Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28
“If Not The Messiah, Who Then?”
The lessons of the last two weeks have been: Advent is about hope when everything seems lost; it’s about waiting when help is on the way. Advent is about the peace in knowing the good news is already begun in the anticipation of and the preparation for the Christ – the one who brings us to the Father. Today’s Advent lesson focuses on the joy that comes from living in Christ and the vocation to which each of us is called.
“The spirit of God is upon me, because God has appointed me to bring good news.” The words of the prophet Isaiah, later repeated by Jesus as he claimed his vocation as God’s messenger to the world, invite us to think about our vocations in light of the Advent coming of One who will usher in God’s kingdom. Frederick Buechner says it is important to, “Listen to your life.” Discover the part your life is to play; your vocation.
Bruce Epperly, professor of practical theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary, suggest that “our callings and vocations in life – which aim toward the future - are determined by a number of things: our environment, DNA, religious upbringing, past choices, and other factors, including God’s emerging vision for our lives.” He says our growth as Christians is shaped by our visions and dreams for the future.
Our vocations come about from the interplay of God’s call and our response in the unique context in which we find ourselves. It isn’t so much that God has a plan for our life as it is that God continually provides ‘options’ from which we might choose to be in partnership with God. You see, God is always calling us to partnership that then leads to fuller relationship with God.
Isaiah has been ‘called’ to speak to his community, although it is ‘the Spirit of God’ that is the source of what he says. He has been anointed by God to proclaim the good news of God’s freedom for people who are oppressed in a foreign land to the point of hopelessness. This is God’s vision for the people. It is something that IS going to happen!
And when God’s vision for us - this vocation or calling if your will - becomes clear, everything changes. Life is no longer the same. There is more energy, less apprehension when facing a challenge, more possibilities imagined. There is a greater ‘connectedness’ or wholeness of purpose, all toward where God is leading us.
Professor Epperly suggest this ‘call’ is basically the same for all of us, prophets or not. He says, “We can, as the stories of ordinary people who were called to extraordinary things show, do great things for God, if we are open to the possibilities and willing to risk new behaviors.”
When we can actually visualize what might be if God’s great adventure included us, we take the first steps toward transformation.
So, what future can we imagine for ourselves? What mission can we envision for this church? And what new images of hope can we see for this community and the world? Today’s text challenges us to grow into our vocations, whatever they may be. What is it then, during this Advent season and beyond, you are being called to become?
John the Baptist is all about vocation. He knows who he is and who he is not. He says, “I am not the Messiah.” “I’m not here to save you or to free you. I’m not here to fix things and make things right. I’m just here to point the way to the one who is. Jesus is the one! He is greater than me.” His vocation is to testify to Jesus being the Christ, the Lamb of God, and “the light.” John makes that clear when he says, “I am not the messiah.”
John’s clarity of vocation applies to us as well. We are not to be the Messiah either, but we are to fulfill our vocation for this time and place. John the Baptist said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said.” Through our vocation, whatever that may be, we can ‘witness to the light’ as well so others might believe. If our vocation, our calling, is how we are to ‘witness to the light,’ how might ‘our light shine’ in the darkness of this world?
Author and pastor, John Stendahl, of Newton Centre, Mass. says this, “We are anointed people. We have been chosen and called, all of us. We are in Christ and he lives in us. We are his agents, his hands in the world. We are called to emulate him and to offer Christ’s love to the world. We are to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners. As Luther said, “We are to be little Christs.” All that means is that we are called to do what Jesus would be doing if he were here, that’s all.
John the Baptist’s denial (of being the messiah) points out an important truth for all of us. Regardless of those times we might like to be, or have expectations of others being the Messiah – the truth is, we are not the Messiah! Nor are they! Yet that is what can happen when we seek too much from others or hope to be too much to them. Our wanting to rescue or be rescued can deter us from our true vocation.
