because THAT 8lb. 6oz. infant, baby, Jesus can’t talk.  Since he can’t talk, he can’t insist that we feed the hungry, give something to drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, or visit the sick and those in prison and all the other things the grown up Jesus insists we do if we’re going to be Christians.  

I know that’s what you see.  Its almost impossible to miss.  It’s loud, huge, and in your face.  I see it too.  But this Christmas Eve, I figured… when you gave into grandma and agreed to go to church… this might be my only chance to let you know that the very, very, loud, “Christianity” that’s in your face out there in the world… the celebrity jet-owning preachers… the kneeling-in-prayer politicians…  all of the people and groups that do hate in the name of Jesus, and all of those folks with fake Christian outrage… ALL of THAT is a little, tiny, baby Jesus SCAM!    

But, here’s the seed I want to plant with you tonight:  That SCAM has absolutely NOTHING to do with genuine Christianity. I know they use “Christian" sounding words, and they say them very loudly and very often… words like “Jesus” and “prayer” and “Lord” and “Bible” and they claim to have conversations with God as often as people in Massachusetts talk with a person working at Dunkin’.  But what I want to tell you tonight, is that everything they’re trying to sell… all of it… is worth LESS than what Joseph found when he went to change the little, tiny, infant baby Jesus’ diaper!  

The truth of Christmas… the truth of Christianity… is that the 8lb. 6oz. tiny, infant Jesus grew up!  He grew up and he walked around full time, modeling for people a Way to do this thing called life in a way that makes life actually worth living!  He demonstrated how to make this life, not a slog, but an abundant joy… a life, full-to-overflowing with love, dignity, purpose and fulfillment.  That tiny, infant, baby Jesus learned to walk and learned to talk.  Once he started walking and talking, he never stopped telling and showing people how, when we bring unconditional, self-giving love, compassion, and kindness with us into the world, and when we spread that stuff around with outrageous, jaw dropping generosity… this violent, broken, messed up, hate filled; death, power, and money loving world we live in… it changes.  The world changes.  It… really… changes.  

Now, I’d personally like it to change a lot more FULLY and a WHOLE lot more QUICKLY than it does, but that’s just one of the many things that are out of my control.  What is in my control is hanging out with other people who are committed to doing love day in and day out… even when it changes the world too damn little and too damn slow.  That’s why the regulars (who have no idea about Ricky Bobby, but get the love thing) get together every week… to encourage one another to keep at it!  That’s why Sunday morning in a real Christian community basically looks like a bunch of impatient, flawed, regular, frustrated, joyful, human beings, (a surprising number of whom I have to tell you, actually have a VERY twisted, very irreverent, and if I’m honest… pretty raunchy sense of humor by the way)… but it looks like that group of regular people helping, encouraging, nudging, and pushing each other, to get back out there into our broken world, and pour another dose of unconditional, self-giving love, compassion, and kindness into the world in the coming week.

THAT is what the little, tiny, infant, baby Jesus really came to do on Christmas.  He came to grow up and model for the world a WAY to genuinely LIVE this life we’ve been given rather than just settle for getting through it.  The WAY, he says we can do that, is by giving out self-giving love, compassion, and kindness with reckless abandon.  Love given with reckless abandon.  THAT is what a Grown Up Christian Christmas is all about!  May you all have a very Merry Grown Up Christian Christmas all year long.  Amen.

John, Mary, and Lucy

John 1:6-8, 19-28

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” 

And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 

He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. 

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” 

John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

When Advent was first a thing, in the 4th century-ish, it was a forty day penitential fast before the feast of Christmas, just like Lent is a forty day penitential fast before the feast of Easter.  Back then, Advent began on November 11th, which is the feast of St. Martin, and like Lent, Advent included a one Sunday break from all the fasting as an encouragement to “hang in there to the end!”… to remember, “something good really IS coming!”  

