First Sunday in Lent Sermon
I offered a few
words on the first Sunday in Lent at First Christian Church in Frankfort, KY.
The lectionary scripture text was Mark 1:9-15. I titled the sermon, "Fulfilling
Time".
In those days Jesus came
from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he
was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit
descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my
Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And the Spirit immediately
drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days,
tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of
God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom (reign) of God
has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
Good Morning Frankfort. My presence is a
personal joy, and it is a reminder that you are a part of a community: 242
congregations working in covenant with each other to be a witness to the good
news of God from Paducah to Ashland, Pikeville to Covington, Bowling
Green to Louisville, and here in Frankfort through the ministry of this
congregation. We call this covenant the Christian Church In Kentucky.
Together, we are a voice of Gospel.
Your Disciple sisters and
brothers across the Commonwealth are gathering for worship this morning: to pray
and praise God; to hear scripture and word preached; to share bread and cup
around a table that has a place set for you; and to accept God’s call to
participate in and be leaders for our society with our time, talent, and
financial resources. There has never been a time better than right now
for our denomination, our brand of Christian witness, to invite our neighbors,
co-workers, friends, and strangers on the street to worship. Why?
Because we are not like other
denominations. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) celebrates the
spirituality of study and service to strengthen and enrich faith. We are
inclusive inviting everyone to come to the table without a litmus test of
baptism or a creedal statement of faith. Now is the time for our way of
balancing belief and practice to say, “You are welcomed here. If you feel
you can’t worship and serve God anywhere else, try us.” Why?
Because together we will share
God’s story and our own stories trusting that God is acting in our time
and in our lives. Disciples don’t claim to have “the answers”
to life’s hard questions. We know there are no easy answers for
life’s hard questions and don’t preach or practice an understanding
of God’s grace that is based on your financial giving.
Why?
Because Disciples understand that
people of faith disagree and that ecumenism, Christian unity, does not mean
sharing the lowest common denominator of belief. Christian unity means holding
all of Christendom to the highest standards of service to the world, celebrating
our differences because we know that diversity is preferred to the watered down
theological pop culture of our time. We are a community of faith working to be
God’s people and do God’s will the best way we know how.”
Why?
As a response to judgement and
grace. As an affirmation that the whole human family are children of God. As a
model of community for a divided
world.
This morning we have come from
different places in the county and across Kentucky. We bring with us all that
we are to worship: the mental conversations about where we have to be later
today, how to get the kids to this or that, the shopping list, was the groundhog
right about winter, the voice reminding you to balance the checkbook. The voice
wondering if the guest preacher be long winded? We bring with us the personal
and corporate joy and sorrow of the past week reflected in your prayer list, the
local paper, and the 24hr cable news. We bring questions. Some of us have come
to worship gladly, some tired from work or a late night, some anxious about
tomorrows bills or medical report, some sad or lonely, a few filled with so much
joyful energy that it needs to be bottled and given away, and others just
ambivalent. All of us seeking to hear and experience
gospel.
The story goes that a person, a
man, decided that his life needed direction, and he decided to go to the
monastery to seek that direction and listen for the voice of God. The journey
was long, 40 days, and along the way he had time to listen. The monastery was
nestled in a cliff in a mountain range. As the traveler made his way through
the pass leading up to the monastery he could hear a voice echo, “Who will
lead me into the hear of God?” As the traveler got closer to the gates of
the monastery the echo grew stronger, louder. “Who will lead me into the
heart of God?” There, in the distance he could see the top of gate to the
monastery, and beyond the gate the path switch backing up the side of the
mountain to the monastery. Nearer now the traveler could see a person sitting
near the gate and knew the echo must be hers. He approached. She reached for a
cane, “Who will lead me into the heart of God?” The traveler could
not walk past her. He reached down, took the blind woman by the hands and
helped her up. “Who will lead me into the heart of God?” Together,
he said, “Together we will go into the heart of
God.”(1)
“The time is
fulfilled, and the reign of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good
news.”
The study and wisdom of
biblical scholars over the centuries agree that the gospel according to Mark is
the original of the four gospels. Written around 70 of the common era, Mark is
one of the source materials that the other gospel writers used to flesh out
their thinking and narrative about Jesus of Nazareth whom they called Christ.
Apparently, turabian format for citing sources was not required back in the day
though the gospels are good at quoting scripture. The first chapter of Mark is
brief. The author borrows a verse from Isaiah, and places the hearer in the
time of John the Baptist with a visual description that matches the oral
tradition, we might say legend of John. In the few verses of Jesus’ story
we heard this morning, we get summarized bullet points of a story the hearer
already knows:
• Jesus, the itinerant preacher is baptized
by John.
• The spirit of God descends on Jesus,
“You are my beloved.”
• The spirit drives Jesus to the wilderness
for forty days where he is tempted.
• Jesus came proclaiming the good news of
God. God’s reign is near.
• Repent, and believe in the good
news.
That sounds like a confession of
faith, or a creed for early believers trying to find the words for what they
have experienced, or have in common with other believers. The stories of
Jesus’ baptism, his temptation, and return to begin a very public ministry
are traditional for the beginning of Lent. Mark feels no need to give any
details about these events. I feel invited by this lack of description into the
conversation, the story telling about Jesus of Nazareth. It is as if the writer
is begging the question from us: Do you remember the journey to your baptism?
What are your temptations? Are you thinking about, considering making a
confession of faith?
“You are dust
and to dust you will return.” These words or some similar construction
mark the beginning of the liturgical season the Church calls Lent. If you do a
Google search on the history of Lent you will find over ten million websites.