We are called to do great things for God. And even though it doesn’t include being the Messiah, it may mean our involvement in his work and mission, yet in humility, like John the Baptist, pointing the way to “the light” and the one who IS THE MESSIAH, Jesus Christ. Our vocation may be “making straight the way of the Lord.”
The church is to be a storehouse of spiritual gifts nurturing one another. Heaven forbid we ‘quench the Spirit’ – which the author of 1 Thessalonians says is a definite no-no.
We are to live out our vocations, rejoicing, praying and giving thanks always. These spiritual practices of joy, prayer, and gratitude work will energize us and expand our vision of possibilities.
Realizing our vocation requires our full commitment. It includes every aspect of our life, each contributing to the vocation to which we have been called. Advent challenges us to look beyond our limitations and fears in order to imagine God’s new possibilities – and then to live them out. Where will God call us? Toward what Advent adventures are we being led? What great things would God have us do? If not the Messiah, who then?
Bruce Epperly, Holy Adventure: Forty-one Days of Audacious Living, Upper Room, 2008.)
The Christian Century, December 2, 2008, Reflections on the Lectionary by author and pastor, John Stendahl, Newton Centre, Mass.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
December 7, 2008 Message
2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8
"Found At Peace"
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.” This first verse from Mark raises some important questions.
QUESTION 1: What is the "beginning of the gospel"? Is this particular sentence or the specific story that follows “the beginning” of the gospel or is the entire writing of Mark the "beginning?" If the last verse of Mark (16:8 “And afterwards Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.”) doesn’t really end anything, then perhaps all of Mark is the beginning of the gospel whose end has not yet come. The story continues even today as we proclaim the good news everywhere (16:20). Maybe, just maybe, it’s important for us to begin every year at Advent time – hearing once again the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God.
QUESTION 2: What is the "good news" of Jesus Christ? Is it what Jesus taught, or is it something shared “about Jesus Christ,” or is it both. Regardless of how it is defined, the “good news” is something that is meant to evoke a response - like shouting, "We won!" If it matters to those hearing it that we’ve won then there is shouting and jumping and waving of arms. “Good news” is more than just information. It is an event that deeply effects those hearing it for the first time. Imagine if Mark’s opening words were: "The beginning of the victory of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God"? How might that influence our reading or hearing of the rest of the story?
And QUESTION 3: What does Mark mean when he writes, “Christ, the son of God?” Christ is a Greek word for "anointed" or "Messiah," which probably would have made little sense to Mark’s original audience. The Greeks among them had no concept of messiah while the Hebrews spoke of anointed ones usually in reference to kings and prophets. So, when Mark refers to Jesus as “the son of God,” his Greek readers probably would have had this image in their mind of a physical son, like Hercules son of the god Zeus, while the Hebrews would have had an image of a powerful king.
It seems then that Mark’s beginning words are loaded. As Donald Juel, in his book A Master of Surprise: Mark Interpreted, suggests, "Good news" equals military victory, while "Christ" & "son of God" equals an anointed conquering king (or Greek "super-hero"). Mark begins here so he can then surprise us by radically redefining these terms throughout his story of Jesus as the Son of Man -- the one who will be crucified.
This is really then the beginning of something more than Mark’s book… or of a story about John the Baptist, who points to someone greater, to Jesus who prepares the way for the coming of the Lord God. This IS the beginning of the good news?
For Mark, the beginning of the gospel is not about the birth of Jesus that is found in Matthew and Luke. The beginning is not about Mary, Joseph, angels, manger, shepherds, or wise men. That is what Christmas is all about! For Mark, the beginning is about something else. For Mark the beginning is about John the Baptist, a prophet screaming and baptizing in the wilderness of Judea – a man announcing the coming of someone greater. For Mark, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.” was about announcement, it was about hope and it was about repentance.
People were drawn to John because he was… well… different. And they were drawn to his message because he understood that God was about to do something that would change people’s lives forever. John was preparing the way for that by living a godly life, by challenging those who had turned away from God, and by pointing the way to the coming Christ who would bring the peace of God to a troubled world.