In Lent that break is called Laetare Sunday, or Rejoice Sunday if you prefer the English.  The corresponding Sunday in Advent is Gaudete Sunday or Joy Sunday.  That’s this Sunday.  That’s the reason for the pink candle on this Sunday in Advent.  In the modern days of the 13th century, Advent was changed to begin on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day or the nearest Sunday to St. Andrew’s Day if you’re Scottish, and then at the Second Vatican council, Advent took on a less penitential and more hopeful character for the season. But long or short, penitential or hopeful, purple or blue, this is the Sunday where we turn our attention fully to the coming of the Light of Christ… Jesus, the babe in the manger. This is the Sunday where we see John the Baptist testify to that light.  He is not the light himself, he makes clear, but he is there to testify to it, point to it, proclaim it and call people into the coming light of Christ. 

This is also the time in Advent where we celebrate St. Lucy's feast day… or Sankta Lucia if you’d prefer it in Swedish!  St. Lucy was a young Christian girl who lived in the darkness of the Roman persecution.  She too was not the light, but in a creative bearing of the light, she wore a crown of candles on her head so she could use both hands to bring food to fellow Christians hiding in the catacombs.  While, like John, she was not the light herself, she testified to the light by what she did.  Her actions pointed to it, proclaimed it and called the people in darkness to have hope in the light of Christ. 

This week we also hear from Mary.  She too was not the light herself, it is GOD, she says clearly, who is the One who does the great things… who shows strength, scatters the proud, casts down the mighty, lifts up the lowly, fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty!  But she also made clear when she said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ that she was there to testify to the light, point to it, proclaim it, to bear it, and to call the people into the light of Christ.

  

That, my friends, is OUR calling in the midst of our world’s darkness as well.  We, like John, Lucia, and Mary are called to testify to the light, point to it, proclaim it, to bear it, and to call the people into the light of Christ.  The darkness John and Mary and Lucia knew were different in many ways than the darkness we know today.  The darkness of war in Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, the darkness of rising Christian Nationalism and threats by authoritarians.  The darkness of our local hunger, poverty, addiction, underemployment, and housing shortages.  Our darkness may be different than theirs but we are called just as they were, NOT to BE the light… THAT is the work of the Messiah, the Christ.  But you and I, like John the Baptist, Lucia, and Mary… WE are called to testify to the light, point to it, proclaim it, to bear it, and to call the people within the circles of our lives into the healing light of Christ.

What will all that that bearing, proclaiming, and testifying to the Light look like for you?  Or as Frederick Buechner might ask, “where will your deep gladness meet the world’s deep hunger” in this week to come?  I think it will look as different for each of us as it looked different for John, Mary and Lucia.  I think we can learn from John that it can be bold and clear.  I think we can learn from Mary that it should be humble and brave.  I think we can learn from Lucia that it can be creative and practical.  Beyond that, the way each of us testifies to the Light of Christ in this next short week before Christmas is between you and the Holy Spirit!  

So be open this next week to the nudging of the Holy Spirit.  Take some time in the midst of the last minute noise and chaos to be still and listen for that Spirit.  Notice with her, the places that need to be filled in, cut back, and need a little extra light.  Then, remembering once again that WE are NOT the light, bring the One who is the light… EMMANUEL… God With Us, to shine into EVERY darkness wherever it might be and in whatever way the Holy Spirit leads you to do it!  Amen.

The Summers of '77 and 70

Mark 1:1-8

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way;

the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,’”

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

When we went to the movies in the summer of 1977 to see Star Wars, that was all there was.  It was “A” single, stand alone movie.  We had no notion of sequels, let alone prequels, let alone all the rest that continues to come out year after year.  In the summer of 1977 it was JUST… STAR WARS, but it changed everything.  

When the Gospel of Mark came out in the summer of 70, it too was “A” single, stand alone Gospel.  They had no notion of Matthew and Luke’s prequel birth stories, nor sequel resurrection stories... neither of which are found in Mark.  They certainly had no idea that one day John’s Gospel would be a thing.  In the summer of 70 it was JUST… MARK, but it changed everything.

