Advent 2

December 23, 2014 in Sermon by Scott Landrum

Mark 1:1-8
1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ” 4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 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. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 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. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

He is coming for you. Isaiah talked about it. No valley is too deep and no mountain is too high. The uneven ground and rough rocky places are not a problem for him. He is coming for you. He isn’t waiting on you to get yourself together, to live up to your potential, to prove yourself worthy of his attention. No this is about what he is doing, not really about what you are doing at all. As politically incorrect as it is, you have been objectified by him, turned into a mere object to be done to according to his will. Doesn’t that stick in your craw? Seems there is nothing worse in our world than to be seen only by one’s race, gender, age or something else; to be treated as an object rather than a subject. What about our person, our part to play, what about me, my freedom, my dignity. Must I be humbled and reduced to such passivity? Well you are like grass, Isaiah says. Here today and gone tomorrow. You are like flowers that blossom in the morning and lay dry and crumpled on the ground in the evening. That’s Isaiah’s poetic way of saying you are not ultimate. It’s his reminder that you are an object before the God who is the subject. Surely, there must be something to do.
Surely it can’t be as bad as all that can it? Surely John the Baptizer was on to something wasn’t he? He was like a reincarnate Elijah. He was crazy and weird and could have won every bug eating challenge there ever was on “Fear Factor.” He was even the messenger of the Lord. Indeed, John came proclaiming a baptism of repentance. All the people of Judea and Jerusalem were flocking to the River Jordan to do what they could do to get God off their backs. Crowds are a sign of success right? Numbers are proof of accomplishment correct? Surely John gives us a method, a plan of action, something to do. “But it was just water that I baptized you with,” John said.
That was his way of pointing to the one who was more powerful, the one who really mattered, the one who reduced John and the law he preached to a mere slave not even worthy of stooping in the dust to untie the coming one’s sandals. John and the message he preached was but the beginning of the good news. He was not the news. And so you are still an object, still unable to do anything about it and he is still coming for you. Peter tells us that the day of the Lord will come like a thief and indeed it did. Who knew that pregnant, unwed teenager they shoved into a barn was Theotokos, the bearer of God. Who knew the carpenter strung between heaven and earth on a cross was God? Who knew that the grave doesn’t have the final word? That is why I told you he isn’t waiting on you to get yourself together, to live up to your potential, to prove yourself worthy of his attention. It isn’t about you doing something. It is about him because just as Isaiah tells us, “the word of God will stand forever.” And what is that word you ask? Jesus Christ that is the word of promise that will stand forever. Jesus Christ is the one Isaiah prophesied about. Jesus Christ is the one John the Baptist pointed to. Jesus Christ, he is the one coming for you. There is no stable to humiliating for him to enter for you. There is no mountain, even one called Golgotha that is too high for him to climb to take away your sin. There is no grave to deep, cold and rough for him to enter and conquer for you. That is the good news of Jesus Christ that started all the way back in the Garden of Eden and has come all the way to Brandon, Mississippi this morning. So, for Christ’s sake and by his authority I forgive you the entirety of your sin. There Christ has come for you again. Jesus Christ baptized you with the Holy Spirit there at the font. Jesus Christ gives you his body and blood for the forgiveness of your sin. Jesus Christ is your promise from God that although everything else passes away he won’t. He has come for you and now you are like a lamb in his arms, an object of his love. Jesus Christ, he is your God. Amen.