First Sunday in Lent Year B

First Sunday in Lent—Year B February 22, 2015 This First Sunday in Lent, we always have the story of Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness. But because we are currently in Year B of the lectionary (reading) cycle, we have the gospel account today from Mark—short, stark, sparse, and to the point. Mark recounts how Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan; how he is claimed by God as God’s son, the Beloved, with whom God is well pleased. And Mark tells us that the same Spirit that anoints Jesus in his baptism then drives him out into the wilderness where he stays for 40 days, is tempted by Satan (which in Hebrew means “the adversary”), is hanging out with wild animals and is tended to be angels. That’s it. That’s all Mark gives us on Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness—not a lot when you think about all the detail that is found in Matthew and Luke’s accounts (including a variety of temptations and other specifics like dialogue between Jesus and Satan). But Mark’s scarcity of detail is interesting because with so little to work with, Mark leaves us lots of room for both questions and imagination in our conversation today. I have some questions I invite you to think about this morning in light of the gospel. I’ll leave some silence in between these so you can reflect on them, and even jot them down to think about over this coming week, if you want. 1. Where does temptation come from? Does it come from outside or inside of us? Can you identify a temptation that you have struggled with? (Perfectionism is one for me….) 2. What do you consider to be your biggest adversary right now? (For me, this is living with messiness and uncertainty when I really prefer for things to be well-planned and executed. It’s interesting how the first two answers for me are clearly related. Is that the case for you, too?). 3. What is the connection between baptism and wilderness and/or temptation? We dip our hand in the water of the font and make the sign of the cross on ourselves when we leave this place every week and go out into the world. What might that have to do with temptation or wilderness places? 4. What are the characteristics of wilderness places? In our world? In your life? When is a time when you’ve been in the wilderness (either literally or figuratively or both)? Today is also the day in the church when we celebrate Episcopal Relief and Development Sunday. We collect money for the helping arm of our church all through Lent in our little hope chests (or mite boxes as they used to be called). They we bring these back on Easter Sunday, and we send the money to ERD who mission is that of “healing a hurting world.” One of the pop-ups that came up on the ERD website when I was looking at it this week, reminded me of how they often will go and dwell with others in the wilderness of poverty or disaster when so many others cannot or will not go there. (Our own Mississippi Gulf Coast was a huge recipient of a great many funds from ERD after Hurricane Katrina. ERD helped provide a brand new facility for the soup kitchen in downtown Gulfport and purchased a house for the transitional shelter for families.) ERD’s pop-up that I read says, “Where others cannot reach, we go. Where others leave, we remain. Where others lose hope, we shine God’s light.” I wonder how much St. Columb’s can raise for ERD this Lenten season? If you are giving up something for Lent, would you consider putting the money for that in your ERD hope chest or writing a check to them? Could we raise $5000 do you think? That’s 250 people or families giving $20 at Easter. What do you think? If we at St. Columb’s could raise $5,000 this Lent for ERD, that is enough to pay for a well for a family who lives in the wilderness of lack of access to clean water. We could make a huge difference in the life of one family! As you ponder all these questions this week, I want to share with you an image and a meditation by Quaker writer Parker Palmer. It’s called Life on the Mobius Strip. “That curious object is a Mobius Strip. If you take your index finger and trace what seems to be the outside surface, you suddenly find yourself on what seems to be the inside surface. Continue along what seems to be the inside surface, and you suddenly find yourself on what seems to be the outside surface. I need to keep saying “what seems to be” because the Mobius strip has only one side! What looks like its inner and outer surfaces flow into each other seamlessly, co-creating the whole. The first time I saw a Mobius strip, I thought, ‘Amazing! That’s exactly how life works!’ Whatever is inside us continually flows outward, helping to form or deform the world-depending on what we send out. Whatever is outside us continually flows inward, helping to form or deform us—depending on how we take it in. Bit by bit, we and our world are endlessly re-made in this eternal exchange. Much depends on what we choose to put into the world from within ourselves—and much depends on how we handle what the world sends back to us. As Thomas Merton said, ‘We don’t have to adjust to the world. We can adjust the world.’ Here’s the question I’ve been asking myself ever since I understood that we live our lives on the Mobius strip: “How can I make more life-giving choices about what to put into the world AND how to deal with what the world sends back—choices that might bring new life to me, to others, and to the world we share.”