Year B
Mark 1:9-15
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
Journey Through The Desert
This past Wednesday, on Ash Wednesday, the church began a 40 day period, excluding Sunday’s, of preparation for Holy Week and Easter. The common prevailing view of Lent is a time of intense personal discipline and serious repentance. Yet, it has not always been so. In the early church, the forty days of Lent were used as preparation for new converts of the faith to receive Holy Baptism. While not neglecting the penitential aspects of the season, Lent has been a time that calls us to seek to learn God’s ways and God’s paths. As the psalmist so beautifully states today; it is a time we lift up our very souls to God—everything we are—trusting that this is the road to new life in Christ.
Daniel T. Benedict, Jr. in his book Come to the Waters calls us to celebrate this time during Lent and particularly on this first Sunday. He writes, “During these Sundays, Jesus is no slumping cross bearer. He is the one about whom every hearer must make a fresh assessment and response. This is not a season to focus on ourselves and our efforts; it is a season of journey in the company of One, Jesus, who is a mystery and a sign of God for us. Trust the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit he says, to work conversion in the people.” If we listen carefully to these words of Daniel Benedict, we just might hear First Peter say a rousing “Amen!”
There is a sense of urgency today in First Peter’s words to the church. A world-changing event, the death and resurrection of Jesus had occurred some years earlier. The church was experiencing persecution. It was now time for the people to respond with faith, to be converted, to be baptized, and to accept the complete authority of Christ in their lives. First Peter encouraged the people to face opposition with their eyes on Jesus; “to turn to Jesus the author and perfecter of their faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame.” Christ endured suffering “in order to bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” so that we will not grow weary and lose heart but put our trust in Jesus.
Some of the same compelling reasons for urgent action then, are still relevant today. We can no longer assume that the culture has helped or is helping people in any way have any significant contact with Christian values and traditions. More and more people are searching for meaning, love, and belonging. I’m sure we can agree that many people today are drowning in sin and have a desperate need to know and trust God, to be made alive in the spirit. And we hear Jesus say, “Now is the time”. “The kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the good news.” To repent means to turn around and move in the opposite direction, to change our hearts and lives
God’s covenant with Noah reminds us of God’s steadfast love and mercy, but it doesn’t restore us to God’s peace. As in the days of Noah, we are crying out for deliverance and Jesus declares, “Now is the time!” God, who waited patiently in Noah’s day, may well be waiting for us to become more receptive to the Holy Spirit’s leading, to be willing to take our baptism seriously. In our baptism, we declare our allegiance to the kingdom where God is the ruler. Baptism, First Peter says, is “the mark of a good conscience toward God.” It is a decision to live our lives in the way of Jesus. It is our vocation for life.
In order to prepare for his vocation, Jesus first presents himself to his cousin John at the River Jordan. John the Baptist sets the stage by calling people to a life of repentance and confession of sin. Jesus enters the water, symbolically walking alongside of us in our life of sin. This moment of his baptism confirms for us who he is, God’s Son, and what he does. This decisive event set the direction for the rest of his life. Jesus was then emotionally and spiritually equipped for the testing that followed immediately. Mark begins his gospel by making it clear that Jesus Christ is the one we have been waiting for.
God has patiently loved us and laid the foundation for the good news of salvation. The moment has finally arrived. Through Jesus Christ, we become sons and daughters of God. Through the waters of baptism, we, too, hear the voice calling out: in you, I have found happiness. You are mine. But our faith journey does not stop at baptism or is the end of this journey. For Jesus, as soon as he hears the voice of God, the Spirit of God sends him out into the wilderness where for forty days and forty nights he is tempted. The wild beasts surround him and the angels take care of him.
Marks account of the wilderness is not a long tale of temptations, but a few words about faithfulness. In this story, we discover what it means to remain faithful to God. Jesus fully depends upon the father. We too, are invited during these 40 days of Lent to place our lives, our time, our energy and our resources in God’s hands. The Lenten wilderness invites us to let go of our resistance and whatever keeps us from loving God with our whole heart, mind and body. We can give up control because we see in this story, and throughout the scriptures, that we can trust our Lord to provide. Our faith depends upon the actions of God who freely offers grace, forgiveness, and salvation.
“The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.” Jesus is ready to open the kingdom to us. He went to the cross to bring us salvation. When we truly repent, when we truly turn our lives around and place our whole selves into God’s hands, we throw the resistor out. In the waters of baptism, we die to our old selves and are made alive by the Spirit. And with that power, God gives us everything we need to make this Lenten journey with our Lord. The Sunday’s in Lent call us to consider our lives as a journey with Christ away from the desert. The urgency that First Peter communicates is our strength for the journey.
Today, we begin a new journey that will take us to Pentecost, and even then will not end. Today we take up life itself, under the sign and in the hope of God’s covenant and everlasting love for the world. The Lord guides the humble to justice—this is what Lent is all about—with symbols: on Wednesday, ashes; throughout Lent, the waters of baptism; the bow in the clouds; the dust formed in God’s likeness and alive with God’s breath; the Father who withholds nothing, not even an only child; the flood as water that destroys evil and brings us to life; ourselves, the church, as the sign of God’s presence.
Lent is our acknowledgement that all people are meant to be God’s image and likeness in the world, to make visible in words and deeds God concern and love for all living creatures. There is no better time than now. Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news. It is time we lift up our very souls to God—everything we are—trusting that this is the road to new life in Christ. So let us celebrate today as we begin this journey, “through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come.”