First Sunday of Lent

Jan 29 2025

Lent and Beginning Anew

A snapshot differs from a TV show or movie, which moves along, demanding that we keep up with the storyline. A snapshot allows us to focus on details, to take as much time as we want. Snapshots allow us to pause, ponder, and meditate. There is no need to rush on to what comes next.

Mark’s Gospel opens with a series of snapshots of Jesus, whom Mark proclaims from the start as “Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:1). First, he offers a picture of Jesus’ baptism when God’s voice proclaims, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (1:11). Then, the two pictures presented today: Jesus driven into the desert for forty days to be tested by Satan, and Jesus beginning a new ministry of preaching the gospel.

These snapshots begin the work of drawing us into the mystery of the one proclaimed as the Promised One long awaited, but even more, the one who is the Son of God. In him God’s reign comes to us.

Lent is a time for deciding where our loyalty lies in life. To whom or what do we give our allegiance? At the end of the forty days we renew our baptismal promises. We will be called to profess our faith in God who created us and our world out of love, in the Son who died for us and was raised to new life, and in the Spirit who now drives us to confront the power of evil in our world.

Consider/Discuss

How can this Lent be a time to begin anew? What concrete steps can you take to stop and ponder the shape of your life?
How does identifying yourself as being a beloved son or daughter of God influence your daily decisions?

Responding to the Word

Loving God, you have spoken to us at our baptism, calling us beloved children, sending your Spirit upon us, making us heirs of the kingdom of God. Help us to be open to your Spirit this Lent and where it leads. Make us content to rest in stillness and hear your voice.

Jan 29 2025

Scripture Study for

The first reading is an account of the covenant that God entered into after the flood. It was made with Noah, with his descendants, with all the living creatures that were in the ark, and with the earth itself. The covenant was promissory, God pledging that never again would unruly waters destroy the world and its inhabitants. The bow in the sky may well be a reference to the weapon of the divine warrior who was victorious over the forces of primordial chaos. Just as God rested after creation (see Genesis 2:2–3), hanging up the bow is a sign that order has been established in the universe.

The author of First Peter speaks of the efficacy of Christ’s death. It was a sin offering, like the sacrifices of expiation offered daily in the temple, with the blood of the victim sprinkled on the altar. However, Christ’s sacrifice was effective for all time and for all people. It was also vicarious, endured for others. Like the servant in Isaiah (Isaiah 53:4–6), Jesus was the innocent man who bore the guilt of the unrighteous. Christ did this so that we might be brought to God and have access to God’s saving grace. Finally, after ascending into heaven, Christ occupies the place of honor at the right hand of God.

The account of Jesus’ temptation is charged with meaning. The wilderness was the place of trial. Forty days held special meaning. Moses fasted that long as he inscribed the commandments (Exodus 34:28); Elijah fasted for the same length of time as he walked to Horeb (1 Kings 19:8). It was in this same tradition that Jesus fasted. The announcement of his ministry summarizes the content of his preaching. In eschatological thought, the advent of the reign of God called for a change of mind and heart. Since Jesus’ interpretation of God’s will did not correspond to the predominant understanding of his day, his announcement of such a ministry was fraught with danger.

Jan 24 2025

The True Guardian of the Galaxies Leads Us into and through Lent

Out in the woods, I turn a corner. I stop suddenly. On the leaves in front of me, a red-tailed hawk is perched on the body of a squirrel. His beak snatches at its red flesh. The hawk’s black eyes stare at me. He goes back to picking at his meat, predator eating prey.

In the desert, Jesus was meat. How did he not get eaten by wolves in the Judean wilderness? Bears and lions roamed the hills. Jackals howled at nighttime. For forty days, by Mark’s account, the son of the carpenter dwelt among them. He was weak. He was exposed. He was vulnerable. He could have been picked to pieces. In that stark space—stripped of human support—the Savior of the world started his earthly ministry.

Lent is the season of the desert. We have forty days to ponder our vulnerability; wolves and hawks could eat us as well. We could be picked to pieces by the lions outside of ourselves or ripped to shreds by the jackals of our own minds and hearts. How are we to make it through this life? Is our own strength enough? In reality, in our emptiness, exposed and vulnerable, we are as defenseless as squirrels.

The Holy Spirit thrust Jesus into the immenseness of the desert. The Holy Spirits thrusts us into this season of penitence to recognize our need for God, to find God and to seek God. The goal of Lent is to strip away anything that keeps us from belonging to God alone.

