March
5, 2006
First
Sunday of Lent-Year B
Propers
for the season
Antoinette
Burwell – Preacher
St.
Mary’s Episcopal Church
“And the
Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” Mark 1:12
I remember sitting in Mrs. Christensen’s fourth grade class like it was yesterday. I sat at a table with mostly boys, which made me sad as my best friend sat at a table across the room from my location. One day after morning recess, I noticed something different about Manuel’s face. He was an exceptionally clean and neat person most of the time except today. Manuel had black charcoal across his forehead. He seemed unusually quiet that morning which definitely caught my attention. When the teacher left the room, I whispered to him, “ Manuel, por que es si cara sucia? (Why do you have dirt on your face?”) “He hunched his shoulders and whispered back, Lent.” Lent? Lent, I kept saying to myself… class couldn’t end fast enough for that day. I couldn’t wait to get home to tell my grandmother about today’s events and in particular, Manual and Lent. My grandmother listened very closely to my story and asked me to sit down by her at the dinning room table where she was preparing the church bulletin for Sunday morning. The first words she typed on the top of the page were LENTEN SERVICE. She never looked at me at all… she just kept typing and listening to me go on and on about Manuel. Then she stopped typing long enough for me to read this word, ASHES, and then a discussion between the two of us took place regarding the significance and the symbolic meaning of receiving the imposition of ashes. I said to her, “Granny we don’t use ashes in our church, how come?” She looked at me and laughed out loud and said, “We need to!”
The gospel lesson for today reminds me of the opening scenes in a Broadway musical. The stage has been set, the scene is a wilderness and God assigns his people to follow the written script, which is his word. Mark raises the question of what it means to prepare for the coming of the Lord. Christians encounter this theme during the Advent season. The juxtaposition of Advent with Christmas tends to lead us to think of the preparations we make for a new baby and reorganizing the home and schedules, or preparing a baby shower, picking out a name even anticipating receiving the child into the church community. If we use these experiences to understand what the gospel means by “preparing the way of the Lord,” we miss the more stern notes evident in the summons to repentance, the testing of Jesus, and the arrest of John the Baptist.
“And
the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness…”
Jesus was drawn to the wilderness by an irresistible impulse, and did not go of his own volition. He was brought into temptation, but did not seek it. He was led of God into temptation, but he was not tempted of God. God may make temptation a blessing unto us, tempering it to our strength, and making us stronger by the victory over it - but God, he never tempts us.
The Spirit that (led) drove Jesus out into the wilderness is here today to drive us into our season of Lent. We all know all to well, namely, that we have been over-indulgent, and that it would be an excellent idea to place ourselves under some kind of spiritual and physical discipline. It would not hurt us to give up something for Lent. And when I say give up, I am talking about giving up of us to God in worship and thanksgiving. How? By reading the Bible and really falling into the spiritual rhythm that the Book of Common Prayer offers to us. How wonderful it would be if for the next forty days family devotions could take place. Yet, others may look at their calendars or PDA’s a block out one hour that would read, “Date with God.”
Retirement
from the world is an opportunity of freer converse with God, and therefore must
sometimes be chosen, for a while, even by those that are called to the greatest
business. Mark’s gospel observes this circumstance of his being in
the wilderness —Jesus was with wild beasts. It was an instance of
his Father’s care of him that he was preserved from being torn in pieces by
the wild beasts, which encouraged him the more that his Father would provide for
him when he was hungry. God cares about you and me. Never forget that.
And as the Holy Spirit through this season of Lent leads us, we like Manuel can
and will walk through life’s wilderness experience coming out with a closer
and more meaningful experience with God and his creation. Amen
Sing
hymn: Close to Thee – words by Fannie J. Crosby
Thou
my everlasting portion, More than friend or life to me; All along my pilgrim
journey, Savior, let me walk with thee. Close to thee, Close to thee, Close to
thee, Close to thee; All along my pilgrims journey, Savior let me walk with
thee.