Psalm 85; Mark 1:1-8

Last week we considered if the world as we know it is ending, if these are end times. In Mark’s gospel today we hear what many think is the title he gave the gospel: The Beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The part he wrote down, in other words, is just the beginning of the story.

Where and how exactly the original version of Mark ends is disputed. What’s thought to be the original ending is with the women fleeing from the tomb after an encounter with a messenger in white, and they are afraid and tell no one.

It’s a very unsatisfactory ending. So someone along the way added something a little rounder, Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, later other disciples, , even the ascension, and the disciples preaching the message and accomplishing miraculous signs to leave no doubt that they were truly God’s messengers.

But wherever you finish the gospel of Mark, he made it clear in verse 1 that what he had to tell, was just the beginning.

The good news of Jesus Christ was a new chapter for humanity. The beginning of something. God doing something new. It isn’t over, the story continues.

Over Thanksgiving break we watched The Never-Ending Story with the kids. I had to explain a little to Iris, who asked, why is it the never- ending story, if the movie is over? And, spoiler alert- I don’t know if there’s anyone who’s never seen the never-ending story it isn’t new- anyway, I explained that it’s a never-ending story because of how the little boy became a character in the book he was reading. He entered the story. It would not be over because he got to the last page- it would go on as long as he kept having adventures. (and fantasia, the land in the book, continues as long as real humans keep dreaming and imagining)

For Mark, the gospel of Jesus Christ is a never-ending story. God is still at work bringing us good news that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, and the very Son of God. He has come to be among us. The story lives among us and we are in the story now.

This is made clear before the beginning Mark announces, from the First Testament like this beautiful poem in Psalm 85.

Love and faithfulness meet together;

Righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,

And righteousness looks down from heaven.

I love this psalm, especially this part of it. To think of righteousness (or justice) and peace kissing! It speaks so much truth. To have shalom, God’s entire peace that is right relationship among people, right relationship with God and the earth, you have to have the justice, the just ways, the right living according to the Torah. And when you do- it is a holy encounter. Steadfast love and truth meet, the psalm declares. Love strong enough to handle the whole truth and nothing but the truth, embraces that truth, helps it shine. There is faithfulness- or truth-that springs forth from the earth, springs up towards God, righteousness, that lived out justice, looks down from heaven. There is a cooperation between heaven and earth.

And this is true in a couple of ways, I see: because it speaks next about the land yielding the harvest because the Lord gives what is good- so the actual earth cooperates with God in this lovely scenario. And humanity is cooperating there. Humanity is not named but a person spoke these words, harvest is mentioned and there is no harvest unless there are harvesters and planters before that.

The land, the people and God- in complete harmony. It’s such a wonderful vision. The righteousness, the justice, going before God, preparing the way- the people living out God’s ways of being fair and just and kind, make it a simple journey for God to come near.

Mark quotes from the prophet Isaiah to speak of this path prepared for God to travel on. A voice calls out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord! Make a level highway- many lanes wide- for God to travel on. And the road itself is the righteous ways that God has taught humanity to live.

John the Baptist embodies that voice calling out, prepare for God, he was in the wilderness baptizing, inviting people to repent of sin, to confess publicly and find God’s forgiveness in that washing in the river.

Advent is a time of preparation, even as we celebrate that God will come to us no matter what, we take time to prepare ourselves to receive God again, perhaps receive God more, open ourselves to God in an intentional way. And today we hear that repentance is a big part of that.

I wish I knew just what the people were confessing and repenting of in the wilderness around 2000 years ago. If we take what we know of Jesus’ ministry, if Jesus was living a way that revealed what others should repent of, my guess is that what John people called people to repent of were all the ways they were mimicking the Roman Empire. That would be consistent with prophets throughout the first testament, what they told people to repent of- following the ways of other gods, copying the people who for example, believed they needed to sacrifice some vulnerable ones to earn divine favor- no no no God says clearly about that in the prophets; or overworking people the ways of slavery and never resting, or cheating people in the marketplace, encouraging greed. Not caring for widow, orphan, and poor people but taking advantage of them. The Roman Empire was pretty clearly doing all of those things. We know the justice system under the roman empire was a sham because an innocent man was executed, because of his ethnicity and what he believed. That was certainly a lack of justice. All of that had been decried by prophets and might have been the kind of sins that John the Baptist called people to turn away from as he baptized them.

So for us today, if we heed this call of repentance, of striving to live in a just way that leads to shalom, God’s perfect peace, and repent of what prophets have called people to repent of for centuries, so we can prepare the way for the Lord to come to us- what does that look like for us today? what do we repent of ?

The same things, though they might in different packaging. Some of these sins feel both distant and incredibly heavy because they are woven into the society we live in. For example how some people work two jobs just to have enough to pay for rent and necessities- and how severely this pandemic has made the economic situation for so man so dire. I don’t think that is in line with God’s righteousness and shalom- that part of the economy even before COVID. Where is their opportunity for rest and sabbath? And I think, too, of the never decreasing use of fossil fuels- now the oil drillers will be able to purchase licenses to go into the Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, home to animals whose habitats are disappearing already, where Even as sustainable energy sources become more viable. That insatiable quest for more, more, more instead of thankfulness for what we have. How can faithfulness spring up from the ground if the ground itself has been used and abused?

It can be difficult to find a way to repent when these kinds of sin are practically unavoidable for us. But there are ways for individuals to make a difference, to repent, try to turn around, and try to do something bigger also.

I heard last week about a group of Portuguese young people and children who are bringing a lawsuit against many of the countries of the European Union, saying a failure of governments to act on climate is putting their futures in jeopardy.

“They want European governments to ramp up their efforts to curb planet-heating emissions, arguing that failure to do so threatens their well-being.”[1]

The effort is meant to bring about change in policies. A broad repentance.

I don’t know what role their faith plays in this, but nevertheless I see in them an example of a searching for that justice, that righteousness that God desires. The right living that honors the earth and one another and where God meets us and blesses us with the true peace.

And though we may do it in different ways, we can all part of the right living that Psalm 85 and Isaiah and John the Baptist in Mark invite us to. Consider these questions today:

Where can your love be strengthened and more faithful, to not paper over offenses but address them with truth, then be forgiven with more steadfast love?

Where is the error of greed and selfishness real in your life, how can that be transformed into gratefulness and generosity?

How do we take advantage too much of God’s abundant blessing without considering how to provide for others, and how to let the Earth rest and replenish itself?

Where is justice lacking? Who is being discriminated against and whose cause are we not defending? May these questions lead to our turning around.

Listen again to the elegant invitation:

Love and faithfulness meet together;

Righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,

And righteousness looks down from heaven.

We are in the story. It began with Jesus, it continues, yes by the power of the Holy Spirit, in us. God is still at work bringing us good news that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, and the very Son of God. He has come to be among us, the heavens have bent down toward us in him. The story that began with Jesus lives among us and we are in the story now. May we live in faithfulness and prepare the way for God to come more swiftly, more surely, repenting of wrong and living out justice as Jesus leads us to that shalom, the wholeness of peace, Amen.