Text: Mark 1:1-8
How do we get to the birthplace of the Messiah?
Some people would contact their travel agent who might book them out of Lexington on Delta Airways to New York City. Then they might take British Airways to London, England. From there they might take El Al Airlines to Tel Aviv. Then they might ride an air conditioned bus up through the hills, probably pass through Jerusalem, and then into the tourist trap called Bethlehem. That's one way to get to the birthplace of the Messiah.
If you were to ask the people of Jesus' day how to get to the birthplace of the Messiah, they would say, "First, you go out into the desert and find a man named John the Baptist. You have to listen to him because he is the one who is preparing the way for the coming of the Messiah. You can't get to Bethlehem without going through John the Baptist."
All four of the gospels of the New Testament say the same thing. Each one of them emphasizes the ministry of this prophet out in the desert wearing camel hair and eating wild honey and locusts. He proclaims a message that is vital for the coming of the Messiah. He says, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Mark says simply that he was in the wilderness "proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
The short Gospel of Mark doesn't give us much to work with in celebrating Christmas. There is no message in Mark of a lovely manger with animals around. There is no mention of Mary going to visit Elizabeth. There is no discussion between Mary and Joseph about the virgin birth of Jesus. There is nothing about shepherds on a hillside or wise men who come to Bethlehem bearing gifts.
Mark jumps right in with the story of John the Baptist out in the wilderness. John the Baptist's message is one we need to hear because it gets us back to the basics of what our faith is about and the basics of the coming of Christ at Christmas.
It is easy for us to get distracted this time of year. We think about all the decorations we have to put up, the events we have to attend and prepare for, and the gifts we have to buy. We get so distracted by the trappings of Christmas that we can forget the basics. Christmas is not about all of that. Christmas is about tuning our spirits to the coming presence of God.
John the Baptist will not let us forget the basics. He says the thing we need every day of the year, but especially now at Christmas, is repentance. Repentance is not a word we like to hear at Christmas. We prefer to sing mushy Christmas songs and not think about things like sin, repentance and forgiveness. Far too often we forget that we need to repent of our sins and turn to God.
The primary meaning of the word "repentance" is turning - turning away from our sins and turning to God.
I picture in my mind several kinds of turning. There is the quick turning of ice skaters doing a triple Lutz. They spin in a blaze where you can hardly see them turn.
Is that the way we turn to God? Perhaps some do, but I suspect most of us turn the way a large ship does. A gigantic ocean liner may take two miles to make a turn. That's why preparation for Christmas takes a while. How long does Christmas actually take? It's over in one day. It doesn't take long to open the presents and acknowledge that the Christ child was born. Like many things in life, the preparation takes a while.
How long does it take to paint a bedroom in your house? The actual labor may not take more than a couple of hours. What takes so long is the preparation. We have to pick out the paint, looking at several colors, and then when we get it on the wall it doesn't quite look right. We have to make a trip to the hardware store to buy the rollers, the brushes and the tape. We have to tape off the windows and the baseboards. We have to move the furniture and put down a drop cloth. It can take you a month to paint a room!
The same thing is true with Christmas. All the preparation takes awhile because we are like the ship that slowly turns to God. We are not really like the ice skater who spins on a dime. It takes a while for us to turn our spirits toward God. Repentance is turning toward God.
Repentance is a prominent theme of the preaching of those first Christians in the book of Acts. When Peter first began preaching, he says that we need to deal with the sin before new life comes in our hearts. In Acts 2:38, Peter says, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Then in Acts 3:19, he says, “Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus…” That verse sums up Christmas. Notice that ends with the Messiah coming and begins with repentance and times of refreshing. Times of refreshing from God depend upon our repenting and turning to God. Surely the same thing can be said about Christmas. The refreshing spirit of Christ at this season of the year depends upon our repentance.
Later, when Paul was preaching in Athens before the Aeropagus in Acts 17, he says, “While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent (17:30).”
In Acts 26, when Paul is preaching before King Agrippa, he says, “After that, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient…, but declared… that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance (26:19-20).”
Repentance is an uncomfortable subject, isn’t it? But John the Baptist doesn’t mind making us uncomfortable. He is an uncomfortable prophet out in the uncomfortable desert talking about our uncomfortable sins. He says we need to repent and turn to God.
Henri Nouwen once said, "Our lives get stuffed with newspaper items, television stories, and gossip. Then our minds lose the discipline of discerning between what leads us closer to God and what doesn't, and our hearts lose their spiritual sensitivity.” It’s the hard work of acknowledging our sin and repenting that leads us to God.
Listen to this paragraph from a book entitled Gates of Repentance:
"Now is the time for turning. The leaves are beginning to turn from green to red to orange. The birds are beginning to turn and are heading once more toward the south. The animals are beginning to turn to storing their food for the winter. For leaves, birds and animals, turning comes instinctively. But for us, turning does not come so easily. It takes an act of will for us to make a turn. It means breaking old habits. It means admitting that we have been wrong, and this is never easy. It means losing face. It means starting all over again. And this is always painful. It means saying I am sorry. It means recognizing that we have the ability to change. These things are terribly hard to do. But unless we turn, we will be trapped forever in yesterday's ways."
As we prepare for Christmas, we must feel ourselves turning. Sometimes I think of repentance as dropping the barriers and false fronts and admitting the truth about ourselves. We are like those Russian dolls that stack inside one another. We are the tiniest doll in the middle. There is the truth about us, but we put that self inside a little larger doll. Then we add one image on top of another until we are hiding far beneath the many selves that we present to the outside world.
Repentance is when we take down those other selves. We must remove those outward barriers and false selves and present our real self to God. That is so scary! God knows our innermost self and our thoughts and motives. Repentance is confessing the truth of who we are to God Almighty.
But one of the great things about the preaching of repentance in the Bible is that it is never mentioned without another word that is equally important. The Bible says, "Repent for the forgiveness of sins." "Repent and turn to God that you sins may be wiped away…" The great thing about God is that we don't have to be afraid of exposing our innermost self to God because God forgives us! How wonderful to live openly, honestly and without pretense! God knows us but loves us and forgives us.
John the Baptist says, "If you want to prepare for Christmas, you don't have to go out and buy the rollers, the paint and the brushes. You have to confess, repent and turn your heart to God."
Repentance is also a word of humility. One preacher went to Romania to visit an old basilica up on the hill in Criseni. There he found that the doorway into the sanctuary was only about four and a half feet high, which meant everyone had to bow down in order to get in. Father Florin, the Romanian Orthodox priest who was hosting, explained that that was the point. The door was intentionally built that low so that people would have to humble themselves before coming inside to commune with Christ. It is the only way to enter Christmas.
That's what John the Baptist says. If you want to prepare for Christmas, put up your tree. Decorate your house. But humble yourself. Repent and turn to God that you might have forgiveness for all your sins.