Scripture: Mark 1:1-8; Luke 10:38-42; Isaiah 40:3-4; Isaiah 9:6 Series: 2020
First sermon in an Advent series called ‘The Four Questions,’ modeled on the Passover Haggadah but asking ‘Why is this season different?’ Today’s question is ‘Who is coming?’ Using Mark 1:1-8, the pastor casts John the Baptist as the warm-up act / cold open / paint prep-work for Jesus: preparation that hides itself in the finished product. The answer to who is coming is God-with-us, Emmanuel, the anointed one prophesied by Isaiah. The sermon then turns to how to prepare the soul, insisting we must first ‘wake up’ (the work of prevenient grace). Using Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42), it presents action and contemplation as two non-competing, both-necessary responses to Jesus, urging the congregation out of a scarcity mindset into God’s abundance, including in generosity and giving. It closes by reassuring hearers they are already loved and forgiven and need only be ready: wake up, God is coming soon.
Illustrations: warm-up-act-headliner, cold-open-snl, passover-four-questions, painting-prep-work, christmas-decoration-boxes, barth-christians-wake-up
November 29
The Four Questions: Who is coming
Mark 1:1-8
Most people don’t go to the show for the warm up act. Not that any of us are going to a ton of shows, but you go for the headliner. That’s the point. If people went for the warm up instead of the headliner, the warm up would be the headliner. No one goes to a talk for the introduction. The warm up, or the undercard at a fight, allows people to get to their seats, but it also gets their blood flowing. It wakes them up a little bit.
The cold open is tricky. This is what they call the first sketch on Saturday Night Live or the first segment of a radio show or podcast. It is easy to fall flat with a cold open, but you can never start with the climax of a story. You need to get there first. When something big is going to happen, no one is ready for it to just happen, you have to get ready. What does it mean to get ready for Christmas? What is Advent all about?
Before we get to advent and Christmas, I want us to spend a little time at Passover. Passover is the holiest season of the Jewish year. The passover table is where Jesus sat for the Last Supper and told his disciples to “Do this in remembrance of me.” In many languages, Easter is referred to as a word taken from Passover. In Spanish, it is Pascua, in French it is Pâques, in Greek it is Πάσχα. The Haggadah, or liturgy of passover seder, has many variations depending on where you are in the world, what tradition you practice, even down to individual family variations.
One of the sections of the Haggadah is called the Four Questions. In it, the youngest person able talk asks whoever is leading the Seder the same question four times: Why is this night different from other nights. In Hebrew, Mah nishtanah, ha-laylah ha-zeh,mi-kol ha-leylot.
Why is this night different? For advent this year, we are having a series entitled The Four Questions. They are different questions than the ones said at Passover, but they still go in the same general direction: Why is this season different?
Today, we begin the season of advent with our first question: Who is coming?
In some ways, we can see John the Baptist as a warm up act for Jesus. He comes to get us ready. In Mark, John “appears” and people start noticing him and start going to him. They are ready for him even if they don’t know why. People come out of the city and the countryside to go down to the river to pray.
Especially in the Gospel of Mark, John is the cold open for Jesus. He has a more important role, but I want us to understand him first in that way. John fulfills what is said in Isaiah, the voice crying in the wilderness that prepares the way of the Lord.
Another way that we can understand John is to think about painting a room or a house. When you paint a room, theoretically, you could just open a can and start painting, right? The first rookie mistake someone makes painting is to minimize the prep-work. Let me rephrase that, the first rookie mistake I made painting was to minimize prep-work. To properly prep a room you have to move all the furniture, put out drop-clothes, tape anything that is not painted or moveable, scrape old paint, and often put on a layer or two of primer. And yet, the best prep-job is always the one with the least evidence. Preparation hides itself in the finished product. The work of John the Baptist is covered by the life of Jesus but it is not lost.
Who is coming? That is the question for today and for everyday of advent. Who is coming? We must continually remind ourselves who is coming. John the Baptist is the messenger who ran ahead to let us know who is coming.
God is coming. Meshiach, the anointed one of the Lord, Emmanuel, God-with-Us.
Every valley shall be lifted up!
As the prophet Isaiah writes of him. “Wonderful, Counselor. The Mighty God. The Everlasting Father. The Prince of Peace.”
What greater guest than he could come to us?
And so, what are you waiting for in your life? What are you waiting for in your house? Are there paths in your life that need to be made straight? When you were getting your Christmas decorations out, did you find boxes of stuff that you don’t need anymore?
Many of us prepare our homes for Christmas. How are you preparing your soul?
The first thing we have to do is wake up. We usually don’t put that down on our to-do lists. Not just get up or get out of bed, but wake up. Waking up is necessary to do anything. In fact, A theologian once wrote: “Christians are the ones who wake up…Christians have indeed been lying asleep like others. What distinguishes them from others is that this now the past; that they have been awakened and are awake…they are not those who wake themselves, they are awakened by God.”
In order to prepare for what is to come you have to wake up. This is what John the Baptist did for the people. This is what the Holy Spirit does for us through prevenient grace. You have to wake up.
You have a part to play. You have to get ready.
The story of Mary and Martha shows us two ways of preparing for Jesus, both of which are necessary. Luke 10:38-42.
Mary and Martha are often presented as being in conflict with one another. We have Martha busy in the kitchen and Mary at the feet of Jesus. However, historically, the church never saw them in conflict with each other but as two possible responses to the coming of Jesus. The response of Martha is to do the things of God that are necessary. The response of Mary is contemplate, to pray, to think, to listen to God.
Without Martha, Mary couldn’t eat. She would waste away. Without Mary, Martha didn’t have a goal worth working towards. Jesus says that Mary has the greater share, but they does not exclude Martha or diminish her. Jesus does not have a zero-sum view of the world. When Jesus complements someone, it is not an insult to everyone else.
We have to get our heads outside of a scarcity mindset in order to prepare for the abundance of God. The abundance of God that is the good news of Jesus Christ. This goes with all of our lives. This goes with how we give and support the church. Giving is an opportunity to respond to God’s grace and to support what God is doing here. It is a claim about the truth and good news of Jesus Christ.
Good news is just that. It is news and it is good. Have you heard the news? Jesus is coming. Have you heard the news? What are you doing?
Let us follow the witness of both Mary and Martha. Let us get us our house in order. Let us get our soul in order. Let us not compare ourselves to our siblings or neighbors or anyone else who would make us feel less. Let us wake up! Emmanuel, God-with-us, is coming soon. He will make straight all paths. Every valley will be lifted up. Even the valley of the shadow of death.
We don’t have to be the cold open for Jesus. We don’t need to prep the crowd. We don’t need to be the undercard. God asks us instead to be ready. Advent is the time to get ready.
Remember who is coming. Remember that Jesus will be here soon. Remember that you don’t have to worry or be nervous. God is coming and you already loved. You are already forgiven. Wake up. You don’t have to live your past anymore. Wake up. You don’t have to go through the motions any more. Wake up. God will be here soon.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.