A More Light Congregation

Bethany Presbyterian Church

Sermon

Do you remember one time when I mentioned how disappointing it was for me to discover that there was not actually a little drummer boy in the bible?  Despite the song that was my 5th grade favorite that I loved to sing every year, the story of that song was not part of the religious story of the Christmas Season.  In the same way during this season leading up to Easter, the word Lent never appears in the Bible.  Singing my favorite Christmas song was part of my tradition, not the re-enactment of a biblical scene.  Observing this season of Lent is part of the long history and tradition within the Christian faith, not the re-enactment of biblical events.

The word “lent” actually comes from an Old English word that means lengthen.  The word originally referred to the season of spring, and is a completely secular word.  The Latin version of that same word is quadragesima, which means "fortieth."  It wasn't until 300 years after the death of Jesus that lent was named as a period of 40 days of fasting in preparation for Easter. Depending on the trajectory of the Church from that point forward, the season of Lent means different things.1   Historically Lent was a time for someone unfamiliar with the church to prepare for baptism and entry into the church.  Fasting was a spiritual discipline often accompanying this preparation.  Eventually Easter was not the only preferred day for baptism so that connection fell to the background although the concept remains.  In some Roman Catholic and orthodox traditions there is an observance of the Great Lent which observes 70 days before Easter as a time of preparation.  In the Reformed Tradition where our denomination sits, the season of Lent became defined by what it was not.  The early reformers had many ideas of how the church could become better – become reformed – and were not originally setting out to completely separate from the church as it was.  They wanted to reform not tear down the church.  One of those changes was to find a way to separate the season of Lent from what had become legalism and the idea that one could work their way into God's favor by various behaviors.

The Presbyterian tradition holds that the season of Lent is a time for us to reflect on the time Jesus spent in the wilderness and times of our own wilderness.  We reflect on scarcity, temptation, our distance from God, and Jesus' suffering during his last days.  We engage in disciplines that help keep these reflections front and center during these 40 days as we try to understand what it means that “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.”  We try to understand what it means to each of us, to “repent, and believe in the good news.”

The scripture today comes just after 8 verses of the gospel of Mark.  Already John the Baptist has been baptizing for repentance.  Although he and Jesus had never met, Jesus is baptized by John compelling us to follow his example.  The voice from the cloud that no one else sees or hears calls Jesus “beloved” for the first time.  The second time Jesus was called beloved was at the transfiguration when the two others with Jesus also heard the voice and saw the light.

The gospel of Mark is written with such short quick statements.  A lot happens in just this first chapter, and sets the stage for the rest of the gospel writing.  Reading this early section of Mark to begin our Lenten journey is appropriate.  This scripture reading alone provides all of the things that we are invited to think about for the next six weeks.  Which parts of this scripture call to you today?  Maybe you are asking yourselves why Jesus was baptized if he was without sin.  Or maybe you never realized that Jesus was the only one to hear the voice from heaven and you want to think about what it might be like to feel God's call in private. Maybe we can reflect on how the time in the wilderness was a time of testing as well as a time of divine deliverance.  How about asking yourself what it means to repent – does it mean we've been bad, evil, wrong, and we need to become better – does it mean we need to change something negative about ourselves?  There's this incomplete notion that repenting has to do with making something bad become good.  I find that limiting because the whole idea of repenting then becomes only based on shame, blame, I'm wrong, I'm bad, I'm not good enough, God doesn't like me the way I am.  I believe that God loves us no matter what and that if we want to change something from bad to good, our motivation has to come from the love of God, not from the hate of anyone else.  We don't repent in order to check off a box on a list for some outside approval.  The preparation that comes to us during a time like Lent begins on the inside and works on the inside and lives on the inside.

