The 1st Sunday in Lent, Year B

To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. 2 O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. 3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. 4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. 5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long. 6 Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. 7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O LORD! 8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. 9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. 10 All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees. (Psalm 25:1-10 NRSV)

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 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. 11 And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." 12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." (Mark 1:9-15 NRSV)


“GETTING INTO TROUBLE”


When I started seminary years ago, one of the first things they did was break us new students into groups. In each group was a student who had been there a year or two who would answer any questions we might have. It was good to hear what we needed to know starting out from someone who had just been through it. Janet was leading our group. She was a truck driver who was going to become a minister. We had questions like where the Laundromat was, about car insurance, where to park, and so on. They were those things that would make our day-to-day lives easier. After those questions were answered, one of my classmates asked, “Where do you go to get into some trouble?” He meant, of course, not serious trouble, but the kind of fun that you don’t typically associate with seminary and the ministry. The answer was “East Dubuque, Illinois”, across the river.
The psalm this morning acknowledges that we get into trouble on our own. We don’t have to look very far to find it. There are enemies. But beyond that is our tendency to stray from God. The psalmist recognizes that. The psalmist wants to know God’s ways. He or she wants God to teach him or her, will wait for God to do that. God will instruct sinners in the right way. But also, the psalmist is honest about his or her life. He or she is mindful of God’s mercy and asks for it because he or she has sinned. That is why he or she is depending on God’s steadfast love. There is forgiveness for the past. There is hope for the future as the psalmist learns to live God’s way.
The Gospel reading is also fitting for this season. With last Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, we began the season of Lent. It is the period of forty days before Easter in which we seek forgiveness and a new direction in life and strengthen or renew our discipleship. It is when we pay special attention to following Jesus. This morning we take a look at where he went. After he was baptized, after he heard that voice that declared he was the beloved child of God, he went out to the wilderness. In fact, the Spirit drove him out there. He was with the wild beasts. There, in the wilderness, life is at its minimal. There are no conveniences, no luxuries. There, a person can barely survive. But in that special place new things can happen. It is in imitation of that state of being, that in some traditions people give up luxuries or comforts for this season. It is in imitation of Jesus’ time in the wilderness, that we go back to what is basic, to rediscover our lives, to live how he lived.
There in the wilderness, Jesus was tempted. We might think of the desert as a place that would be free from such things. It is not like East Dubuque, after all. It is a place of utter simplicity. And yet even there, the devil can find Jesus. Temptation is not limited to time or place. It is inside us, trying to separate us from God, trying to separate us from others, from the best in life. There are all sorts of temptations. What would follow you wherever you went, even out to the desert? Would it be a temptation for you to be wasteful of time or resources? Would it be to accumulate things you do not need? Would it be self-indulgence? Would it be how you treat others? Would it be to ignore God as much as possible? There are many things in our lives that are much more serious than whether we give up a treat or some comforts. Temptations come in many forms. But if we stop and think, we all know the things we fight against, over and over again.
At the end of his time in the wilderness, Jesus was victorious. He did not fall to the temptations presented to him. That gives us hope, gives us a goal. And after that experience he began to preach. He presented the good news of God. The time has come; the kingdom of God has come near. We are to repent and believe. Lent is a time to do that.
What if we focused, not on giving one or two things up, but on going to the desert? What if we made use of this time, not paying attention to the sacrifice of some comforts, but on finding new ways of greater faithfulness? Maybe sacrifice should not be the end in itself, but a way to know ourselves better and find the power of God to help us. Perhaps sacrifice will then help us cut free from the bonds within us to find new ways of loving and serving others. Lent is a time when we take time to know God’s ways. That takes serious concentration. It is a different kind of sacrifice. It might involve a trip to the desert. It is a thing we choose; it is a bother or a sacrifice or a time self-discipline that we willingly take on for the hope of a spiritual benefit. It is work to interrupt the harmful and relentless temptations in our days. This is something we do to change that. It is trouble we choose to get into.
We can benefit from cutting our dependence on things and habits that enslave us. This takes effort on our part. We can use this time to learn from God the new attitudes and habits that make our lives richer in spirit. J. Barrie Shepherd envisions this new learning in his poem, “Looking for Lent”. Rather than give things up, he wants to take on “the task of noticing whatever had been there unseen from the beginning,” to see “perhaps even the footprints of the gardener himself.” Lent can be a time when we grow in faith by some new direction or activity in our lives. Service or outreach, study or prayer, can be that new thing that can open our eyes to where God is and what God is doing in the world.
Lent is a time when we seek to be better than we were. We seek to know God better and have less to do with those things that lead us away from God. We want to follow Christ in the path that conquers temptation, even if that temptation is to direct no effort into following Christ. Gina Bridgeman recalls Ash Wednesday Mass early in the morning before school. She would leave the sign of the cross on her forehead the rest of the day despite the teasing of her classmates. But she didn’t care. To her it was a sign that helped her say that she was a child of God. These days she also thinks of life beyond Ash Wednesday, beyond having that mark that set her apart. What will show the world that she is still God’s child? The peace of the Lord in her heart? Hands that reach out in compassion to someone in need? A smile to share the joy of Jesus? She chooses things that give up a part of herself to someone else as a tangible way of showing God’s grace. Just like Jesus began his ministry once he came back from the desert, so what we do in this time, the attitudes and decisions we make can increase our faithfulness to what God is doing around us.
This Lent let us go to the desert. Let us walk where Jesus walked. It is quiet there; we will hear God. It is simple there; our needs and purpose will become visible to us. And there is temptation—even there—but we will find God’s power to overcome it. We might have to set aside some of what we brought in there with us. We might find that we are not the same when we come back. And when we come back, let us still listen for God. Let us still live with purpose. Let us begin something new. Let us use this time to make a difference in our souls, our lives, our world. If we look for trouble, let us look for the kind of trouble that changes us.