Make up your own mind. Do you believe in Jesus or not?

[Sermon preached on Advent 2 St Mary's Banbury]

How do you go about reading a new book?

Are you the kind of person who starts at the beginning and persists page-by-page right through to the end? Or perhaps you dip into the middle at random to get a feel as to whether it’s going to keep your attention? Or are you more like me – I will often just read the first chapter or introduction of a new book, and whether I read any further at all will depend entirely on whether the author has fully got my attention from the word go. In fact, if the first sentence isn’t good enough, I might not get further than that.

Mark’s gospel can be read in all these ways. It’s short enough to read the entire book in about half an hour. And if you’ve never done that, I do recommend it - just to get a feel of the speed and urgency with which Mark tells Jesus’ story. We often think of Jesus’ ministry lasting three years, yet in Mark’s gospel it could all have happened in just nine months.

Or you can dip into Mark at any point and get a glimpse of the Jesus story, although – like the disciples in Mark’s gospel – it may prove difficult to grasp Jesus’ entire message that way.

But what impression do we get if we just read the beginning?

Try to imagine that you know nothing else of Jesus’ story except this morning’s gospel reading: the first eight verses of Mark. Would that have been enough to keep you listening or reading?

Right at the beginning, in the very first sentence, Mark tells his hearers something really outrageous - Jesus is not just good news but the Son of God. Mark is under no illusion as to what he wants his hearers to think; the story of Jesus is the story of the Messiah.

Mark then goes on to spend the rest of the passage backing up this extraordinary claim, not by talking about Jesus, but by talking about his cousin, John the Baptist, as the one who points forwards towards Jesus.

I think we probably underestimate the importance of John. At this time of year, it is easy to think of him as little more than Jesus’ warm up act. Yet John is mentioned 90 times in the New Testament, exceeded only by Jesus, Paul and Peter. John is really significant in his own right.

Mark clearly thinks so for he places John firmly in the tradition of the prophets with multiple references to his prophetic identity – the location of John’s ministry in the wilderness; the way it attracted rural and city folk alike; the description of John’s clothing and diet.

And then there is the reference to John’s unwillingness to untie the sandals of the one who is coming after him – a clear reference to the most menial of tasks for the most junior of slaves.

Finally, John the Baptist compares his baptism of water with the baptism of the Holy Spirit that is to come.

By comparing John the Baptist with Jesus, Mark is making clear his belief about the uniqueness of Jesus’ identity. What we understand about Jesus is in the context of John’s prophetic identity and ministry of repentance. John is great, but Jesus is greater.

The clarity with which Mark begins his gospel is in stark contrast to later in the story when Mark describes the many times that the disciples simply didn’t understand who Jesus really was.

It’s as if Mark is saying to us – this is what I think, next I want you to listen to the story as it unfolds with all its tales of disbelief and deceit; and then, when it’s all over, make up your own mind. Do you believe in Jesus or not?

The relevance of that challenge for us today is just as great as it was for the first hearers of Mark’s gospel. And at this time of year, the challenge is greater than ever. We know – or think we know - the advent and Christmas stories so well it is easy to hear them without thinking about them at all.

This is why it is important to keep rehearsing the stories of our faith, year after year. Not only to ensure that more people have the chance to hear them for the first time, but so that we – for whom they are so familiar – might hear them afresh, as if we have never heard them before. Then the Holy Spirit can have room to breathe even more new life and energy into our faith.

This process of remembering is not just about our ability to recall stories accurately or understand the nuances of scripture more fully. It is about our willingness, our openness, to the possibility of entering into the story again, in the story of our own lives.

For the story of God’s relationship with his people, as revealed in scripture, exists to draw us into the living story of God’s relationship with each one of us today.

The Eucharist is perhaps the perfect example of this. Every time we remember and re-enact the story of the last supper, we pray that the presence of Christ will be made known to each one us again through bread and wine. This act of remembrance then takes on a dynamic life of its own as we are sent out in the power of the Holy Spirit to live and serve the Lord.

As we make our preparations for Christmas, let us pray that like John our lives can point towards Jesus, and that through us, others may be drawn into an awareness of the presence of God in their lives.

Amen.