Not a mistake
Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent (February 18, 2025) at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day.
The Christ Pantocrator of St. Catherine's Monastery at Sinai, a 6th-century encaustic icon. Image via Wikipedia.
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“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.” from Mark 1:9-15
Edited Transcript
May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Please be seated.
Today is the first Sunday in Lent and every first Sunday in Lent, we hear from one of the gospels the story of how Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness. This year we hear it from Mark. One of the beautiful things about Mark's gospel is you'll notice there's not always a lot of details. So where Luke or Matthew would tell us Jesus was in the wilderness, 40 days, he was tempted by the devil, and here's what those temptations were. You might remember, turn these stones into bread or throw yourself off the temple and see if the angels will bear you up or bow down to me and I'll give you every kingdom. Matthew, Luke will give us specifics. But in Mark's gospel, he seems to take away every bit of the story that isn't essential. And what he leaves us with almost becomes a trellis for our own imagination, for our own connection of our lives to the life and ministry of Jesus. So all we know about these 40 days, if we had Mark only, is that Jesus was tempted by Satan. He was with wild beasts, and angels served him.
Now, the reason that we always come to one of these tellings of the 40 days in the wilderness during the first Sunday in Lent is that Lent is a 40 day period. So the invitation for us is to say, Jesus spent 40 days in this wilderness, in this desert having these experiences. And I want to start by talking about how we connect what we're doing here in the season of Lent with what we hear about the beginning of Jesus' ministry and the gospels. The beginning of the 40 days is Jesus receiving a baptism from John the Baptist in the Jordan River. And Mark tells us the heavens are torn open and a voice is heard that says, this is my beloved son. Immediately the spirit derives him into the wilderness. No pause. The Holy Spirit's like the wilderness is on purpose. That's one thing we can learn from this. The wilderness being in the wilderness is at the movement of God. Okay? When Jesus emerges from the wilderness, his baptismal ministry, when Jesus emerges from the wilderness, his ministry begins, the time is at hand. The kingdom of heaven has come near to you. Repent and believe the good news.
It might make more sense to me if Jesus' ministry began at his baptism. Why does he go into the wilderness? Why does the Holy Spirit drive him there for 40 days? And why for us, do we have to wait 40 days until we proclaim the good news of the resurrection of Jesus on Easter? Why does the church make us go through these 40 days where we fast, we think about our mortality, we pray, we read scripture. Why do we have to spend these 40 days? Why does it take us 40 days to get from Ash Wednesday the day of recognizing in case we were in denial, that we are going to die the day of recognizing in case we were in denial, that we have made grievous mistakes. The day of recognizing in case we were in denial, that our relationship with God has been torn and patched by the things that we have done or left undone. Why do we have to wait 40 days to go from that moment to Easter where redemption triumphs over sin, where love triumphs over broken relationships and broken hearts and where death does not have the last word, where life triumphs over death. It takes 40 days from Jesus baptism to the beginning of his ministry for us to journey from death to life.
And what we from this gospel story is that it is not a mistake that it takes 40 days. That when we make a commitment, when we take up a new ministry that's going to change our lives. When we set something down that's going to change our lives, anytime we commit to a change, anytime a change happens to us, there's going to be time in the wilderness. Excuse me, there's going to be time in the wilderness. It's not a mistake. It's from God. You feel like you're wandering. It's not a mistake. It's from God. You feel lost. You wish you hadn't made that decision or that that change hadn't happened. It's not a mistake. It's from God. The great parallel of what Jesus does in the wilderness for 40 days is the Exodus, the people of Israel, God's people are enslaved in Egypt, God sends Moses their liberator to lead them out of slavery to the promised land where they will live as God's people in harmony, in the place that God promised to their forebear.
Abraham, what happens in between? Do they go right from Egypt to their new land and their kingdom 40 years wandering around in the wilderness and saying, oh, gee, God, if we knew that you were going to make us go through this, we never would've left Egypt. But it's in those 40 years that they become again, the people who answer to God, not to Pharaoh, not to the oppressor, but the people who are free because they answer to the law given to them by their God, and it takes them 40 years to start to get the hang of it and to be ready to inherit the promise that God made to them at the beginning of the world. If you're in the wilderness, it's not a mistake. It's from God.
Three things happen to Jesus. And I want to wrap up by giving some thoughts for when we find ourselves in this wilderness time, and maybe for you Lent because of something you chose to do or something you chose to give up will be a little bit of a wilderness time. Or maybe you're in a wilderness time, not of your own choosing, but because of something that's happened to you or someone you love or because of what you see in the world around you. Three things to notice. Number one, Jesus is tempted by Satan. We all know what it looks like and feels like to be tempted, and we all know what it looks like to give in. We know what it feels like.
Note: from here on the recording was cut off, and this outline reconstructs the closing of the sermon:
Temptation. Everyone experiences it. If it causes you to trip up, get back up and keep moving.
Wild beasts. Notice who and what is with you in the wilderness. "Wild beasts” can mean lots of things. Could scare us. Could comfort us. Could remind us we’re not alone. Could make us curious. Could make us laugh. Be curious about the context we’re in.
Angels. When we’re in the wilderness, the messengers of God are there to minister to us. I told a very brief story about how in 2013 I graduated from seminary on Friday, was confirmed in The Episcopal Church on Saturday morning, and on Saturday afternoon put all my stuff in storage and moved out of my apartment, because my lease was up and I had no where to live. It was scary! I complained about it to my uncle, and said, this is like in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus gets baptized and he’s immediately driven into the wilderness! I just got confirmed and now I have nowhere to live! And my uncle said, “and angels were with him.” And angels were with me. Look for the angels, the messengers of God who are with you in your wilderness. And where you can, be someone else’s angel.