Tuesday, Week Two of Advent by Eric Bumgardner
Mark 1:1-8
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
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Once a semester, my work provides the opportunity to meet with a financial advisor from the firm that handles our retirement accounts. The appointments are scheduled weeks in advance and we’re asked to provide a detailed list of questions to be asked and topics to be discussed so that the advisor can prepare in advance. I made my appointment, but left the questionnaire blank. When the time for the appointment arrived, I sat in a conference room opposite the advisor, who stared at me vacantly over the screen of his open laptop. Instead of introducing himself, he asked a pointed question: “What worries you?” After some silence, I confessed. I said “I have no concept of how to make money work for me. I only know how to work for money.” His response was classic: “We’ve got an hour. I’ll start at the beginning…”
Mark’s good news seems to begin from the same frame of reference...and with the same urgency. Almost as if he is on a deadline to not only tell the story of Jesus, but to get to the point of the story of Jesus, Mark’s gospel to the gentiles sets the pace early, without a genealogy or birth narrative to build credibility with a Jewish audience. Like John the baptizer, Mark’s is a time-sensitive message that gets right to the point, crying out that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
This advent, as I prepare for my “meeting” and reflect on “what worries me,” I am relieved to know that that the news is good...
The outlook is favorable...
The prognosis is positive...
That Emmanuel will come...
That God is with us.
Amen.