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Homilies by Rev. Andrew Collis unless indicated otherwise.
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Advent 2, Year B
South Sydney Uniting Church
December 10, 2017
Psalm 85:8,10; Mark 1:1-8
‘Away from ourselves’
Today we meet John the Baptist, a striking man who wears a camel-
Despite the apparent success of his ministry, John points away from himself to the one who is to come. According to one commentator (standing in a long/strong tradition which includes Karl Barth), this is the task of all who are called to ministry of any kind in the service of Christ, to always point away from ourselves and towards Christ. John, as faithful witness, is a guide and inspiration (see Greg McConnell, With Love to the World).
There is something to this. A genuine humility and spiritual maturity.
Mark’s John doesn’t know to whom he refers when he says that “one more powerful than I is to come after me”. Someone greater than a prophet of repentance. Someone or something unimaginable; more than a message and more than liturgical practice. “The One to come will baptise you in the Holy Spirit” means something like total renewal.
Pointing away from ourselves and towards Christ means encouraging deeply imaginative engagements with the world (eschewing slogans, lazy repetitions, narrow ideologies, dependence on any one teacher/leader), yearning for renewal – new language, community, freedom, being.
Scholars surmise that Jesus, in the role of Elisha, was a disciple of John. At some point, though, there was a radical change. The point seems to have been reached with Jesus’ welcome of sinners.
John was a prophet of doom who preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus, who may well have baptised too, proclaimed: “The reign of God is at hand” (1:15). It is a matter of emphasis. Where John prophesied judgement, Jesus prophesied salvation (in the Fourth Gospel this is made explicit to an imprisoned John in terms of Jesus’ healing ministries). Although he admired John, Jesus was to follow his own way.
Pointing away from ourselves and towards Christ, then, entails an awareness of our own propensities for, our obsessions with, doom and judgement. Or, more precisely, our simplistic and vengeful notions of justice – the way that despair and hopelessness harden hearts and shut down possibilities for relationship.
And pointing away from ourselves and towards Christ also has to do with the demonic.
In Mark 3:27 there is reference to a stronghold, and to Jesus as the Stronger One who binds the Strong One (Satan) and plunders the stronghold. What can this mean for us?
Perhaps it means being wary of evil, not being naïve when it comes to all manner of enslavement to cruelty, violence, cycles of blame and scapegoating, ignorance and hatred. Perhaps it means understanding the demonic in cultural terms – colonialism, racism and sexism, bullying and abuse as issues beyond a personal capacity to solve.
Pointing away from ourselves and towards Christ (what feminist theologian Rita Nakashima Brock calls “Christa-
It’s more than mere pointing to Jesus or chanting his name.
In verses 2-
What binds the composite quotation together is the term “way” (Greek hodos).
We are meant to hear allusions to the way of Israel (about to enter the promised land), the way of YHWH (who, by way of historical/political process, frees the people from Babylonian captivity), the way of Jesus in the first century. And prefacing Isaiah 40:3 with the text from Exodus makes the entire quotation an address by God to God’s Own.
We are listening in to God/Love. Not simply pointing away, but pointing a way. I’m tempted to say “plotting” a way. Ultimately, pointing towards Christ means participation in Christ’s way – the way of Christ who points away from himself.
Jesus is God’s Own who will tread the salvific way marked out by Isaiah. He is also in some sense replaying the role of Israel: his person will be the foundation of a renewed people of God, destined to enter the fullness of salvation associated with the onset of God’s rule.
So …
Pointing away from ourselves and towards Christ means encouraging imaginative engagements with the world ...
Pointing away from ourselves and towards Christ entails an awareness of our own obsessions with doom and judgement …
Pointing away from ourselves and towards Christ will mean pointing towards community solutions …
Ultimately, pointing towards Christ means participation in Christ’s way – the way of Christ who points away from himself … to the fullness of salvation … to God’s rule … to God …
A longer homily might explore the doctrine of a God who points away from Godself; a God who gives Godself away. How beautifully the psalm expresses it:
“I will listen [in] to what you have to say, O God –/ a voice that speaks of peace,/ peace for your people and your friends/ so long as they don’t return to their folly./ Love and faithfulness have met;/ justice and peace have embraced.” Amen.