Beginning and So Much More
Advent 2a,14 (Mark 1:1-8 with Isaiah 40:1-11 in b.g) December 7, 2014
Beginnings are important. From my childhood and beyond I have been repeatedly told that beginnings are important. I believe it's true. Our development in-utero matters. The love we receive during our infancy and childhood matters. How we start each day matters. The sustenance we receive at the beginning of each day -physically, emotionally, spiritually – starts us off in a healthy direction with strength or limits us. Beginnings are important. How are we 'beginning' these days?
Sometimes we are allowed into the depths of another person's life. Pastors are often so privileged. I mean to really be allowed into the depths of another's life– beyond the facade, the pretense, the picture that we present to others. For me this has sometimes occurred through something called a 5th step. 5th steps are part of a 12 step program that was originally designed for people who are battling addictions to alcohol or other drugs. The 5th step for a person in recovery is to confess to one other person the exact nature of their wrongs. It is a truth telling – what the church sometimes calls confession. But the truth telling of a 5th step isn't just about the little stuff that we might think we have messed up or made "mistakes" about. No, oh, no! A 5th is about the stuff that goes on deep within our minds and hearts and that then gets played out in what we say, do, think or refuse to say or do or think. Let me tell you, it's not easy to be on the "telling" side of a 5th step. The 5th step is only shared after completing a 4th step which involves taking a fearless moral inventory of one's life and then writing it down.
Whenever I have been privileged to listen to a 5th step, I have marvelled at that person's honesty. Sometimes they begin to say something and then stop mid sentence by interrupting themselves by saying something similar to this, "Wait, that's not completely true. Here is what actually happened". They caught themselves, not in telling an outright bald-faced lie – but rather in saying something that put themselves in a better light than what actually happened in their interaction with another person or persons.
By the time they have arrived at doing their 5th step they have learned that if they are to be free of the power of alcohol and other drugs they must be honest with themselves and others about themselves. If they aren't completely honest with themselves and God and just about always others – well then, the power of their addiction will ramp up in their lives and soon control them again. That leads not to new life but to brokenness and to death in so many parts of their lives. Admitting the truth about themselves can lead to freedom.
I don't think this is only true for people who are struggling with addiction to alcohol or other drugs. I believe that this is true for all of us! If we are to be free to love, to risk, free to live a life that is not controlled by fear, insecurity, the powers of evil and death we must admit and tell the truth about ourselves.
But it ain't easy! Looking in the mirror – a mirror held up by the One who cares about us and knows us as we are – is extremely difficult. In such a mirror we see the thoughts of our minds, thoughts that cut us off from others. We see our actions and words that are far less than kind and deeply hurt others. We view our insecurities which drive us to accumulate things, money and time, keeping us from joyfully giving away to others so that they too can live. These are just some of our realities. Until we can face them, admit them and ask God for help with them, to let them go, to be done with the power they have over us, well they just continue surfacing, driving us to do more of the same. Such destructive behavior leads not to new beginnings but to brokenness, even to endings that are EMPTY.
This is also true for us in the communities we belong to. It is true for us as church. It is true for us as families. It is true for us in cities, neighborhoods and countries. Until we are able to look in the mirror and see the good, the bad and the ugly within, to stop blaming others, we will keep on perpetuating our brokenness, hatred, fear and jealousy. Until we are willing to ask God for help with all of this – it will be the same old, same old.
I suspect this is why at the very beginning of Mark's Gospel, the very beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God this character named John appears. John is into truth telling. He will not beat around the bush. He is stark, perhaps at first quite unattractive. But, boy or boy, John draws the truth out of us. Even though seeing and admitting that truth about ourselves is anything but easy, we are longing to be able to do just that! People from the city and the country come out to hear John, to venture down into that river and be washed clean. It's good....It's necessary. But even then, that's only the beginning.
John points beyond himself to someone else, someone named Jesus. He says that Jesus is coming. John says that Jesus is way more important than him. John says that Jesus will wash others in God's very Spirit – and that will result in new life - more beginnings.
In some ways what John invites people into is like a house cleaning. The cleaning is important. But the cleaning is just the beginning. A home isn't a home unless others are welcomed in – to eat and drink, to sleep and be in relationship with others there. In a true home, the more people who are present, the merrier it is. Some people just live in houses, or apartments or condos. They don't really share a home.
It's Advent. It's a time when we focus on getting ready for Jesus, God's own self to come to us and this world. An important part of that, maybe even the beginning of that on our part is truth telling. Such truth telling often opens others up to see both us and then perhaps themselves. Our truth telling also shows us our great need – for someone and something much more than just us. We need One who loves the way we often don't, can't, unconditionally. We need One who forgives us long before we could ever do anything that might "earn" such forgiveness. If we aren't experiencing forgiveness, we will not be able to forgive. We need One who can transform our hearts and minds to dreams beyond ourselves and our little worlds. This One is coming and comes.
Are we open to beginning?
Or will we persist on pretending – denying the truth about ourselves, while wanting to blame others? Both John and Elijah are speaking to us "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight!"
May God move among us leading us to new beginnings, and abundant new life. Now's the time. Come into that cleansing water with me. Amen.