1st Sunday of Lent – Cycle B, 2024

 

Fr. David Matz

 

Introduction:

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert!

I do say: the liturgical year, Lent, has driven us all out into the desert!

We do believe however, that the Spirit is in all of it;

drives us who believe into the 40 days of Lent, O Lord!

But instead of focusing on our own sinfulness and alienation from God.

Remember, that in Mark’s gospel!

Jesus has just been baptized before being driven into the desert!

The Spirit descended into Jesus and the voice,

God’s voice: “This is my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased!”

This is the Christian gospel summed up into this very point: that when the living God looks at us, at every baptized and believing Christian,

he says to us what he said to Jesus on that day!

It may seem impossible, especially if we never had this kind of support from our earthly parents, but it’s true.

God looks at each of us, and says,

“You are my beloved child; with you I am well pleased!”

Put your name in that sentence and reflect on God saying that to you,

at your baptism and every day since!

How you does this come about, you might ask?

It takes the whole story, particularly the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection, to explain!

This is how it happened, “he saw the heavens open.”

Not a little door opening up in the sky, but the revelation that

“NOW” the invisible curtain right in front of us, is suddenly pulled back, so that now instead of trees, flowers, green hills, citrus fruit, and buildings, or in Jesus’ case the river, the crowds, and the sandy desert,

has a presence, a different reality all together!

The Spirit drives us to understand during Lent that a good deal of learning to live by this different reality even though we can’t see it.

Sometimes, during climatic, life-changing moments, in our life,

we see or we hear what’s really happening but

most of the time, we walk by faith, not by sight!

Mark challenges us to look at the whole story, look at Jesus’ life,

and learn to see and hear the heavenly vision, the heavenly voice.

Learn to hear God’s words addressed to you!

Let them change you, mold you, make you someone new,

the person God wants you to be.

Lent is a time to be drawn back to these words, “Beloved Children,”

spoken to us!

Let the Spirit drive you!!!

Movement:

When we do this, we will be equipped, as Jesus was,

to be driven into the desert!

We, in Jesus Christ, are acting out the great drama of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, Israel’s journey through the wilderness,

into the Promised Land!

The road Jesus must tread,

precisely because he is God’s beloved, is the road that leads through,

the dry and dusty paths, through temptation and apparent failure.

So it will be for us as well!

If we start the journey thinking God is a bully, and angry threatening parent ready to yell at us, slam the door on us, or kick us out into the street because we haven’t quite made the grade,

we will fail at the first whisper of temptation.

But, if we remember the voice that spoke to us those powerful words of love, “You are my beloved child,” we will find a way through!

Mark tells us that Jesus was “with the wild beasts.”

It’s not said if they were threatening, or whether this is. sign of new creation, (with Jesus as the second Adam in the new garden of Eden?) or maybe both.

But the angels are there too.

They were not to keep Jesus from being tested by satan,

just as finally they would not keep him from Calvary itself,

but to assure him that his beloved Father was watching over him,

was there with him was loving him, acting through him, pouring out his Spirit all the time in and through him.

Jesus went the way that all his people must go;

and he could do it because he heard the words of love,

the words of life!

We are hearing them, Now!

Movement 2:

Hear these words! This is our story!

Notice how Jesus picks the moment to act.

When John was preaching, Jesus could bide his time.

Now that John’s in prison and with everything we know about Jesus,

he would have prayed and waited upon his Father for the sense that the moment had arrived.

God speaks through situations and events as well as through the still, small voice in the heart,

and God is now saying that if this Kingdom-movement is to go forwards rather than backwards, it is time for Jesus to go public with his own vocation!

The wandering prophet of Galilee has an urgent message to tell.

God’s time has come. The moment has arrived!

Repent and believe in the Gospel, which is the Gospel proclaimed today

We may think we know what repentance is: “Give up your sin and become a Christian,” but for Jesus repentance meant two other different things as well:

1. turn away from the social and political agendas which were driving Israel into a crazy war. Imagine saying that today in a country/world where ideologies are driving half the population into violent behavior!

2. It meant calling Israel back to a true loyalty to the Lord, their God! This is what needs to happen before God would redeem Israel at last. The call to repent is part of the announcement that

This is the time for the great moment of freedom and God’s rescue!

This is why repentance goes with the call to believe!

We can trust all sorts of things: ancestry, land, our Church and it’s rules and regulations.

Even our God – provided that this God does what we expect him to do.

Jesus, however, is now calling us to trust the good news,

that, for us now, God is doing something new.

To get in on the act,

we have to cut loose from other ties, the burdens, our sinful ways and trust Jesus and his message.

That wasn’t easy for our ancestors in the faith and isn’t easy now!

But it’s what Peter, Andrew, James and John did,

And it’s what all Christians are called to today, tomorrow,

and on into God’s future!

Conclusion:

Beloved children of God in whom God is well pleased.

Repent and Believe in the gospel!

It’s our story!

Live it!