 

In the summer of 70 the first character they met in Mark’s Gospel was John the Baptist, but WHAT a character to start a story!  People came from all over to hear what John had to say.  His message was that God was getting ready to break into the world.  God would bring justice and free people held captive by oppression, poverty, violence, war, disease, and death.  People came to hear that message of God’s coming because for them, God’s coming wasn’t scary… It was a new hope!  The situation in which they lived… the Romans, the injustice and the pain was so great that only something truly epic could change the situation.  They came out into the desert to hear how their pain would come to an end when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords came to town and to hear that time was soon.

John also let people know that, as when any important person comes to town, there were some preparations that needed to be done.  In the ancient world when the king was coming to town the people would go out on the roads and cut back the brush on the sides.  They would fill in the potholes so the king had a smooth ride.  They would make the way into their town as straight as possible so the king would have no delays.  The same sorts of preparations needed to be done for the coming of God, John told them, but it wasn’t the roads that needed to be prepared for God, it was their hearts that needed the work.  They needed to straighten out the places where their compassion for the poor and hungry had taken a wrong turn.  Cut back the things that kept them from seeing their neighbors in need.  Fill in the potholes of greed that left them always wanting more, and turned them in on themselves to the exclusion of the world around them.  THAT was the way to prepare for the coming of THIS King.

When the people heard John’s message… the coming of the King and the need to prepare themselves… they committed themselves to that kind of personal preparation.  To mark their commitment, they were baptized by John.  John baptized them on the OUTSIDE to mark their commitment to doing the work THEY promised to do on the INSIDE.  But then John added… while he was baptizing them from the OUTSIDE-IN, when God came, God would baptize them with the Holy Spirit from the INSIDE-OUT.  

Outside in, inside out…what difference does it make?  Well, it makes ALL the difference!  Outside-in transformation begins and ends with us.  It is the power of our own will to change our lives and do things in a different way.  It counts on us, and us alone, to motivate ourselves to get out there and fill in those pot holes of greed, trim back the bushes of indifference, and straighten out what’s gotten off track.  It’s not that Outside-In transformation CAN’T work, it’s just that for most of us mortals, it’s not something we can keep up for the long haul.   

On the other hand, when we are baptized by the Holy Spirit from the INSIDE-OUT, our transformation isn’t up to us.  It’s ALL God’s work!  It is God, who begins that work inside us.  It is God who grows that work, from something small into something that simply can’t be kept inside.  It is God who then pours it out of us and into the world.  Because the Spirit’s INSIDE-OUT Baptism doesn’t depend on our will, it keeps on working within us, moving us, and transforming us no matter what we do or don’t do in our lives.  When we are Baptized with the Holy Spirit, God works in us, regardless of the road conditions, regardless of wrong turns, regardless of all the times we try and take over and play God.  When we are Baptized by the Holy Spirit, God never, never, never gives up on us.

No one here has been baptized with John’s kind of baptism.  None of us here have been baptized from the outside in.  None of us here have been left to transform our lives by our will alone.  Every single one of us here has been Baptized by the Holy Spirit.  That means that every single one of us, even now, even still, is being transformed by God from the inside out.  In each and every one of us, God continues to fill in our potholes, cut back the brush, and get us back on track.  That’s why our job as Christians is simply (well, not so simply) to get ourselves OUT of the Holy Spirit’s way and allow God’s love, grace, and compassion to do its work within us which then flows freely from us into the world, changing the world into the vision John proclaimed was coming, all those years ago in the summer of 70.  Amen.

Yet, O Lord, You are the Mower

Isaiah 64:1-9

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed.

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.

