December 4, 2005 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Isaiah 40: 1-5,9-11 + 2 Peter 3: 8-14 + Mark 1: 1-8
As each of the four gospels opens, we get a clue to the theme and the focus of that Gospel. Matthew opens with a genealogy that puts Abraham and David before us as a defining moment in history. Luke opens with assurances of “the truth” to be found in Jesus. John begins with a prologue expressing the divine incarnation with the Word Made Flesh. Mark, in his opening verses speaks of Elijah, quotes Second Isaiah, and describes John the Baptist in physical terms that leaves no doubt for those who recognize the characteristics that Elijah is back: that prophet who would lead and announce the return to the promised land.
That journey back to the Promised Land – back to the garden – back to the perfect and peaceful relationship with God has begun. Mark’s Gospel announces that this journey has begun, and that God is leading the way “Comfort” is the imperative that has broken the silence today. This weekend, “Comfort” is the first Word God has spoken in this assembly. It’s an offer for some that seems empty and foolish.
When you’re hungry or homeless, you can’t eat “comfort” or sleep in it. Yet comfort seems like something we should offer to others, and we are anxious to do so. But these words are not spoken to someone else. They are spoken here.
They are spoken to us, and they are hard to appreciate in this community. They are hard to appreciate when we are already comfortable in our lives. It’s curious and worth wondering about what happens when Comfort is proclaimed to the comfortable. It is worth wondering about what this means to a people who are not needing or hoping for comfort. It could suggest that comfort is being sought and found in something else. If so, there is danger here – and so the warning is raised. “Straighten up and look ahead.”
Pope John XXIII once wrote brilliantly about the coming of God’s reign. He claimed that when truth, charity, freedom and justice are lived, the reign of God is at hand. This journey we have been invited to begin is like every other journey we make. We have to move on from where we are. We have to choose what to take and what to leave behind. Mark would have us see life in this world as that journey. A journey that unsettles us, a journey that cannot be made with crooked ways, twists and turns. The comfortable may be reluctant to pack up and move on, and if so, they will be left behind with no place to go. If good Pope John is right, we can only make this journey successfully if we walk in the way of Truth. It is the truth about God’s love, the truth that because God has loved us all, we are all loveable. It is also the truth about sin, the truth that we are not captive and trapped in sinful ways, but graced and loved and forgiven; and we ought to live that way. If good Pope John is right, we can only make this journey successfully if we walk in the way of charity. This has nothing to do with good feelings, this kind of charity. It is not about the nice, but about the nasty. It is an embrace of the unlovely, the tiresome, and the bitter with patience and kindness. If good Pope John is right, we can only make this journey successfully if we walk in the way of freedom. Gospel freedom is always about choices, and often about a choice between the easy way and the right way. If good Pope John is right, we can only make this journey successfully if we walk in the way of justice.
Peter speaks of it in the second reading today: it’s about right relationships. It is the fourth dimension of God’s Kingdom: Justice. It is found and it rests upon dignity and respect. Poverty and helplessness are not found where God lives among His people. No one rests, and no one is comfortable when there is anyone with no share in the generous gifts of God’s creation. The Journey has already begun. We need to catch up and keep up.