Advent 2 B: Beginnings

Mark 1:1-8

Dear Partner in Preaching,

I don’t know if it’s COVID-fatigue or something else, but I seem to have even less patience with the RCL-assigned readings for Advent than usual. A week of eschatological warning, two weeks of the adult John the Baptist, and then – finally on week four! – a reading that actually pertains to the Christmas story. I know, I know, week 1 is intended both to anticipate Jesus’ second Advent at the end of time as well as accent Advent’s theme of watchful anticipation and preparation and weeks 2 & 3 to emphasize the Gospels own casting of John as the Elijah-figure prophesized to come ahead of the Messiah. But, goodness, how much of that is even remotely meaningful to our folks, absent explaining it in our sermons and, even when explained, how much is helpful to them in preparing to celebrate Christ’s birth?  While I realize I’m risking serious pushback from those with greater appreciation for the RCL than I have – and I do appreciate it, I just think it was designed for a different age – that’s not actually my goal. Rather, I want simply to explain in advance why I will be overlooking John altogether in this week’s reading and instead focus on the just the first six words of the passage (and that’s only three words in the Greek!).

Yes, a sermon on a half-sentence! Even more, I’d argue that they are among the most important 6/3 words in Mark’s Gospel: “The beginning of the good news….” To go even further… I’d sharpen my focus on the second word of that half-sentence, which is actually the first word of Mark’s Gospel in the Greek: Arche, the beginning, the origin, the start. Yes, it’s the very first word Mark chooses. Beginning….

I think this is so significant. He doesn’t start by saying, more boldly, “The good news” – actually, this is where biblical scholars think Mark coins the use of evangelion (good news or Gospel) for his literary work – “the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” That kind of chutzpah is what we’d likely look for from John; you know, the guy who began “In the beginning…” essentially saying that, yeah, he’s writing a new Genesis. Mark is more humble, even tentative. “The beginning…” as, “I can’t possibly tell the whole story of Jesus” or “There’s even more to this story, but I’ll share what I know.”

Although, on second thought, maybe it’s not humility at all. Maybe it’s an intentional, even calculated preview of just what Mark is trying to do. He’s not telling the whole of the story of God’s work in and through Jesus Christ. He’s telling just the beginning. In fact, I don’t think that first word Mark chooses is meant to be an introduction to the story about John as the forerunner at all. Rather, I think it functions more as a title and descriptor for the sixteen chapters to come. That is, the whole of the story Mark tells… is still just the beginning. Why? Because the implications of what God accomplished through Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection continue. The impact continues. God’s work is not yet done. The power of the Gospel continues… even right up to and including now!

And just now, as we and our folks are grappling with COVID-fatigue, and anxiety about the future, and feeling stuck in place, and perhaps despairing at the continued injustice so contrary to God’s will, and wondering when, or even if, we’ll come through all this… this pronouncement and promise from Mark is good news! God is not done yet! God is still at work! And… God is at work even and especially through us!

Fast forward, a moment, to the close of Mark’s Gospel, which most scholars believe is Mark 16:8a. Describing the reaction of the three women disciples who have just heard the messenger’s remarkably good news that Jesus has been raised, Mark writes, “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” The “failure” of these three disciples has puzzled many commentators over the centuries, but I suspect it’s was Mark’s rhetorical device by which to invite – actually, beg, cajole, and demand – that the reader pick up where these disciples left off. That we – who now also know the story Mark tells – become the ones to fulfill the messenger’s command, “Go and tell…..” In word and deed. Why? Because everything Mark has told up to this point – all Jesus’ teaching and preaching and healing and ministry and death and resurrection – this is all still just the beginning.

Which means the Christmas story for which we are preparing to hear is not the end of our Advent celebrations or even its climax, but rather just the beginning. In this sense, Mark’s opening invites a new hearing of the story of Jesus so that we can launch into another year of participating in God’s ongoing work to love and bless the world.

Mark doesn’t offer any stories about Jesus’ actual beginning, whether you take your cue from Luke and Matthew who describe his birth or from John who goes all the way back to the beginning of history, creation, and time itself. Instead, Mark tells about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the beginning of God’s redemptive work in and through Jesus, and the beginning of our calling to carry on and be vessels for God’s ongoing work to love and bless God’s people and world.

As I said last week, that ongoing work continues in any and every gesture of love, big or small, clearly impactful or hard to discern whether it had any impact. Because gestures offered in love participate in the ongoing work of God, who is love, and who sent Jesus both to exemplify that love and to redeem the world in and through God’s love. And so, just now, whether it’s refraining from gathering with loved ones, or wearing a mask in public, or purchasing from local retailers to support them, or making a donation to a charitable organization, or writing a note of encouragement to someone who is struggling, or calling or Zooming with someone who is lonely or…. And of course the list goes on, and yes I know every single example is both small and easy… and that’s kind of the point. We’re not helpless, even amid this pandemic, and we may find ourselves renewed in both our energy and our faith by offering these and other small gestures in love knowing that everything Mark told about Jesus was for just this end, to draw us into this ongoing story that we may continue it here and now. For everything Mark told starts with just one word: Arche, beginning, origin, start. And now it’s our turn.

Blessing to you this week and always, Dear Partner, as you tell the story of Jesus in a way that draws people in, gives them a taste of life in the kingdom of God’s grace and love, and sends them out again to care for God’s people and world. Thank you for your good work, for how you continue the story, for all that you do and, even more, are: heralds of God’s good news!

Yours in Christ,
David