Christ Lutheran Church: Welcome

Eye on the Ball: Part 1 - December 7, 2008

Eye on the Ball: Part 1

Isaiah 40:1-11, Mark 1:1

December 7, 2008

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

As you just noticed the Gospel Lesson is from the Gospel of Mark. We’re going to be hearing a lot from the Gospel of Mark this year. That’s because in the church year, from now until next November, this is called The Year of Mark. The following year will be the Year of Luke, then the Year of Matthew and finally back to the Year of Mark again. The Gospel of John is read during the special Sundays such as Christmas and Easter of each year.

But whenever we have the year of Mark, it creates a kind of problem. We start reading it during the season of Advent when we are getting ready for Christmas. But guess what? The Gospel of Mark does not say one single thing about Christmas – not one word about the baby Jesus, or Mary and Joseph or mangers or angels or wise men. If you want to hear about Christmas, you have to get it from the gospels of Matthew or Luke.

No, this Gospel of Mark does not start with JESUS doing anything at all. It starts. In the Adult Education hour we are working our way through the entire Gospel of Mark, one verse at a time. But last week I said something that was not correct. I said that the Gospel of Mark began with the action of John the Baptist, since the first scene is that of John preparing the way for Jesus. But John was NOT the first actor in this Gospel.

Let me show you. Please open your Bibles once again to that Gospel lesson and follow along with me. “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in Isaiah the prophet: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way’.” So here’s my question: who is it who speaks first? Not Jesus, but ...... If you said Isaiah, you are wrong. Who is it who said the words, ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you’” It was GOD who spoke those words. Isaiah simply recorded what God had said.

So, the Gospel of Mark does not begin with what John does and it does not begin with what Isaiah wrote. The Gospel of Mark began with what GOD said. Isn’t it interesting that even your pastor failed to pick that up – that most of us failed to notice that it was GOD who was speaking? And isn’t that just the way it usually is in this world? With all the competing noise and distractions and messages coming at us from all directions at all time, it seems that the last one we notice speaking is God, if we hear Him at all.

That is why I want to direct your attention to something else in these opening words of Mark. When God calls out John to go ahead and prepare the way for the coming of Jesus, WHERE was it that John began to prepare the way? Was it in the hustling and bustling streets of Jerusalem? John began to prepare the way by doing this in the desert, in the wilderness.

In our culture, we think of the wilderness as a horrible, forsaken place of desolation where nothing can live and nothing grows. But to the Hebrew mind, the wilderness was a very special place. When He freed them from slavery in Egypt and parte the Red Sea, where did He have the people escape to? The desert wilderness. Where was it that God gave His Ten Commandments? At the foot of Mt. Sinai in the desert wilderness. When He made the people wander for forty years where He taught them and formed them up as His chosen people, where did He do this? In the desert wilderness. And as soon as Jesus was baptized, where did the Holy Spirit send Him to be tested and earn His wings against Satan? In the wilderness.

The wilderness was often where God had special communion with His chosen. And why the wilderness? Well the other night I got an idea why. I had to wait an hour for my family in the Mall of America and thought I would spend my time reviewing the scriptures for today. It was just about impossible to hear myself think, much less hear God speak. Try reading your Bible in the middle of a shopping mall and see how totally weird and out of place that feels. Why? It just feels out of place. And yet what a wonderful way to quietly witness God in what has been called “the public square”.

But in a wilderness, there are no distractions. Maybe there it can be a little easier to hear the voice of God speaking. Maybe that is why God had John begin to prepare the way by preaching in the desert where people would have to put down their busyness and come away to a quiet place to hear.

So what did they hear John preach to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord? He was, “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” This word “repentance” means a whole lot more than simply saying you’re sorry about something. Let me show you the kind of repentance that John was preaching. I have asked our Council President, Denny, to assist me here. Denny, stand in front of me if you would and face away from me. I am holding something here in my hand that I am going to toss to you when I count down from three to one. When I count to one, I am going to toss this to you. At that point, you can do whatever you want. Ready?

Three, two, one – toss! Okay, folks, did you see what Denny did there? He turned around. I did not tell him that he had to turn around. Why did he turn around? Simply because he heard me call out the countdown. When he heard the countdown, he simply did what came naturally: he turned around. THAT is what repent means: to turn around. The Hebrew word for that is pronounced “shoove”. If I had been playing the role of God up here, what it was that I tossed Denny was forgiveness. But Denny had to “shoove” – turn around, repent in order to receive the forgiveness that I had already decided to give him.

John prepared the way by preaching the countdown, “The Kingdom of Heaven is near.” The people in the wilderness heard the countdown. They laid down their baggage and turned around to face God. They repented and were baptized. When people ask you these weeks what you want for yourself for Christmas, listen for God calling your name in the wilderness, repent: turn from yourself and face God and then you will see whose needs in this world trump your desires for Christmas. Some of these are displayed on the alternative Christmas display in the narthex.

Amen. May it be so!