Readings: Mark 1:9-15 Lent 1: February 22, 2015 Psalm 25:1-10

Transcription

1 Contending with Wild Beasts and Life s Big Question from the pulpit of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania by the Reverend Dr. Agnes W. Norfleet Readings: Mark 1:9-15 Lent 1: February 22, 2015 Psalm 25:1-10 Sometimes it is difficult to listen to a particular passage of scripture, when there are other versions of the same story that come to mind, some of which are far more elaborate, and even more interesting. Mark s version of the Temptation of Jesus is the one speaking to us this morning, so out of courtesy to Mark we need to hold the other gospel versions at bay. That means we have to exercise a little discipline, and if we hear strains of Matthew who describes the Tempter going after

2 Jesus hunger with stones he might turn to bread, and taking him to the pinnacle of the Temple to offer the lure of power out of respect for Mark we have to ask Matthew to leave the room. And Luke, who further elaborates on Matthew s recollection, with a full blown personification of Satan, is not our First Sunday of Lent gospel reading this year either. It is Mark who sets the stage for our Lenten journey this year with Jesus earliest Temptation story, in just two cryptic verses sandwiched between Jesus baptism and his first sermon. Plain and spare, Mark would not be up for an Academy award tonight, because rather than great actors and costumes, stunning music and amazing cinematography of angels ready to catch Jesus midair lest he hurl himself off the rooftop, what we have here is more Off Broadway, low budget theater, like a minimalist Samuel Beckett play, or existentialist Jean Paul Satre, portraying a lonely character on a dimly lit stage with no props. The only action to speak of, is Jesus himself, alone, wrestling with Life s Big Question WHO AM I? In two crisp verses Mark says only this: And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Ironically perhaps, this sparse account with little detail may help us better identify with Jesus temptation, than the largerthan-life dramas the other gospel writers present to drive the message home. Mark s terse version leaves room for mystery and ambiguity, and thereby invites us onto the stage with Jesus, to imagine the wild beasts with which he had to contend, as the ones we also confront. Now, while I have suggested we should hold the other gospel stories at bay to fully grasp Mark s proclamation, it is impossible not to hear the echoes of the Old Testament here as in the others. We are in the wilderness that place on the far side of the Exodus, where our religious forebears 2

3 wandered for forty years and were tempted to forget the Almighty God who had delivered them in the first place. In their wilderness, those ancient Israelites stumbled, sinned, rebelled, saddled up closer to lesser gods, and repeatedly forgot who they were children of God who had been called, rescued, and promised a future flowing with abundant blessing. When the going got tough they sought after more congenial gods, not the least of which was the idolatry of their own selfsufficiency. Jesus may be the Son of God, but his time in the wilderness proves he too was not immune to the temptations that face all human beings the mysterious, yet powerful forces of sin and death, and our own sense of self-sufficiency to deny the power and presence of God. What Mark helps us see is that real temptation is not so obvious, and definitely not a caricature of a Devil on our shoulder saying, Hi, I am Satan; I am here to tempt you! Truth be told, the greatest Tempters usually look more like a friend or relative. When Jesus uttered his famous, Get behind me Satan! he was not talking to the Pharisees or Pilate, he was talking to his closest companion, Simon Peter. At the heart of real temptation is not the offer to fall, but to rise on our own. As scholar Fred Craddock has put it, No self-respecting Satan would approach a person with offers for personal, social and professional ruin. That is in the small print at the bottom of the temptation. The greatest threat we face is a matter of identity, to forget who we are, to think we can navigate our lives all by ourselves, to think that we can manage this tangled web of a world we live in by our own selfsufficiency, that we can face the evils of the world without the hope we have been given by God, to forget that life is stronger than death, and love overcomes evil. 3

