Ready, Set, Go – sermon on February 22, 2015
Scripture: Mark 1: 9-15 One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”
The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him.
Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News. “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”
Sermon: Ready, Set, Go by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Mark sure packs a lot into six verses – a baptism, a 40-day trip into the wilderness, the arrest of John, a return trip to Galilee and Jesus’ first foray into preaching the good news that the kingdom of God has come near. One of the commentaries I read talked about what a perfect text this is for the first Sunday in Lent – and the story of Jesus’ temptations in the desert is always the text for the first Sunday in Lent. She says it’s because the story begins in the wilderness, and Lent is a time we symbolically enter the wilderness with Jesus. But I disagree with her. At least in lectionary year B, with its focus on the gospel of Mark, the story begins not in the wilderness, but in the Jordan River. It begins with a baptism, a day in which Jesus sees the heavens torn open, and the Holy Spirit descending upon him. It begins with the sound of God’s voice claiming him as God’s own son, beloved, bringing God great joy. And isn’t that the way we are all invited to begin our walk with Jesus, with a baptism, with friends and family gathered, with God claiming a son or daughter as God’s own, with promises made to nurture that relationship, with affirmation of the goodness and beauty of a person. As I read this passage, I was reminded of the song I always have us sing when there is a baptism – I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry. The verse says, “… in a blaze of light you wandered off to find where demons dwell.”
I think this is so important to understanding something about who Jesus was and how he went about his mission. The gospels tell us very little about the time between his birth and the time he was baptized by John. Other than the one story in Luke about his scaring his parents by staying behind in Jerusalem at age 12, we get nothing. And Jesus is about 30 years old by now. So what has he been doing? Has he been healing? Studying? How does he know that it is time to start? Maybe he didn’t know when he went to the Jordan. I’d always assumed that his going to be baptized was something of an ordination, like, okay, it is time to do the work my father sent me to do, so let me be cleansed. Let there be some ritual that separates the past life from the way I will live now. But I wonder. Maybe he joined the crowds out of curiosity, heard John the Baptist preach and was inspired to be baptized. And in the baptism, he became clear about who he truly was. For it is in the baptism, we are told, that the Holy Spirit descends upon him. He receives God’s Spirit of love and affirmation.
But then this same Spirit drives him into the wilderness. The Greek word used here is the same word used when the demons are driven out of a person. There is a forcefulness, even violent edge to it. Jesus wasn’t just “inspired” to go to the wilderness; it’s more like he was hurled there… by the Holy Spirit. Interesting, right? Mark keeps it short and sweet in describing the time of temptation – there was Satan and wild beasts and angels. Again so much to wonder about. Wouldn’t that be some great raw material for a creative writing class. I don’t know what happened in the wilderness, what Jesus learned from it, how he felt about it. But I believe God’s affirmation of him, God’s powerful message of love and delight with him equipped him in some way for his wilderness time, and I believe that both these experiences made a difference in his ministry that followed. John was the one who went before him, preparing the way of the Lord, making his paths straight, and John was arrested and eventually killed. But Jesus was prepared, and now knew that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near. He knew, through his baptism, through his temptations and wild beasts and angels, even through the arrest of John, that there was Good News, and it was time to preach it.
And so I ask you, before you enter into the wilderness of Lent, do you know who you are? Can you see and hear and believe that you are God’s own child, beloved, and God is well pleased with you? If so, then trust that the Spirit is with you, and whether you are being tempted or being waited on by angels, or if you are surrounded by wild beasts, there may be something important happening, something that will make a huge difference to your bearing the message of Christ to the world. Can you hear and believe the good news even through your trials and hardships, through hunger and fear, through grief? Or can you hear the call to repent, to turn to a new way of being even through ease and comfort and plenty and security? Can you see past those things to a kingdom that demands good for everybody? “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and believe in the good news.” May it be so.
