Sermons

• The Lenten Space of Listening – The Rev. Michelle Meech

  February 18, 2024

  Marks’ Gospel is a fast-moving story. It doesn’t bother with the nativity story of Jesus like Matthew and Luke or with the royal linage of Jesus like Matthew or with a theological statement about the eternal life of Christ like John. Mark jumps right in by introducing John the Baptist, who baptizes Jesus. And the Holy Spirit, who sends Jesus right into the wilderness.

  Unlike our baptisms today, where we welcome the new person into our baptismal family by proclaiming that we will support them in their life and ministry as a Christian and we give them a candle and then we have cake. Unlike this gentle and celebratory welcoming, Jesus was thrust into the wilderness. His ministry began by entering the wilderness. No time to catch his breath. No time to figure out what this baptism meant. Jesus was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted.

  

  Tempted in the Wilderness by James Tissot

  Temptation is one of those concepts that we typically associate with yummy things. We’re tempted by chocolate or cake or too much screen time. We’re tempted by money or prestige. We’re tempted by things that make us feel good or that make us feel powerful. Some kind of indulgent behavior. And so sometimes we can tend to think of Lent as a kind of self-improvement project. But it’s not that at all.

  The Gospel tells us: “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.” Jesus did not go to the desert wilderness of his own accord. He did not go there because the liturgical year said it was the season of Lent and, therefore, it was time for him to be tempted. He didn’t go because he talked to his priest or his spiritual director or his therapist and one of them suggested that he put himself through hell so that he could become ready for the work God had for him in this world.

  He was driven there by God’s Holy Spirit.

  Consider when you’ve been driven to such a place that you would call it a desert wilderness. It’s usually because something has happened to you. Or something has happened to someone you love. Or you have had your worldview shattered by the actions of very confused or disturbed people. These are not nothing, these times in our lives. These are moments when the earth seems to shake under our feet and suddenly, we are faced with a new reality. And we don’t know exactly who we are any more in this new reality. We are forced into a new life. A new way of being.

  It’s this kind of experience that Mark and all the other Gospel writers are trying to tell us, is what Jesus went through. And you cannot manufacture that kind of earth-shaking, identity-shattering, breath-stealing moment. Nor should you want to, frankly. So, to say that we should walk a wilderness path during the season of Lent, just like Jesus did is a nonstarter. Nonetheless, it’s worth considering this moment in Jesus’ life as we talk about the season of Lent so that we do understand that Lent isn’t about self-improvement. Lent is about listening.

  What do I mean by that. Well, there are fantastical stories and movies about this – about swapping places with someone else. A sudden change in identity. Learning what it’s like to live like someone else does. Or about gaining a sudden skill that shifts our perspective and gives us insight into how people see us or how others see the world. When faced with a big shift, we are suddenly paying closer attention. We are listening more. We aren’t taking our circumstances for granted.

  Think about this for a moment: When you’re in a new place, driving in a different or unfamiliar city, for example… it’s as if you’re noticing everything. Attending to all the street signs – or at least trying to. Listening on several levels to all the signals coming at you. You’re learning new territory. Learning how to navigate a new place. Because, if you don’t learn, you won’t get to where you need to be.

  This is a bit like what it’s like to be in a desert wilderness. Not exactly, because the stakes aren’t that high. We always survive this experience. But it’s the same kind of listening, the same kind of paying attention we have to do. We are on alert, learning what the new will bring to us. Listening to what these new noises are. What these new smells and sights are. Learning what will help us and what will endanger us. Taking everything in.

  Lent is meant to be this kind of space for us. One that causes us to rethink our relationship to God, our relationships to one another, and our relationship to ourselves. And this requires courage. Because the desert wilderness can break us. Or it can break us open so that we can become even more ourselves. More deeply connected to God. More engaged in the community around us. Deepening our faith.

  I believe this is why Jesus was driven to the wilderness, because in order to truly serve God, to do what he was called to do, it was time for him to put away his immature faith. And perhaps this is why Mark wrote this as the first act of Jesus’ ministry – because learning to listen to God is the first step in a mature Christian faith.

  When we are only able to see the world through the lens of one story… our story, our assumptions, our attitudes… it’s very hard to know our true place in the world. It’s hard to recognize how we’re needed, how we are called to participate in the coming of God’s Reign of Love, how we are called to be disciples in the world.

  If we don’t learn how to see past our own story and our own expectations, then the Christian path becomes more about comforting ourselves rather than it is about becoming disciples whose mission is the mission of God in the world. And Church becomes more about our own needs, than it is about the needs of the world around us.

  We are disciples, you and me.  And while we come and to be church together and to comfort one another when we are called to, our primary task is to be sent into the world.

  William Temple was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1940’s during WWII.  You may recall from history, that parts of England were utterly destroyed in WWII. London sustained bombing after bombing. They had to black out the entire city at night so that it couldn’t be spotted from the air by bomber planes flying overhead. It was a scary time – a time when it was tempting to focus only on survival, to focus only on self. I don’t envy Archbishop William Temple, becoming the leader of the Church of England at such a demoralizing and hopeless time in the country’s history, a country that was largely Christian. It was Christians who lost their lives.

  So, it may surprise you that one of William Temple’s most famous quotes is not about comforting Christians.  One of Temple’s most famous quotes is about the mission of God: “The church is the only organization in the world that exists solely for the benefit of its non-members.”

  The Body of Christ does not exist for itself. It never did. It never will. Ministry is not given to us to comfort us. Ministry is given to us so that we might become ever more completely, ever more profoundly, the Body of Christ broken for the world.

  The mission of God awaits us on the other side of the wilderness, on the other side of the tempting attitude. And this is why we practice.  Every Lent, this is why we practice.

  May we take our call to the desert with faithful heart, may we encourage one another along the way, and may we grow more deeply into God’s love for us and our relationships with one another.