Changing Our Minds. December 10, 2017 The Rev. Kathleen M. Sturges

Mark 1:1-8

2 Advent

One of the things that I love to do is go for long walks in my neighborhood.  What makes my walks particularly nice is that I have access to a good amount of wooded area full of dirt paths.  When the trees are full of leaves it gives me a sense of being out in the wilderness.  So last spring, when we all were enjoying the warmth and light of the sun well into the evening hours I took off for one of my walks.  That day I decided to take a new path to see where it might lead.  After following the unfamiliar twists and turns for about thirty minutes or so I decided it was time to head back. So I turned around and started walking in the direction I had just come.  When I came upon a fork in the road, I confidently veered right or left as my memory and my keen sense of navigational skills dictated until eventually I realized that nothing looked familiar or rather everything looked the same - the trees, the underbrush, the dirt paths.  I had no clue which way to go and it dawned on me I was lost!  But, honestly, it was a fun kind of lost.  I mean I knew I wasn’t always going to be lost forever and that this was a safe type of “wilderness” to be lost in and just the novelty of the feeling was a bit thrilling.  With access to GPS at almost all times it’s a rare event to not know where you are.  Obviously, I made it back home, but I confess it took me a good while of trying one path and then another until I eventually I stumbled out of the wilderness and found my way home.   

Today on this second Sunday in Advent into the wilderness we go with John the Baptist to hear as the beginning of the gospel of Mark puts it the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  How odd, though, that God’s good news about Jesus begins in the wilderness.  Unlike the pretend wilderness in my neighborhood, true wilderness places are harsh and difficult to be in.  Why did those in the Judean countryside and residents of Jerusalem have to go out into the wilderness to hear John’s message?  Perhaps it’s because the wilderness is often the best place for us to prepare the way of the Lord.   The experience of the Israelites bears witness to this.  They spent forty years in the wilderness preparing for new life in the promise land.  And Jesus also follows this pattern.  Immediately after his baptism he too goes into the wilderness for a time of preparation before his public ministry begins. 

Nowadays,  if we want to we can avoid being in the wilderness our entire lives - the wilderness in a geographical sense, that is.  But no one can fully avoid the path that leads to wilderness experiences in life.  Anytime we have a season where we feel overwhelmed, anxious, angry, isolated, grief-stricken or just plain lost - those are wilderness places, for sure.  But even there, or maybe especially there in the wilderness, there is good news.  It is a place that God is at work, preparing us so that we might recognize God coming to us in new and unexpected ways.  And today as we enter into the wilderness with John the Baptist the way God seeks to prepare us is through a baptism of repentance.

Repentance?  You might question.  Repentance when someone’s in the wilderness?  How can that help?  Isn’t that like kicking someone when their down?  Well, yes, if repentance is only about feeling really, really guilty and really, really sorry for the bad things we’ve done and left undone  If that’s the case then repentance offers cold comfort in any wilderness.   But if you consider that in the Greek language of the New Testament,  the word used for repentance literally means a change of mind then John the Baptist, our wilderness guide, may be onto something.

Because repentance isn’t about shame or guilt, it’s about having our minds changed, transformed so that we can really know deep down the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God in our lives - and here it is:  God accepts us.  God accepts you and God accepts me just as we are.  God does not say, “If you’re good then I will love you.”  No God says, “I love you - the real you - all of you no matter what.”  There are no preconditions to God’s love and acceptance and forgiveness towards us.  That means that there is nothing that we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing that we can do to make God love us less. 

Repentance isn’t about changing God’s mind about us, but changing our minds about God.  And in order to get to that change of mind, that repentance, it begins with confession.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that confession is something that we do at almost every Sunday.  It’s that important.  But why?  When we confess our sins it’s not like we’re giving God any information God doesn’t already have.  So if confession isn’t about telling God something new or making us feel bad then why do we bother with it?  Because the act of confession helps us to get our hearts, our minds, our souls into a place where we can be open to and really accept what already is - God’s love, acceptance, and forgiveness towards us.  Repentance doesn’t earn us God’s forgiveness.  It doesn’t convince God to forgive us.  That’s not the way it works.  Rather God’s forgiveness comes first.  Repentance is simply our response to that grace.     

Scripture bears witness to this.  In the gospels when Jesus offers forgiveness people - to the paralytic man who is lowered through a rooftop, to the woman who anoints his feet, to the thief on the cross - God’s forgiveness is given before they do much of anything, let alone actual confessing and repenting.  And in the book of Romans, Paul explains this way, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”  God doesn’t wait until we’ve met some kind of standard or requirement.  Rather, in the language of Paul, “while we still were sinners,” Christ came and continues to come into our lives at all times and in all places.

Now whether you are lost in the wilderness right now or enjoying the delights of a winter wonderland when it’s supposed to be “the most wonderful time of the year,”  or maybe, more realistically, you’re experiencing a bit of both worlds, hear the call of John the Baptist this Advent season. Get ready for the many ways Christ is coming.  Prepare to receive God’s love, acceptance, and forgiveness through repentance - the changing of our minds - which provides not only a comfort in the wilderness, but a straight path that leads to hope, love, joy, and peace.  This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.   Christ has come, Christ is coming, Christ will come again - not only for us, but for the entire world.