Basic Training or Refresher Course?
Text: Mark 1:9-15
Other texts: Genesis 9:8-17, Psalm 25:1-10
By: Rev. Terry Carty
Date: 02-26-12
Place: Kingston Springs United Methodist Church
Season: First Sunday in Lent
Main Point: The Church is a wonderful gift to those who follow Jesus because it helps us find the Way and often helps us rediscover the Way. We do not need to wait until our sin is so great that we find ourselves separated from the community of faith and in need of earthshaking reconciliation. The Lenten discipline allows us to follow the steps of Jesus again and again – each time getting a different result.
Mark’s gospel is very straight forward. He gets right to the point – so much so that he skips the birth of Jesus and stories about the young Jesus to go directly to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
Hear as I read from the very first chapter of Mark. The 9th verse is the first introduction of Jesus into the first 8 verses that were about John the Baptist. I would like for you to listen very closely to discern who does what to whom.
Read Mark 1:9-15 (from New Revised Standard or English Standard translations)
Have you ever been typing into your computer and gotten one of those squiggly green lines under a phrase or a sentence? I have been relearning English grammar since computer word processors have gotten so smart. The grammar rules for writing are built right into the program. You break a rule, you get a squiggly green line.
One thing that I have learned is the difference between active voice and passive voice. I am pretty sure that when I took high school writing I was taught to write in passive voice. Here is an example: “The car was repaired by the mechanic.” But now if you write it that way on my computer you get a squiggly green line because it is passive voice is usually wrong.
The standard for writing is to use active voice: “The mechanic repaired the car.” When there is an active verb – one that does something – it puts the doer of the action first. You can tell who is doing and who is getting done to. The mechanic does to the car.
In our story from Mark, I draw some conclusions from figuring out who does what to whom. Jesus came from Nazareth. John acted on Jesus in baptism. Something tore heaven open. The Spirit descended on Jesus. The same Spirit drove Jesus into the desert. Satan tempted Jesus while the angels cared for him.
Up until this point in Mark’s gospel, all Jesus has done is to come from Nazareth. Everything else has been done to him. I think that Mark, the oldest of the gospels, is written from the standpoint that Jesus, born human, received the Spirit of God as he emerged from the water of baptism. That is an important distinction that differs from the Gospel of John that begins explaining how Christ was with God and, indeed, was God from the beginning of the universe. This was a huge theological discussion in the early church until
But Mark’s perspective may help us to understand the whole forty days in the desert experience. Jesus, a man who was without sin, received the baptism of repentance and then went to the desert where he prayed and pondered matters of good and evil. And then he went among people to do the work he had been called to do.
The work of the Holy Spirit in a human is an awesome thing. We are changed – we become more godly. But as we receive God’s Spirit, it takes some time for us to think about it and process it. When we are aware that God is working in us, we often find a need to test our assumptions about the world around us – what is actually good and what is evil.
Disciples of Jesus spent 3 years after being called in “Basic Training.” The Apostle Paul spent some amount of time after his more radical conversion in “Basic Training” with Ananias. Since the early church, we have had from 6 weeks to 3 years of “Basic Training” for new Christians.
But what of us who have heard God’s call to Christian faith and have experienced the “Basic Training”? What happens to us when we hear a renewed call by God’s Spirit? We already know what we are supposed to know about being a Christian. How do we process additional portions of God’s Spirit working in our lives?
That is where the Church again provides the help we need. The season of Lent offers us an annual opportunity to revisit the desert of the heart. The reconsider our calling and our basic training in light of new revelations from God. This helps us move forward in our faith journey from year to year.
Listen to this invitation to Lent that is in the United Methodist Book of Worship:
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
the early Christians observed with great devotion
the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection,
and it became the custom of the Church that before the Easter celebration
there should be a forty-day season of spiritual preparation.
During this season converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism.
It was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins and had separated themselves from the community of faith
were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness,
and restored to participation in the life of the Church.
In this way the whole congregation was reminded
of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our faith.
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to observe a holy Lent:
by self-examination and repentance;
by prayer, fasting, and self-denial;
and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word.
[Emphasis mine. Text public domain]
Note the threefold focus of the season: spiritual preparation of the faith community, preparation of converts for baptism, and reconciliation of penitents.
The Church is a wonderful gift to those who follow Jesus. It helps us find the Way of Jesus, and it often helps us rediscover the Way. The Church’s annual season of Lent reminds us that we do not need to wait until our sin is so great that we find ourselves separated from the community of faith and in need of earthshaking reconciliation.
The Lenten discipline allows us to follow the steps of Jesus again and again – each time getting a different result. Albert Einstein is often quoted as having said that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” I say that with God, anything is possible. For me, taking on a new discipline or giving up a bad habit during Lent reminds me of the one I follow. And doing this every year at Lent has led me to new results. I think that I move along my journey.
I encourage you to take this time between now and Easter to move along your journey as well. Accept the invitation to observe a holy Lent by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word.
For those in preparation, we will be starting our Confirmation Class for those 6th grade and up on March 11 after church. We will target Pentecost as our day of Confirmation. For those who are older and would like an adult training class, the church would be glad to offer it if you will make your desire known to the pastor.
For those who seek reconciliation. For those who have fallen away from the Way of faith, grace is abundant in this congregation. I would be glad to meet and spend time talking about moving back onto the journey.
And for those who seek to continue in spiritual preparation for the growing presence of God’s Spirit in your lives, the church offers Bible studies, Sunday school classes,
Christian fellowship, and worship opportunities in abundance during this season. A new women’s Lenten study group is forming this afternoon at 5 pm.
The invitation is offered. Allow yourself to be washed by the Spirit and driven into the desert in preparation for what God call you to do in the kingdom.