Epiphany 1 Mark 1:4-11 January 11, 2008 Rev. Benton Quest
You know, we really have a nice sanctuary here. It is comfortable. It is dry. It is clean. It really is nice. We take pride in this sanctuary and I think we are right in doing so.
Often when we think about the church, what we think about is this building. We think that the walls that surround us and the roof that covers us is the church. When we think about church, we think about this place. But in today’s gospel, we are asked to stretch our understanding of what church is and how we are church.
We start out with the description of John, out in the wilderness. John -- with the weird diet and the strange clothes. John -- who is calling the people to repent and then calling them to forgiveness. Surrounded by all these weird descriptions of John, we might not catch what is really odd about this story. The thing that is really odd is that John is in the wrong place.
In Biblical times, repentance and forgiveness is not something that happened in the wilderness. We have come to accept the whole baptism of Jesus out in the wilderness as commonplace because we have heard the story so many times. But in Biblical times, all this baptizing was not something that would be happening in the wilderness; repentance, forgiveness, and baptizing were things that were supposed to happen in the Jerusalem temple. The temple was a nice, even awe-inspiring place. People traveled from far-flung lands to come to the temple. The temple was the center of worship during biblical times. So it would be extremely odd for the promises of forgiveness to be happening outside the temple, out in the wilderness.
But this is where the baptizing was happening and this is where all the people were heading. The people were heading away from the established church, the established message, to hear the preaching of a man ranting in the wilderness. They were abandoning what they knew to go in search of something more.
And in this is odd place, away from the temple, is where we also find Jesus. We find Jesus, out in the wilderness, away from the established comfort of the temple. Jesus is not in the temple, following the way of the priests and Pharisees; he is out with the crowds, following the one ranting in the camelhair clothes. This is our Savior and Role Model -- outside of the established traditions. This is our savior and role model -- out in the untamed wilds.
If we are to be followers of Jesus, then is this reading telling us to totally abandon the church and the worship life of the community? Is it telling us to completely forget about what we have here? Is it telling us to abandon this building? This sanctuary? This denomination? I don’t know, I guess we could look at it that way. But before you all get up and leave, there is also another way we could look at the reading.
I think we often get overly comfortable with our lives. We get overly comfortable with our surroundings. We take the buildings, homes, cars, of our lives as our entitlement. We feel that it is our right to feel full and warm. We also get overly comfortable with God. We take the radical, frightening, life changing love of God for granted. We assume that it is something that is our due. In many ways, we have become complacent with the love of God; we forget that God’s love is not something that can be tamed.
By moving out into the wilderness, we leave all of our old assumptions behind. We cannot assume we will remain dry. We cannot assume we shall always have food. We cannot assume there will be walls to protect us. By moving out into the wilderness, John was telling the people that they would have to change their expectations. By moving out into the wilderness, John was showing people that the old way they had come to know, though not necessarily wrong, was not the way of the future that was dawning.
It was here, out in the wilderness; out in the new, that Jesus appeared. And with Jesus’ appearance, this concept of changing expectations was solidified. Jesus, at the start of his ministry, abandons all the usual trappings of a leader and teacher. He leaves behind the temple and all the assumptions that are made about the temple. He leaves behind the assumptions of the day that repentance and forgiveness happened in the temple. He leaves all these assumptions behind and goes out into the wilderness. He leaves all these assumptions behind and gives his would-be followers a new set of perspectives.
These actions should not surprise us. Jesus has been presenting us a new perspective his entire life. A great leader born in a stable. The Son of God worshipped by shepherds. The King honored, not by those of his own country, but by those who have traveled from distant lands. We just celebrated Epiphany and Christ being recognized by the magi. The ones whom we would expect to recognize Jesus were oblivious, but those from outside knew Jesus for what he was. From the very beginning, Jesus was not what was expected.
Even though we are followers of Jesus, many of us have followed Jesus our whole life, we need to listen anew to the call to go out into the wilderness. We need to move beyond that which is known and comfortable. We need to examine our faith and find where the walls that we have erected to keep us secure are keeping others out.
In Biblical times, not everyone was allowed into the temple. People were kept out due to their station in life, due to their sex, or due to their nationality. People were only allowed into certain parts and were excluded from others. But out in the wilderness things were different. Anyone and everyone was welcome. No one would be turned away. John’s call to repentance was for all people, not just to those who were acceptable in the temple.
And it was out into the wilderness that Jesus came to be baptized. In coming out into the wilderness, Jesus was telling those who would follow that his call was not limited to those who were acceptable to the temple folk, but that his call was to all people; not only the temple folk but those unacceptable in the temple. Not only those who were respectable, but those who were on the edges of society. Jesus was telling the people that he came not just for those who were inside the walls of the city, but also for those who, for whatever reason, found themselves on the outside.
As Christians, how have we been doing? Have we ventured out into the wilderness to find the people there? Have we followed our savior out to find those who may be on the edge of our society? Have we accepted those who the powers have told us are unacceptable? Or are we content to stay in the walls of the temple, both literally and metaphorically? Are we content to know that we have forgiveness even when there are those who do not feel welcome to come forward and receive this forgiveness? Are we ok, knowing that for some people, the word Christian is comparable to words such as “bigoted,” “cruel,” or “intolerant?”
I believe the actions of John, and Jesus’ response to John’s actions, tells us that if we are to truly follow Jesus, we cannot be content to just sit back. We cannot be ok with people hearing the message that the love of God is for some but not for others. We cannot stay inside the walls while others are forced to stand outside. If we are to truly follow Jesus, we too need to go out into the wilderness.
Who do we consider our “Ideal” new member? What makes this person “ideal” and others “not so ideal”? Are we willing to expand what we consider “ideal”? Can we challenge ourselves to move beyond what is common and expected?
By going out into the wilderness, Jesus was challenging what was accepted. He was challenging his family, his community, and his tradition. He was protesting the subtle and not so subtle divisions that had been established. He was saying that there was a new understanding.
We are the ones who benefit from this new understanding. We are the ones who were once outside the walls. We are the ones who were less than ideal. We are the ones who needed to find forgiveness in the wilderness. But this understanding was never intended to stop with us. We are to continue to move out into the wilderness. We are to bring the message to the people. We are to challenge the traditions that hold people back. We are to challenge our family and community when they are limiting the love of God. This is what Jesus did. Are we willing to follow?
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