Marco Polo

This last Sunday's sermon was on the gospel lesson: Matthew 3:1-12, John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus.  


Enjoy!

Marco…..polo

Marco….polo

Marco…polo

Many of us have played this game as children, often in a pool or at the beach. One person closes their eyes and has to find the others by calling out Marco and the others respond Polo.

And we all have probably at some point cheated a little while playing Marco Polo. Not responding when the person who is the seeker is right next to us. But without the call and response, this game is pointless. We would never be able to find someone who is able to run from us while we are blind unless we call out to them and they respond.

A recent new item I heard was that all people, not most, but all people, can not walk in a straight line with their eyes closed. We are good for a few feet but then we start veering off and eventually we are walking in circles. Without something to look at, something we can keep our eyes on we are not able to walk straight. With our eyes shut and someone calling to us, we walk a little straighter but still we are not much better.

In today’s gospel John is calling on his followers to repent. Repentance doesn’t mean admitting to what you have done wrong and doing good works in order to make up for those wrongs – that is confession. Admitting you did wrong does not always mean that you are going to change in order not to do those wrongs again. When we confess what we have done wrong we often say “I’m sorry.” Saying you are sorry are I can statements: “I can do better.” “I can be more pleasing to God.” But often those I statements: I can do better, I’m sorry, fall short. We continue to do wrong, we continue to sin against God and others.

So instead of confession, John is calling people to repent. Repentance is asking God to turn towards us. It is saying “I can’t” “I can’t do better on my own.” “I can’t do it myself” But God, you can! God can raise me to new life. God can make me turn from my sins. God can raise me to new life. Repentance is turning towards God and relying on God to help us when we admit that we cannot help ourselves.

John was calling for his followers to repent because Jesus was coming. John was calling for his followers to turn towards God, to seek Jesus, to allow Jesus to change them, mold them, transform them. John was calling his followers to say “I can’t but God can.”

And we too need to turn towards God, to seek Jesus, to allow Jesus to change us, mold us, transform us. We need to say daily “I can’t but God can.” We need to admit that we cannot make ourselves any better than who we already are. That we are riddled with sin. That we are unable to help ourselves. That we are not able to walk the straight line towards Jesus when we are blinded by sin. That we are not able to find Jesus without first calling out to him.

But Jesus is coming. Jesus came and separated the wheat from the chaff, the good from the bad. But not the good people from the bad people so that they do not interact but the good parts and bad parts of each person. The sin from the grace that lives in each of us. The good things that we do from the wrong that we cause. The “I can” from the “I can’t”. Jesus takes the sin, the bad, from us and drowns in the waters of baptism and raises us up in new life filled with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus calls us each by name before we are ever able to first call out to him. Jesus isn’t playing Marco Polo with us, keeping us blind and constantly moving and not responding when we get close. No Jesus is responding, Polo, before we get the chance to call out Marco. And Jesus comes and opens our eyes so that we can see and walk a straight line, but even better than that Jesus is taking us by hand so that even if we decide to close our eyes to him again he is still leading us.

Jesus allows us to walk the straight line because we cannot on our own. Jesus is the one who makes his path straight and then he calls us by name and helps lead us towards God.