Let us pray.  Gracious God, may your spirit be with us to illuminate your holy word and give us wisdom for our living.   In Jesus’ name we pray.   Amen.   Our second lesson this morning comes from the Gospel of Mark, the very beginning in fact.   Most scholars believe that Mark was the first Gospel written, with Mark taking down much of the eyewitness accounts of Peter, and being the basis for Matthew’s and Luke’s texts.  Our Advent text this morning is the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel, so we are reading now the first part of what many consider the most important Gospel, and almost certainly the one written in closest proximity to the life of Jesus.  Reading now from Mark: chapter 1.  

It’s interesting to examine how the Gospel writers begin their texts.  Matthew begins with genealogy, Luke with history, John with creative Christology and Mark with prophecy.  Mark looks to Isaiah who prophesises that one will come before the messiah to help God’s people prepare for his arrival.  Later in their Gospels, Matthew and Luke and John include this same proclamation in their own ways.  Matthew and Luke have more of an edge, proclaiming that the messiah will bring fire along with spirit.  Mark and John are a bit more benign, emphasizing the Holy Spirit and light.  And in all four Gospels, John the Baptist is the one who comes to prepare the people for the coming Messiah.  In Mark, as with some of the others, he comes out of the wilderness to bring a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And if John were here today, he would have something to share about what that kind of repentance means for our preparation for Christmas.  Come, let’s see what he has to say:

John, “It is good to be out of the desert and with you in worship today.  I have my belt, my camel’s hair clothes, my ‘locusts,’ and my honey, that I usually have in the desert.  It’s good to be in a place of worship.  My father, Zechariah, was a priest at the temple in Jerusalem so I like places of worship.  St. Luke says that the angel which announced my birth implied I would be set apart.  I was a Nazarene from birth.  Nazarenes relate to an ancient Hebrew group described in the book of Numbers who took vows to abstain from alcohol, not cut their hair (mine grows really slowly) and to live pious lives.  I believe some of your modern Rastafarian practices are actually influenced by Nazarene ideas.  Because of my Nazarene vows I live in the wilderness, so it’s nice to be with you in the city today.

“Even though the weather is bad, you have come to hear me preach and I appreciate it.  It sometimes surprises me that people keep coming to hear me because I don’t pull punches.  I call it like I see it.  I am not the most diplomatic person.  I told King Herod he was sinning in his relationship with his brother’s wife.  Some people ask me if I am afraid that I’ll be put in prison or worse for my views.  I suppose I should be.      

“Others ask me if I am Elijah or even the messiah.  But I tell them no way.  I am just fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies of Isaiah and Malachi to be the messenger sent ahead of the messiah, to be the one who will prepare the way.  That is my role, to prepare the way for all who seek to experience God’s grace this time of year.    

“And everyone asks me what I mean by “prepare.”  Your scriptures record that when crowds of common folk asked me what they should do to prepare for God, I said that if you have two of anything, share one of them with someone who is in need.  If you have two coats, give one to someone who is poor and cold.  I see you are doing something similar with your Angel Gift Tree program.  When Roman soldiers once asked me how to act, I told them not to muscle people into giving them money, and I told them to make peace.  I understand many of you care a lot about being peacemakers too.  And when tax collectors asked me what to do I told them to be honest.  I know you all try your best to do that.

“The role of prophets is to help you make straight the path of the Lord.  That is to act the way God would have us act.  Because we have an opportunity to meet God come to us at Christmas, and don’t we want to be at our best?  I come here for Advent, at the beginning of your liturgical year, to help you see Christmas in a new way.  

“What the prophets of old and I are trying to do is help people return to the place they belong.  When I talk about preparing the way of the Lord, I am quoting the prophets Malachi and Isaiah.  When the 5^th century priests in the Jerusalem temple were not doing their job, Malachi criticized them to help them return to where they belonged, in the temple, with the right practices, before the anointed one of God came upon the earth.  They were sinning through their actions.  When the Israelites in Babylon were discouraged in exile, Isaiah called them to make right their paths by returning home to Jerusalem and rebuilding their way of life there.  They were afraid.  But the prophet called on them to return from exile to Jerusalem.  That is where they belonged.

“In both cases, the prophets called people back to a path, a road, a way of living, which led them again from fear and sin and towards God.  On my way in here I noticed in your bulletin a hymn you are singing today by some guy named Wesley, ‘Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.’  ‘Come thou long expected Jesus.’  I was thinking the same thing once when I was waiting for Jesus to get to his baptismal appointment.  Did you know I baptized my cousin, Jesus, in the Jordan River?  Talk about an “I knew you when moment.”  I read the words of your song, “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, born to set they people free.  From our fears and sins release us.  Let us find our rest in thee.”  That is what we prophets have been trying to communicate; a new life is made possible through the messiah.   

