"Time's up! God's kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message." So ends our reading from Mark's gospel this morning as interpreted in Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of the Bible called "The Message." It brings with it a sense of urgency; it is our wake up call. It is no longer good enough to go about business as usual. Sometimes our lives, the world seem like the watching a tired, formula of a horror movie. You know when certain music is heard-it's bad news for the characters…you know that when the phone rings-you shouldn't answer it…yet what do the characters in the movie do? How often does life seem to echo that badly written script? We humans get stuck on a path we know will only lead to trouble, we argue the scripts of our lives all the while knowing it gets us nowhere. As a global community we repeat over and again the destructive ways of solving our differences and expect to get different results. Like the characters in a horror movie the cue music is playing and the phone is ringing.
During the season of Lent we are called to wake up and take the call to change seriously-or else. The Danish philosopher, Soren Kierekgaard explains Lent through this parable: "It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was just a jest and applauded. He repeated the warning. They shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke."
The season of Lent is first of all our wake up call to acknowledge that all is not ok. It is our time to reflect on what we have done to ourselves and to each other and to resolve that we need to do a better job in living as those who have heard and received the Good News…The Message. Unless we do this we will continue to live our lives as if God had nothing to do with it and our world will continue to be stuck in its whirling patterns of violence and chaos and misuse. Doing nothing, being "stuck in stupid" as a friend of mine describes it, is not an option for the church. The worst we can do is give in to apathy. C.S. Lewis describes that as hell…doing nothing. "Hell," he says, "is like a vast, gray city, a city inhabited only at the outer edges with rows and rows of empty houses in the middle, empty because everyone who once lived in them has quarreled with the neighbors and moved, and quarreled with new neighbors and moved again, leaving empty streets full of empty houses behind them." "That," says Lewis, "is how hell got to be so large, empty at the center and inhabited only on the fringes, because nobody was prepared to do what they knew they needed to do to get along with each other." The Alban Institute, a church research and support organization, has coined the phrase "functional atheism" to describe congregations that profess their belief in God, yet live their congregational lives together as if God has nothing to do with it.
Lent is our wake up call and it is also a reminder of what following God is all about. If we ever lived under any illusions that God's call to discipleship is one that leads to ease and riches this season should dispel that. Immediately after pronouncing pleasure with Jesus, God sends Jesus into the wilderness where, as Mark's gospel records it, he spent 40 days with the wild beasts. The wilderness is a reminder of our deep need for the Good News, for God's grace to get us through. The wilderness is our coming to terms with ourselves, our true selves…all of our pretenses and disguises stripped. We are not all that we think we are or want to be. But in falling short we are called to work to put things right with the love and grace of God surrounding us. We can not go back and undo things, only God can redeem those times for us. But we can go on. We can resolve to live as those whom God has already forgiven and healed. We can let go of things that keep us apart from each other and live together, knowing that God does make a difference in how we live and work and play. The world is desperate to hear that news from us-that there is something more than business as usual; that we can respond to the horror movie cues in a different way. In the wilderness Jesus came to terms with all of that and came forth proclaiming the Good News…in the wilderness of this season, may we come through doing the same.
Lent is not a fun season, but a sober one…yet even as we carry its burdens we are called to live in God's love, trusting that God will be with us always. This past Tuesday a young girl named Grace reminded me of what it is to live that life of trust and love. Grace was walking down the stairs of the St. John's church in Hazlet with her father. I was just in front of them. But Grace got a bit ahead of her dad without realizing it…she found that holding on to the banister was not enough for her and she needed help. Without looking up she reached up her hand trusting that someone would grab it and help her down. The hand happened to be mine. Grace never looked up and we made our way down the stairs to the sanctuary. Even after we got down the stairs and her father and I introduced ourselves, it didn't faze her that outstretched hand had received unexpected help. I realized that this little girl had been parented in such a loving, trusting way that she didn't need to look up when she needed help…she could trust that it would always be there. In the wilderness, Jesus found God with him in the ministering of the angels. In his journey to the cross Jesus found God with him, even in the midst of his doubts and agony. This Lent as we journey with Jesus to the cross, may we know the trust of that little girl…and may we lift up our hands for help with the journey, knowing without a doubt that God will grab our hands and guide us on our way.
It is time…repent and believe the Good News!