12.7.08 A2 In Midst of Fear, the Beginning of the Gospel of JX

• By now you've heard the litany of recession and depression
  • Stocks have had the worst year since the 1930s
  • Unemployment was worse than expected this week
  • The housing market, as we all too well know as we try to sell my mother's house, has crashed
  • Ford and Chrysler are on the brink of disaster, and General Motors may be bankrupt before New Year's Eve
  • Consumer prices are down, but merchants have to sell that much more to make a profit
• And in the midst of all this, the answer of the other day to both our corporate and personal turmoil was… drumroll please… 14-0848 TCX!
  • What is this 14-0848 TCX that is the answer to our problems? It's a particular shade of yellow as catalogued by the people at Pantone, the color-people who provide world-wide standards to define various hues and colors for decorating
  • The actual name of 14-0848 TCX is Mimosa, like the yellow in the blossom of a Mimosa tree, or vaguely like the similarly colored cocktail drink with the same name that's a blend of orange juice and champagne
  • Why is this 14-0848 TCX named Mimosa so helpful NOW? This is what one of the executive director fo the Pantone Color Institute said:
    "I think it's just the most wonderful symbolic color of the future. It's invariably connected to warmth, sunshine and cheer — all the good things we're in dire need of right now." [Leatrice Eiseman, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081203/ap_on_re_us/color_of_the_year ]
• I guess in tough times, we look for hope in almost anything – even in the color yellow
• Times were also tough in Galilee almost 2000 years ago, but it was a different kind of tough, and they were looking for hope too
  • But there was no middle class – you were either one of the few who were rich, or you were poor – and most people were poor
  • Economically, they had little to loose, so instead of losing a job, or some savings, or some home value – as significant as these are for us, for them, it often meant losing life
    • For us, it's our lifestyle that is temporarily threatened
    • For them, it was their very lives that were at stake
  • They scratched a basic crop out of the soil, or they fished the lakes and rivers, or they sewed tents like the Apostle Paul, or did basic carpentry like Joseph and Jesus, or they hired out as servants and laborers – but when it was all said and done, most people earned barely enough for food, clothing and shelter
  • On top of that, the country had for centuries been occupied by first one foreign tyrant, and then another.
    • The tyrant of the moment was one of the Ceasars, with his evil local henchmen like Herod, who didn't hesitate to kill either sons or wives, and was more than happy to crucify petty criminals, or put down revolts with the bloody sword
• The time was far tougher in Galilee some 2000 years ago than it is now, even at its worse
  • The back then people hungered and thirsted for some Good News
  • And they certainly needed far more than a cheery, yellow color
  • They needed Good News that had substance
• So it's fitting that the gospel of Mark starts this way: "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."
  • That's the announcement to both readers and listeners of Mark's gospel
  • Mark's annnouncement was that the Good News that people hungered and thirsted for, so many years ago in dire times, and the Good News that we yearn for even now in both tough time and good times – this Good News has its beginning in no one else and with nothing less than Jesus Christ the Son of God
• This Jesus Christ was first announced by a curious figure named John
  • He dressed like the ancient prophet Elijah
  • He quoted Isaiah to prepare the way of the Lord
  • He called people to renounce their sins, and be washed as a symbol of cleansing and repentance
  • And to the crowds who flocked out into the wilderness to see the Isaiah-quoting, Elijah-looking, repentance-calling prophet, he declared that the one who was coming after him, the one for whom he was preparing, the one for whom the people were preparing by putting their lives in order – this one was so great and holy that John himself did not regard himself worthy to stoop down and loosen the Lord's sandal, or untie his shoe!
• With that great reverence, with that great respect, with that great humility, John and we who read Mark's gospel could easily think that a mighty heavenly warrior or a great godly ruler was about to arrive
• But instead, the one for whom John and we prepared was "just" Jesus
  • "Just" Jesus
  • "Just" a carpenter and new rabbi from Nazareth
  • "Just" a rabbinical teacher who would preach the Kingdom of God in sermons and riddles
  • "Just" a Lord who called for repentance yet unconditionally welcomed women and children, the poor and the rich, the Samaritans and the lepers, the prostitutes and tax collectors, and the Gentiles and sometimes even the Romans
  • "Just" Jesus, who eventually was betrayed by friends, pawned off to Roman authorities by his own religious leaders, and executed by petty tyrants for being a danger to Rome and its supposedly Divine Emperor
• "Just" Jesus – instead of power and might, John prepared for the Good News to come to people then and us now in God's own humble way
• And the mistake that the rulers and the mighty made back then, and that the powerful and proud make now, is to underestimate God's way of bringing Good News into the world with "just" Jesus
  • They thought, they think, and sometimes even we dare to feel, that there needs to be more than "just" a humble rabbi, the Son of God, who became a crucified figure on a cross
  • But for God, that was MORE than enough!
  • The simple work of God in and through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for whom John the Baptizer prepared the way, is more than enough for God to bring the sin-forgiving, fear-conquering, life-giving Good News that was needed both then and now into the world and into our lives.

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