2 Advent Yr B December 6 2020
Isaiah 40:1-11, 2 Peter 3:8-15a, Mark 1:1-8, Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
Jesus’ first words in Mark’s gospel are in chapter 1 verses 14 and 15. There Jesus says, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” after being in the wilderness for forty days. We must look at these very first verses in Mark’s gospel through that lens. The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in this Good News. We must, because Mark points us through the prophet Isaiah and John the baptizer to the God who is here in our midst. In Isaiah we read “your God is here!” and Mark announces that God is present. You see, this is what God does, God shows up and God shows a new way.
This beginning of Mark’s gospel takes place in the wilderness. John the baptizer appears in the wilderness. This is important. I want you to hear how important this is. Jesus is found on the edge, and Jesus also belongs there. Not in the power center of the polis, the city. But in the wilderness, or at the river, or the seashore, or in the home of a poor family among the farm animals. This decentering of God is the Good News! God shows a new way, the old way just isn’t working any more.
God shows up and God shows a new way. That way is not the way of power but the way of love. And when God moves, walls come a tumblin’ down. Boundaries are crossed. Margins are erased. The heavens are torn in two. Doves descend. All manner of being is upended.
In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is a boundary breaker. Story after story shows us this. There’s the story of the paralytic, the one whose friends climbed up on a roof and lowered him into the house where Jesus was. First there was a wall of people preventing them from getting to Jesus, and secondly, once they climbed up on the roof, they had to dig their way through the roof to get to Jesus. Walls come a tumblin’ down. And then the man with the scaly skin disease, unclean according to the law. In touching that man, Jesus made himself unclean and shattered the boundary of purity that put those who had the disease outside the community, on the margins. That wall came a tumblin’ down. And then, Jesus calls a tax-collector to follow him, and then goes on to eat with him. Jesus shows a blatant disregard for the laws of purity and social propriety, the walls come a tumblin’ down. Just a few examples. These stories in Mark’s gospel are framed by a beginning boundary breaking story and an ending boundary breaking story. At the beginning, Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan, and the heavens are torn apart and the Spirit shows up. And near the end, which is really not much of an end at all, Jesus is on the cross, and while the sun’s light failed, the curtain of the temple was torn in two and everyone knew something new was going on.
Mark is working mighty hard to tell us that God breaks into our world, and nothing can be the same. God shows up in this new way, and through Jesus breaks down the barriers that hold God at a distance. God shows up and Jesus shows us the way of love, the way of forgiveness, the way of peace. This is what incarnation is all about; God breaking boundaries to be with us, lovable, fallible, joyful, broken, human beings; Jesus breaking boundaries that redefine who is included in God’s kingdom; the Spirit breaking boundaries to inspire us to love and care for our neighbor. Why is this important? The thing God changes in Jesus IS the boundary that separates human beings from God. God breaks that boundary and God offers love and forgiveness. This is good news indeed.
Not only is incarnation about breaking boundaries in scripture, but it is about breaking boundaries now. How do we witness Jesus breaking boundaries in our lives? Just as Jesus reached across the boundary of purity to touch the man with the scaly skin, we reach across boundaries when we stand up for full inclusion in the decision making in this country by people who have been historically excluded. We reach across boundaries when we insist on equal health care, education, or access to voting. We reach across boundaries and walls come a tumblin’ down when we offer love and forgiveness and peace to all God’ children.
Christmas is THE boundary breaking event. God tumbling into this world as a baby, to parents of no means, in a humble house, only to be pursued by an evil emperor. In these Advent days, we participate in this wonderful and amazing good news that God is here! God is with us, God is in our midst. And God keeps at it. God keeps coming to us. That’s the now and not yet of Advent.
It feels a little harder, this Advent, in this Covidtide, to identify God with us. We’ve been so used to seeing and experiencing God as our beautiful church is decorated for Christmas, and as we rehearse Christmas music. Even our secular expression of Christmas is subdued, a little less partying, shopping, carrying on. I wonder if this isn’t an opportunity to do some things differently. I know I have been more intentional about pausing each day to light my advent candle and I have Christmas lights inside and outside my house. I want to observe even more closely how the light overcomes the dark, I want to watch the boundary breaking reality of this glorious impossible, this incarnation.
What remains, is that God is here, in flesh and blood. God is here in each of us as we reach out with love to those who are alone, those who are vulnerable, those who are losing hope. Each time we pray Morning Prayer we say In you, Lord, is our hope; And we shall never hope in vain.
Peace be with you this day, and throughout this Advent season.
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