(Dec. 4) Sunday Snippet

Mark 1:1-8

Repent:  A man with clothing made of camel’s hare and a leather belt around his waist who dines on locusts and wild honey, is preaching today, just days before Christmas.

Repent:  The frazzle haired freak proclaimed; now there’s an “advertising gimmick” you’ll never forget; there’s a “catch word” we don’t like to talk about.

In the Zen tradition of the far east is a concept about repentance that I would like to talk about, the idea is expressed in a story about a man who went to visit a great Zen master one day.  Master he said - teach me what I need to know to have a happy life.  I have studied the sacred scriptures, I have visited the greatest teachers in the land, but I have not found the answer, please - teach me the way.

At this point the Zen master served tea to his guest. He poured his visitor’s tea cup, full, and then kept on pouring and pouring until the tea started to run over the rim of the cup and across the table, yet still he poured; tea gushed off the table and across the floor, yet still he poured.  The man sat and watched this until he could no longer restrain himself.  “It’s over-full, stop, no more will go in” he cried out.

“Like this cup,” the Zen master said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations.  How can I show you the way unless you first empty your cup?”

Thus, in a similar kind of way, John the Baptist came to prepare the way of the Lord NOT by building a free-for-all freeway but by probing people to prepare the way by FIRST emptying their CUPS; reminding us all that if we are to have life more abundant, we must prepare by changing direction, by doing things differently, by freeing ourselves from ourselves.

Let us ALL, this Advent, take the time and make the effort to free ourselves from ourselves by emptying our cups.