Father William Saunders, a former dean of the Notre Dame Graduate School of
Christendom, wrote this about Lent: “It [Lent] is a special time of
prayer, penance, sacrifice, and good works in preparation of the celebration of
Easter.”(2)
At the website,
Churchyear.net, you find this explanation of Lent. “The purpose of Lent
is to be a season of fasting, self-denial, Christian growth, penitence,
conversion, and simplicity. Lent, which comes from the Teutonic (Germanic) word
for springtime, can be viewed as a spiritual spring cleaning: a time for taking
spiritual inventory and then cleaning out those things which hinder our
corporate and personal relationships with Jesus Christ and our service to
him.(3)
What will these next 40 days mean to
you and in the life of this community of
faith?
Lent, like Advent, is a familiar
time for many Christians. For some, the necessity of recognizing these six
weeks is more important than the four weeks of Advent and the birth of Jesus.
The traditions of the Church continue to believe it is these holy days
that draw people from all walks of life back to religion, back to faith, or back
to Church. What does Lent mean for those who claim Christian faith in the 21st
century? It can be just another thing on the calendar, a to do list item, or
ritual for ritual’s sake. Ours is an over entertained, over stimulated,
over programmed, hyper-technology, instant information, twitter connected,
microwaved, multi-tasking culture. We don’t have time for this sort of
thing without some sort of assurance that it will be meaningful, fulfilling.
Mark reports “ . . . that Jesus came proclaiming the good news of God and
saying, the time is fulfilled . . .” That
word, fulfilled and its other form, fulfilling, have different meanings: to put
into effect, to meet the requirements, to bring to an end, to measure up to, to
convert into reality, to develop the full potentialities
of.(4)
This drives me to ask, “How
much about the outcome, the payoff, the benefit of Lent do we have to know ahead
of time before altering a schedule or routine, to hear the story, to experience
the sights and smells, to sing, to serve, to pray, to change. What makes the
observance of Lent fulfilling time rather than busy work? Is it fear, humility,
questions, guilt, answers?
I have to
admit that Lent has not always been important to my journey in faith. During a
conversation when asked, “What are you giving up for Lent, Davison?”
I quipped, “I am giving up Lent for Lent.” There was that nervous
laughter from my study group not sure what to make of that answer out of the
mouth of a religion major. Everyone in that group recounted the careful
inventory of their lives and decided on something that they could live without
during Lent. I was raised by a C & E Catholic, that’s minister
shorthand for Christmas and Easter, and a back sliding Southern Baptist, who
when they had children turned to Lutheranism, dabbled in Southern Baptist, and
ended up joining the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) all before I
finished third grade. All I knew about Lent was that many of my friends showed
up at school with black smudge marks on their foreheads, ate fish on Fridays
religiously, and some did without what they believed as essential to
existence for a few weeks. For me, Lent began as nervous
laughter.
While in seminary I was
confronted with a new idea about Lent that added seasoning to my life. Dr. Toni
Craven teaches Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School. If you were in one of
her classes during this time of year she would offer words of wisdom to students
struggling with their own spirituality or what to do in their student churches
during Lent. Her response, “Some of you may come from traditions that
require or encourage you to give something up so you can be more aware of
Jesus’ sacrifice. I don’t think Jesus needs another person on a
holy diet. Don’t give something up, take something extra into your
life.” Dr. Craven, a Catholic woman who could articulate the faith in
Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and English; a woman called and qualified of being
ordained into Christian ministry but denied by her Pope, she believed
that God is always concerned about a person living with the knowledge that she
or he is created in God’s image. Her response to Church tradition was
adding something to her life that would help her know that she is, and everyone
in her presence, is a child of God. Add something. What would that be
like?
Since I was in a class with Dr.
Craven, the first year I read through the Psalms. Now, it is this idea that has
shaped my understanding of what Lent can mean for me and for the community of
faith. Through the years I have: spent thirty minutes in silence a day,
volunteer in a local food kitchen, read through the Psalms twice more, spent an
hour in prayer a day, write my own gospel narrative, and taking youth to a
nursing care facility each Sunday in Lent to visit residents. What would you
need to add to your living that will help you be the child of God, the follower
of Jesus you want to be; the person God needs you to be. I cannot say
what that will be for you? The desert is full of people trying to measure up,
meet the requirements, or bring to an end. Will it be easy? I don’t
know. Will it mean you may have to reorder priorities? In our ‘have it
all now culture,’ maybe, probably. Yes, it is a change in thinking and
behavior.
Jesus came proclaiming the good
news of God. Too often the temptation for Christians is allowing Lenten
rituals or disciplines to simply help pass time. Jerusalem is over there. The
writer of Mark believes that the good news of God is Jesus of Nazareth whom he
will later call Christ. The Lenten additions to my life have shown me that the
good news of God could be, you are beloved. Jerusalem is over there. When you
emerge on the other side of Lent will you come proclaiming the good news of God?
‘You are beloved.’ If your spiritual discipline or practice helped
you discover this Truth and live this Truth here in these walls and out there
beyond the walls would that be fulfilling
time.
Jerusalem is over there, and
together we will go into the heart of
God.
Notes
1.
Paraphrase of a story from, Tales of a Magic Monastery, Crossroad publishing
Co., 1981.
2. From Our Lady of Hope Parish, and
former dean of Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College. Catholic
Education Resource Center,
www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0527.html
3.
Jonathan Bennett and David Bennett, Churchyear.net,
2009.
4. Miriam-Webster Dictionary
Online
Filed Mon - March 2, 2009, 12:13 PM in
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