4 Maurice Sendak has been in the news lately because of the regional arguments over his estate and who holds the rights to his collection. It is not the first time Sendak s creative genius has been a matter of debate. When his famous children s book, Where the Wild Things Are, was first published in 1963, it sparked quite a bit of controversy with its plot line of how young Max is rude to his mother and gets sent to bed without his supper. There, in the dark of night, he is confronted with the scariest, ugliest, wildest creatures that anyone might imagine. Back in the early 1960 s many adults considered Max a bad role model for talking back to his mother, and thought the drawings were too scary for young children. But Maurice Sendak knew, better than those concerned adults, the reality of wild beasts that do indeed frighten little children. The child of Polish immigrants, his father had lost almost his whole family from the small villages outside Warsaw during the Holocaust. Maurice Sendak was well acquainted with the wild things that cause a family to grieve with bitter sadness. He knew the wild beasts of feeling different from the others, of feeling inferior. As a child growing up in the poor neighborhoods of Brooklyn, he himself was sick, suffering from measles, double pneumonia and scarlet fever. So sick that between the ages of two and four he was hardly ever allowed outside to play; at a young age he contended with the wild beasts of illness and worry. He also knew the wild beasts of competing claims for his identity. School proved difficult for young Maurice. He was overweight and he stammered. In his school, creativity was not encouraged, but the only class in which he excelled was art. And so, what did Sendak do with his young protagonist, Max, in Where the Wild Things Are? Eventually Max confronts the beasts; he stands up to them, he claims his rightful place among them, and makes them his friends. 1 1 Maurice Sendak information discovered when helping one of our children with a school project, and these facts found at answers.com, 2/27/09. 4

5 It may seem a stretch to move from a children s book to the Temptation of Jesus, but that is what Jesus did in the wilderness. He must have befriended, or at least come to terms with, the wild beasts each of us confronts. Because as the gospel unfolds, we are told over and over again, that it is the demons who recognize Jesus. Get out of here Jesus of Nazareth, they yell at him, saying: We know who you are. The forces of evil know the power of God in Jesus when they see him, and out in the wilderness Jesus contended with them so that, like the Wild Things young Max confronts, they lost their power when they stood face-to-face and toe-to-toe with Jesus. Having contended with the temptations before him, Jesus came out of the wilderness knowing who he was and what he needed to do. Jesus emerged on the other side, ready to take on his role as Savior of the world. If you think about temptation as being mostly about choosing between right and wrong, then you may end up wandering aimlessly these forty days of Lent. If you think Lent is mostly about self-denial, then you are also a bit off the mark. Satan was not out there offering Jesus chocolate after he had given it up for Lent. What is at stake here is Jesus claiming his core identity, and likewise then, these forty days of Lent invite us to re-claim our core identity. Like Jesus, who we are is pronounced at baptism, when we are named Beloved Children of God. Through the course of our lives, our greatest temptation is to forget that at every turn. My friend and pastor in New York City, Michael Lindvall, once said it this way: When we take the name Christian, and give answer to the question Do you trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, we are no less than taking on our identity. There is no way to be equivocal 5

6 about this: To be a Christian is not one loyalty among many. To be a Christian is not one of several equally important identities. Your faith cannot be just one personal interest among several hobbies. Church is not just another one of the various associations you might belong to. Your church pledge should never be at the bottom of your charitable giving but at the top. The teachings of Jesus are not just one possible source of guidance. At the end of the day, you can t just dabble with Jesus. Of course you might be a Mom or a music teacher who is a Christian. You might be a Christian investment banker. You can be a follower of Jesus Christ who is also a lawyer. But your faith guides your music teaching and your mothering, not the other way around. And the ethics of Jesus inform your banking and guide your lawyering, not the reverse. 2 When he was surrounded by wild beasts, Jesus remembered who he was, above all else a beloved child of God, blessed, created with purpose, given a life full of meaning and a vocation to proclaim God s love to the world. God knows our world presents many temptations to lure us away from our Christian identity these days. And God knows there are wild beasts out there. In this past week alone, we have seen people lined up and martyred for claiming their Christian identity. But the wild beasts are also closer to home than ISIS. They come in any guise that tempts us to forget our primary identity as beloved, dependent children of God. The editor of a journal I read wrote this about Lent: In an age of quick fixes, fast food, immediate gratification, and rapid internet communications, the Lenten tradition seems like an ancient practice that 2 Michael Lindvall, The Really Big Temptation, Brick Presbyterian, New York City, 3/5/06. 6

7 is out of step with the age. Lent promises no immediate result, no instant answer, no dazzling communication from on high. Rather, Lent is a call to disciplined inquiry and patient searching after the presence of God. 3 Lent is more about taking something on than giving something up. These forty days we have opportunity to contend with the wild beasts that surround us, whose fierce power force us to ask ourselves life s Big Question: Who are we? Jesus shows us the way. At the end of his forty days in the wilderness, Jesus knew who he was, Beloved Child of God, and what he was going to do, saying in essence: I am going to spend the rest of my short life proclaiming the good news, and doing the good work of God. And that is who we are, and what we are also called to do. AMEN. 3 Keith Russell, Lent, the Living Pulpit, vol. 9, no. 1, Jan-March,