Download 2-22-15 Lent 1- Few Words

Few Words-Great Impact
Lent 1
Mark 1:9-15
Feb. 22nd, 2015
Dear friends in Christ,
Some of the greatest and most memorable speeches of all time were short, or
contained within them a brief, unforgettable phrase. “Four score and seven years ago our
fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated
to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure.”
So begins Abraham Lincoln’s famous address at the dedication of Gettysburg Cemetery,
Nov. 19th, 1863. His speech was 272 words long, and lasted less than 3 minutes. It lives
on as one of the greatest speeches in American history.
President John F. Kennedy in his inaugural speech, Jan. 20th, 1961, “Ask not what
your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where
they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I
have a dream today.” President Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate in West Germany,
June 12th, 1987. “Mr Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
Few words- great impact.
So sometimes, less is more. When I was a young associate pastor in my first call
out of seminary, the senior pastor, who was quite a unique character gave me these words
of advice. “Jeff, everyone preaches a bad sermon. But there is no excuse for a long, bad
sermon.” Well, I’ve tried to heed his advice, but I’m sure many would argue that I’ve had
my share of long, bad sermons.
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The gospel writer Mark was a man of few words. Of the four gospels, his is the
shortest. He is brief, and to the point. He selects his words carefully in order to make his
point in the most direct way. Today’s gospel reading contains 151 words, 121 less than
the Gettysburg Address. And yet with those words Mark tells of the Baptism of Jesus, the
temptation in the wilderness, and the beginning of his ministry in Galilee. So what I’d like
to do this morning is look at some of the words in each of these sections, talk about the
impact they make, and how they speak to us. There are few words, but they speak
mightily, if we will listen..
So the lesson begins with the Baptism of Jesus. We read and discussed this back on
the First Sunday in Epiphany in January, the Baptism of our Lord. Mark gives few details,
but gets right to his point. “And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the
heavens torn open and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.” This was a spirit filled
moment. The heavens are torn apart for the descent of the Spirit. The Spirit of God
himself was descending on Jesus. Heaven was coming to earth in this one, God’s son,
Jesus.
And so today, in our church’s mission statement we say our mission is to be a
“Spirit filled community, reaching out and caring for all.” That which was poured upon
Jesus, we ask and pray, will be poured upon us. And so when I kneel at the rail before
giving the message and people pray for me, that is a Spirit filled moment. Perhaps when
someone from our prayer team prays for you personally during communion, you feel the
outpouring of the Spirit. In the hymns or songs we sing, in the prayers spoken, in the
bread and wine we receive every week, those are all opportunities to be filled with the
Spirit. In his Baptism Mark presents Jesus as the Spirit-filled Son of God. We pray that
the same Spirit will fill us here and wherever and however the wind of the Spirit might
blow into our lives.
As this Spirit filled Son of God, Mark then says, “the Spirit immediately drove him
out into the wilderness.” And I’ve always wondered about that. Why would the Spirit do
that to Jesus, drive him alone, into a desolate place, where Satan resides? Well, if Jesus is
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Spirit filled, as we know he was in his Baptism, it could only be the Spirit that drives him.
There’s no other explanation. He was full of the Spirit. There was room for nothing else.
Satan didn’t drive him there into the wilderness, he didn’t have that power. Sin didn’t
drive him there, for Jesus was without sin. So the Spirit drove him there for a reason.
And what was that reason? To prepare him, to test him, to make him ready for that
which was to come. Now notice again that Mark, a man of few words, doesn’t give a lot
of detail. If we only had Mark’s gospel, we would know nothing about the details of the
temptations put before Jesus. Turn these stones to bread, the kingdoms of the world are
yours if you worship me, throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple and have
the angels catch you, none of that is written by Mark. All he says is that Jesus was
tempted by Satan.
But for Mark, that’s enough. It’s enough to know that the Spirit led the Spirit filled
Jesus, alone, into the wilderness, and there he is tempted by Satan. It’s enough to know
that God was with him and the wild beasts did not harm him. It’s enough to know that
after this period of temptation, the angels came to the one who endured, and ministered to
him.
And perhaps that’s all we really need to know as well. Perhaps in telling us what
happened with Jesus, Mark is saying, God will be with us as well.
If you live long enough, if you have some life experience under your belt, you will
have faced some wilderness experiences. These are those times of wandering, uncertainty,
transition, temptation, where you’re trying to figure things out and find your way. Since
we are not Jesus and do live sinful and broken lives, maybe we have brought it on
ourselves. But since believers also have the Spirit, maybe it’s the Spirit that drives us
there for a purpose, to prepare us for the next chapter in our lives, to face the things yet to
come. A job loss, a broken relationship, watching our kids grow up and needing to let
them go, a move to a new community, the death of a loved one- all of these kinds of things
can drive us to the wilderness where our faith is tested.
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But what does Mark say? Jesus was tempted, too. The Son of God had his
wilderness experience and knows all about what its like to feel all alone facing the devil.
But in the midst of that, the Spirit never left Jesus. God was with him all along, gave him
strength, and when the time of trial had passed, sent the angels to him.
And that’s the hope we have as well. The wilderness experience is part of life. I’ve
had them. You’ve had them. The Spirit may drive us there for a reason we may not
understand, but that prepares us for something yet to come. So we hold on to Jesus, who
knows our trials and temptations, to lead us out of the wilderness and back to that new
place he would have us go.
Jesus did endure his wilderness trials, and then came out of the wilderness to begin a
new chapter in his life, his ministry in Galilee. And again, Mark describes this in just a
few words. In essence he says, the time has arrived. John the Baptist had been arrested.
His work as the forerunner to Christ was done. The time for Jesus was now.
And there were two things Jesus proclaimed as he began this work. These two
things are as relevant today as back then. These two things really shape the season of
Lent, which we have now entered.
The first is “repent.” Face up to who you are and how far short you fall from the
kingdom of God and the things of God. Turn from all that keeps you from God, and begin
a new journey to the things of God. In preparing the way, that’s what John the Baptist
preached. Repent, change your ways, make yourself ready for the coming kingdom. Jesus
now says the same thing. Repent. Move away from the things that have kept you from
God, and be open to the coming kingdom of God.
The self-examination that repentance requires is not done to make us feel bad,
shameful, or guilty. Rather, it’s a way to be honest, a recognition that we all fall far short
of God’s kingdom. By doing that reality check, it then prepares us to hear and receive
what we so desperately need, the good news of God’s love in Jesus.
And that’s the second part of the message Jesus proclaims. Believe in the good
news, the gospel, God’s love in Jesus Christ. The gospel tells us how far God goes to
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bring us back to him. God goes all the way to the cross, where he dies for all those sins we
confess. And the gospel tells us that God is not done with us yet. God keeps on loving us
and forgiving us regardless of our disobedience in the past or ways we might stumble in
the future. Jesus is bringing good news. Repentance opens us up to hear this good news
of God’s love. Repent and believe the good news. Those are few words with great
impact, for they tell us all we need to know to enter the kingdom of God.
You don’t always have to use a lot of words to make important points. Less can be
more. That’s Mark’s style, as we see in today’s lesson. Using few words he tells us that in
Baptism, Jesus is Spirit filled. In the wilderness, this Spirit filled one is tempted like us,
but endures the trial. He returns strong and ready to proclaim the message, “Repent and
believe in the good news.” May we, too, be Spirit filled, by the Spirit endure our times of
trials, and recognize our need for repentance, in order to receive the good news. Amen
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