How many times have you started over, changed jobs, relationships, plans, only for the same emptiness to return a few months later? This sermon turns to the opening lines of Mark’s Gospel (Mark 1), where John the Baptist makes the paths straight and heaven opens over the Jordan. The beginning Jesus brings turns out not to be another impulse but a stage in a plan carried on for ages, and the real question is not so much what plan God has for me as what my place is in his plan. Listen if you need a fresh start that outlasts a resolution.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- Mark opens his Gospel with Isaiah's words about a voice crying in the wilderness. Why was it so important for the first Christians in Rome, where the emperor was called a son of god, that Jesus fulfills ancient promises?
- John the Baptist did not give people ready-made recipes but called them to repent and confess their sins. According to Mark 1:1-15, what does it mean to "prepare the way of the Lord" and make his paths straight?
- In which area of your life (relationships, work, wrong you have done) do you most long for a new beginning, and why have earlier attempts quickly lost their meaning?
- The speaker encouraged us to ask not what God's plan for me is, but what my place is in God's plan. How does that shift in perspective change your thinking?
- At Jesus' baptism the Father says, "You are my beloved Son". How does the story of Mirek Stępniak, who heard that Jesus loves him, help you understand what it means to be God's child?
- What baggage of old habits or sins do you want to hand over to God this week before stepping into something new, and how can you let the Holy Spirit lead you forward?