Mark 13:24-37

“But in those days, after that suffering,

the sun will be darkened,

and the moon will not give its light,

and the stars will be falling from heaven,

and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

How are we to wait?  That’s the question of Advent.  How are we to wait?  The lessons for today focus on our wait for the world to be made right again.  These same lessons make it very clear that the way things are now, even though we are the makers the mess, are well outside our ability to put right again.  Our mess needs something beyond the capacity of both our imagination and our power.  That puts it all out of our control and THAT, humans find frustrating.   

Isaiah voiced Israel’s frustration this way:  Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and descend, make the mountains shudder at your presence— As when a forest catches fire, as when fire makes a pot to boil—To shock your enemies into facing you, make the nations shake in their boots!  This was the frustration of exile… an exile that did not seem, in any way, possible to escape except by Divine intervention.  Mark wrote to a people similarly trapped.  They too could not imagine any way to escape the oppression and persecution of the Roman Empire except by God breaking into their world, in person, and putting things right.  Our modern stuckness is different… but really the same. 

Israeli hostages in Gaza.  Thousands of Palestinians bombed into oblivion.  Only the heavens ripped open will do.  The climate changes and forests burn, farmland becomes unproductive and storms increase in destructive power as every last dime is squeezed out of the earth, never looking farther into the future than this quarter’s earnings.  Only a miracle will do.  Our Jewish neighbors are told they should be afraid to leave their homes.  Palestinian kids are killed in a neighboring state.  Only God’s mountain-shaking presence will do.  Christian Nationalists take Jesus’ words of love, acceptance, generosity and grace and torture them to come out meaning the the exact opposite of what Jesus was all about.  For this level of mess we need mountain shaking, in-person power like on Mount Sini to fix all this!  This needs Son of Man coming in the clouds, the sun and moon going dark and the heavenly host drawn from the four winds kind of power if all that is broken is to be made right again!  We feel like Isaiah felt, like a leaf that is fading the longer we wait.  We feel like Mark, like the sky is growing darker and the night just keeps getting colder the longer we wait.  And yet all we can do is WAIT!  But it would seem that HOW we wait, matters.

I think the new online friend I make this week gives us an example of waiting “unawake.”  I posted a welcome to the “community tree lighting” online.  He commented that there is no such thing as a “community tree” and we should put Christ back into the Christmas tree.  I replied that he could rest easy.  That no matter what the tree is called, no one has the power to undo the birth of Christ!  He called me a “Bleeding Heart” which, of course, refers to Christ’s heart of compassion and kindness which I thought was very nice of him.  Humor aside, this is what waiting “unawake” looks like.  Waiting in anxiety and fear… waiting by allowing that fear to turn to anger and aggression.  It’s not the way to wait.  

We are called instead to wait, “awake”.  Waiting awake begins with remembering the truth that Isaiah wrote… that the Lord is our Father; our Divine Parent who has endless love for us… God’s children… love for us in spite of the mess we’ve made in the house.  That we need to remember we have the power of clay.  That it is God who is the potter.  My favorite modern image of that same Divine/Human power dynamic is the toddler, “helping” their parent mow the lawn with a bubble mower.  

Staying awake to that truth… that we really are completely in the Potter’s hands… that clay doesn’t make itself into a pot and bubbles don’t actually cut the lawn… we are then free to remember again that it is GOD’S will that WILL be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Staying awake to that truth then allows us to keep awake and see more clearly the places we CAN make a difference all around us… where we CAN do what Jesus calls us to do while we wait:  Feeding the hungry, giving something to drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, visiting the sick and those in prison.  Awake, we might even be able to work in some seasonally appropriate scattering of the proud, bringing down of the powerful, lifting up the lowly, filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty. 

The world is a full-on mess.  No doubt.  A mess of Biblical proportions even.  But Advent reminds us not to allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by that reality.  Instead, Advent calls us out of our worry, anxiety and fear and tells us to STAY AWAKE to the truth… God’s got this.  Really!  God’s got us and God will be faithful to us always, like a potter is faithful to their clay.  Amen.