Good News from the Beginning
“Good News from the Beginning”
Isaiah 40:1-11 Mark 1:1-8
Second Sunday of Advent, Year B, December 6, 2020
First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
Andy Kennaly, Pastor
Most spiritual teachers realize life is not static but is in process. The job of religion is to help people in this great unfolding. The work of spiritual teachers is to raise awareness that everyone is on a spiritual journey and as life goes along, and experiences are gained, people are invited to learn deeper wisdom as its revealed. This is not always easy, and a lot of time, it’s the struggle that reveals the most. Status-quo religion has largely failed in equipping people to trust the uncertainties of faith. Many Christians prefer certitude and clear pronouncements as people substitute the desire for safety and security in place of a dynamic faith that leans into uncertainties with trust. Religion at its best helps people through the dynamics of their context to learn and grow and become more loving as we live into the image of God we’re created to be.
There are levels of development at work, on the scale of the individual, entire cultures, and even on our species as a whole living as part of God’s larger creation.
Our adult Christian education class meeting online is discussing Spiral Dynamics as presented by Paul Smith in his book, “Integral Christianity, the Spirit’s Call to Evolve.” Different levels of development hold different views about God, Jesus, the Bible, Heaven, Hell, and what our calling in life reflects. Each stage on the spiral has certain values which are emphasized, and much of the conflict we see in the world is simply growing pains as these values rub up against each other, one level bumping up against another. Each stage has qualities worth affirming and carrying on, even as other views may need to be shed in order to grow and allow life to flourish in deeper, more connected ways. The problems created in one stage cannot be solved by the same mindset that created them, but from a higher level of development, solutions are found. In that sense, it’s important to keep growing, to work through the struggles, for the welfare of the entire creation depends on this.
Smith’s book goes chapter by chapter, reviewing Spiral Dynamics through the lens of the Tribal Stage, the Warrior mentality, a Traditional perspective, and then the Modern, and Post-Modern levels that all make up the first Tier of development. The second tier begins with the Integral level, and beyond Integral has yet to be revealed. The Christ Consciousness is found at all levels, at every stage, in every life.
Jesus is real, yet perceived in different ways, depending where on the spiral someone is coming from in their perspective. He says, “The tribal lens sees a magical wonder worker Jesus. The warrior lens perceives a vengeful Jesus. The traditional lens sees a suffering Jesus who died in our place on the cross to save us from God’s wrath. The modern lens sees a human (only human) Jesus who is a wise teacher. The postmodern lens sees an inclusive Jesus who embraces everyone, along with all of their various spiritual paths. The integral and beyond lens sees a mystical, reformer, prophetic Jesus who fully realized and manifested his divine identity. He includes the best of the preceding Jewish paths and transcends the no-longer-adequate elements.” (Paul Smith, Integral Christianity, Paragon House Pub., St. Paul, Minnesota, 2011, pg. 240).
Each part of the spiral influences your worldview, your image of God, and what you value. We keep hearing, for example, how polarized American society is. Through Spiral Dynamics as a model, we see this as the struggle between the Traditional level evolving toward the Modern and Postmodern levels, with a good dose of Warrior stage thrown into the mix. The traditional stage, for example, values stability, and Capitalism thrives through individual entrepreneurship, but its at the expense of institutional racism, wealth inequality, and environmental degradation. Modern stage begins to see the injustice in this, and Postmodern strives to have everyone equal, all on the same level. As you can see, riots in the street and social unrest are expressions the tension of society evolving and people struggle to push their values and views. When you add elements of Warrior stage, with might-makes-right and authoritarianism, things get pretty wild.
The people in Exile have also experienced life’s tragedies and Isaiah is offering a more traditional, stable view in his vision of God’s people living in peace. “Comfort, comfort, my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.” Isaiah offers a picture of wilderness, only all the dangerous elements are mitigated. What a relief to people deeply wounded and displaced! Rough places are smoothed, valleys are lifted, mountains brought low; all this happening so everything is all together, on one level, nothing is hidden, all are sharing in God’s presence in a way that everyone can see and know. Sounds like Isaiah’s transcending the pain of Warrior stage, sharing the comforting predictability of the Traditional stage, while also inviting the equality of the Modern/Postmodern perspective.
That’s where we pick up with John as presented in Mark’s Gospel message. Mark begins by echoing Isaiah’s wilderness prophecy. John the Baptizer is proclaiming “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” out into the wilderness, away from the systems that are not working for them. This opening scene also is like a formal passing of the baton, as we see John the Baptizer describe “The one who is more powerful than I coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” It’s as if John’s the summary of the first Tier of Spiral Dynamics, and Jesus introduces the second tier, which is a huge leap, even as he perfectly transcends and integrates all the previous stages and levels. He does not abolish the law, for example, but he fulfills it.
Mark doesn’t start the Gospel like Luke does, with the birth of Jesus. He’s not as refined as John, sharing about the Logos, the Word, in a high Christology echoing the creation story of Genesis. He tells it to us straight in Mark’s rather blunt fashion. “Beginning. Good news.” That’s the Greek. English adds more words, and some ancient manuscripts don’t even have “Son of God” written. Different scholars interpret the very first verse in different ways. Is the beginning referring to that section, that specific story about John the Baptizer, or is it an over-arching, big-picture kind of “beginning” like Genesis?
David Lose, Sr. Pastor of Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, MN, focuses on that word, Beginning, the origin, the start. “It’s the very first word Mark chooses.” David Lose says, “[Mark’s] not telling the whole of the story of God’s work in and through Jesus Christ. He’s telling just the beginning. […] Why? Because the implications of what God accomplished through Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection continue. The impact continues. God’s work is not yet done. The power of the Gospel continues…even right up to and including now!”
David Lose continues as he ties this in with Advent and Christmas, saying, “the Christmas story for which we are preparing to hear is not the end of our Advent celebrations or even its climax, but rather just the beginning. Mark’s opening invites a new hearing of the story of Jesus so that we can launch into another year of participating in God’s ongoing work to love and bless the world. [As the ministry of Jesus begins, we are called] to carry on and be vessels for God’s ongoing work to love and bless God’s people and the world.” He goes on to describe how we do this: through gestures of love. (David Lose, …in the Meantime preaching resource, Dear Partner, Advent 2 B, Beginnings, http://www.davidlose.net/2020/11/advent-2-b-beginnings/).
Friends, as we gather on this second Sunday of Advent, nothing is stationary. The candles are burning the wax. The morning clock is ticking, the season getting deeper into winter, and the planet is spinning. Our hearts are beating and by breathing, our lungs are taking in air. If you hear my voice, it’s because electronic communication is channeling electrons moving from one polarity to another. From atomic, micro levels, to the macro, cosmic view, every moment is a new beginning. No matter where we find ourselves on that dynamic spiral of evolving culture and faith development, breathing in the breath of God, every moment is a new creation, steeped in the goodness of redeeming Presence. Beginning. Good news. Beginning. Good news. Beginning. Good news. Carry on! Thanks be to God!