Mark 1:1-8
December 4, 2022, Advent 2
Introduction
We all know the fastest way between point A and point B is a straight line.
The Gospel writer Mark knows this too, which is why he said, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” and not, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths a confusing and traumatizing roundabout!”
I laughed when I read how ODOT deems the intersection of Darrow and Graham roads of the most dangerous in the area, and how a person posted on Facebook their worry the response to making it safer would be to make it into a roundabout. Seems though the rest of the world embraces roundabouts, many Americans are still weary of them.
Regardless… Mark tells us the best and fastest way for us the world to receive its coming Lord is via the straightest and most efficient path possible—no need to worry about a confusing, trauma inducing roundabout.
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This lectionary passage struck me this year in a way never before because in this post-sabbatical time I am more keenly aware of the fine line between days of Sabbath and days that resemble a confusing, trauma inducing roundabout.
I learned during my sabbatical that even though I was taking this Sabbath time, still every day there were a million tasks and to-do’s and desires pulling me and dragging me in every different direction—rarely though in the direction I wanted to go.
Even when there was supposed to be time enough, even when the road between point A and point B would not have to include multiple stops and detours; the confusing, trauma inducing roundabout still kept the road from being made straight.
Maybe you can relate, and if so we can admit we often find ourselves walking, or even running in circles; multiple stops and detours pop up; confusion, trauma inducing roundabouts keep the road far from straight.
We keep eating the same kinds of junk food, but we wonder why it’s hard to lose weight. We continue on with the same social circles, but grow frustrated when we don’t meet any new people. We keep harboring angst with trying family members, but then are surprised by a blow-up with them. We keep doing our work assignments in a repetitive manner, but lament that we never advance in our careers. We move in confusing, trauma inducing roundabout instead of paths that are straight, instead of paths that take us someplace meaningful and where we truly want to be.
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Advent always invites us to acknowledge this truth in our lives. Advent then implores us to acknowledge it’s not what we want, while encouraging us to believe we can go a different way—we can make a straight path to the Lord.
And all we have to do is repent…and declutter.
Move 1
Gospel writer Mark tells us that the Good News of Jesus Christ begins with the appearance of John the Baptizer. John is the one who fulfills the prophecy of 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 does this by appearing in the wilderness and “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” He challenges people to repent, to turn around and break out of the destructive cycle of sinfulness by changing their minds, hearts, and spirits, and walk in a new direction— toward Jesus. That’s the core meaning of “repentance.” But a problem arises within this call because most people associate the word “repentance” with simply being sorry.
Too often we say we are sorry, but then keep doing the very thing we were just sorry for. John isn’t asking people to be sorry because being sorry isn’t enough.
John is challenging the people to repent—to turn their lives around and take a new path where we stop being distracted by defeatist thoughts, we stop being seduced by the world’s way of thinking, we stop making excuses. That is repentance. That is changing our lives. That is stopping from going in circles.
The question, of course, is how do we do this?
Move 2
John’s invitation to repentance and baptism was an invitation to a new life—and the people flocked to John because they were hungry for life, desperate to break out of their self-destructive cycles and move in a new direction because they knew there were just two choices: Keep moving in endless confusing, traumatizing, chaotic roundabout circles, or find a straight path. And the people who did this centuries ago give us a model of how we can stop going in endless confusing, traumatizing, chaotic roundabout circles, and find a straight path.
They chose to move away from a place of destructive behavior and sinful ways perpetuated by the world around them by hearing and responding to the invitation of John, saying, “I’m going. I gonna really do it this time. I want this change.” They made a new choice. They made a better choice. And when they made that choice it led them to Jesus—who gave to them, for the first time in their lives, the source of strength and courage; hope and perseverance, they never had before.
And this can be so for us as well.
Move 3
It’s easy to say the answers to the question “how do we stop going in circles?” comes down to making a choice.
We all know if we want to lose weight it means choosing to eat better, get good sleep, and exercise. If we want new experiences it means choosing to find them—be intentional in our efforts and stop waiting for opportunities to come to us. We all know the choices we have to make if we want to get to where we want to be. But we have made ourselves believe we can’t make the choices we want and need to make. And why?
Well, there are any number of reasons—some true, so that are just excuses. Sometimes we are scared, or we convince ourselves it’s too late. But I think one of the leading reasons why we can’t is because our lives have become too cluttered.
