Mark 1:1-8

Today is the second Sunday in Advent, and our theme is preparation. Its a theme we know something about because most of us are now deep into the process of preparing for the holidays - cleaning and decorating homes, putting up Christmas trees, writing letters to Santa, shopping for just the right gift. Not only that, but preparation is pretty important in other ways, too. Like when you're the working parents of young children, needing to balance the needs and activities of your kids, the demands of a career, and an occasional couple of hours of sleep. Or like those of you in our congregation who know firsthand the need to prepare for retirement. And, given the fact that we live in an area where the local university produces some pretty good sports teams, we know something about the importance of preparing for bowl games and other athletic contests. We know in life that some things just can't happen without good preparation.

And so, this morning, we are invited to St. Mark's version of the Christmas story. And you'll note that Mark intentionally omits all talk about angels, virgins, shepherds, stars, wise men, mangers, and even babies. Instead, Mark focuses on a message. "Prepare the way of the Lord!"

The messenger, of course, is a fellow by the name of John the Baptist, or - as we say it here in the South - John the Babdis. But John is not a Baptist like the Southern Baptists who proliferate in this region of the country. Nor is he a Northern Baptist like those in my native New England. No, John - if his Baptist heritage must be defined by a geographical description - would probably be called a Wilderness Baptist. His baptizing ministry, you see, was conducted in a place commonly referred to as "the wilderness." This was a desolate location outside of Jerusalem, way over on the other side of the Jordan River valley.

And this understanding of where John the Baptist baptized is significant as we consider this morning what it means to prepare the way of the Lord.

You see, in those days, baptism could be performed anywhere there was water. Baptismal cleansing was an ongoing and traditional part of Jewish ritual. So the interesting question to ask here is not WHAT was John doing, but WHY? Why did John not just go ahead and baptize in Jerusalem, or one of the other cities where there were ritual baths? When he could have been a Northern Baptist, or when he could have been a Southern Baptist, WHY did John choose instead to be a Wilderness Baptist? And WHY did he baptize in the Jordan River?

The Jewish historian Josephus provides us an interesting clue. Josephus notes that throughout this period of time when John was baptizing in the wilderness, various groups of Jewish zealots rose up, trying to overthrow the oppressive Roman government and its occupying army. And quite often, these freedom-fighters began their campaign this way: First, there would be the rousing speeches of some charismatic leader who would rile up the crowds about saving their homeland from the forces of evil...

...Then, the people would leave the cities and go out into this wilderness on the other side of the Jordan. You see, this is the same wilderness in which Moses and the people of Israel wandered for forty years. This is the very wilderness from which they entered the Promised land when they escaped from Egypt...

...And then, then in a great symbolic act, they would cross the river again. They would immerse themselves in the waters of the Jordan through which their own fathers and mothers had passed on their way to freedom from Egypt!

To go out to the wilderness and to be baptized in the Jordan, was to recover your roots! It was to rededicate yourself to the freedom journey with God! It was to actually reenact and rejoin the exodus from slavery to freedom!

And so its no accident that John chooses to baptize here - in the wilderness, in the Jordan. Everybody knows full well what it means, and eventually, it will be one of the reasons the Romans execute John. The revolution is about to begin, he proclaims! The kingdoms of this world will soon become the kingdom of our God, and of his Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!!

But instead of equipping the people with weapons to return and fight the Romans as the zealots do, John equips them with something very different. John gives them a calling:

Prepare the way of the Lord! And then he coins the words of the prophet Isaiah: Go and build straight roads upon which he will come! And then John sends these rededicated people back to where they live in the cities and towns of Judea to wait.

Catholic scholar John Dominic Crossan humorously describes these people as "a network of ticking time bombs all over the Jewish homeland."

Hundreds - maybe thousands - of people, working toward the overthrow of the oppressive Roman government, not by fighting it, but by preparing the way of God's new kingdom! Countless people, repudiating the evil systems of this world not by violent revolt, but by peacefully preparing the systems of God's new reign! People, immersed in the waters of the exodus, quietly constructing pathways leading to God's new world.

And when Jesus comes on the scene, they are ready. Fishermen along the sea of Galilee. Hearts prepared to hear the words, "Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And they leave their nets and follow without hesitation. This is what they've been waiting for!

Women of material means who have been saving and preparing for this day. And they join Jesus and provide the crucial financial support for his ministry. Mary and Martha, Salome, and even Mary Magdalene. This is what they've been waiting for!

Blind people. Deaf people. Lepers. The poor. People so marginalized that their only hope is that the Messiah will come and set them free from a world that advances itself by leaving them behind. And in a dozen cities on a dozen different occasions, Jesus comes into town, and he hears their voices in the midst of the crowds, and turns and calls to them. And these beautiful people open their eyes and see, and they get up off their pallets and walk to serve the Lord! This is what they've been waiting for!

But that was then, and now is now. May I ask you, dear friends - on this Second Sunday of Advent - what you are waiting for? What you are preparing for?

The message of Advent is not just about the holiday birth of a baby. The baby in the manger is a sign to us - living proof that the new world is coming and it doesn't much look like the world in which we currently live. Its a world in which the economic systems we know will be turned upside down like the moneychangers' tables in the temple of Jerusalem. Its a world in which standards of success and status will be turned on their head and losers become winners and the last become first. Its a world undivided in which there are no more warring nations, no more divisive religions or denominations, no more corrupt political systems, no more artificial and evil distinctions between people except for the unique beauty of how God created each member of his family to be. Its a world in which there are no more excuses for letting people go hungry, or allowing children to live in poverty, or for tolerating racism, or for hating people who are different.

There is a new world coming, and you are called to help prepare it!

You see, Advent preparation has little to do with decorating homes, writing cards, and getting into the Christmas spirit. It really has nothing to do with singing Christmas carols or even lighting Advent candles. It is not even about purifying yourself so that you can have a good experience of God this season. Advent preparation means going back to the river, and there renewing your dedication to prepare the way of God's new world!

Do you know some people who are estranged from God, living lives of brokenness and sin? Your calling is to build a straight path between them and God's redeeming love!

Do you know some people who are hurting so badly they're lost in despair? Your calling is to help prepare a pathway to hope!

Do you know of some hungry people? Go feed them, and advocate for them in society. Do you know some poor people? Go help them pay their rent, and fight the systems of this world that not only put poor people down, but manage to blame them for it, too. Do you know some people everyone else avoids like the plague? Go make them your friend. Do you know of some legislation that will bring benefit to single mothers and children without fathers? Go support it. Do you know some group that fights for justice for the oppressed or that gives voice to those who have no voice? Become a member and give your life to i!.

Today, I want to invite you to become a ticking time bomb for Jesus Christ! Come and join those who every day are subverting the evil kingdoms of this world by establishing beach heads of God's new reign! For the kingdoms of this world are giving way to the kingdom of our God and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever!

Friends, he's coming! The revolution is already underway!

Are you ready?