First Sunday of Lent

1 Peter 3.18-22; Mark 1.9-15

Today was originally, the first day of Lent, before Ash Wednesday was introduced in the middle ages. That's why it's today that we hear the reading about Jesus in the wilderness, which is the reading that sets the tone or the theme for Lent.

I've always thought that it's an extraordinary thing that as soon as Jesus is baptised and he hears that wonderful affirmation of who he is, he finds himself in the desert, alone, hungry and thirsty. It's as if he's been commissioned for the great work ahead of him and then suddenly he's asking himself 'what's it all about?' Many of you will have had that feeling, after looking forward to a job or task or adventure, that when it's got under way, suddenly you are hit by the reality of what it means to actually be engaged with whatever it was you so longed for or looked forward to.

But I think this that happens to Jesus is rather more than that if it is similar at all. What is really extraordinary about this event is that the same Spirit that comes upon Jesus at his baptism, the Spirit of God actually drives Jesus into the wilderness, St. Mark says. I read somewhere that the actual translation of the Greek words in St. Mark's gospel at that point say that the Spirit 'ejected' or 'threw out' Jesus into the wilderness, which have much the same 'force' about them as the word 'drove', if not more. So God had an intention for Jesus's time in the wilderness and that God put him there. We need to realise that it was not something Jesus chose for himself in the way that we might choose what to give up in this special season as part of our Lenten discipline.

Unlike St. Matthew and St. Luke, St. Mark tells us nothing of what happened to Jesus in the wilderness except that he was there for '40 days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.' But our passage today concludes with Jesus coming to Galilee 'proclaiming the good news of God, and saying 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe the good news.' And so maybe we are left thinking that during the time in the wilderness Jesus had been working out what the vision, mission and purpose was of his ministry; what in fact God had called him to be and do in this world. And when we look at the difference between what St. John the Baptist said and whatJesus said , John called people to repent so their sins were forgiven; but Jesus had something more to offer the people following their repentance, none other than the Kingdom of God. And that for him and his followers was truly Good News.

If we look at what is happening here with Jesus and think about our own life and our life through Lent in particular, we can get a good idea of what Lent is meant to be for us. Lent isn't something we choose to do ourselves. I think that if we feel we are dedicating ourselves to a good observance of the season we might do well to remember that it is the Holy Spirit that leads us to do it, that maybe drives us to it as it drove Jesus into the wilderness. In talking about the grace of God, theologians will talk about God's 'prevenient' grace. That refers to God going in front of us on our journey with him just as he went before the Hebrews in their wandering in the desert in the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. Our choir, before they process into church pray that ancient prayer which begins, 'Go before us O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help...' Originally the prayer, in older English began 'Prevent us O Lord,,,,' meaning, 'Come before us....' However it is worded, there is the idea of God treading the way in front of us. For the idea or the prayer to be of any value to us, we have to first acknowledge that God will go before us in all we do. And then maybe we will be open to his grace at every step. And then we realise that we are not alone in our journey through our wilderness and maybe can see that in actual fact Jesus was not alone in his wilderness with the wild beasts. We are told that angels ministered to him, so God was with him even having put him there in the first place. And for him to be put there by God, there must have been something for him to learn. And as we apply ourselves to Lent there is much for us to learn too.

Lent is a time for learning, mainly, I think, for learning about ourselves. Who is this person that God has made, that God had commissioned to be one of his people in the world? What is our task as individuals, what is our task as the Church? On each Ash Wednesday we have that reading from St. Matthew's gospel which end 'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.' I think that our treasure is what is really important to us in this life, what it is that we value the most. We often forget that in our frantic daily pursuit of a livelihood and lifestyle. We are often drawn away from what we value most by alluring temptations of one form or another; and temptations come in many, many subtle and not so subtle forms; people and things and places that draw us right away from what we hold to as most of value, of greatest importance, if we let them. And then they can become like the wild beasts, ready to devour us, body, mind and spirit.

And so Lent gives us the opportunity to let the Spirit of God go before us through our own wilderness of looking once again for our treasure, looking for what it is that is most of value to us and then realigning ourselves once again with it. And hopefully, just as God has gone before us in our wilderness wandering, so we will find him right in the heart of our treasure, right at the heart of what it is we do most value in this life and for eternity, those things that make you most real, most yourself, most the person God has made, both for himself and for others.