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Linda Douty is a spiritual director who stands firm in the motto, “less is more” especially in the life of a Christian. She believes cluttered schedules, cluttered, offices, cluttered cars, and cluttered closets lead to cluttered lives and cluttered spirits.
Douty writes, “As we ascend the ladder of success, as navigate the waters of raising a family, the pursuit of a more luxurious lifestyle, and the pursuit to make life special or even perfect, it all starts to influence and impact each one of our decisions. This cycle then starts eating up our time, our money, our focus, our spirits— until what we’re buying; what we keep trying to jam into a finite amount of minutes in a day; and where we’re going to go becomes our primary, if not only, focus, even though much of it all is clutter. Then, before we know it, our lives are dedicated to, and consumed by, the ongoing, never-ending maintenance of all our clutter.”
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Have we ever thought the reason we can’t make the choices we want to make is because we are too busy, too committed to tending to the clutter we don’t actually want in our lives?
If we want to exercise more, it’s probably going to mean we need declutter our lives of something else—like watching TV or scrolling through our phone. If we want to eat better to lose weight, it probably means we need to declutter unhealthy food from our diet and stop hitting the value menu at McDonalds. If we want to meet new people and have new experiences, it probably means we need declutter the thoughts that tell us we can’t. If we are going in circles, not getting where we want to be, we must ask ourselves, what’s holding us back, what’s keeping us in this circle of nowhere, what’s cluttering up my path and keeping me from a better one?
We need to ask ourselves these decluttering question, and then—and here’s the really hard part—we need to be completely honest with ourselves. Because when we are completely honest with ourselves, and our completely open to God’s word, it’s then we find what we truly need to repent from. And it’s when we truly repent, when we truly declutter our lives and spirits, that we start making our paths straight.
Conclusion
Jesus’ advent into our lives invites us away from this cluttered way of life. But letting him help us declutter comes at a cost. We know what Jesus said to the rich man: “Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21)
Jesus invited the man into a life of hope, peace, joy and love—but most of all, Jesus was inviting him to declutter his life, and a new and better path would be made. But the man couldn’t do it. And because he couldn’t, he continued on his path of going in circles and went away from Jesus feeling anything but hope, peace, joy and love.
The man had a cluttered life and a cluttered spirit.
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The same can and will happen to us, if we don’t repent, if we don’t turn toward God, if we don’t make a life-change and break the pattern of going in circles that we so often get stuck in. Fortunately, the straight path is available when we prepare for, and anticipate, the one who comes to us at Christmas.
The advent of Jesus is an invitation to repent—to change our ways of life because Jesus coming to the world means a new way of life is being offered.
No more do we have to be conformed to the ways of this world. No more do we have to stay stuck in a life of cluttered uselessness. No more are we hopeless of being who we want to be. Now, because of the one who comes in the name of the Lord, we are able to take a new path—a path made possible by the one who has prepared the way of decluttering. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, December 4, 2022, Advent 2
Gracious and loving God you know just how often we make decisions from places not of faithfulness. We make decisions from places of fear, from the allure of power, places of convenience and comfort, places of “Well, that’s the way we’ve always done it.”
You know just how often we allow these places, that clutter up our lives, take the place of logic, fanning unhealthy fires in our lives.
You know just how often we take your words, “Do not be afraid” “Prepare the way of the Lord” “Make straight the paths” and tuck them up on the dusty shelves and in the backs of closets of our spirits, stubbornly holding on to our own point of view.
Forgive us for giving fear the microphone. Forgive us for ignoring your ways. Forgive us for believing we can do it ourselves. Forgive us for letting it all clutter our lives when our lives could be filled with so much more.
Remind us, our lives could be filled with that which offers a peace beyond all understanding. A peace that can guide us through the chaos, the clutter, the fear—helping us to see the world as you see it— as a place in need of hope, peace, joy, and love; and that it can be shared; that it can make a difference, when we allow ourselves to walk in your ways.
Holy God help us to take a deep breath in and know you are here. Help us to know you never leave our sides. Like a protective mother hen, or the sun who circles the earth, you carry us with you always.
So today, we pray with tender spirits and ask you once more bless us with your peace that passes all understanding. Lead us with your peace that will help us declare in our lives and in our spirits that we walk the path you set before us, and that we know with all faithfulness that it will always lead us to having lives filled with all that is of you and from you.
We ask that you would listen now the prayers we lift to you in the peaceful calm of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, the Prince of Peace, who taught us to pray saying, “Our …”