Just the Beginning - Sermon for the First Sunday of Christmas - Narratve Lectionary 2

Just the Beginning

Christmas 1A-NL 2

December 31, 2023

Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN

Mark 1.1-20

On a day when the Vikings play the Packers, I hate to begin the sermon with a story about legendary Green Bay Coach Vince Lombardi, but it’s a good one. In July 1961 at the beginning of training camp, Lombardi decided that  would begin each season by taking his team back to the fundamentals. He began doing that because his Packers fell short in the previous season’s title game and he didn’t want that to happen again. So, he addressed the assembled training camp players by holding aloft a ball declaring, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” (By the way, one of the players, probably Paul Hornung, quipped, “Can you slow down Coach? You’re going too fast.”) 

It worked, because that year they won the title and Lombardi never lost a playoff game again.

In today’s Gospel reading we hear that this is “the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, Son of God.” Last September we have been working our way through the Old Testament up to the story of Jesus’ birth. Today’s reading begins our trip through Mark’s Gospel from now to Easter and there are things it would be helpful for you to know about Mark. For instance, Mark was probably the first Gospel written and most likely the basis for Gospels Matthew and Luke. (John is a whole other matter, different from all three.) Also, you can see by today’s lesson that Mark moves fast, hardly pausing for a breath. Jesus is always “on the way” somewhere and things happen “immediately.” Mark can’t be bothered with endless genealogies, angels, shepherds, foreign wisemen, or histories. Finally, though the reader is told that Jesus is God’s Son, his followers are often clueless as to who Jesus is. Others seem to know, but not his disciples.

So, although Mark seems in an all-fired hurry, thought it would be helpful to linger a moment over that first and fundamental sentence, “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” What does Mark mean by “the beginning of the Good News?” One possibility comes from one theologian’s description of a Gospel as “a passion narrative with an extended introduction.” In other words, this is prelude to the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Perhaps Mark is rushing us ahead to the “good stuff” that’s really important in his mind.

But I think a clue to another reason for Mark’s claim that this is the beginning comes in the ending. After the women encountered the empty tomb, they fled in terror, and “said nothing to nobody, for they were afraid.” Mark’s Gospel ends abruptly, so much so that later writers felt the need to add not one but two separate endings. But I think it was Mark’s intention to end that way, that the Gospel was meant to be open-ended. In other words, the good news of Jesus Christ is just beginning, with the story continuing to be written in our lives.

One privilege of being an interim pastor is to hear the stories of how God has worked and is working in the congregations I’m serving. And I also am privileged to hear how peoples’ personal stories intersect those of the congregation. In both instances I hear also how God has been present in, with, and through those stories. At Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, I’ve been astounded how every difficulty and setback – and there have been several, serious ones – has not been seen as an ending but rather as a new beginning of ministry. You haven’t taken those difficult and even traumatic events lightly, but they haven’t finished you either.

I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions nor do I typically look at January 1st as starting over. But perhaps just this once I can make an exception. Let’s go back to the basics. To do so, I invite us to take the time to think about what beginning God has in store for Our Savior’s Lutheran Church this next year after a very challenging last year. Can you be open to what is unfolding in God’s kingdom? Let’s ask ourselves, “What is God up to at Our Savior’s and what does God want to do?” I don’t know the answer to that but I do know that we can figure it out together. Meanwhile, know that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, crucified and risen, continues to work. So, Happy New Year! Amen.

My sermons don't always preach as they are written. For video of the sermon with the entire service, click here.