“An Honest Look Back”

Mark 1:1-8

A few observations and reflections and to get us started:

· Today’s text stresses confession, repentance and forgiveness. How appropriate on a Communion Sunday, a time when we are to honestly search our hearts as to our relationship with God and our relationships with one another.

· Mark’s Gospel reminds us that the baby Jesus grew up.

· The message of Scripture is “hope for troubled souls” and “judgment for the self-assured.” If you’re like me, you love the hope thing but cringe at the judgment thing.

· Waiting for our Savior forces us to admit that neither the world nor God works on our timetables. God comes, maybe not as expected, but he comes.

· John the Baptist wants to make sure that he understood as a transitional figure, that he is not the One.

· One theme of Advent is anticipation, kind of like that earlier mentioned hope thing. Another is preparation. What does it mean to prepare for the coming of the Lord? What does this involve? Repentance and confession: facing the truth about ourselves and making changes. None of that self-assured business that leads to judgment.

· We can’t move forward without looking back – with honesty not nostalgia. We all have to face, in the words of Dickens, the ghosts of our Christmases past.

Christopher Hudson addressed all that confession, repentance, and honest assessment of our pasts: “We who look to God to deliver us from our enemies must first examine ourselves to see whether or not we are fit to stand before a righteous God.” Or referencing Jimmy Buffett, we cannot expect absolution without accountability. Sins must be confessed and repented of; changes have to be made.

Some further words from Dr. Hutson: “We are like the crowds listening to the prophet John, seeking direction for our future. We look for God’s definitive intervention to set things right. John points us to Jesus, who came so long ago and who for us is yet coming. As in the past, Jesus may shock us when he comes and shows us who we really are before God. Our only hope is to join with John in confessing our sins and looking for the coming of the Mightier One. Come, Lord Jesus.”

I recently downloaded an article by Tim Suttle in which he quite succinctly stated that “Sentimentality and pragmatism are the one-two punch which has the American Church on the ropes, while a generation of church leaders acquiesces to the demands of our consumer culture. The demands are simple: tell me something that will make me feel better (sentimentality for the churchgoer), and tell me something that will work (pragmatism for the church leader).”

John the Baptist did not tell people things to make them feel better. I doubt that there was a sentimental bone in his body. Confess. Repent. And according to Matthew’s Gospel, calling the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers. John insisted on telling the truth. He didn’t deal in convincing lies.

John wasn’t all that pragmatic either. He most definitely didn’t dress for success. Nor did he mince his words when taking on the movers and shakers of his day: the Pharisees, Sadducees, and even King Herod. That last one got him executed, not exactly the world’s definition of a successful career move. Real prophets are rarely honored in their own time. Of course, by worldly standards real Saviors don’t get themselves crucified either.

The good Reverend Suttle had more to say about that successful church thing: “Instead of pursuing faithfulness the sentimental church must provide a space where people can come to hear a comforting message from an effusive pastor spouting fervent one-liners which are intended to make us feel good about the decisions we’ve already made with our lives. If our beliefs aren’t exactly, really true then at least we can have a Hallmark moment, right? Above all the sentimental church must never teach us that in the kingdom of God, up is down, in is out, and nothing short of dying to ourselves and each other can help us truly live… the church’s job is not to affirm people’s lives, but to allow the gospel to continually call our lives into question.”

Speaking of dying to self, wasn’t that what John the Baptist was all about? He made it clear that he was a transitional figure – that he was not the long-awaited Messiah. His mission – his ministry – was not about him; it was about “preparing the way of the Lord.” Again, in the eyes of the world, this was not a successful career move.

In her commentary on today’s text Lilian Daniel addresses this: “Who wants to follow the one who is preparing the way for someone else? From a management perspective, John probably should have kept his thoughts about better and future saviors to himself, at least until they had all agreed on a smooth transition plan.

But John is not operating from a management perspective; he is a servant of God. Therefore, as a servant, he has no leadership technique – just the call to tell the truth. That is a messy truth that God has stuck to his heart like the wild honey he eats. He cannot fling it aside; he wears it like a freak who does not fit in with the powers around him.

Thank God for freaks like that. Thank God for freaks who refuse to buy the publicity the world throws their way and trust instead in God’s proclamation.”

As we move through Advent as individuals, especially on this Communion Sunday, we must heed John the Baptist’s call to self-searching, confession, and repentance. We must give up any and all pretenses of self-assuredness as we prepare to one day stand before a righteous God.

As we move through Advent as a congregation we must examine every facet of our mission, ministry, and life together for places where we acquiesce to the consumer driven culture that surrounds us. It’s not our job to make people feel good about themselves by reducing the Gospel message to sentimental drivel. It’s not our job to be successful in the eyes of the world. Our job is to be faithful to the Lord our God as we await the coming again of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Finally, as we move through Advent, we must consider again Karl Barth’s definition of a Christian witness as someone willing to do something foolish in a world of serious purposes. Maybe it’s time to be more like John the Baptist and less like the world’s image of success, to wear God’s truth like a freak who does not fit in with the powers around us. Maybe it’s time to stop trying to manage the Gospel message and start proclaiming it. Amen.