Preparers

Mark 1:1-8

Everyone is doing it.

The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem.  City folk and country folk – everyone is going to John in the wilderness. 

 

And I wonder if they all know why.

I’m sure some of the folks had been looking for someone like John – someone to stir things up, or someone to help me change, or someone who can make my faith feel real again… But when everyone is doing something, well, a lot of us are just doing it because everyone else is. 

 

So off everyone goes, to see John. And then, intentionally or carried along by the crowd, to confess their sin and be dunked in the river. And to hear John preparing the way for God. For Jesus. 

 

I have a strong suspicion that many of these folks from Jerusalem and Judea were not, actually, looking for The Messiah. Not actively looking for a new relationship with God, or a new revelation from God. 

Just like many of us. 

 

And whatever they were looking for; whether they were looking for anything or not, they get John proclaiming Jesus. Preparing them (us) for Jesus. 

Plenty of people probably figured John, clothed and eating and preaching like one of the prophets of old, confessing and baptizing people, was enough New Revelation all by himself. 

But John isn’t enough for John.

If you meet him, if I meet him, his only interest is in preparing us for Jesus.
Preparing us to look for Jesus. The one coming after John.

To recognize Jesus. The one so much greater than John.

To respond to Jesus. The one who will immerse us in the Spirit of God.

 

I’ve been thinking, this week – as I’m in the middle of a busy season of not wanting anything new thanks very much – about how while sometimes the good news comes when we want it and are looking, sometimes – often, even – good news, God news, comes to us when we aren’t looking. When you or I don’t really want more news, more opportunities with God.

 

All it takes is a little curiosity.

Or a little going along with a friend.

Or being dragged along by the insistence of your parents, or your kids. 

Or even a little just showing up to do your job.

 

And John meets us.
Meets everyone – all Jerusalem and Judea; all of us – sooner or later and says:
“Get ready! He’s coming! The one more powerful than you’re looking for. The one who will change everything in your relationship with God.”

 

I wonder when that’s happened to you.

I wonder when someone has gotten you ready, prepared you, for a change, or renewal, in your relationship with God.

I wonder who your John is. 

Who it is who prepared you – intentionally or otherwise – to meet Jesus.

To look for, and recognize, and respond to Jesus. To God.

 

Because someone has – even a little bit, even unrecognizably. Someone, somewhere, has done at least a little preparing you for Jesus, getting you ready for an encounter with God or you wouldn’t be here.

Even if you are only here today because someone else insisted.

 

In gentle ways, ways I can’t pin down, I know that my parents, my Sunday School teachers, other members of my family have prepared me. Shared stories, or habits, or prayers with me that eventually help me look for Jesus, recognize God when God shows up. Not insistently, not demandingly, but gently, often accidentally, because it’s just what we do.
I’ll bet that’s true for many of you, also.

 

Think for a moment – who in your life has gently, naturally, shared prayer, or stories, or rituals with you that wind up helping you look for, or look to, God coming to be part of your life. 

 

Then - sometimes - the John in your life, the person preparing you for Jesus, was very explicit and intentional about it. Even a little “in your face” – very like the John portrayed in most of the Gospels. Someone who wants you to act now, change now, to look for, and recognize, and respond to Jesus - now.

 

I’ve got one friend who – if you display the least bit of curiosity about Jesus – will immediately set you up with an active, specific plan to get closer to Jesus – to expect, recognize, and respond to Jesus in your life, now. A friend who insists with joyous urgency that the one more powerful is coming – is near, is here – and insists that I want to be ready (no, readier than you are now; readier even than that) – for Jesus who keeps on coming. 

 

I have rolled my eyes at this friend so many times because my relationship with Jesus is fine already thank you very much. 

And yet…, spending time with this friend I’ve gotten so much better at recognizing and naming Jesus’ role in my life; I’ve gotten so much better at responding when God is doing something new with me, or around me. I’ve gotten so much readier to expect Jesus to show up, every day, any day. 

 

Another friend, years ago, was pretty insistent about recognizing and responding to Jesus in strangers, in those in need – starting feeding programs, welcoming outsiders, protecting the vulnerable – now. And she actively, insistently prepared me – and anyone else who came into her orbit – to do the same. Even though I wanted something very different from God at the time.

 

Think about who those people might have been in your life. 

Who has been explicit with you about a need to look for, and recognize Jesus – coming powerfully, coming closer – and prepared you to respond - now?

 

Maybe it happened when you were looking for God, needed God to do something new.  

More often, for many of us, it’s happened when we weren’t looking. 

But subtly and gradually, or insistently and urgently, someone has told you, prepared you: God is coming. God is near. And you want to be ready.

 

John doesn’t just want all Judea and Jerusalem to get ready for Jesus two thousand years ago.

I believe he wants – and God wants – you and me, all these years later, to be ready, too.

God has sent us preparers both subtle and strong, whether we were looking for them or not.

 

And maybe John, maybe God, wants you and me to prepare others, too.

To gently share with someone the stories, the prayers, the rituals, the meals and music and customs, that help you quietly look for, and recognize, and respond to the coming of Christ – at Christmas, or in the middle of a boring, ordinary week. To share those things because you love them, with someone you love.

 

Or, sometimes, to be bold and brave, and be the one to declare how much it matters, now, to get active and excited about the coming of Jesus, the nearness and power of God. To share a joyous urgency, an eager expectation, a confidence that you can be ready, I can be ready, we must be ready. 

 

Because whether we got here on purpose, or whether we just followed the crowd, you, and I, and all Judea and Jerusalem, and anyone in the world, can – must – expect, and welcome, and rejoice in the coming of God, powerful and urgent and awesome. Now.