Sermon on Mark 1:9-15

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

As we begin Lent, we’re back to the beginning of the Gospel of Mark. We’ll be traveling with Jesus this season from the beginning of his earthly ministry to his death, and then, well, you know what comes next.

But for now, Jesus gets baptized by John, spends time in the wilderness, and then begins proclaiming the good news around Galilee. In the next verses, he’ll collect some followers, get attention for his ability to cast out demons and cure people, and we’ll see him begin that action and reflection cycle we talked about a couple weeks ago. He’ll take time alone to pray and reflect away from the crowds he ministered to and will come away with a stronger sense of his mission and next steps.

His earthly ministry starts, though, with his baptism. God tears open the sky and speaks Jesus’ identity to him: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

As we talked about at the very beginning of this year, Jesus hadn’t done anything yet at this point, and yet God was well pleased with him. His identity, not his actions, made him Beloved.

It’s only when Jesus is grounded in his beloved identity in baptism that he can withstand what he experienced in the wilderness. The Gospel of Mark doesn’t give us many details the way the Gospel of Matthew does. Mark simply says, “He was in the wilderness forty days, tested by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him.”

The concept of wilderness is important in the Bible: from Hagar and her son Ishmael running away from Sarah and Abraham into the wildernessto the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years to Elijah fleeing into the wilderness to save his life and many more stories. And all these people encountered God in the wilderness.

As much as our reading names Satan and wild beasts and angels as Jesus’ companions in the wilderness, it’s the Spirit that drives him out there. So, God’s presence is surely there with him too. The wilderness is a place where people encounter God.

In the wilderness, the distractions of daily life are stripped away, and our reliance on God is made clear. Now that Jesus had affirmation of his identity and belovedness, he was ready to spend time focused on God.

And we see what comes of it: when Jesus returned, he “came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’”He knows what he’s here for, and he’s ready to begin his mission of sharing the good news of God with the people around him. And after this, he’s ready to start teaching others to do the same.

It's only once Jesus was grounded in his identity as Beloved and had spent time focused on God that he dove headfirst into his mission of spreading the good news.

We, too, need that grounding in our identity as beloved children of God and that clarity of mission that comes through time spent in prayer and discernment.

Living fully into God’s mission for us isn’t easy. It goes against the grain of so much in the culture around us. It’s costly and difficult. Loving our neighbor is way easier said than done.And still, we each have a unique contribution to the Beloved Community, Jesus’ way of justice, love, and abundance.

It's easier to live your life from day to day, going with the flow, doing what’s expected of you without question than it is to slow down and carve out time to really listen to what God has in store for you and then to do that.

Lent can be a wilderness for us. It can be a wilderness in time instead of space, and we can seek to quiet the distractions of our ordinary lives. We spend a lot of time trying not to be alone with our thoughts. How often do we pull out our phoneswhen in line at the store or put on music while doing the dishes or busy ourselves with pretty much anything so that we don’t have to be alone with ourselves?

Let’s find some simplicity this season—not for simplicity’s sake, but to counteract the noise and busyness in the world around us and in our own heads. When we stop filling the silence, we can make intentional choices about what to spend our time, energy, and resources on.

Instead of seeing Lent as a time of deprivation or restriction, let’s look at it as a time of simplicity for the sake of orienting ourselves toward what God has in mind for us.

We can use Lent to practice meeting God in the wilderness—as free as possible from the distractions we fill our lives with.Like Elijah, once the cacophony of the world around us quiets, we might find God in the still small voice.

Whatever happens this season (or any season), remember that you are a beloved child of God, and nothing can change that. It’s a truth you can hold onto in the wilderness times of your life.

And when you are in a wilderness time, whether it’s the season of Lent or a period of difficult circumstances or an existential crisis, it’s okay to wrestle with God. It’s okay to have questions, doubts, and frustrations. Having good questions is a mark of strong faith, because you’re curious and not willing to simply accept what you’ve been told. It’s good and faithful to wrestle with God.

In that wrestling, you might figure out your unique contribution to the Beloved Community, to making earth a little more as it is in heaven right now. There are so many amazing people in this room and among us virtually. You all have such important qualities that the world needs, like compassion, generosity, honesty, insight, and creativity. This season is about listening to God about why your gifts are needed in this place and this time.

And it’s a lot easier to listen to God when we pause some of the distractions that fill our lives. People of faith have been using practices that help with that for millennia. Sacred reading practices, meditation, ways to move our bodies in prayerful ways—there are so many tools that can help us slow down and listen to God. Let’s explore some of them this season, together and individually.

Beloved children of God, you are loved beyond measure.

But there are so many in the world who don’t feel loved.

God has given you specific gifts with which to love the world.

Let’s spend this season listening to how God wants us to use those gifts.

Rest in God’s love, slow down enough to listen to God’s dreams for you, andhelp share God’s vision of a justice-seeking and compassion-fueled Beloved Community.

Rest well, embrace the wilderness, and share God’s abundant love.