The Gospel isn’t meant to be gulped down on Sunday morning, but gnawed on through the week so it really becomes a part of us. You’ve got to work at it, like a dog with a good bone! Here’s the Gospel for this coming Sunday — the First Sunday in Lent — with food for thought on God’s dream and surviving the desert. Gnaw away!

Mark 1:9-15

It was then that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan River by John. Immediately upon coming out of the water, Jesus saw the heavens opening and the spirit descending on him like a dove. Then a voice came from the heavens: “You are my Beloved, my Own. On you my favor rests.”

Immediately, the spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness, and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by satan. He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.

After John’s arrest, Jesus appeared in Galilee proclaiming the Good News of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The reign of God is at hand! Change your hearts and minds, and believe this Good News!”

The Backstory – What’s Going On Here?

As we enter into Lent, we head back to the beginning of Mark. This is the story of Jesus’ baptism, but here we read it because it is also Mark’s story of Jesus’ time in the desert … which our own 40-day observance parallels. Of course, in typical Markan fashion, the telling is so brief that if you blink you will miss it. Unlike Luke, who gives us a detailed telling of each temptation, Mark compacts the entire 40 days into one sentence!

What are we to make of that brevity? For one, Mark is all about brevity and urgency. But we can also see that Mark is building toward a climax in this passage … and everything else leads to it. Jesus comes out of John the
Baptist’s community, he is anointed by God as God’s own, he is tested and tempted in the wilderness and to what end? So he can proclaim the coming of a new reign … the reign of God. Everything else in this passage is
just about establishing his credentials. The message is that a more excellent way is coming … and our response is to change our lives and trust that this more excellent way is God’s truth and life.

A few things to chew on:

*”He saw the heavens opening…” What Mark describes here isn’t a strange supernatural occurrence or some sci-fi “rip in the space/time continuum.” It was Jesus seeing creation as it really is. For first-century Jews “the heavens” is not the sky or the Western image of some Coral Gables retirement villa that awaits us when we die. “The heavens” is the true reality of the divine. It is nothing short of the very presence of God. The truth is, the God who made the earth, water and sky is fully present throughout creation. But we in our blindness and self-concern cannot see.

When Jesus saw the heavens torn apart, he saw the world as it really is … brimming to overflowing with God’s presence. It is why even in the desert with Satan and the wild beasts, he knew he was safe because he saw the angels — the presence of God on earth — there caring for him. How can we practice God’s presence today? How can we let the heavens be torn apart for us?

*”Then a voice came from the heavens: ‘You are my Beloved, my Own. On you my favor rests.’” From the beginning of creation, God has wired us to need one another, saying “it is not good that the human (the literal, genderless translation of the Hebrew adam) should be alone.” We are created in God’s image and we need each other to remind us of that … to remind us who we are, that we are worthy, that we are beloved. Part of our commitment to one another as a Christian community is to be that voice for each other. This is not about stroking egos — exactly the opposite. We are to remind each other that we are beloved because when we know we are beloved by God, we can let go of our egos … and everything else we grasp onto because of our
own insecurity and fear. The voice from heaven … the revelation of the reality of God … is for all of us. We are all God’s beloved. And because of that, we can give ourselves fully to God, to each other, and to the world in which we live.

Try This:

In the Western world, we have cultivated the myth of self-sufficiency into its own powerful Gospel. Only the news isn’t good. We have raised to the highest level of esteem the idea that the greatest person can do it all themselves, can provide for every need, and doesn’t need anything or anyone.

It is the ultimate in the self-centered life. And our society embraces it not as vice but as virtue.

The desert is the great antidote. If you’ve ever spent any time in the desert, one of the things you know is how utterly dependent you are on things other than yourself for survival. Water, for one. Without water in the desert, you don’t stand a chance. The desert has a way of stripping away the myth of self-sufficiency. When we are in the desert, we know we need help to survive.

This week … and this Lent … spend time each morning cultivating your sense of dependence on God. Remember that every breath you take, every beat of your heart is not through your own effort but because God has granted them to you. Remember that even those things that you instinctively believe you have done yourself — earned your paycheck, accomplished a task — are, through the natural interconnectedness of all humanity, utterly dependent on the labors of others.

This week … and this Lent … spend time in the desert. And give thanks that we are surrounded by angels ministering to us at every turn.

The Reign of God

“This is the time of fulfillment. The reign of God is at hand!”

So what is this reign of God?

Volumes have been written about it, but it’s really pretty simple. If you were in the crowd that day in Galilee and heard Jesus say this, you would know exactly what Jesus was talking about.

The Jews were used to reigns. They lived under the reign of Herod … which meant what Herod says, goes. Herod and Herod’s will was the center of their life (and, because Herod was taking orders from the Romans, that put what Caesar says at the center of their life).

The Reign of God is life with God at the center. It is the life that God dreamed for the people of Israel from the beginning. It is why God was so reticent to give Israel a king in the first place and instead just gave them the Law, with judges to arbitrate disputes … because God knew that as soon as Israel put a human king on the throne Israel would be like other nations. And that human-centered life was not living the dream.

So what is the dream?

The dream … God’s dream … is a world where all people are reconciled to each other. Where our relationships are characterized by self-giving love, justice and peace. Where the captives are set free, the poor are cared for, the sick are tended to and each person and all people are treated with dignity as sacred, not used as means to selfish ends.

Jesus says that he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law. In Jesus instead of books of rules, we have The Way, The Truth, and The Life. We have one who shows us by his life and love how we are to live and
love.

Lent is a time for self-examination. It is a time for us to look at our life and the life of our community and ask:

What and whose reign are we living under?

As we look at every aspect of our life, are we living with our own desires at the center … or are we living as those who believe that the time is NOW for a different way of life to begin.

To trust that we are truly beloved by God and that because of that we don’t need to use each other or hoard or fight out of fear of not having enough.

To trust that we can turn away from whatever anesthetics we are addicted to –your phone, pornography, Facebook, alcohol, drugs, white supremacy, patriarchy, you name it — anything that distracts us from using the precious gift of life to love God, love each other and love the world.

To trust that we are not at the mercy of human rulers or conventions. That we have the power of the Gospel, which tells us that love is the most powerful force in the universe. And that there is no chasm that cannot be
bridged, no brokenness that cannot be made whole, no wound that cannot be healed … if we are willing to become a part of the healing ourselves.

The reign of God is here … right here. It is starting to break through in us and waiting to break through even more. Repent. Trust. Believe.

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Check out the rest of Sunday’s readings

The Lectionary Page has all of the readings for this Sunday and every Sunday.

Collect for Sunday: Pray this throughout the week as you gnaw on this Gospel.

Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to
save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Want to read more? “The Text This Week” is an excellent online resource for anyone who wants to dive more deeply into the scriptures for the week.

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Gnaw on This is a weekly publication of All Saints Church in Pasadena written by Mike Kinman, Rector.