2nd Peter 3: 8-15 (Common English Bible)
Mark 1: 1-8 (New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition)
I didn’t plan to open my sermon today about the alarming news concerning the current mindset of much of white American Christianity, but after reading the latest issue of the Presbyterian Outlook magazine, I felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to do so. Ministers are being criticized, condemned and attacked by their own church members for preaching the words of Jesus. I want that to sink in for a minute. A minister who preached about the Sermon on the Mount was chastised by church members by making Jesus look “too weak” especially the part about “turning the other cheek.” Would those same church members have the courage to have followed Jesus to the cross? I don’t think so! Now, I have to admit most of this negative attitude about Jesus’ teachings are coming from predominantly white churches, but not all of them, thank heavens.
What in the world is going on among many of these churches with their bellicose theology? They want a Jesus who is pro-war, pro-rich with a national flag wrapped around him. They want a Rambo Jesus, something the real Jesus never was! And believe it or not, some Christian stores sell this distorted symbol representing Jesus. I think that is blasphemous and disgusting! It is not surprising to me that many young people are leaving churches because they see so much hypocrisy within many. Young people might not know all the details of Jesus’ life, but they know Jesus stood for peace, love and justice and certainly not what they’re hearing from many pulpits, which is bigotry, hate and exclusiveness. Anyway, that issue of Presbyterian Outlook is in the pastor’s office for anyone to take room and read.
Mark, who wrote this gospel we’re reading, writes of a Jesus that is nothing like a Rambo Jesus that many churches seem to desire today. Mark lived during an era where he probably met many people who knew the real Jesus. Only 30-35 years had passed since the Resurrection. This was a period during the war between Rome and Judea, when Jerusalem was destroyed and its Temple nearly burned to the ground. No doubt Mark met Jewish survivors of that horrific war, when some were reduced to cannibalism to survive. Mark knew from the older people he met that Jesus was not a potential military conqueror or a conventional would-be king, but rather a prophet, healer, and teacher pointing to an even deeper form of liberation. For Mark, the first gospel writer, Jesus' primary mission was to heal, teach and ultimately to suffer, die, rise and redeem humankind, sending his students to proclaim the Good News, even to the entirety of all creation. For Mark, Jesus was part of the Living God and the true Messiah.
In Mark’s account of John the baptizer, one has to remember there had been no prophet in more than 300 years. Malachi had been the last one. John baptized people as a symbol of repentance. There were three primary ways to achieve wholeness with God. First, baptism by immersion was a Jewish practice associated with purification and possible initiation into the Jewish faith if you were a Gentile. Second, John the baptizer, viewed as a prophet, was seen as renewing Israel in the Jordan River as a parallel to Moses whose mission ended at the Jordan River. Moses, when he was near death, blessed Joshua as the new leader of the Israelites, to lead them across the Jordan River into the Promised Land.
Jesus, whose actual Aramaic birth-name was Yeshua, could also be translated as the Hebrew name, “Joshua” which means “Yahweh Saves.” Mark frames his gospel with John the baptizer being a new Moses and Jesus as the new Joshua.
Now John the baptizer was a mixture of past and present to the Jewish people in the 1st century. His mother and father were both descendants from the priestly line of Aaron, the brother of Moses. But John does not fit the mold of the priests of his era in 1st century Judea. He seemed to be more of a mystic instead. But John the baptizer felt the end of the present world was near, and everyone needed to repent.
The writer of Second Peter felt the end of the present world was solely on God’s time-table and not the human standards of time. But one thing about this epistle, since the earliest days of the church, from the great Bible scholar Origen in the 3rd century, Eusebius the first writer about the early church in the 4th century, Protestant Reformer John Calvin in the 16th and contemporary New Testament scholars today, they all agree the Apostle Peter did not write this epistle. The first epistle credited to Peter’s name, was written by that famous fisherman from Galilee, but the second one has a more refined and scholastic form of Greek that Peter never had. It was written in the very late 1st century when Peter was already dead.
But to me, that does not mean it is not inspired. Any book, fact or fiction, that brings you closer to God is inspired. In 1972 author Irving Wallace wrote a fictional book titled, “The Word,” that was very inspiring to me. It was one of the few fiction books that I’ve read several times. I really recommend that book. So to me, 2nd Peter is still an important book to read during Advent.
When this epistle was written during the end of the 1st century, many Christians were becoming skeptical about the return of Christ. This epistle was written to show that humans don’t really understand God’s divine clock. It operates in a different way. The writer was trying to say don’t give up hope. The Christ will come again. For many Christians of wealth and privilege, 2nd Peter offers an even more urgent need to get their house in order before the Day of the Lord. It is usually the poor who look forward to the return of Christ while the aristocrats tremble in fear because they don’t want their current world to end.
But why does God make us wait so long for the Second Coming? Why must creation groan as it continues to suffer through endless tornados, floods, droughts, wildfires, many of which are the faults of humans? And the same question, why is God waiting so long to end the violence in our workplaces, schools, communities and nations? In verse nine the writer insists, “God is patient toward you, wanting no one to perish, but all to change their hearts and minds.” The Message paraphrase of the Bible writes it this way, “God is restaining itself on account of you, holding back the End because God doesn’t want anyone lost.” The Christ waits to return because God wants everyone in God’s kindom.
One way to look at the Second Coming, is that God is not done in transforming the hearts and souls of the human species. But unfortunately, today our society creates its own gospels. The “prosperity gospel” which Jesus never preached, promises material blessings, the consumer gospel promises healing and wholeness through shopping, consumption and the possession of material products. And the feel-good gospel promises escape from the pressure of the contemporary world through entertainment and sports. And it seems that Taylor Swift has become a new Messiah for many people. Good Grief! Then there is the true gospel, the gospel of Jesus the Christ, who promises wholeness and eternal life. Gold and silver will not last forever, but the spoken Word of the Christ is eternal.
Christ is coming again, in whatever form, I don’t know. The first Advent was when the Christ incarnated itself as a newborn infant, the child of two Jewish peasants. When the Christ comes again, the event will set all creation as it should be and create an inward peace for all people. But in the meantime let us seek to give the small signs of the greater things to come. Imagine an appetizer before the feast.
Paul Tillich, one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century described the Second Coming in his book, “The Shaking of the Foundations.” Tillich wrote, “Our time is a time of waiting; waiting is its special destiny. Everytime is a time of waiting, waiting for the breaking in of eternity. All times run forward. All time, both history and in personal life, is expectation. Time itself is waiting, waiting not for another time, but that which is eternal.”
When Mark began writing his gospel, war was raging in Israel between Jew and Roman. And 2,000 years later war is raging again in the Middle East with weapons of war the Romans and Jews could only dream of in their nightmares. God wants his creation to be peacemakers between people and nations. War is not the answer, only a failure. Advent is the season to pray for God’s peace and justice. You cannot have one without the other. Let us pray for God’s peace to end this current war and others.
AMEN
