The First Sunday in Lent, Year B, 2012

Mark 1: 9 – 15

The Rev. Ronald N. Johnson

This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, and now we are in the Church’s season of Lent.  Lent is a time for reflection, introspection, repentance and most of all, a season for changing course in such a way as may be needed, to amend life’s direction and conform to Christian discipleship.  In short, Lent is a time for getting serious about one’s relationship with God. In the reading today, from Genesis, the biblical author told about God’s great promise to Noah and his descendants. To paraphrase the passage, God said, “I am establishing my covenant with you, your descendants and all living creatures.  You are coming out of the darkness of sin.  The waters of the flood have washed sin away.  You are a new people, with a new beginning.  I am your God and I will keep this covenant with you, forever.”  The point of telling this story is to introduce us to the theme of living a new life in God.  It is a theme of leaving the darkness for a new and more Godly life.  The rainbow symbolizes the promise of that new life in God.  The rainbow is a symbol of hope and it is also a symbol of God’s steadfast love, which is unconditional and everlasting.  The rainbow is the precursor of the Cross.

The First letter of Peter picks this theme up by linking the Genesis flood to Christian baptism.  The author suggests that the flood, theologically, was a precursor of baptism, because as the flood ended the old order, with the rainbow heralding the new covenant with God, so in baptism, we are brought into a new covenant through Christ, leaving sin and darkness behind.  Through baptism, we find a new rainbow of light and a new promise.  It is the promise of our salvation. 

Mark tells us about our Lord’s baptism, repeating the story of the theophany that we heard last Sunday, the proclamation that Jesus is the Son of God. Mark also tells us, very briefly, of our Lord’s own season of fasting as he prepared for his earthly ministry.  The story suggests to us the need for a period such as Lent, when we set the cares of the world temporarily aside in order, for a season, to fix the soul on God.  Simply put, Lent is a time to steel ourselves for discipleship.  We can think of Lent as a time for preparation and training to do the work Christ has given us to do.

Because of Lent’s emphasis on remorse and penitence, it is easy to associate Lent with a soul’s dark night, but Lent is not darkness.  Rather, it is a journey through the dark spots of the soul, dark places and times through which the beacon of Christ’s light shines, calling us onward to the glory that God’s light reveals.  Lent is a voyage of discovery that takes us, by the means of spiritual discipline and courageous self-examination to the light of salvation in Jesus Christ.  Traditionally, we think of Lent as a time for sacrifice.  Perhaps it should be, for true self-sacrifice, for the good of others, is a most worthy thing.  The unfortunately reality is that far too often our Lenten sacrifice is but a token, and if we give up anything, that lost is little more than a joke.  We only act as if we are putting ourselves out for Jesus.  How hard is it to give up ice cream or chocolate during the forty days of Lent, or red meat for a handful of Fridays; or, perhaps, the olive in our Martini?

 I do not deny the value of symbolic sacrifice, for such sacrifice can and should be an important part of our Lenten discipline.  Symbolic acts are very useful in helping us maintain focus and determination.  But it is very easy for us to miss the point of symbolic sacrifice and forget the purpose of Lent. The journey of Lent is not nearly so much about giving up something as it is about taking on something.  We are called to take on the armor of Christ.  We are called to seriously consider what discipleship is all about and, with the courage that comes from the certainty of our salvation in Christ, vow anew to become Christ in this world.

 We are called to discipleship.  The Christian task is always to know Christ and to make him known. To do this, we must take up the Cross.  Lent paves the way of the Cross.  It straightens the paths of our spiritual journeys.  Lent seeks to give us a true compass heading towards heaven and bring us safely home.  Amen.