Isaiah 40:1-11
2 Peter 3:8-15
Mark 1:1-8
Dear All
I hope you are well.
We had a lovely service this morning continuing our Advent worship. The theme this morning was “waiting” Fraser preached about the prophets and Mark, the gospel writer, in the context of this theme. He spoke great words of wisdom and encouragement which we all appreciated. We also very much appreciated Gail’s musical input, both her singing and recordings – not to mention, of course, the organist’s playing.
This Saturday 12th December 11am we plan a Zoom coffee morning for all the congregation. I will send out an invitation nearer the time. Please do join in, if you can.
Have a good week
Ax
Text from Fraser’s sermon.
‘The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God..’
Mark’s is the earliest Gospel, the shortest and the easiest to read. As a young man he had witnessed or taken part in some of the events he described, and had been on some of the early missionary journeys. He writes with a vivid sense of urgency, wanting to jolt his readers into following the whole story. We may have read or heard readings from Mark Chapter 1 so often that we miss the point of the urgency.
Straight away we have the prophecy of Isaiah which we read this morning quoted –‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord .’ John the Baptist was recognised by the crowds he gathered as the one who would prepare the way for the long awaited Messiah. When John was born, his father said ‘You my child will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord, to prepare the way for him.’
Mark picked this up straight away, and in his first chapter he has the ministry of John, the baptism of Jesus, the voice of God from heaven, Jesus going to the wilderness to pray, and to deal with temptation, the call of the disciples, and the start of his preaching and healing ministry. Crowds flocking to him, many miracles of various complaints. Not a long chapter, but racy and compelling.
All this emphasised that what prophets had long foretold was now a reality. We often think of the prophets in their role of warning leaders about their selfish exploitation of the poor, dangerous foreign policies and the likely outcome of their actions, but interspersed, there was a looking forward to God’s love and will for the people to come to fruition. Zechariah cut his down to essentials; ‘Assyria’s pride will be cut down and Egypt’s sceptre will pass away. I will strengthen them in the Lord, and in His name they will walk.’ (Zech 10:12) ‘Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion, shout, daughter of Jerusalem! See, youfr king comes to you.’ (Zech 9:9)
Malachi wrote; ’See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.’ (Malachi 3:1)
Jesus’ ministry was foretold as well, especially in Isaiah : ‘He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.’ (53:4) Also:’He hath sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind.’ (61:1) etc.
These prophecies go back many years, some for about 700 years before Jesus was born, so generation after generation had been yearning and waiting for what Mark had suddenly been part of. No wonder he was so excited and so keen to communicate his story.
How had the generations been able to cope with the waiting? Isaiah had advice here ,in Chapter 30 he wrote ‘In quietness and in confidence be your strength.’ The more modern translations put ‘Trust’ rather than ‘Confidence’, and I would think that ‘Patience’ would be close to the sense of ‘Quietness’.
We ourselves new look back on these events and records, so we are like the first generation Christians, who await whatever may come next. In the Epistle of James, the advice was given: ‘Be patient beloved, until the coming of the Lord….’ The example of patience he gives is that of Job in his sufferings.
We would normally be looking forward to happhy gatherings at this time of year, and we have had to wait long for the coming again of the Messiah and a more godly rule on earth, but in addition we wait for freedom from the threat of a pandemic. What can we glean?
PATIENCE TRUST.