Biblical Text: Mark 1:1-8
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Let me begin by saying the way today is going is NOT what had been anticipated. Months ago, we were making plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Zion's first worship service in the present building. In those plans, we began to explore the ways of sharing our joy with Marietta and the greater community through the Marietta Candlelight Tour. And then, like so many other events and plans, Covid-19 changed everything. While there is disappointment, if anything the past few months have taught us is the need for flexibility, adaptation, and the need to be prepared -- for anything. To prepare is John the Baptist's message this morning: prepare the way of the Lord. It was a message proclaimed, not from the temple or other building, but a location: the wilderness. The wilderness is often seen as a location that is dry, barren, lifeless, desolate, and empty. It can be a place where one goes to find God. Throughout the Bible, the wilderness is seen as both a place of desolation, and a place of life. Consider Sarah's servant Hagar. Jealous because Hagar was able to have a child with Abraham when she could not, Sarah sent Hagar and Ishmael to die in the wilderness. God had other plans: sparing their lives, including them in God's plan of salvation. Later the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years until they entered the promised land. During those forty years, the Israelites found their relationship with God, struggled with this relationship, lost it, found it, and experienced God's covenantal care in ways they never expected or anticipated. At a critical point in his ministry, Elijah sought relief from his critics by also seeking death. Again, God had other plans: providing food for Elijah to continue his journey, encouraging him to stay with a widow with limited means, yet means that did not run out. Later, as he began his ministry, Jesus was led into the wilderness for forty days. As he neared the end of those forty days, Jesus was tempted by the devil. Yes, the wilderness: a place both of struggle and of the Holy Spirit; a place both problematic and promising at the same time. And yet, there is something about the wilderness where faith grows, is encouraged, and is even strengthened. There was something about John the Baptist's location in the wilderness AND the message John preached that led many in Jerusalem to come, to hear John's message, and to repent. Often the wilderness is seen as an edge: an edge of civilization, and edge of unknown, a margin. Here, at this edge of the unknown, John the Baptist encouraged people to repent, to change their ways. Had we used it this morning, our first lesson would have come from the Prophet Isaiah, the 40th Chapter. In this chapter, Isaiah uses beautiful imagery of mountains lowered, valleys raised and filled in, rough places smoothed out, curves straightened. Being intentional in righting wrongs, mending hurts, repairing or restoring relationships -- that's the preparation we are called to do this Advent season. The other aspects of this season, while important in their own way of helping us celebrate, can often run us ragged, taking from us the joy of the season, prompting us to miss the true meaning and original point of preparing and repenting. In many ways, this past year has felt like a wilderness: a season of unknowns, change, and constantly shifting sands. Yet in this wilderness and these constant changes, God continues to reveals God's self to us. We've learned, as much as we have memories of activities, ministry, events, and people from the past fifty years, that we are church, and continue to be church outside of Zion's walls. You, as a community of faith, as people of God, have continued to care for one another, and for our neighbors in need: with donations of food and blankets for the food bank, gift cards for the needy families, bringing in toys for the Toys for Tots campaign. It was noticed yesterday as community members dropped off toys to help with the Toys for Tots drive. It has been noticed as you have contacted one another while we are apart. The past few months have encouraged us to be creative as we think about God's calling on our lives outside the proverbial box, and how it is we understand God's work in our lives and the world. Fifty years ago, when members of Zion planned to move outside of Marietta, they could not have known we would be worshipping online, or event that a pandemic would take place. What they did know, was a change in location, one the edge, was needed to continue the work, the ministry, the mission, the witness, and the sharing of the good news of the Gospel. In the same way, we don't know what life will look like fifty years from now. What we do know, is even in the wilderness of 2020, God continues to remain faithful. In this faithfulness, we are called to repent, to prepare, to watch. Above all, we are called to have hope. A hope that sees the pain of the world; a hope that sees the need of the world; and a hope that also sees the presence of God in the midst of this pain. There is hope. There is always hope -- a hope that invites us to prepare, to repent, to come to the wilderness, and experience new life -- today, tomorrow, and always. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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AuthorSPastor Richard Geib Archives
September 2024
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