“But to get to that place, you have to do the inner work of repentance.  There is no better time for that than your reflective season of Advent.  Jesus releases us from our fears and sins, but we have to do the work of preparing.  That is where repentance comes in.  When I say I bring a baptism of repentance, I mean a new way of thinking that prepares us for Christmas.  When many people today think of repentance they think about confession, saying sorry for your sins, doing penance, asking forgiveness and returning to one’s old life.  That alone is not the Biblical idea of repentance that we prophets mean.

“We make straight the way of the Lord by taking a different path in the future, one that leads to the fulfillment and meaning that only God can bring.  Such repentance is the inner work you can do this season. 

“I love that your prayer of confession has two parts.  Adoration and confession.  Because confession comes in two forms.   Confession helps us come clean and unburden ourselves of our shortcomings.  That can be a challenge.  Because you first have to confess to yourself.  Most of us shut our eyes to things we don’t want to see, especially our own problems.  But we have to see rightly our own state and the state of the world, we must confess to ourselves first, before we can confess to God and turn to God.  Then we must forgive ourselves.  If you are first able to confess to yourself, you can make a change in your behavior if you are able to forgive yourself.  That is the trick isn’t it, forgiving ourselves?  We are often our own worst critics.  Our self-doubt makes it tempting to work harder than ever to get to the next rung at work or in school or to be socially popular or significant.  But most of our activities don’t get us any closer to your God.  This weekend the world celebrates the life of Nelson Mandela.  One of the best tributes to Mandela I read this weekend was from the President of Ghana who honored Mandela because, he wrote, he taught a continent to forgive.  Mandela’s personal sacrifice and example brought forgiveness at a critical time.  I think we all can benefit from the power of forgiveness, starting with ourselves. 

“Your confession is also an adoration, an expression of trust, an acknowledgement of faith.  We turn in repentance to God.  I understand you Presbyterians have a whole Book of Confessions, which details the statements, not of peoples’ faults, but of the faith of people throughout the ages.  When we confess in trust, God forgives.  Repentance literally means to “see with a new mind.”  And that is what we seek to do, see the world differently.  The one coming after me will make everything new in the world.  We can prepare to see it differently now.  To return to where we belong.   

“When we are able to show our adoration by putting our trust in God we are ready to meet and follow God.  If we are willing to confess to ourselves that God is needed, then, like the priests in Malachi’s temple, like the Israelites who were exiled from God is Isaiah’s time, like most of those I speak to in the wilderness, we are ready to meet God, perhaps in the manger this Christmas.

“A baptism of repentance is really an exciting opportunity.  If God is absent, maybe it doesn’t matter so much how we act.  But there is one coming after me, who is much more worthy of following than I am.  The long expected messiah, Jesus, is coming.  And while I stand out under the stars and baptize people in the river Jordan, the one coming after me will bring the Holy Spirit with him.  He is worth paying attention to.  Your fate is not to remain in the wilderness with me or exiled from God.  Your fate is to meet the one who comes at Christmas.  So hear me, and turn towards him. 

“My idea of ‘preparing the way of the Lord’ is to get on the path that leads to God.  To repent is to turn towards the God who created you.  For that is the way out of whatever exile we are in.  What do you need to turn around?  Your control of your finances in this consumer culture and trying, buying time?  Your relationship with someone you don’t see enough.  Your apathy towards a world of dysfunction, injustice and violence where problems could be solved if those with gifts would care.  Where do you need to turn around your priorities to make God the priority?

“Like the prophets who came before me, I want you to think of repentance differently, about discipleship differently, about life differently, about your messiah differently, and then about yourself differently.

“You can take vows and change your dress, change what you eat, locusts and honey aren’t bad actually, many scholars think they are more like your nuts and tree syrup, but let me suggest that you work to recognize the parts of your life that keep you in exile and then change your priorities to refocus on God. 

“Like I said, I call ‘em like I see ‘em.  I don’t care if you don’t have much use for me; I am but a voice crying out in the wilderness.  That’s where I belong.  But the wilderness is not where you belong.  You belong with your God who comes to meet you at Christmas through a child in a manager.  So your inner work of Advent is to approach your God in a different way too.

“You know the ways you feel exiled this morning from meaning and relationship and that which is sacred to you.  You can find those things in God. 

In Advent you can prepare yourself to come home.  Because one is coming after me who is bringing the Spirit that makes all other good things possible.  He is the one you don’t want to miss.”