The 1st United Methodist Church of Napa

The 1^st United Methodist Church of Napa

March 5, 2006

The 1^st Sunday in Lent and a Day of Holy Communion

Scripture Readings:

Psalter – Psalm 25: 1-10[1]

¹ To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.

² O my God, in you I trust;

do not let me be put to shame;

do not let my enemies exult over me.

³ Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;

let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

⁴ Make me to know your ways, O LORD;

teach me your paths.

⁵ Lead me in your truth, and teach me,

for you are the God of my salvation;

for you I wait all day long.

⁶ Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love,

for they have been from of old.

⁷ Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;

according to your steadfast love remember me,

for your goodness’ sake, O LORD!

⁸ Good and upright is the LORD;

therefore he instructs sinners in the way.

⁹ He leads the humble in what is right,

and teaches the humble his way.

¹⁰ All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,

for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.

Gospel – Mark 1: 9-15[2]

⁹In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

¹²And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. ¹³He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

¹⁴Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Remember.

There are all kinds of signs that promise us something. In spite of the storms of this past week the signs of spring are all around us: the trees have begun to bud, birds have begun to migrate north again, and once dormant lawns are showing the lush green of new growth. Baseball teams have begun spring training, and "March Madness" has gripped those of us who care about college basketball. The odds that Duke will make it to the "Final Four" are maybe just a little bit better than for those "other" Chicagoans who harbor the perennial promise that "this year just might be the year for the Cubs!" On March 15^th the buzzards return to Hinckley, Ohio, and on March 19^th the swallows will come back to the mission in San Juan Capistrano along California's coast. Next month Martha and I will be gifted with yet another granddaughter. So, in spite of the weather, there are rainbows to tell us that somewhere the sun is shining. Promises are part of the fabric of life.

Even Jesus didn't go directly from his baptism to the transcendent Christ-figure that the church has made of him. There was room for a whole lot of living in the years between those two events. It still isn't easy for us to live in a world torn apart with the kinds of dissension and violence that we witness at every evening's report of the news. But something new is being given birth within the church.[3] Many of you have embarked on that road of discovery by participating in our Lenten study of Marcus Borg's book, The Heart of Christianity. In this week to come you'll be introduced to the "heart" of our tradition – how Christians have expressed their faith over the centuries and expressed it in the Bible.

Maybe my associate, Jennifer, ought to be using this analogy since she's actually run a real one, but the season of Lent is a little bit like running a marathon – well, okay, let's just call it "an energetic walk in the company of others." Does that sound better? For the professionals the element of competition might be a bit too obvious, but for most of us the focus is simply being part of this often exhausting, challenging, but common effort that we make together to reach the finish line of our journey intact and with a new sense of our inner strength. In the biblical idea of a covenant, God is the organizer of this marathon – the One who cheers us on, provides us with refreshment along the way, and welcomes us with open arms at the end.

Today we're reminded of Jesus' baptism. We should know that baptism, like becoming a member of the church, is more than just an initiation into the Christian life; it's also a kind of beginning, not an end, or a place to simply sit down and rest. During this season of Lent, then, as we engage in this marathon (Excuse me: "vigorous walk!"), it's really important to remember that the covenant is all about community. It's important that we take part in this spiritual journey in the company of others: not just here during worship services, in Sunday School, or in reading a book about the "heart" of it all, but throughout our lives. As John Wesley, the founder of Methodism once put it: "There's no such thing as a solitary Christian."

In this covenant with the sacred that we've come to call religion, I think that it's worth noting that the word "religion," in its root meaning (Remember, I used to teach English!) means "to link or bind together," so it's primarily about relationships. When our relationship with the sacred is in order, the foundation is laid for shalom[4] in all of those other relationships that make up our journey through life – the relationship that we have with ourselves, with others, and with all of creation. Lent is a time for us to remember: to remember our responsibility for all of those relationships and to repent for all of the times that we've failed to keep up our end of the covenant, failed to nurture our relationships with forgiveness, love, and the things that make for reconciliation.

I don't suppose that you see many people these days with strings around their fingers, but reminders are important. For this reason every Lenten season ought to include stories of our liberation from bondage, of our return from exile, of our being forgiven of the wrongs we have done. Take time to remember these things. Do you have a home? Do you have friends that you can trust? Do you have a way of getting around town? Do you have a livable income? Have you ever had a pet to remind you of the playfulness of the human spirit? Do you have any pleasant memories at all? Nobody's life is without frustration and failure, heartache and mistakes, but we tend to forget the intangible gifts of the Spirit, like a presence known in simple companionship, or new beginnings made possible through lessons of courage and the gift of unconditional love.

So, yes, during Lent we're called to remember our baptism, to a ritual that goes as far back as even before the days of the early church – the youth in our Confirmation Class will be learning just what that means in these weeks leading up to Easter. We need to remember our own baptism and be thankful – to hear these words addressed to us: "You are my child. I love you. I take such delight in you."[5] I think God must be a grandparent!

By remembering things like this we give them meaning. Some people tell stories, some collect scrapbooks, some put together photo albums, others keep a journal giving them opportunities for reflection and the insights that wouldn't come if they didn't write things down and ponder them for awhile. But we're easily distracted. Processing through a memory, then – retracing your steps, listening and looking more deeply for meaning – makes life a more fulfilling journey.

And a journey it has to be. We keep making new memories even as we reflect and build upon our older ones. Probably there are things that we'd just as soon forget, things that we would change, but without them ever having happened, and the memories that make them real, we would not be as whole or as blessed.

"The time is fulfilled," Jesus says to us, "and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."[6] Think back about where you've been and who you were, and then think about where and who you are now. Have you wandered off into the wilderness? Turn back. Remember the unconditional love that Jesus, as the Christ, offers to those who would follow him. Remember. And then live as that kind of a reminder to others.