Lent I
Lent is a fun time! Well, depends on your definition of fun.
We skip right back toward the beginning of the Gospel according to Mark.
Mark compresses his narrative far more than Luke or Matthew, so this short reading combines Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan, the temptation by Satan ('the adversary') in the wilderness immediately afterward, a little aside that John had been arrested (for speaking truth to power, no less) while Jesus was off praying and fasting, and that Jesus comes back to his home territory to tell them all that the time is full -- God's reality is at hand. Turn toward it, like you turn toward the sun and all that gives life, health, and peace. And, do it now, and daily.
The lectionary pairs this with God re-establishing a covenant with Noah and his descendants (that's all of us, actually, in the metaphor), and saying that this will be a covenant with every living thing -- all creation, I think we can interpret -- that will be 'everlasting.' (The Noah story can be troubling - it is to me - when read as if it were a roadmap, or natural history. It is neither, of course.)
What is a covenant? And, why return to it, and its understanding of relationship -- and its way of entering always into that which gives life, health, and peace? We read from Psalm 25 today, as well, which tells us that, "All the paths of the Lord are love and faithfulness to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies."
How do we keep - or not keep this covenant - and how, and how often, do we return to its ways? These ways are paths, and they are all paths of love and faithfulness.
I somewhat miss the other stories in other Gospels here, as that is where we have the great dialog between Jesus and The Tempter/Adversary ('Satan') in the wilderness, with Jesus winning the throwdown by quoting scripture, and focusing on God's eternal presence and reality, sidestepping or seeing through the glittery promises of false life, narcissism, and unsustainable 'peace' the Tempter throws his way.
Mark just tells us that he was met by temptation (no elaboration) and that he was with the wild beasts, and God's messengers tended to him in the wilderness.
It's always a good question to ask: what draws you away from the way of life, health, and peace? Lent is our season for focusing on this question, though, for this is where we understand that these are not the 'paths of love and faithfulness.' We begin each liturgy with words of calling-back-to-account: we have not loved this eternal ultimate reality of God with all our heart, mind, soul, strength. And, we have certainly not learned to love our neighbors as ourselves.
We probably even don't love ourselves particularly well. The Tempter does a good job of conflating narcissistic self-love with the love of one's self as a beloved creature of God in harmony with all creation that we are made to be. And, often, I make this same mistake.
We say that God is making all things new. We say that God *is* Resurrection. We say that to understand this life-giving and sustaining mystery we must turn to ways that give and sustain this Life, this vision. And, first: we revisit ways we do not keep covenant-with-God even as God's reality always keeps covenant with us.
All the ways of the Lord are love and faithfulness. Let us apply ourselves again to finding these pathways - in the wilderness - and walking there together. May we be messengers of God, angels-in-the-wilderness, to one another and to all our sister creatures, wild and otherwise. And, then return to our home country and say: the time is now, and the reign of God is at hand. Turn to ways that give life.
This is to 'believe the good news,' indeed, more than any credal affirmation could put it.