"The Manger Is Empty"
(Mark 1:1-8)
Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn
Mark 1:1-8
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
INTRODUCTION:
In an old issue of Country Woman Magazine, a mother tells how her two year old daughter sang her own version of the hymn 'O Come All Ye Faithful.' She sang: "Sing choirs of angels . . . sing and expect raisins!"
This is the season of expectation isn't it? We all expect to celebrate Christmas. We expect Santa and presents. We expect the malls to be full of shoppers. We expect to be inundated with Christmas music, both good and bad. We expect to meet the Wise Men, Joseph and Mary, the reluctant innkeeper, hateful Herod, the Shepherds and Angels and even the baby Jesus.
This is the season of expectation. We expect our hearts to be warmed again and the protective walls we've built around ourselves to be torn down through the celebration of the birth of this baby who will grow to be our Savior.
We look into the manger with expectation at this time of the year. But the manger is empty. The Manger Is Empty because, in the timeline of Christmas, the Christ child hasn't been born yet. The manger is empty. also because, the Christ child hasn't been born in our hearts yet. And we won't really see the baby in the manger until that baby is born in our hearts. We expect it but it hasn't happened yet. This is the season of the "almost but not yet." It's "almost but not yet," Christmas. Jesus is "almost but not yet" born.
I. THE ALMOST BUT NOT YET:
A. Our dog, Midnight the Wonder Dog, is a half black Labrador retriever and half coon hound, which makes for a really strange combination. She was the runt of the litter, and wasn't supposed to get very big. Midnight was also supposed to be my wife's dog. That was our plan, but apparently not Midnight's. I have become the love of her life. She loves the rest of the family and wags her tail when they come home. But when I come home, she wiggles all over and can hardly contain herself. She's so excited to see me, it's almost embarrassing. Back when she was little, I taught her a great trick; I taught her how to run across the room and jump into my arms. It was funny and cute until she doubled and tripled in size and weight.
It's hard to be prepared when this dog suddenly appears in mid air. So, I had to teach Midnight WHEN to jump. And how to wait. Now, when I come home, Midnight waits. But you can see the excitement. She can hardly hold herself back. She trembles with anticipation and waits as patiently as possible. She knows she doesn't get to jump, until I tell her it's OK by saying the magic word "Boing." Then quick as a flash Midnight leaps into my arms and starts licking my face.
During the time preceding the "Boing." Midnight lives in that tension of the "almost but not yet;" that period of anticipatory excitement. You can see the anticipation ripple through her wiggles.
B. Haven't you ever felt that excited anticipatory tension? I remember it well, especially around Christmas. My folks had a rule that on Christmas morning we three boys couldn't go into the living room where the tree and all the presents were until they got up. So we lay on the floor in the hall. Our elbows on the imaginary line that separated the two. We stared and whispered and got more and more excited. We would wonder and tremble all over with anticipation, our eyes aglitter with hope and expectation.
That's the anticipation John the Baptist was trying to convey. The anticipation and excitement of the "almost but not yet" of the coming of Christ, the Messiah. That's the spirit of this season. And that was the Spirit of John the Baptist.
II. THE VOICE OF JOHN:
A. Into every Christmas comes John. John the Baptizer. John, the loud mouthed, boisterous weirdo of the New Testament. Disheveled hair, camel's hair shirt, skin baked dark from hours, days, weeks in the sun. Skin and clothes and attitude all making him seem half baked. And get a load of what he eats, locusts and wild honey. Where do you get that? You can't just pull up to the drive-in window and say: "I'll have the McGrassHopper meal with extra honey. And, oh yeah, can you super size that?"
One look and you're almost certain this guy's elevator doesn't go all the way to top. He's like that relative who gets invited to every family gathering. You really don't want him there, yet you can't have a gathering without him. It's the same with good old John the Baptist. We can't have Christmas without him.
Without John, we miss the true meaning of the birth of this baby. Yogi Berra once said, "The future ain't what it used to be." John is one of the characters from the future that makes the past of this event understandable. We fast forward to John every year so we don't miss the point. And although John's message seems too strident for Christmas, too confrontive for this season of love and good will, his message is the message God intended us to hear.
You see, John proclaims the Good News of repentance and what repentance will bring. His is a message of the "almost but not yet." His message defines the purpose of Christmas.
B. You see, the truth is that we all need to clean up our acts. Scripture tells us that "we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." It tells us we are sinners in need of forgiveness. We don't like that word sinner. We don't like that label. But that's what the Bible calls us. That's what John calls us. And that's why John makes us so uneasy.
