Lent 1

 Mark 1.9-15 & Genesis 9.8-17

Audio version

A sermon by Kevin Bright.

Wow, Mark certainly gets down to business doesn’t he!

It hits you when you actually open a printed bible rather than finding the text online because the words we heard today are two thirds of the way down the first column on the first page.

Matthew and Luke don’t start their descriptions of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness until the fourth chapter and unlike Mark they then go on to list them and provide a more detailed account.

Mark has a sense of urgency to start proclaiming the good news.

After telling us that Jesus was baptised by John in the river Jordan we hear that the ‘Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.’

Like Matthew and Luke he still tells of Christ being tempted but his is the only Gospel to tell us of the angels who ‘waited on him.’

"He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him."

It’s a really powerful detail and worthy of careful contemplation.

Perhaps it helps if first we take a step backwards and identify the times we really felt that we were in our own wilderness.

For some this will be times of great personal sadness, grieving a loved one or times of fear and anxiety when darkness feels like it is closing in.

Perhaps we feel that we are all stuck together as never before in a wilderness of uncertainty as we enter our second consecutive Lent in lockdown with much of what makes life joyful denied to us. Forty days and forty nights we might have been able to tolerate but this could yet be 400 days and nights of restrictions in one form or another.

My daughter received a valentine’s card with hearts surrounding a smiling Boris Johnson (I don’t think it was from him) which read ‘My love for you is like the UK lockdown – it will never end’.

It seems that we all had better start looking for angels.

Mark doesn’t imply that we should skip the bits where we face up to temptations, wrestle with the tempter or acknowledge our greatest fears, our own beasts that threaten to overwhelm us, but even in these situations we need to keep an eye open for the angels.

Sometimes it’s easier to see the angels that have waited on us in our times of need when we look back, they weren’t quite so obvious when we were suffering. I don’t think that you need my help to find the angels among us in this time of Covid, nor in times of personal sadness and despair, it’s for each of us to reflect upon our personal wilderness experiences in order to identify the angels we met that make real God’s love and care for humanity.

Lent can be a time to move our minds out of a rut and with God’s help identify where we need to change course, break bad habits and restore health to our relationships. Relationships with God, his creation and each other.

The fasting element can be a first step toward getting ourselves in a place where we can think, reflect and pray more deeply. Denying ourselves alcohol, chocolate or Netflix may prove to ourselves that we still have some self-discipline and are serious about this, whilst others already know that they are serious and focus solely on the positive action of truly acknowledging that we exist only by God’s grace.

In the story of Noah we hear that God set ’his bow in the clouds’ as a sign of his covenant with the earth.

During this time of Covid rainbows have proliferated and become both a sign of hope for a brighter future on our earth but also a recognition and thanksgiving for the many angels working tirelessly to care for and support their fellow human beings.

George Matheson, the Scottish hymn writer knew a thing or two about life’s challenges, losing his sight at an early age.

His hymn, ‘O love that wilt not let me go’ finds meaning in God’s rainbow promise and contains the words that you will probably recall..

O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow through the rain

And feel the promise is not vain

That morn shall tearless be.

When Noah takes the animals into the ark he is acknowledging the responsibility of humankind to care for God’s creation. Early in Genesis God said of humankind ‘let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’

As God loves and cares for us he expects us to reflect this not only among each other but also in the way we relate to the world around us.

Record numbers of people have sought canine companions in the last year, gardening has grown and found new enthusiasts and almost every route you hike seeking some solitude has to be shared with other muddy boots as the great outdoors appeals like never before.

Is this just a temporary improvement in our relationship with nature which will promptly cease once Bluewater re-opens and a symptom of a situation which can sometimes feel like house arrest. 

You may have seen a recent news story where a wanted criminal surrendered himself to face jail as he couldn’t stand his domestic situation another day. Perhaps true punishment for him would be an electronic tag which confined him to the house.

It would be nice to think that whilst Covid has undoubtedly brought much misery and suffering that it could prove to be a catalyst for an improvement in our relationship with God’s creation and an acknowledgement of each other’s value to God. 

One temptation we all need to fight against is to think that we don’t need each other or have a responsibility to each other. So there was a ray of hope to learn that the G7 countries are planning to provide vaccinations to those unable to access their own. It’s not all bad news.

I also saw that the Mayor of London received his jab recently and subsequently tweeted’ Love that as a Mayor of Islamic faith, I received my COVID vaccine at a local church, from Reverend Dr Sue Clarke, who came out of retirement to volunteer as a vaccinator. This is London: our diversity is our strength.

As Christians we should be able to look at all around us and declare ‘this is humanity, our love for each other is our strength.’ At such times we can be sure that God, once again, is well pleased!

Amen