November 27th and Advent is already upon us. As I said at Church on Sunday, you’d think with all the ‘warning’ that comes into the inbox of a clergyperson advertizing this or that resource or product guaranteed to make Advent more meaningful this year,  I’d feel more ready than I do.  The world “out there” is also heralding the “Holiday Season” with its lights, tinsel, decorations, music, so why the unreadiness, and ambivalence?

This year one of my excuses is the Lectionary. Year B is particularly tough on the preacher who wants to tread gently and softly into the Advent Season. Unlike the years when we get to read Matthew or Luke, this year we have the Gospel of Mark. If you take a look at the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel, you’ll find no angels, no Mary and Joseph, no pregnant trip to Bethlehem, no Wise Men  or  field-abiding Shepherds. Instead we leap straight into the life and mission of the adult Jesus.  How do we do Advent without an infant Jesus?

But take another look at the very first verse of Mark again.

“The beginning of the Gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ, Son of God.”  It took my rather curmudgeonly New Testament Professor to make me (and my classmates) slow down enough to take notice of that verse. It seemed so… ordinary, unimaginative, formulaic, unecessary even… rather like saying “Okay, here we go” or “Once upon a time.”  But as my professor pointed out,  Mark never wastes a word for the rest of his Gospel, so why would he throw in something insignificant at the beginning?  Reading through Mark’s Gospel in a sitting (it’s not that long, possible over a grande latte, or a double double), you discover that’s true; it’s a lean, fast paced Gospel that has an even more startling ending….. (clue, the original ending is at 16:8a).  And both together help the reader to see what Mark is getting at.  The book he wrote about Jesus is just the beginning.  The “Good News of Jesus Christ” is still being lived out in those of us who are alive today.

Mark has a mighty strange way of launching us, headfirst into the deep end of Advent.  By simply telling us “This is the beginning”, and by implication, the rest is ours to tell.

On Mark’s beginning, welcome to Advent.

Last week I posted a quote from Henri Nouwen (see post below this one). I was preparing a sermon called “Blessed” in which I proposed a) that “Blessed” can simply mean “to be touched by God”, and God is most likely to be found among those who are in most need of God’s touch – the mourners, the lost, last, least, left behind.  And b) that the “Blesseds” in the Beatitudes were not values to aspire to;  after all, I said as an aside,”Who wishes to aspire to mourning?”

As a family we weren’t to know that 48 hours later, we would be the ones in mourning, reeling at the news of Norman’s father’s sudden death. In the hours since,  we have been “Blessed” – touched by God   through this Community of Faith at Cedar Park. Outpouring of condolences, cards, emails, hugs, cups of tea,tears for us, practical helpers offering rides to airports, marshalling helpers to pick up the worship responsibilities for Sunday so that I can be with Norman and the family for the funeral in Devon, UK.   I look at that quote from Nouwen, and I am so, so, deeply grateful that these are now no longer mere words on a page, but truths we are experiencing among you.  This is  what “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” means.  God touches us where we most need God’s touch, where our hearts are near breaking point. God’s healing touch is made tangible through the gift of community.

Thank you. I thank God for you.