In the second lesson, Peter describes our wait for the Lord’s coming not as reason to worry but as a gift of time so we might patiently prepare ourselves. We can best understand this by reminding ourselves that the purpose of our discipleship is our preparation for our time with Christ in eternity. Through the work of the indwelling Spirit we are daily molded into the image of Christ. We are made holy. So, we prepare for the day by living as disciples of Christ in three particular ways: 1) by seeking to walk uprightly in the presence of the Lord through prayer, devotion and worship, 2) by living by faith rather than sight and by building up the Christian fellowship by equipping and encouraging, and 3) by reaching out into the world, seeking the lost in the power of the gospel, both in word and deed. By doing these things, the Holy Spirit works within us to change us. It is the Spirit’s doing, not our own.
So, although we approach the coming day living "holy and godly lives", we know that in the end being "found spotless, blameless and at peace with" God is a gift of grace that comes to us through faith. Peter says, God is patient with us. That IS good! I would hate to imagine what would be my just reward if God were not. And still, I am not off the hook, nor are you.
Brian Stoffregen, a Lutheran pastor in Marysville, CA, has written: "Perhaps we need to look at the Advent/Christmas season as a time to begin to hear the good news again for the first time." Maybe as Mark seeks to redefine the good news and Jesus as the Christ/Messiah and Son of God, so Mark seeks to redefine what following Jesus actually means and what life immersed in the Holy Spirit means – all of which point to the cross, a sign of victory or good news for God's anointed, the Son of God.
As we enter the fantasy of the commercial Christmas season, it may be good during Advent to be reminded of the real costs of following that baby who will be born. Maybe it will be the very first time we have heard it. While we probably don't have the same misconceptions about "Christ " or "Son of God" as the ancient Greeks and Hebrews did, our understandings of Jesus’ "victory" and what following him means probably could use some redefining, just as it did for those first readers of Mark.
The way that is being prepared is a way that will lead to suffering and death on the cross. Yet it is also a way to a new beginning - with the cleansing and promising gift of the Holy Spirit. No longer need we be prisoners of the past. No longer are we bound to our idolatry or regret, our greed or our fears. We can begin again.
The sentence “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God,” is not just an introduction; it is, in fact, part of what it anticipates. The good news of Jesus was already at work in the expectancy and preparation, the beginning of the beginning, the “good news” in which we can all be “found at peace?”
Peace to you in Jesus Christ who has come, who is come, and who will come again.
"Found At Peace"
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.” This first verse from Mark raises some important questions.
QUESTION 1: What is the "beginning of the gospel"? Is this particular sentence or the specific story that follows “the beginning” of the gospel or is the entire writing of Mark the "beginning?" If the last verse of Mark (16:8 “And afterwards Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.”) doesn’t really end anything, then perhaps all of Mark is the beginning of the gospel whose end has not yet come. The story continues even today as we proclaim the good news everywhere (16:20). Maybe, just maybe, it’s important for us to begin every year at Advent time – hearing once again the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God.
QUESTION 2: What is the "good news" of Jesus Christ? Is it what Jesus taught, or is it something shared “about Jesus Christ,” or is it both. Regardless of how it is defined, the “good news” is something that is meant to evoke a response - like shouting, "We won!" If it matters to those hearing it that we’ve won then there is shouting and jumping and waving of arms. “Good news” is more than just information. It is an event that deeply effects those hearing it for the first time. Imagine if Mark’s opening words were: "The beginning of the victory of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God"? How might that influence our reading or hearing of the rest of the story?
And QUESTION 3: What does Mark mean when he writes, “Christ, the son of God?” Christ is a Greek word for "anointed" or "Messiah," which probably would have made little sense to Mark’s original audience. The Greeks among them had no concept of messiah while the Hebrews spoke of anointed ones usually in reference to kings and prophets. So, when Mark refers to Jesus as “the son of God,” his Greek readers probably would have had this image in their mind of a physical son, like Hercules son of the god Zeus, while the Hebrews would have had an image of a powerful king.
