Invocation & Lord's Prayer: Michael Holladay Gloria Patri Ministry of Hospitality Ministry of Outreach: Week of Compassion Organ Interlude The Lenten Vigil: Call to Prayer and Lighting Candle: Tom Lyda Silent Meditation and Morning Prayer Choral Amen Hymn of Lent *Forty Days and Forty Nights* Witness of Scripture: Mark 1: 12-13 Anthem *For the Righteous Shall Be Remembered* Vivaldi. Chancel Choir Sermon *What Sustains?* David Spain
Recorded on February 20 , 2024
The church enters the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday, the initiation of a 40-day period for reflection, honesty, confession, transformation. The model for that 40-day period is taken from the gospel stories of Jesus’ own sojourn in the wilderness. Still dripping from his baptism in the Jordan and reveling in God’s claim on his life, Jesus does not go to a coronation ball but heads to the empty wilderness where he discovers more there than emptiness.Even Mark’s sparest of details about this 40-day period in Jesus’ life confirms he is not alone. For those who are disciples of Jesus, Lent is an opportunity to join Jesus in that wilderness facing whatever it is that would be good for us to face even as Jesus faced whatever it was he needed to see.
Lent is an opportune time to ask questions about our living, an important opportunity to see if what we do with our living comes close to what we say about our living.We recognize in a culture of image and presentation that honest reflection is in fact counter-cultural, which is why Lent is a critical time of year, gifting us with the opportunity to bring the many circles of our living closer together. Do our lives resemble the interlocking circles of the Olympic rings as life feels orderly and held together; do our lives feel like a chaotic mass of circles clanging off each other; or are the circles of our lives lined up and concentric? It may well depend on what day that question is asked, since for most of us life is some mix of all three pictures.
It is with an inquisitive spirit that the sermons in Lent will invite us to ask certain questions about our lives. What endures we shall ask next week, then what possesses after that; what for and then what next will be asked the following two Sundays; and then come Palm Sunday as Jesus enters Jerusalem, we shall ask what triumph? Frederick Buechner once said that to hear ourselves respond to questions is to discover both who we are becoming and who we are failing to become, and both discoveries are important for the life of faith. Today, as we begin the Lenten sojourn, we ask ourselves “what sustains?”
Mark is our guide as we accompany Jesus into the wilderness. We may recall Mark does not bother with many details.Whereas Matthew’s gospel takes 11 verses to tell us about Jesus in the wilderness and Luke’s gospel takes 13 verses, Mark relates Jesus’ wilderness journey in 2 verses about his temptation.We would not assume however, that Mark’s brevity minimizes the importance of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness nor the importance of our 40-day Lenten journey.
Perhaps a word about Lent itself is helpful. Modelled after the stories of our Hebrew ancestors 40 years wondering in the wilderness, as well as the 40-day fasts observed not only by Jesus but also by Elijah and Moses before him, Lent was established early by the church as a time of penance and preparation for Easter. However, history and tradition alone—important as they are —are not reason enough to observe Lent. For some, there may be very good reasons to avoid Lent—to give up Lent for Lent.There are some who grew up in a church or a religion whose entire focus and message emphasized how sinful human beings are. Not quite as obvious as Jonathan Edwards 1741 sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” there are religions still today whose theology makes it clear we are hopelessly lost sinners destined for eternal separation if not for the grace of God.The problem, however, with that perspective is that the first part of the message gets emphasized more than the second part, such that grace seems to take a back seat to sin. If that is someone’s theological perspective, then it is Lent 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. What about the grace you mentioned last Sunday? Well grace is real, but you really are a sinner; and so Lent never quite ends, coopted by religion of guilt and shame. That destructive perspective notwithstanding, there are some good reasons for embracing Lent because no matter what one thinks about humanity’s essential nature, rare is the person who does not need the occasional opportunity to hit the reset button—to rededicate to eating better, to exercising more, to reading more and posting less, to spending quality time with loved ones, to taking time for Sabbath rest, to reshaping thoughts about adversaries.
When it comes to the season of Lent, we would not equate its purpose with society’s emphasis on self-improvement—which is not bad, it’s just not Lent. If you find a book about Lent in the self-help section, it is mis-shelved. Lent is not an invitation to be a better version of ourselves; instead, Lent invites us to a deeper embodiment of Jesus in ourselves. Lent is not about making us better; instead, Lent is to reshape us into the patterns of Jesus’ living—which may make us better, but more importantly such reshaping is to benefit the world and those around us. Mark tells us Jesus comes to proclaim the reign of God at hand and we as subjects in God’s wondrous transforming work. Important as giving up something for Lent very well may be, Lent never stops at personal sacrifice and individual fulfillment.
Is that why Jesus was driven into the wilderness as Mark tells us—so that before he ever preached a sermon or pronounced a blessing, he considers what his life as God’s beloved is to emphasize? As Israel was in the wilderness considering what it meant to be God’s people, so Jesus is likewise sent. What Mark says precisely is that the Spirit drives Jesus out from the embracing waters of baptism to the treacherous desert of wilderness. Luke says Jesus was filled by the Spirit and Matthew says the Spirit led Jesus. Mark says the Spirit drove Jesus, and it reminds us that the crucible of struggle does not mean one’s faith is lacking. Jesus does not leave the waters of baptism and head to the palace of security; instead, he must consider who he is in the face of all who will oppose who he is. Mark tells us this in his subtle brief way, because while Matthew and Luke say Jesus conversed with the devil, Mark says Jesus faced Satan which means adversary.Mark is tipping his hand—for if Jesus is to be Christ, Messiah, then it means his life and his way will evoke adversarial reactions from anyone or anything that goes against Christ’s ways of justice and reconciliation, confession and forgiveness, restoration and love. It is a reminder that the life of faith will often move in a different direction from convenient conventionality. When the voices say hate your enemies, Jesus says love your enemies; when the voices say draw in, Jesus says go the extra mile; when the voices ridicule, Jesus welcomes.To be in the wilderness with Jesus, to be in Lent is to move beyond self-improvement. After mentioning the wild beasts are there which, whatever Mark means by including that detail suggests Jesus goes where the wild things are, Mark then tells us the angels attend to Jesus. The word Mark uses to describe the angelic attention is the root for deacon—the same word used when referring to Simon’s mother-in-law who after being healed by Jesus then serves Jesus. What is Mark getting at here? Jesus sees after the 40-day wilderness and after the mother-in-law’s illness that the proper response to whatever wilderness happens in life is to deacon, to serve, to care, to help, to heal. Mark tells us Jesus is driven into the hard places, the testing places, the wilderness places which is to say faith does not go around those places but goes to those places. Fred Craddock once said, “I used to believe that where Jesus is there would be no pain, but now I understand that wherever there is pain, there Jesus is.” “Follow me” Jesus says and who would not want to go with him until that going becomes wilderness, which it will. Of course, the life of faith is not always wilderness, but please remember that being in the wilderness, whatever that might look like for any of us, does not mean we have left Jesus, or that Jesus has left us.Lent reminds us there is perspective to be gained even when life is wilderness.
What Mark does not tell of Jesus’ sojourn in the wilderness are the details, and that as we realize is its brilliance. We get to fill in the challenges that tempt us—which may not be about turning stones into bread, even though we are part of a society that does make choices about bread; it may not be about calling down angels for help even though everyone is tempted to turn God into a personal emissary; it may not be about power to rule the world though every single person makes decisions every day about how to use power. Mark does not tell us the specifics of what the adversary said to Jesus in the wilderness.So, we ask ourselves, ‘what stands against Jesus’s way in the world?’ We can each answer that for our own lives even as we also recognize current temptations present in our world—the use and manipulation of fear to control and stir reaction against others; claims of certainty whether religiously articulated or culturally enforced; the reactive impulse of hostility at worst or suspicion at least that sets up others as opponents to be conquered or aliens to be rejected. Within those broad categories of fear, certainty, and hostility, we each face our own variations that stand against Christ’s way.
We could perhaps endlessly focus on the wilderness; but the sermon asks us to ponder what sustains? We might think of our own wilderness sojourns and looking back, can point to what held us through it all; or to say it positively we take stock of what holds us now?O course, no sermon can outline the many places of sustenance God gives to the world. Mark said it was the angels who sustained Jesus and we might point to the presence of the angelic amidst the adversarial. Where are the sustaining angels in our lives? Perhaps it is the friend who reassures us with warmth and support; perhaps it is the group who holds us accountable as we strive to heal; perhaps it is a loved one who will always speak the truth in love; perhaps it is the church who lifts our spirits; perhaps it is Sabbath that maintains our center; perhaps it is forgiveness that can lead to reconciliation; perhaps it is prayer that restores our souls; perhaps it is loving and serving that renews hope; perhaps it is a teaching or a parable that inspires.Lent invites us to join Jesus in the wilderness. Frederick Buechner observes that the Lenten wilderness has its challenges but concludes that, “if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end.” (Whistling in the Dark, p.75) How can that be? Well, through it all we may well learn what sustains.