For anyone who has ever felt
like a failure or a hopeless sinner or the target of an angry
God, today's passages and message ought to be heard and
received as Good News—as very Good News! The Gospel of
Mark is the oldest of the gospel accounts. It was the very first
one written. Listen to how it begins: "The beginning of
the Good News of Jesus Christ."
What is the beginning of the Good News? We have prophecies from
several centuries earlier that say, "I am sending my messenger
ahead of you who will prepare your way." Now that messenger
has come getting things ready for the arrival of the Anointed
One of God. How is he doing this? John the Baptist was calling
for a complete change of heart for the entire community and was
offering a cleansing baptism for any and all who were willing
to turn to God and have their sins forgiven.
There are no threats here. There is no name calling. There is
a simple offer and a humble declaration that the Baptizer, the
one offering forgiveness, was not worthy to untie the sandals
of the One coming after him. This is a real departure from the
John the Baptist presented in the later writings of Matthew and
Luke who present him somewhat as a crazy man who wears strange
clothes, eats strange food and threatens destruction.
This picture seems to fit better with the picture we have of
God in Isaiah 40 at the time when God's people are struggling
to get back home after a long period of exile in a foreign country.
It makes me wonder how tenderly the people who lost everything
in the recent hurricanes are being treated today. Is there tenderness
or have weary and overworked helping agents reached a point of
exhaustion and irritation?
We claim God to be pure love. We claim we believe God came to
us as an innocent child and Jesus died on a cross to save us
from sin. If we believe all of this is true why would we then
claim to suggest that when Christ returns it will be a time of
terror? I wonder if this isn't perhaps the greatest case
of corporate projection the world has ever known. Because we
humans in our sinfulness are so prone to violence in so many
forms we make God violent as well. It's as if we believe
we are as a whole society incapable of responding to beauty so
we threaten ugliness.
I believe we see this being demonstrated in our present approach
to terrorism. As we continue to meet violence with violence we
continue to strengthen the resolve of our enemy deepening the
rift that exists between us. Imagine what could happen if we
spent as much money, time, effort and materials addressing the
human needs of those who at the moment are against us.
In our fear we have ignored or abandoned the basic teachings
of Jesus about loving neighbor and enemy alike. We have somehow
forgotten the wisdom of treating others the way we want to be
treated. It makes no sense for God to instruct us to act one
way and then have God act in some opposite way towards us. God
is not interested in destroying the enemy. God has commanded
us to convert the enemy and bring them to God for salvation.
Listen to the tenderness of God to those who had been disobedient
and nearly annihilated by superior foreign forces. Finally set
free after decades of suffering God was advocating comfort and
tenderness. What God was asking was for the way to be made easy
so that God and God's people could be restored to each
other. In Isaiah 40:11 we read, "God will feed his flock
like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry
them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep."
Living in exile means we are living in foreign territory. It
means we are living in prison. It means we are living in fear.
It means we are being forced to be something or someone other
than who we are truly meant to be. We probably won't acknowledge
it but ever since we were removed from Paradise we have been
living in exile. As long as we live in less than perfect harmony
with God we continue to live in exile.
The prodigal child lives in a self-imposed exile until he or
she realizes the need to come home. Those who hate and hurt and
refuse to forgive self and others live in exile until they come
to their senses. The people John the Baptist called upon had
been living in exile and needed an opportunity to turn their
lives around with God's help. John the Baptist was telling
them that help was on the way and right around the next bend.
Jonathon Edwards, a famous preacher, is best known for his sermon,
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. While many people
still think of God this way, this is not how God is described
in today's passages.
Nor is it how God came into the world. God did not come as a
warrior King; God came as an infant, a beautiful, helpless infant.
Think of how you respond to violence in any of its many forms.
For those who are in Christ it sickens us. We intuitively know
it is wrong and not of God.
We are told those who belong to Christ have nothing to fear
when Christ comes again. What about those who do not know Christ?
If indeed something awful will happen to them does it not stand
to reason we should be doing everything in our power to help
them avoid this ending?
In II Peter 3:9 we read, "The Lord is not slow about His
promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you,
not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance." God
is waiting before returning Christ to the earth so that as many
people as possible can come to Christ and enter God's Kingdom.
The work of love Jesus has given to us is to do everything we
can to bring as many as we can to Him. The work of love is to
overcome hatred and fear with what God offers in its place.
I believe this is the Good News John the Baptist said was coming
to us in the person of Jesus. It was true when John first said
it. It is just as true today. |
