The Church of St. Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
February 21, 2021
Year B: The First Sunday in Lent
Genesis 9:8-17
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:9-15
Christ Brings Us To God
In my sermons over the past year I’ve talked about many of the people and events that we have missed during this long and hard year of the pandemic.
Just last week, I mentioned how, in normal times, on Tuesday many of us would have squeezed into Carr Hall for our Shrove Tuesday pancake supper and cabaret, and then on Wednesday we would’ve received our ashes, remembering that we are dust and to dust we shall return.
But, this year it was just Facebook and Zoom.
I miss that our buildings don’t get much use these days – by us and by the groups we usually welcome here.
This week I’ve been thinking especially about our Saturday morning AA meeting.
Over the years I’ve gotten to know some of the people who regularly attend that meeting, chatting with them before or after their session, and sometimes, if I’m in the sacristy or in the church, I can’t help overhearing some of the testimony given by these alcoholics in recovery.
I’m often moved by their raw honesty about their addiction and the heartbreak and wreckage it so often caused – lost jobs, broken relationships.
I’m always impressed by the intensity and urgency of these meetings – how so many of the attendees hate to miss a meeting, how they wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
I’ve often thought that church should be more like an AA meeting – and, who knows, maybe the small groups we are forming for faith sharing will inject a little more intensity and urgency into our life together.
But, most of all, when I’ve talked to these men and women before or after their meeting, I can’t help but respect the credibility – the hard-earned wisdom - that comes from having been to hell and back.
These are people who have seen – who have lived through – deep shadows.
They know what they are about – and I’ve found it’s very much worth my time to listen to what they have to say.
Today, on the First Sunday in Lent, we hear the story of Jesus’ Baptism, followed by his forty days and nights of temptation in the wilderness, and then the official start of his ministry. Jesus declares:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
Since we are reading the barebones Gospel of Mark, these important moments of Jesus’ life and work are told very quickly and with only the absolute minimum of detail.
Unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark doesn’t even tell us the nature of Jesus’ temptations.
It’s enough to know that he was out in the wilderness for a good long time, and that he was tempted.
We don’t know much at all about Jesus’ life before he presented himself to John to be baptized.
We have the birth and infancy stories in Matthew and Luke, and then that’s just about it until a grown-up Jesus showed up at the River Jordan.
But, we can assume that Jesus’ family and his village raised him, and that the Jewish law and rituals were at the center of his life.
We can assume that life was sometimes sweet, that there was love and laughter, the satisfaction of a job well done – but we can also be sure that life was also often hard.
In those days long before modern medicine, illness and death were ever-present, and Jesus was probably not too old before he endured the loss of neighbors and family members, perhaps even including Joseph, who vanishes from the gospels after the birth and childhood stories.
So it’s very possible, even likely, that Jesus had seen, had lived through, deep shadows before the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness for forty days of testing and temptation.
But, I have to believe that those forty days of hardship – I don’t think the angels show up until the end – those forty days of testing - changed Jesus – that, just like at his Baptism, through his suffering in the wilderness, Jesus has learned who he is and what he is about.
It’s now - after his trip to hell and back - that Jesus is very much worth listening to.
Right after the passage we read today, Jesus begins to assemble his team, to gather his disciples.
And, as we talked about a few weeks ago, it’s always so striking that the disciples just drop what they’re doing to go off and follow Jesus – leaving behind their livelihoods and even family members.
I usually just assume that the gospel writers compressed things for the sake of heightened drama, but now I wonder if these people followed Jesus so decisively because they could see in his eyes and hear in his voice that he had journeyed through deep shadows, and had come through the other side – giving him hard-earned wisdom, making him very much worth listening to.
Maybe it was because of Jesus’ time in the wilderness – because Jesus had experienced and endured real temptation and real suffering - that those first disciples decided that it was a good idea to follow Jesus.
And, especially in our time of trouble, maybe it’s precisely because of Jesus’ suffering that we should recommit ourselves follow Jesus.
Today’s second lesson is from the First Letter of Peter.
First Peter is one of the more obscure corners of the New Testament. It’s a text that doesn’t come up too often, and I doubt that I’ve ever mentioned it in a sermon more than once and twice, if that.
First Peter was written probably sometime around the year 100, written to Christian communities that were being persecuted.
The author of First Peter attempts to encourage these suffering Christians, reminding them of their Baptism, connecting their suffering to the suffering of Jesus the Son of God.
It’s the first verse from today’s lesson that jumped out at me. The author of First Peter writes, “Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.”
It’s through Christ’s suffering that he brings us to God.
And that reminded me of an idea that I first read about in a book by one of my seminary professors, John Koenig.
It’s the idea that when we pray, Jesus is right there praying alongside us.
Professor Koenig writes, “…we needy disciples are never alone when we come before God with our prayers. Jesus is there, too, as high priest, supporting us and interceding for us at the throne of grace.”
That image has always stuck with me.
And, especially when it’s hard for me to pray, when I’m feeling tired or anxious or guilty, or maybe even doubtful that anybody is even listening, during those hard times I’ve found it especially comforting and strengthening to imagine Jesus praying alongside me – Jesus the high priest who really knows what it’s like to be tempted – Jesus the Son of God who really knows what it’s like to suffer, really knows what it’s like to walk through deep shadows, knows what it’s like to go to hell and back, really knows what it’s like to gain wisdom the hard way.
So, today, like Jesus and his family and neighbors who lived with illness and death all around, like the suffering Christians who received the First Letter of Peter, we are living in a time of trouble, living through deep shadows.
Our parish prayer list that we pray three times a day every weekday keeps getting longer and longer.
So, especially now, we should remember that Jesus lived through deep shadows, too – making him worth listening to, worth following.
And, when we struggle to pray, remember that Jesus is right there – right here – praying alongside us, bringing us to God.
Amen.
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