Sermons

     You learn something new every day; that’s just about the truth for me, as was the case this week when I read about the anechoic chamber. It’s a sound-absorbent room in which the background noise is measured in negative decibels. At one such place, a person can pay $600 an hour to be alone in the chamber. (Why someone would do so, I don’t know.)

     Evidently there is an unsettling disorientation when the door is closed and the lights go out. There’s no air pressure on the ear drums due to the lack of an echo, and that messes with one’s balance, which makes it necessary to sit down. It’s possible to hear one’s own heart beating, blood flowing, bones grinding, thoughts reverberating and regrets pounding, and it does most people in. Few visitors last more than 20 minutes. (1)

     It’s true that most of us are not too keen to get that in touch with ourselves, so we’ll save our $600, and yet that’s what’s happening in the wilderness as the Gospel of Mark begins. There’s no prelude in Mark, the reader is given the title, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Then the author quotes an Old Testament prophet named Isaiah and introduces John the Baptist as the one preparing the way for Jesus by proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. There is no reference to the birth of Jesus or poetic introduction describing Jesus’ heavenly origin, as is the case in the other Gospels.

     Something new is beginning in Mark’s account, and it’s beginning right now. The crowds are making their way into the wilderness, drawn by this camel-hair-wearing, bug-eating prophet. WHY? As editor Peter W. Marty notes, they took the initiative. John did not come to them to dwell in their midst and inhabit their lives, as Jesus did. They had to go to him; something about him drew them in.

     Perhaps John’s baptism attracted people because it promised the three “r’s” of return, repentance and rededication, an opportunity to look within, yes, but also to do something then and there. Maybe they wanted an opportunity to change their lives in a moment. That way, they could return home with a new commitment to their faith, free of the burden of sin, prepared to welcome the Messiah. (And, they didn’t have to find an anechoic chamber where they could get in touch with themselves to make it happen.)

     As commentator Chelsey Harmon notes, “John’s baptism of repentance invited people to recommit themselves to a life lived as God’s chosen people in a promised land flowing with goodness. It relied on God’s promise that sins repented of are truly forgiven and that repentance is an act or preparing to encounter God. The people were hungry, they sensed something important here that they needed to be a part of, they were hopeful as they committed themselves to John’s baptism. (2)

      What might recommitting ourselves to lives lived as God’s children look like? Pastor John Beehler writes that the passage reminds him of a scene from the movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” In it, the three escaped convicts come across a group of people dressed in white, singing as they move mysteriously through the woods towards the river. They follow and find the people lining up to be baptized and two of them rush into the water to be baptized. The first exclaims as he emerges from the water that the minister had told him that all his sins had been washed away. Even, he says, when he stole the pig for which he had been convicted. One of his cohorts said, “Hey, you said you were innocent of that.” “I lied”, said the newly baptized convict, “and that’s been washed away too!” He shows a reformed character afterwards, including when leaves money for the apple pie that his friends steal from a windowsill. (3)

     Well, I don’t suppose that story is our story, but during Advent it’s important that we pause and consider that the primary reason the one whose birth we are preparing to celebrate came was to free the world from its bondage to sin. This can be a time of return, repentance and rededication for us too IF we pause long enough in the holiday preparations to allow that to happen.

     Many of you remember more than 35 years ago when, in the church, the color for Advent was purple, which also is true of Lent. Both seasons were seen as times to repent, to be renewed spiritually and to strengthen one’s faith. The color changed when the lectionary was redone so that the focus is more on hope, symbolized by blue.

     It’s interesting, though, that the themes are not mutually exclusive. That’s because repentance can be a source of hope and also true peace, which is today’s theme. There’s an Advent hymn that I love, but that we do not often sing. It’s #241 in the ELW, “O Lord, How Shall I Meet You.”  The first and the fourth verses are my favorites:

     “O Lord, how shall I meet you; how welcome you aright? Your people long to greet you, my hope, my heart’s delight. Oh, kindle, Lord most holy, your lamp within my breast to do in spirit lowly all that may please you best.” Is that on our minds today … how to best meet Jesus as we celebrate his birth? Are we considering how to do that which pleases him best? Or, are we thinking about – as I have been this week – what Christmas decorations I’ll put up and when I’ll do it.

     Then there’s verse 4, “Rejoice, then, you sad hearted, who sit in deepest gloom, who mourn your joys departed and tremble at your doom. All hail the Lord’s appearing! O glorious Sun, now come, send forth your beams so cheering and guide us safely home.” As we prepare to celebrate his first advent, are we also actively waiting for Jesus’ return, his second Advent, when the world is recreated and there is no further doom or gloom?

     I encourage you this Advent to save the $600 for the soundless chamber that will get you too in touch with yourself. Instead, during Holy Communion, pause a moment longer than usual. Consider how you are meeting Jesus, who is present in the bread and the wine, even as we prepare to celebrate his first and anticipate his second arrival. Receive forgiveness in the here and now, and like the people going out to John the Baptist, return to your homes with new- found commitment and the freedom of forgiveness. Be filled, my friends, with hope and peace. AMEN

1. “The Eerie Call of John the Baptist” by Peter W. Marty, The Christian Century, December 2023, pg. 1

2. “Mark 1:1-8 Commentary” by Chelsey Harmon, December 10, 2023, www.cepreaching.org

3. “What’s Wrong with Avis” by John Beehler, Jan. 10, 2003, www.sermoncentral.com