Whatever we do on the outside as far as adding a spiritual discipline or subtracting an unwanted behavior has to be based on something that matters within our relationship with God.  Maybe it's a good enough Lenten discipline to spend the next six weeks noticing God.  “How did I notice God today?”  Do you know who John Bell is?  He is a minister in the Church of Scotland who is special for many reasons, one of which is his composition of many church hymns written in a more common vernacular and within specific contexts.2   I have a playful competition with my friend, pastor of the church I attended prior to Bethany.  She and I graduated from seminary on the same day and I have spent the last 13 years watching her do things I can't do in outrageously creative ways!  Their Sunday services are pre-recorded and go live on Sunday mornings. Last week, the pastoral assistant she works with actually was able to interview John Bell on zoom and include it in their morning worship on Sunday!  Doesn't that just beat all in our friendly competition!  John Bell!?  It was just a delight to even hear John's voice.  One of the things he said regarding the vocation of God on people's lives was “Christian spirituality and theology, if it's anything, it has to be incarnate.”3  He said that he had realized that much of the church “music and teaching in the church, without any disrespect, acted as if Jesus didn't have a life!”  He said, “Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate…” “there you are 33 years in a coma with the Apostles Creed!”  In an effort to find ways to express the things Jesus did and therefore things we might be asked to emulate as we follow Christ he wrote songs that emphasized the incarnational aspect of our life with God.

It seems to me that the season of Lent is a perfect time to reflect on the how, why, and when of God incarnate in our lives.  How does the fact that Jesus Christ experienced the wilderness and suffering that he did, have an effect on how we live our lives now?  How can reflecting on Jesus' suffering and counter-cultural behavior bring us closer to God today?

Finding time for this kind of reflection is hard.  We are so busy, our heads are filled with so much worry and anxiety and have been for a year now, at least, why would we want to focus on suffering even more?  I heard someone refer to this current season of Lent as “the Lentiest Lent!”

I think focusing on Jesus' trials, temptations and reliance on divine deliverance even in the wilderness is the only way through to the full glory of God's love.  I explain that this way.  We know about PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  There is even something called Complex PTSD, as if PTSD wasn't misunderstood and deep and confusing enough, there is even a version so full of disjointed sources that it's given the name “complex.”  It is a difficult terrible thing to live with, is not the fault of the person suffering, and yet those who struggle are tasked with trying to make a life for themselves. And it is possible.  There is a large body of work that studies PTG – Post Traumatic Growth, referring to growth after trauma.4 Unlike what we think of as resilience, Post Traumatic Growth only happens when a person goes through PTSD, not around it.  In the same way, confronting the reality of Jesus' time in the wilderness and his suffering is the path to realizing the fullest version of God's hope for us.  

Lent is not a time for us to punish ourselves for not being good enough Christians, or deprive ourselves to a degree in order to re-live the suffering of Christ's through our own bodies.  Lent is a time to focus on the power of the love that God has for us, to bring us through those times of wilderness that we experience.  This is a journey we can take together.  

Please join me in prayer,


1 “Lent in the history of the Reformed Church"

The practice of Lent arose from a need in the early Church.  John Witvliet summarizes this need well: “Lent was developed in what we now call a 'missional context.' It was a pastoral innovation for a time much like our own, where vast numbers of people do not grow up in the church. Lent was the church's way of saying 'yes' to the free offer of salvation and 'no' to cheap grace—baptism without discipleship.”

However, through the course of church history, the human compulsion to try to ensure our own outcomes crept into the observance of Lent. Just like pharisaical law in Jesus' day, the practice of Lent turned toward legalism as the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches began mandating particular practices. Naturally this became a slippery slope, confusing the purpose of Lent with the idea that one's works made it possible to earn favor with God.

It was this kind of mindset that reformers like John Calvin were trying to correct in the church. Consequently, Calvin, and others like him, said "no" to the practices of Lent. For them, since God did not command the church to observe Lent, they preferred instead to prepare for Easter using sermon series designed to focus the believer on Jesus' suffering and death.”

  

2 https://www.reformedworship.org/article/march-1993/whom-bell-toils-interview-john-bell-iona-community

3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liN8PGmf3Nw

4 https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/growth-trauma

"PTG is sometimes considered synonymous with resilience because becoming more resilient as a result of struggle with trauma can be an example of PTG—but PTG is different from resilience, says Kanako Taku, who has both researched PTG and experienced it as a survivor of the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan.

"Resiliency is the personal attribute or ability to bounce back," says Taku. PTG, on the other hand, refers to what can happen when someone who has difficulty bouncing back experiences a traumatic event that challenges his or her core beliefs, endures psychological struggle (even a mental illness such as post-traumatic stress disorder), and then ultimately finds a sense of personal growth. It's a process that "takes a lot of time, energy and struggle," Taku says.


Our Lenten Call

Reverend Debra McGuire

February 21, 2021


Mark 1:9-15