I don’t know how long it’s been since you played “Hide and Seek,” but I bet you remember what the seeker announces after hiding his face and counting to ten and before he begins to look for his hidden friends. He says: “Ready or not, HERE I COME!”
That’s the message God delivers through John the baptizer who is introduced to us in our Gospel reading today. John was the mouthpiece God used to announce the coming of Christ. I think it’s ironic that when the angel told John’s father Zechariah that he and his wife were going to have a baby, Zechariah was rendered speechless until John was born. Because that child, when he is all grown up, goes out to the wilderness to preach – loudly – for all those around to hear. It’s like he is overcompensating for his father’s time of silence. And he must have had a powerful speaking voice because we are told that “people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him.”
But John’s message was: “One more powerful than I is coming.” His message is really an echo of the message God sent out through Isaiah hundreds of years before –
3A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
9Get you up to a high mountain,
lift up your voice with strength,
say: “Here is your God!”
10See, the Lord GOD comes with might,
Together Isaiah and John make a big, loud announcement to God’s people today:
“Your God is coming! Prepare the way! Ready or not – here he comes!”
God is coming – that is fantastic news! Right? I think so, but . . . consider how it feels when you hear your in-laws are coming to visit . . . or the grandparents are coming . . . or overnight friends are coming . . . You might think for a brief minute: YAY! They’re coming! But then, especially if you are a responsible host, you immediately begin to have another reaction. “They’re coming . . . . here! That means I have to clean the house. I have to prepare meals. I have to get beds ready.” Very quickly the good news of someone coming turns sour.
God is coming! YAY! But get things ready? Straighten up the rough places? God is coming here? To me? We don’t feel prepared and our house – our heart — is not in order. And that makes us have the opposite reaction of welcoming him. It makes us want to hide . . .
We play hide and seek with God . . . and it’s no game.
behind our righteous exteriors . . .
behind walls of doubt and unbelief
We hide alone in little corners of loss and pain
We hide underneath burdens of guilt and shame
We hide because we feel more certain of things when we are in control; when we wallow in our familiar mess.
So perhaps we wish John would leave us alone . . . mind his own business and let us sit in our own little hiding places. We don’t want hear what he has to say. Let God stay where he is. I’ll stay where I am and I can admire him and worship him from a distance.
But the announcement of God’s coming IS good news. Neither Isaiah, nor John, intended to say, “God will come to those who are ready; those who are not, will be left out.” God does not say, “Tell the people I’m on the way and when they have completed all their preparations, and when they are totally and certifiably and unequivocally ready, THEN I will come to them.” No. The emphasis of the message is simply that God is coming. Ready or not.
The voice of God announcing his coming sounds almost like a wounded lover. He is desperate to come: “I will come to my people, and nothing will keep me from them. Mountains will be torn down, valleys will be filled in, rough places made smooth — whatever it takes!” It is hard not to think of the old Diana Ross song, “Ain’t no mountain high enough – ain’t no river wide enough – ain’t no valley low enough to keep God away from you!”
See, God is coming to us! This is fantastic news! So, what can we do to get ready? Confess your sins, John suggests. Get baptized. Repent. Those are good and faithful responses to the announcement. But later, it’s Jesus who adds the most important preparation: “believe the good news!”
Today’s Gospel is from the Gospel of Mark. Mark was the first one to write down an account of the life of Christ. We’ll be hearing mostly from the Gospel of Mark for the next year in our Gospel readings. The first words of his Gospel were probably intended as a title. “The beginning of the good news of Jesus.” Before Mark set out to write his “Gospel” no one had written one before. So here in verse 1, he just invented the word and the genre! Gospel!! And in Jesus the good news of God’s coming becomes reality.
In telling us about Jesus, Mark is showing us a the beginning of a new way, a new path, a new life based not on what we do or don’t do, not on our readiness or preparation, but based on what God has prepared and made ready in Jesus. Mark wants us to know that God is ready and willing to come and rule in our hearts and lives with his love. It was Jesus himself who announced by his life and death just how strong and deep this love is. He comes to visit us with this love . . . ready or not.
The funny thing about playing hide and seek is that the hiding part is not that much fun. If you were to ask a group of kids, “Do you want to sit somewhere all by yourself and keep very quiet and still for a long time?” you will not get many takers. And if they do it, they’ll last about a minute before they will have to go the bathroom. What’s fun about “Hide-and-Seek” – what brings the smiles and the laughter and the joy is not hiding, but getting found. Everybody likes to be found.
Today God is coming. When Isaiah and John announce: “Prepare the way of the Lord” it is like they are saying: “God is coming . . . ready or not. He is “it”. He is the loving seeker and no detours or mountains or valleys – no height or depth – nothing in heaven or earth — will stop him.
Today is the beginning of good news for us. Because today Jesus is coming . . . ready or not . . . and today – wherever you are hiding – he sees you and he will find you.
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