Lent IB, February 18, 2018
Genesis 9:8-17, Psalm 25,
1 Peter 3:18-22, Mark 1: 9-15
St Thomas the Apostle
The Rev’d Joy A. Daley
I wonder if you were like me as you sat before the television this week, deciding what channel to turn to, the one with Olympic events or the one that gave you all the details about this week’s shooting. Both experiences are a part of our lives The dichotomy of what we see is the world we live in. The story of lost children turning into violent adults who out of rage and hopelessness take the lives of others, the horrible grief of suffering families and slaughtered children. And then with the touch of a button I change the channel and I am greeted by smiling faces the story of the ice dancing couple who had so many problems now with joy on their faces as they performed even when they weren’t perfect. Seconds later I am back to a commentator who describes the unseen injury of the survivors who will be dealing with PTSD symptoms like soldiers who have returned from war.
Then back to Adam Ripon celebrating his journey I watch him skate with joyful freedom and peace, and I am inspired. Watching the interviews, the background stories of victorious athletes and shattered families takes us on a rollercoaster from hope to despair and then back again. The joy of achievement, reaching goals through hard work and discipline followed by the agony that comes from a complex set of circumstances leading to destruction. Futures stolen, lives extinguished, hearts broken . You only need to grab the remote to then see goals achieved, futures opened, hearts elated. This is the world we live in as Lent begins. As God’s people on the journey we are part of all of it, a world that offers us both amazing opportunity and incredible suffering. The world of good and evil.
As baptized children of God, we like Jesus are led to the wilderness and we are sorely tempted just as he was, to give up or to give in, exposed to the magnetic forces of blunt power or rage, perhaps hopelessness or apathy, the pull to begin believing that the only way things can go is in a vicious impotent cycle. You’ve seen the visual I suspect: mass shooting →thoughts and prayers→FB debates… Is that truly all there is? When we feel powerless in the face of violence, it is easy to give in to the temptations to be uninvolved or be filled with rage, blaming others for the state of the world, or to only tune into the channel that takes us away from situations we don’t want to see.
This week we are reminded that the world is not about simple formulas that say if we work hard, if we discipline ourselves, all will be well. We only need to review the life of Jesus to see this isn’t so. And today both the Olympic channel and the News channel can affirm the complexity of life, as athletes fall and fall again as we hear how a mother tried to help her troubled son and could not. As families plan funerals for their children. Evil is alive in our world. It was present in the wilderness where Jesus was tempted and it is present in the world we live in on this first Sunday of Lent 2018.
One of the best statements I read about Lent this week is that Lent is a place to meet ourselves and the God who calls us and Lent is also a place where we meet the one who tempts us to reject God. (Gretchen Wolff Pritchard) Another dichotomy. It is so hard to choose where to tune in where to let our eyes focus, where to commit our time. We meet ourselves and God. We meet the tempter who calls us to turn away. Just as Jesus had to decide what to do with our lives so do we. Lent is a time to repent which means to turn, but to where? Do we really take a look at ourselves and our God or do we turn to the temptation to reject God and all that is filled with meaning and hope, to decide that life is all about darkness. The temptation to give into the darkness can be very powerful in times like these but if we take the invitation of Lent as a season to meet ourselves and our God we may start to remember who we are as baptized Christians who die with him and rise with him also. And when the evil of the world seems to be in our face perhaps this is a good time to recall the response we make in our baptismal covenant. “Will you persevere in resisting evil and whenever you fall into sin repent and return to the Lord?” We respond “I will with God’s help” How does this simple statement become more than a statement? How do we become part of the resistance in the war against evil? We want to have the external power to change things on a global scale and we do not have it. All we have is right here right now. How do we fulfill our promise to persevere in resisting evil as we are shoved into the wilderness. We like Jesus are called to confront Darkness and say “No” to it even when we think we cannot win. Our role is to persevere in resisting the darkness of evil and to become forces of light in the world.
We know from too many experiences our thoughts and prayers are not enough, they are only the beginning. To become resistance workers against the forces of darkness, we are called to resist, not once but persistently. First, we resist a passive acceptance that violence is the new normal. Next, we resist being glued to a TV screen that says we are mere recipients of the pictures that are displayed. We resist by turning, changing the channel of our lives by becoming broadcasters of light, of possibility. Sometimes this means doing the small kind thing, or getting ourselves involved in meaningful ministry that touches lives rather than remaining detached. Other times it means holding our elected officials accountable and telling them that unchecked violence and unlimited access to weapons is not acceptable.
Bishop Peter Eaton who is a part of Bishops United Against Gun Violence said this week that Christians’ faith will help guide their response to this tragedy, and “we bring more than our prayers.”
“We bring our longings and convictions for a different future,” “What happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is not the world as it ought to be, or as it needs to be, and we who follow Jesus accept the responsibility for being partners with God to bridge that gap between what is and what could and ought to be.”
As part of our own action behind our thoughts and prayers I invite you to pick up a copy of the bishops Call to Action and information about the Episcopal Public Policy Network that you will find on the tables in the parish hall and in the narthex. Go on facebook and find out about Episcopalians Against Gun Violence. These organizations from our church give us ways to turn the channel to move our thoughts and prayers into action; Ways to become part of the resistance movement, broadcasting light in the darkness. As we begin this season of Lent as we make our way through the wilderness with Jesus, let us always remember our promise as baptized children of God. “Will you persevere in resisting evil and whenever you fall into sin repent and return to the Lord? May our answer always be “I will with God’s help.”
