Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent – 21st March 2021: GENESIS 9:8-17, MARK 1;9-15

Wilderness Story –  Deacon Christine Saccali

May God be on my lips and in all our hearts Amen

 

The desert waits

ready for those who come,

we who come obedient to the Spirit’s leading

or who are driven

because they will not come any other way.

The desert always waits,

ready to let us know who we are-

the place of self discovery.

And whilst we fear, and rightly,

the loneliness and emptiness and harshness,

we forget the angels,

whom we cannot see for our blindness,

but who come when God decides

that we need their help,

when we are ready

for what they can give us.

Probably the last thing we feel like doing at this time is entering into a desert place. For the last year, surely, during the pandemic, we have been cut off in the wilderness, that uncultivated, uninhabited and inhospitable place and we do not want to be driven further into ourselves this Lent.

But oh we do so want to go, though, not into wild places where solitude reigns, but to crowded spaces where we can meet familiar faces, albeit at a distance, but in real life and we don’t want to be driven but Spirit filled and led.

 

The wilderness, however, can be both the way in and the way out on our pilgrimage as disciples as we open up to God. The account we heard today in Mark is characteristic of the author-brief and to the point but it contains a few intriguing details of this episode not referred to in the versions in Matthew or Luke.

We have mentioned being driven out – the Greek verb is ekvallo – a strong verb which means thrown out into the desert- the same Greek verb is used when Jesus drives out demons. A sense of urgency and divine energy. However, I think this violence is tempered by the use of the word Spirit pneuma who we know is of God and protects and guides. Who better to deal with the prowling wild beasts- thiria- who are only mentioned in Mark? Note in this version the temptations are not gone into in any detail. So in Mark we have Jesus, fresh from his baptism, the Spirit resting on Him, wild beasts, Satan and angels just as in the poem we heard at the start of the sermon by Ruth Burgess and from Iona worship.

Jesus’ vulnerability is underlined at this pivotal point before beginning his public ministry. He is alone yet not on his own; he is facing dangers yet he has protection. It is tempting to connect the wild beasts and animals up to the creation stories and of the Flood we heard in our Genesis first reading. Mark may not intend this at all and we may be reading too much into this.

However, we know that when God makes his covenant with creation after the flood it is a covenant not just with Noah and his family, or even with future human beings but with every living creature. What’s more God goes on to emphasise this by describing all the creatures which are to be involved in this new covenant. Every time the covenant is mentioned in Genesis the animals are deliberately listed.  It is as though Noah’s action binds human and animal destiny together forever.

But of course, the book of Genesis in its first creation story has always suggested that that was God’s intention. When God makes human beings he does so expressly saying that they are to be responsible for every creeping thing upon earth. When Noah takes the animals into the ark he is exercising proper stewardship of living creatures as God intended.

This intimate relationship between the natural created order is what we should endeavour to rediscover during Lent. So much of our lives is constructed under the premise that we can isolate and protect ourselves from the forces that beset the rest of the world. The pandemic has shown us anew how we need to treat nature with respect and not tinker with the natural order.

We turn night into day with electricity and subdue death and illness with modern medicine – the list is endless and mankind begins to think it is invincible, yet as now when the forces of nature break through and we cannot bend them to our will, we feel outraged.

Lent challenges us to dig deep within ourselves, to reflect and go outside our comfort zone while at the same time going within ourselves . Many of us have been doing that in the past year as we cannot just carry on as normal ignoring nature or our relationship with creation. The wilderness we traverse is a way of travelling back to basics and finding who we are and what we depend on. It is a way through to the other side as the Israelites found through the experience of the Exodus, painful though it is.

 

Recently I have been following a series of reflections online from LICC London Institute of Contemporary Christianity entitled A Time to Rest- a novel theme for Lent when we often force ourselves to give things up or busy ourselves taking up new things. These short daily posts encourage us to go back to the rhythm of God’s Creation pattern to get closer to the Creator. To punctuate our lives with rest from busyness. We have certainly had that enforced over the past twelve months although we may try to substitute other things to keep ourselves occupied.

Something that has been found to be helpful over the past year is keeping to a rhythm of life a routine of prayer, exercise and meals for example. In Lent we each find our own way as we have during lockdown although it is a collective narrative we are living through.

The story of Noah and Jesus’ time in the desert makes it clear that we depend on God for everything and that everything is created to be interconnected. When one link in the chain is broken or abused by humankind it can cause far reaching consequences for the whole planet. This is not what God intended.

Lent is a time to repent and this year more than ever it can be a time to lament all the grief and loss of the past year and that which is ongoing. The Collect for Ash Wednesday says: Almighty and everlasting god, you hate nothing that you have made, and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent. Come and make in us new and contrite hearts, that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, we may receive from you , the God of all mercy, perfect forgiveness and peace.

 

Lament is not a cry of despair but a coming before God in our human state and suffering. There are steps in lament just as there are in our journey in and emerging out of the wilderness. Several theologians suggest the steps of rest, remembrance, repentance and restitution and restoration as a healthy sequence of 5 Rs.  This can help us in our Lenten routine another R.

Wherever we are on our journey as we travel on together let us remember we have God’s angels ministering for our protection and we are led by His Spirit from within. The wilderness is not to be feared but to be traversed as Lent is and the journey is on to the cross and beyond.

AMEN