We live in an immediate world - instant food, instant info available on the internet, instant winners with our lottery mentality. What we want, we want now and we are not prepared to wait for it. We are encouraged to live for ourselves, to live in the now, to live as if no-one else mattered - and we reinforce this mentality when we begin to take seriously advertising stap lines that say things like ‘Because you’re worth it!’
Yet for most of us right at the moment, very little, in reality, is instant. We may not instantly get a pay rise, we may not instantly get a job, we may not instantly be able to afford the new TV or foreign holiday, the bank may not instantly extend our overdraft. Yet we expect our, our nation’s and our world’s ills to be sorted out in the blink of an eye - and we don’t like it much when they seemingly can’t be, because you’re worth it! You and I deserve so much more, so much better. Don’t we. Don’t we?
This morning’s Gospel reading comes from Mark’s Gospel. It’s a very 21st century account of Jesus’ life - it’s short and instant. It doesn’t faff around with stories of angels, babies, shepherds and visiting wise men. It cuts straight to the chase. Mark, almost understanding our need for instant answers even tells us that what he’s about to write is about Jesus, whom he names right at the beginning as the Messiah, the Son of God. This is no slow burning page turner. Mark has shown us the last page of the book right at the beginning - Jesus is God’s chosen one come to transform us and our world.
Then bam! Immediately we are flung into the wilderness with this odd man John the Baptist calling people to repent through baptism. To change their lives, before the coming of another person. We know that this other person is Jesus, who’s coming we are in the midst of preparing for and at this time of year we are in the midst of (frenetically) readying our homes and our lives for Christmas.
John called people then, and us this Advent, to repentance. Repentance is so much more than being really really sorry. It involves imagining something you regret and imagining it as an object in the middle of the road and you are walking towards it. Repentance is acknowledging that it’s there, and then walking away from it, resolving never to go there again. In our immediate world, this is hard as it’s something we cannot rush mostly because it is something we probably want to avoid it altogether. We do not like change. Certainly not this sort of change. It is much easier to make excuses and continue on business as usual. It takes time and courage to even realise that things could and should be better. This morning, this Advent, John encourages us to change our lives in readiness for the coming of Christ, because it is only He who can change our hearts by the power of His Holy Spirit. Repentance is not walking away in failure thinking we cannot do it. Repentance is profoundly hopeful - it is about acknowledging that where we cannot and when we cannot change, God can.
My experience is though, if you scratch beneath the surface, all of us do want change. We want better homes, lives, cars, jobs, livelihoods, better fitness, better looks, a better world in which to live, better politics, better hospitals, better schools, better relationships with our family and friends and so on - and we want it now. Peace in nations begins with peace in people. Free nations begins with free people. Liberation of lands and political systems begins with liberating the human heart, and all of that can only come in time, in God’s time.
John met people in the wilderness - not a desert but a place with few resources, but a place where people had to rely on God, where they met him, often powerfully. In the 4th Century there were many Christians who withdrew to the wilderness to find God. Some of them became wise leaders and were referred to as “Abba”. One such Abba lived high in the mountains and a young man wished to be taught by him and so set off early to find the Abba. He climbed for hours to reach the cave in the mountain and when he arrived he found the cave with few possessions, but amongst them were a water jug and bowl. The Abba didn’t acknowledge him but was silent in prayer so the young man sat down and waited. One hour passed, and then another and then another. He became frustrated and worried that he would have to return home soon before it became dark, so he said “Abba, are you not going to teach me anything?” The Abba arose and poured water from the jug into the bowl and said “What do you see?” The young man looked into the bowl and replied “I see dirty water”. The Abba fell silent again for another hour and then repeated the question “What do you see?” The young man looked into the bowl again and replied “I see my face.”
We can’t do anything about answering John’s call to repentance until we see ourselves as we really are, until we realise that we need God to make us to be the people He and we long to be, deep down. In doing that, we open ourselves up to the one who is to come, the one whom John didn’t feel worthy to be even in the presence of, the one by whose Holy Spirt even our hearts can be changed - Jesus - who can transform us from the inside out - because He believes we’re worth it. Amen.
h/t to Lesley for some pointers and hints in this sermon....
