by Fr. Bill Garrison
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
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.”
—Mark 1:1-8 (NRSV)
As you probably have figured out by now, I enjoy humor. So, I have a little something for you. It might not be the funniest story you have ever heard but it sure fits in 2020. Here goes.
A shipwrecked mariner had spent several years on a deserted island, completely alone. Then one morning he was thrilled to see a ship offshore and a smaller vessel pulling out towards him.
When the boat grounded on the beach, the officer in charge, who was dressed in a mask and would come no closer than six feet from him, handed the marooned sailor a bundle of newspapers and told him: “The captain said to read through these and let us know if you still want to be rescued.”
Boy isn’t it the truth.
We are now in the twelfth month of 2020. The year is coming to a close. It’s also Advent, the beginning of the church year and a time for celebrating the hope found in Christmas and new beginnings.
It’s interesting to me that both the end of the year and the beginning of another can be happening at the same time. Perhaps as I think about it that’s just the way things work; as one period comes to a close a new one begins. In our case a year that will go down in infamy is ending in the hope that lies in the birth of Jesus Christ. Perhaps this year we will be led to pay special attention to that hope, and less time shopping and running about like crazy people.
In this morning’s gospel we find John the Baptizer in the wilderness preaching repentance. He is dressed like an old testament prophet. He eats locusts and honey. He uses baptism as his vehicle finding a new way of life. He also announces to all within hearing that another is coming, someone much more important than him, one he is not worthy to tie their sandals. And people are flocking to see him. We wonder why that was.
Personally, I believe they were looking for help from God. Things were hard and their hope might have been that perhaps they might be able to get God to intervene in their lives. If only they could learn what to do to coax God into helping them.
Life in the first century in the Holy Land was hard. We have talked about it before but a little refresher might be in order. When you were born you had a fifty-fifty chance of making it to age seventeen. In order for the population not to decline a woman needed to give birth five or six times. You could easily become a grandfather by age thirty. As soon as you could reproduce you started. If you drank the water it might kill you, hence they drank wine with their water to purify it. Two thirds of those in the Roman Empire were slaves. The odds were strong that you were one too.
And then there was government. The Temple leaders only had the power the Romans allowed them. They were in cahoots with Rome and were busy collecting the Roman taxes along with a couple taxes of their own. This helped those in charge, despised by most common folks, to feather their own nests. Meanwhile the majority of people suffered.
And so, they asked the big question. How come God doesn’t fix what is going on? We have been promised a messiah. Where is he? How much longer must we suffer? When is God coming to our rescue?
Well, as we know God’s idea of helping them didn’t match their expectations. Instead of getting a military leader to throw the Romans and their minions off their backs they got Jesus Christ and eternal life. They received an example of what God is like, God’s nature if you will. And they learned that God loved them and wanted to be part of their lives no matter how miserable they might be.
And so, their daily living didn’t change as they had hoped. Instead they received what God thought was more important for them to have. AND as a result they learned that no matter what happened to them in their daily lives God would be there beside them. AND having survived hardship with God as their loving companion they learned there was nothing in this world that could defeat them.
Now let’s fast forward to Advent 2020. Things have been a real mess this year. I think most of you would agree. In my lifetime I haven’t seen anything like it. I don’t know if our situation can come close to the suffering experienced in the first century. But I do know that our suffering is real. It’s sort of like when the nurse asks you where on a scale of one to ten your pain is you reply a nine. Our pain may not be the same as first century pain, but it’s still a nine to us.
If you find yourself depressed and anxious don’t feel alone. It’s going around and it’s catching. We find ourselves asking the same question asked in gospel. Why doesn’t God fix what is going on?
There is a huge lesson to be learned from first century history in the Holy Land. They were looking for a messiah to lead them out of their troubles. We know they got one, but it wasn’t the one they were looking for. We too are looking for the messiah’s arrival and I guarantee God is coming, but I also guarantee not in the way we would prefer. It will be in a similar way God has always come I am sure. And God will come bearing the same gifts as always.
We will have eternal life. We will be loved. We will be invited into a greater relationship with God. We will learn that nothing is more important than being in partnership with God. I have often thought that one of our greatest gifts is the fact God rarely intervenes in the details of our lives. Through that gift of not interfering we learn that when we encounter difficulties, we remember that we have prevailed before and that we will again. The issues don’t drag us down because of that experience.
I came across a poem by an unknown author that I believe speaks to this special gift from God. I’ll read it for you now.
Photo from Pexels
I Asked God
I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems to solve.
I asked for prosperity and God gave me a brain and brawn to work.
I asked for courage and God gave me danger to overcome.
I asked for love and God gave me troubled people to help.
I asked for favors and God gave me opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted and I received everything I needed.
It’s Advent. God is on the way. Be ready to recognize God when God gets here. It won’t be like you expect. It wasn’t twenty centuries before either.