The Creator of the universe is trustworthy. In today’s Genesis story, the Almighty creates a covenant of care for all creatures. In the wilderness story, the angels tend to Jesus. In our own littleness, we too are protected. Our God is vast and good, and yet remembers us. Under the divine wings, we find shelter. We will not be eaten.

Consider/Discuss

This week, we enter into this Lenten season of repentance and self examination for conversion. Do we believe that God is our protector, that God will act on our behalf? As we look at the wild beasts of life, what makes us afraid? What happens when we turn to our own power to save?
In the saga from Genesis, God works through the faithfulness of Noah to rescue a broken world. As we trust that God has this whole world in his hands, how are we being called to be both faithful and heroic this Lent? What is our part in making this world a better place?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, Savior of the world, you know what the wilderness is like. You have been there. We also have days when we feel the hot sun beating down hard; we also fear the cries of wild animals in the night—they make us afraid. Strengthen our trust and help us to cling to you. Almighty God, show us that you are with us. Strip away our delusions of self-sufficiency and help us to be willing to serve you and you alone. Holy Spirit, grant us the courage of the desert this Lent.

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

The flood in Genesis is God’s initial response the fact of human wickedness, which had filled the entire earth with corruption (Genesis 6:11–13). Afterward, God recognizes that this has not solved the problem of the human heart, whose “desires . . . are evil from youth” (8:21); a new plan will have been put in place. In the meantime, God establishes a covenant, not just with human beings but with “every living creature.” This covenant is an expression of God’s commitment to all that has been created. Even though human sin has brought corruption to the whole earth, God does not turn away, but prepares the way for a new plan that will address the problem of the human heart.

The author of First Peter refers to the time of Noah from two perspectives. The identity of the “spirits in prison” to whom Christ preached possibly refers to the spirits of those whose disobedience occasioned the flood. The point is that the account of the suffering, death, and exaltation of Christ should encourage his audience in their own sufferings (3:13–17). Peter also ties the flood narrative to baptism, suggesting that Noah and his family were “saved through water” (although actually they were saved from water). Through baptism one is renewed through the power of Christ. The “appeal” might also be translated “pledge of good conscience,” meaning that for their part humans promise to allow their lives to be renewed and to be faithful, particularly in a time of suffering.

In Mark’s account of his temptation, Jesus is in the desert “among wild beasts,” which represent the “wildness” of the desert as a place of spiritual struggle, as in the Exodus account. As in that same account, Jesus is attended by angels, agents of God’s protection. Jesus relives the experience of Israel, but unlike them he does not succumb to temptation. His proclamation is simple: The promised reign of God, in which all will be ordered according to God’s will, is coming to pass. The human response is twofold: Believe that God’s promises are being fulfilled and repent of any behaviors or attitudes that oppose the divine will.

Jan 14 2025

Destination 1—The Desert

Twice a year the Gospels take us to the desert. John the Baptist cries out on two Sundays every Advent, and Jesus encounters Satan every Lent. What makes the desert so ideal a setting as we prepare to celebrate the two great mysteries of our faith?

The desert is a place of testing, as God’s people learned when they wandered around it for forty years. With hardened hearts, they had rejected the God who had liberated them from slavery in Egypt, losing faith even while God was talking to Moses and setting down the conditions for their adoption. Up went the golden calf and out went the memory of what God had just done for them.

Even Eden wasn’t enough to keep the human heart open. Even there it was clear that we could be seduced by anything that looked good and promised more than it could deliver. But Jesus showed that one of us could measure up to the test and reveal himself as the “beloved Son” that he had been called at his baptism (Matthew 3:17).

The desert is also for wooing. The prophet Hosea quotes God saying, “So I will allure her [Israel]; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart” (Hosea 2:16). And when Satan left Jesus, God sent “angels [who] came and ministered to him” (Matthew 4:11).

So we come to this Lent and the possibility that God wishes to draw us out into a quiet, lonely place to have us meet the One who made us, redeemed us, and continues to shape us into temples of the Holy Spirit.

Consider/Discuss

What do you associate with the desert?
Is there any particular place you consider “the desert” where God meets you?
Are you being tested today in terms of living out the baptismal call to be a beloved son or daughter?

Responding to the Word

We pray that this Lent will be a time of deeper understanding of what it means to be God’s beloved child. We ask God to open our eyes to recognize those things that draw us away and to be open to how God might be drawing us closer.