Fred Craddock in his sermon, "Have You Ever Heard John Preach?" writes:
"What's frightening about listening to John preach is that he puts you in the presence of God. And that's what everybody wants, and that's what everybody doesn't want. Because the light at the altar is different from every other light in the world. In the dim lamps of this world, we can compare ourselves with each other, and all of us come off looking good. We convince ourselves that God grades on the curve, and what's the difference? We're all okay. And then you come in the presence of God, and you're at the altar, and it's all different. For if our hearts condemn us, think of this - - God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. There's no way to modulate the human voice to make a whine acceptable. The whining is over. The excusing is over. It's the school, it's the church, it's the board, it's the government. It isn't! All that's over. It just stops. Like waking from a dream of palaces and patios to find the roof leaks and the rent's due. Like shutting off the stereo, and you hear the rat gnawing in the wall. That's just the fact of it. In my mind, I serve God. But there's another force in my life, and I say, `I'm going to do that.' I don't do it. I say, `I'll never do that.' I do it. Crucified between the sky of what I intend and the earth of what I perform. That's the truth." (2) Boy he sure can weave words.
That truth is called sin. And there is only one cure. Repentance. That's why John's message, as nerve jangling as it is in the midst of our celebrations, is so important. That's why Jesus began his ministry with the very same message. If you read a little further in Mark, you will see that after being tempted in the wilderness, Jesus begins preaching and gathering his disciples and his very first message is "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand."
III. REPENT:
A. Jesus and John began with that message because they knew we all need a clean slate. And that's why Jesus came. God sent His Son, so that we could be forgiven. God sent His only Son to take away our sins. That's what this season is all about. Forgiveness and New Life. We celebrate the birth of Jesus because we know what it means, new life for us through His birth, His death and His resurrection. The cradle always stands in the shadow of the cross.
The Cradle And The Cross
His Cradle and His Cross
Together tell His story.
One of humble beginnings,
The other of His glory.
The Cradle has a shadow
O'er the babe within,
A Cross foretelling of His death
To save us from our sin.
The Cradle in humble beauty
Tells us of our worth.
The Cross in all its Glory,
Offers us New Birth.
The cradle is just the footstool.
The cross is really the throne.
And we wouldn't have needed either,
If we could do it on our own.
B. And we can't do it on our own. We can't save ourselves. That's why John is so important. We can't have Christmas without John. Because we can't have Christmas without repentance. Think about it like this. Our lives are sort of like a bag. We go through life accumulating stuff. Some of it is good stuff, like memories of the good times, love for our parents, for our kids. Those kinds of things.
But there are other things in there was well. Things like greed, envy, anger, lying, road rage, lust, self-centeredness, pettiness and guilt over all those things we know we shouldn't have done that we did and all those things we should have done but didn't.
A bag loaded like that gets pretty heavy. Not only that, when it's full, nothing else can be put into it. And the strange thing about sin and guilt is that they fill up the bag quickly. Oh, there is always room for more of them but there's never room for anything else.
And so you have to empty your sack, your bag of guilt and sin at the foot of the cross. It's only then that you can fill it with the gifts of God, the gifts of grace and forgiveness.
CONCLUSION:
A friend of mine, Michael Hodgin, owner and editor of Saratoga Press which publishes The Pastor's Story File and Parables, Etc. writes: "Here is a new twist on the phrase, "Do not open until Christmas!" There are some things that we should open before Christmas. We should open the following BEFORE Christmas: Our hearts to those in need. Our love to God who sent his only Son. Our pocket books to see God's work done. Our church doors as we walk through them. Our eyes to see a vision of what God wants to do." (3)
I would add, "Open your hearts to the forgiveness of God born at this season." Without that forgiveness, without allowing the Christ child to unburden our hearts and souls, the manger will remain empty for us. So, listen to John. Prepare your hearts for the birth of Christ. It's the season of expectation, the season of the "almost but not yet." In the midst of that "almost" experience the "now" of Christ by letting him be born in your heart.
Empty your sack this morning at the altar and the table. Be fed. And be forgiven. Then look into the manger.
This is the Word of the Lord for this day.
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Bibliography
1. Country Woman Magazine, November/December 1992, Lorna Unrau, Nipawin, Saskatchewan
2. Fred B. Craddock, "Have You Ever Heard John Preach?", A Chorus of Witnesses: Model Sermons for Today's Preacher, ed. Thomas G. Long & Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994), pp. 34-43.
3. The Pastor's Story File, (Platteville, Colorado: Saratoga Press), Dec. 98
Other References Consulted
Emphasis, Nov/Dec 1999, Sermon Prep Version. (CSS Publishing, Lima, OH)
Homiletics, Nov/Dec 1999, Volume 11, Number 5. (Communications Resources, Inc., Canton, OH)
Lectionary Homiletics, Volume XI, Number 1, December 1999, (Lectionary Homiletics, Inc. Midlothian, VA)
SermonWriter for 12/05/99. Copyright, Richard Niell Donovan, 1999
LectionAid (Software Version), Volume 7, Number 5, 1999 (LectionAid, Inc., Wichita, KS)
Sermon Mall: Dec. 1999, (www.SermonMall.com)