Feb. 26. 2012  First Sunday in Lent

Mark 1:9-15

⁹ At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰ Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”¹² At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, ¹³ and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.¹⁴ After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵ “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

 “Repent: Let Go Of”

The word repent is a pivotal word between us and the Kingdom of God.  It means to turn around; to change one’s mind, to let go of something so something better can come.

It may be stimulated by something negative or positive, yet it is the first positive step towards the Kingdom of God.

What we believe is in need of repentance as much as what we don’t believe.  For our beliefs can keep us from seeing the Kingdom of God in our midst as much as our disbelief.  Jesus had more difficulty with the religious then with any other group.  What they believed kept them from seeing what he called them to believe. 

To repent and believe the good news is to let go of what ever it is that keeps us from living in the Kingdom now.  Even what we hold as sacred, so we can discover what is really sacred - God’s promise to love us always. Nothing can stop God from loving us!

“Temptation - No Easy Thing”

Mark keeps it short and simple; sounding easy.

Matthew & Luke add more details but make it sound like just a quick quote of scripture and the devil is on the run.  But really, was it that easy for Jesus?  Is it that easy for us?

Or is Nikos Kazantzokis closer to the truth when he depicts Jesus temptation ending with this  struggle and cry:

“Jesus fell on his face.  His mouth, nostrils and eyes filled with sand.  His mind was blank.  Forgetting his hunger and thirst, he wept - wept as though his wife and all his children had died, as though his whole life had been ruined.

“’Lord, Lord’, he murmured, biting the sand, ‘Father, have you no mercy?  Your will be done: how many times have I said this to you until now, how many times shall I say it in the future?  All my life I shall quiver, resist and say it: Your will be done!””

The Last Temptation of Christ, p.  252

This is no casual thing which is happening.  It is the beginning of a life of testing and staying true to the will of God for his life.  It was necessary for Jesus to be tempted for only when he could say no to God was he free to say yes.

Temptation is not something to be eliminated from our lives.  For to be so pure we are not temptable, probably means we are also so anemic, so passionless, so flat and cautious that nothing exciting and alive can touch us either.

Sometimes we have to get it wrong - and repent - before we can get it right.

As Alan  Jones says in “Soul Making’:

“I wander far from my Trinitarian and communal home and this wandering can be very important because it is the only way I ever learn anything - by getting it wrong.”

When we do get it right we are with Jesus on the road to discovering the joy of living with God in God’s Kingdom, being servants rather then masters.  All the time being loved beyond our wildest dreams and being asked to do more then we ever dreamed possible.

p.s. And remember , God loves us when we are ‘ naughty’ as well as ‘nice’!

When we get it wrong trying hard to get it right!