First Sunday in Lent, Year B
Lectionary Reading: Mark 1:9-15 (NRSV)
We began to shut down our lives due to the pandemic during the Lenten season in 2020. Many were thinking at the time, "We'll be back for Easter, won't we?"
And while Edmond First United Methodist celebrated Easter online, there was some feeling that the Lenten season never ended. Our fast was not from rich foods or various entertainments but rather we entered a fast from our friends and extended family members. It seems that parts of society have at various times fasted from civility (a little more rigorously than normal).
Now, we have Lent rolling back around starting on Ash Wednesday. We'll have our service online and this year, it seems that even our imposition of ashes that we were going to have outside will be prevented by inclement weather. So we'll continue online.
Lent is usually an examination of suffering and how we can be in tune with it rather than ignoring it. Can we somehow ease some of the pain in the world? This whole year, our mental anguish has allowed each of us to know more of suffering. We know grief from the loss of family and friends - both those who have died and those who have moved away. So a season of examining our suffering has the potential to come across as a little obtuse.
Rather, this year, I am reminded that our faith can also give us strength to move through suffering. And this is also what the Lenten season is about.
I like the story of the donkey that fell in the abandoned well. He brayed and brayed and the farmer found him and realized what happened. Because the donkey was old, the farmer thought it would be too much trouble to get him out so he decided to bury the donkey and cover the well so it would cease to be a hazard.
With several hands to help, they started shoveling dirt down into the well on top of the poor beast. He began to bray even louder but the dirt continued to fall. Finally, he started shaking off the dirt on his back, stamping as donkeys will do when frustrated. As the dirt continued to fall, the donkey continued to shake it off and step on top of the newly fallen dirt.
Pretty soon, the well was filled and the donkey was seeing eye to eye with those who tried to bury him. With a triumphant bray, the donkey hopped out of the well and trotted off!
As we consider Lent, we are reminded that suffering is a part of life and our faith speaks to it. We seek to overcome whatever trouble life throws at us and so our faith reminds us to step on the dirt.
Let's help one another to do this as we help each other live through this pandemic.
Rather than fast this year, I would encourage you to add a spiritual discipline. Why not reach out to someone you've missed seeing this past year? Send them a note - there are so many different ways to reach out to people, I'll leave it up to your favorite. I'll also be sharing a daily devotion at this site each day. This year, we'll be reading through some of Paul's earliest letters chronologically one chapter a day.
And of course, this coming Sunday will be the first Sunday in Lent. Mark's Gospel gives us such an abbreviated version of the temptation of Jesus - basically verse 13 says,
"He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him."
Then Mark moves on to John's arrest and Jesus' preaching.
Wait, what?
I feel like Matthew and Luke said, "Um, shouldn't we fill that out a bit? Maybe give a little more detail?"
This Sunday, I'll be looking at how Jesus sees the arrest of John the Baptist and relate it to how we respond when loved ones are suffering.
As the dirt falls down on us, let us step up together!
In Christ,
Sam
Photo by zenjazzygeek via Flickr.com. Used under the Creative Commons license.
All scripture quoted is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment