First Sunday in Lent
March 1, 2009
The Gospel: Mark 1:9-15
Sermon: "1 Lent, 2009"
The Rev. Dr. Vicki L. Smith, Rector
The Gospel: 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 of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."
Mark 1:9-15
1 Lent, 2009 I was in the third grade when I first noticed that there was something special about Lent. My classmate, Carol Jean, had come home with me after school and SHE REFUSED A COOKIE. I was stunned. I don’t think I’ve ever refused a cookie, but especially not as a child. She told me that she had given up sweets for Lent. Since we were only minimally church people, that was a revelation to me and my introduction to giving something up for Lent.
At a clergy meeting last week we were talking about the value of Lent and what a gift it is to us. And it is a gift. Lent gives us the opportunity to prepare for Easter by more than filling baskets, dying eggs and picking out cards. Lent is a season set apart, a time when we are invited to attend to our spiritual lives; Lent encourages us consciously to step out of our everyday distraction, busy-ness and selfishness to attend to God—and that is a gift.
Lent is really one of the quiet treasures of life in the church. We don’t keep lent just because the church tells us to or because we always have. We keep lent because of our profound sense that most of the time, our lives are running away with us. It’s like being in a stream—we are simply carried along, wherever life chooses to take us. We get swept up into a life that doesn’t really have the priorities that we want or go in the directions that we want, but it’s the way the stream flows, and we just go along.
Lent is our time to step out of the current, walk over to the shore and get a new perspective on where we are going. The church, in our Ash Wednesday service, offers us suggestions of how to step out of that stream, how to begin to take back our lives and make them our own, and God’s, again. To keep a holy Lent, our church invites us into “self-examination and repentance, prayer, fasting and self-denial, and reading and meditating on God’s holy word.”
Fasting is probably the most common discipline undertaken in Lent, and also perhaps the most misunderstood. It may be helpful to begin by thinking what is not the case with fasting, or giving something up, as we more often call it. Though fasting is encouraged in this season, it is not required of anyone. To fast or not, to give something up or not, is a very personal decision, and no one style of fasting will be right for everyone. While it is meaningful for some to fast from sweets, cigarettes or alcohol, it may be more meaningful for others to fast from worry, from gossip, from wasteful driving, from laziness or from television, The choice is very personal, and as Scripture tells us, is perhaps best kept to oneself.
It is important to remember that we do not fast in order to convince God of our piety, nor is it some sort of iron man exercise of will-power and self-control. And though it is undoubtedly good for us, it is not really spiritual fasting to abstain from something we should for health purposes give up anyway. The purpose of our Lenten fast is not to lose weight, though might result, nor to pass some sort of test. The purpose of our Lenten fast is to bring us closer to God by drawing us away from other things that control us. When we really miss that which we have given up, we begin to understand the power that item or desire has over us. We begin to get a more realistic picture of who we are, what motivates us and what draws us away from God. And we are also reminded, every time we long for what we cannot have, of the greater sacrifice of Jesus. Our pangs of want can be compelling reminder that Jesus made the greatest sacrifice of all, he gave up his life for us.
Primarily, we fast to make room in our lives for the presence of God. Giving something up helps clear the decks somehow. It frees us from extraneous distractions, helps us think and see more clearly so that those newly empty spaces in our lives may be filled by God. Fasting is never done for its own sake—it always has the higher purpose of helping us to know ourselves better and strengthening and deepening our relationship with God.
During Lent, the church also calls us to prayer, and reading and meditating on God’s word. To embrace the discipline of 15 minutes of prayer each day, reading a chapter in the Bible, meditating on a psalm or a parable—any of those will help us draw closer to God in this holy season. Again, it is a very personal choice— only you know what you need to do to make this a holy lent. The church simply encourages us to do it.
I know that Lent is actually a few days old now but it is not too late to embark on a Lenten discipline. Is this the season to give up chocolate, ice cream or chewing gum? Is this the season to fast from grumpiness, anxiety or negativity? Is this the season to read Mark’s gospel, end to end, or to meditate on psalms 22 and 51? Is this the season to use a mite box and give a few cents every day in thankfulness for blessings?
I don’t know what you are called to do this Lent, but I know that we are all called to do something, whatever fits our lives right now, to make this a holy season.
The church uses the word “invite” and it is an invitation—an invitation to grow in faith, to follow Jesus, to prepare again to commemorate his death and resurrection.
Therefore, “I invite you in the name of the church to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance, by prayer, fasting and self-denial, and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.” May this holy Lent bring us closer to Jesus, that we may again know the sacrifice of his crucifixion and the joy of his resurrection.