A few people have asked me to start posting my sermons so I suppose I could backtrack and post the sermons I gave through Advent. This sermon is from the second Sunday in Advent (12/7) and was followed by a discussion about what it means to be a messanger using our "Taking Faith Home" inserts from Vibrant Faith Ministries. We started using this resource in Advent this year and I wanted to make sure people had encouragement to take them home and use them.
Mark 1:1-8
"The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is
written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of
you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the
wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ”
John
the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 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. Now
John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his
waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 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. I have baptized you with water; but
he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”"
1, 2, 3, ....
Ready or Not, here I come!
How many of you have
played Hide and Seek before? It's a childhood favorite. People hide,
one person counts and goes out to find those who are hiding. It's an
exciting game filled with anticipation.
This Sunday begins our
Advent season. It is a time of preparing. A time of waiting. And a
time of darkness as we prepare and wait for the light to Come, for the
son of God to come into the world and into our lives.
Today we
hear the words of the prophets proclaiming the one who is to come.
Isaiah tells us that God so a coming. Mark tells us that God is coming
soon! Paul tells us God has come and will come again! These are the
words of the prophets sharing with us the words of a God who loves us,
wants all good things for us and who is done counting and is saying,
"ready or not, here I come!" The words of the prophets are an attempt
to make sure we are ready rather than startled when God comes to find
us.
Hide and seek is such an interesting game. Think about it,
if you try to convince a child to sit quietly in a small space for a
long time it would fail miserably. But if you add to it that someone is
searching for them it suddenly becomes ones of a child's all time
favorites. Hide and seek is such a great game because of the seeking.
Everyone likes the thrill of waiting to be found and the explosion of
energy and chaos which follows.
In today's readings we hear
God's messengers telling us that God so a coming and it is during this
advent season that we spend anxiously awaiting to be found by a seeking
God. These messengers are preparing us for that explosion of energy and
chaos that will happen which Christ gets here and finds us. These are
messengers yelling, "ready or not, here God comes!"
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