It seems then that Mark’s beginning words are loaded. As Donald Juel, in his book A Master of Surprise: Mark Interpreted, suggests, "Good news" equals military victory, while "Christ" & "son of God" equals an anointed conquering king (or Greek "super-hero"). Mark begins here so he can then surprise us by radically redefining these terms throughout his story of Jesus as the Son of Man -- the one who will be crucified.
This is really then the beginning of something more than Mark’s book… or of a story about John the Baptist, who points to someone greater, to Jesus who prepares the way for the coming of the Lord God. This IS the beginning of the good news?
For Mark, the beginning of the gospel is not about the birth of Jesus that is found in Matthew and Luke. The beginning is not about Mary, Joseph, angels, manger, shepherds, or wise men. That is what Christmas is all about! For Mark, the beginning is about something else. For Mark the beginning is about John the Baptist, a prophet screaming and baptizing in the wilderness of Judea – a man announcing the coming of someone greater. For Mark, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.” was about announcement, it was about hope and it was about repentance.
People were drawn to John because he was… well… different. And they were drawn to his message because he understood that God was about to do something that would change people’s lives forever. John was preparing the way for that by living a godly life, by challenging those who had turned away from God, and by pointing the way to the coming Christ who would bring the peace of God to a troubled world.
In the second lesson, Peter describes our wait for the Lord’s coming not as reason to worry but as a gift of time so we might patiently prepare ourselves. We can best understand this by reminding ourselves that the purpose of our discipleship is our preparation for our time with Christ in eternity. Through the work of the indwelling Spirit we are daily molded into the image of Christ. We are made holy. So, we prepare for the day by living as disciples of Christ in three particular ways: 1) by seeking to walk uprightly in the presence of the Lord through prayer, devotion and worship, 2) by living by faith rather than sight and by building up the Christian fellowship by equipping and encouraging, and 3) by reaching out into the world, seeking the lost in the power of the gospel, both in word and deed. By doing these things, the Holy Spirit works within us to change us. It is the Spirit’s doing, not our own.
So, although we approach the coming day living "holy and godly lives", we know that in the end being "found spotless, blameless and at peace with" God is a gift of grace that comes to us through faith. Peter says, God is patient with us. That IS good! I would hate to imagine what would be my just reward if God were not. And still, I am not off the hook, nor are you.
Brian Stoffregen, a Lutheran pastor in Marysville, CA, has written: "Perhaps we need to look at the Advent/Christmas season as a time to begin to hear the good news again for the first time." Maybe as Mark seeks to redefine the good news and Jesus as the Christ/Messiah and Son of God, so Mark seeks to redefine what following Jesus actually means and what life immersed in the Holy Spirit means – all of which point to the cross, a sign of victory or good news for God's anointed, the Son of God.
As we enter the fantasy of the commercial Christmas season, it may be good during Advent to be reminded of the real costs of following that baby who will be born. Maybe it will be the very first time we have heard it. While we probably don't have the same misconceptions about "Christ " or "Son of God" as the ancient Greeks and Hebrews did, our understandings of Jesus’ "victory" and what following him means probably could use some redefining, just as it did for those first readers of Mark.
The way that is being prepared is a way that will lead to suffering and death on the cross. Yet it is also a way to a new beginning - with the cleansing and promising gift of the Holy Spirit. No longer need we be prisoners of the past. No longer are we bound to our idolatry or regret, our greed or our fears. We can begin again.
The sentence “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God,” is not just an introduction; it is, in fact, part of what it anticipates. The good news of Jesus was already at work in the expectancy and preparation, the beginning of the beginning, the “good news” in which we can all be “found at peace?”
Peace to you in Jesus Christ who has come, who is come, and who will come again.
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