Choosing the good

“…and he was with the wild beasts” (Mark 1:13)

Mark 1:12-15 (Year B: First Sunday of Lent, 18 February 2018)

Trials can bring out the best and the worst in people.  Alone with the ‘wild beasts’ in a lonely desert place, Jesus the child of the earth or the Son of Man was confronted with the rawness of nature. But, he was confronted, as a full human being with the realities of hunger, thirst, danger and temptation.  He went into a place that we, all of us, will have to face sooner or later as our bodies wear out and our time beckons. Some are fortunate to avoid much sickness and material poverty in the course of a long life. Others are less fortunate.

Lent gives us a time and an opportunity to reflect on and re-focus our lives.  Focus comes with difficulty for us as we juggle many things and surround ourselves with lots and lots of things.  Staying still and focussed even with the ‘wild beasts’ of negative people, situations and inner feelings is an art. Great peace and great inner empowering is the fruit of a masterly stillness. God keeps those in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him (Isaiah 26:3). But, what if we have received troubling news or what if we are surrounded by much evil?

In our times, there is much that is very wrong and even evil – even in our supposedly enlightened and inclusive democracies.  People are subjected to huge pressures – financial, emotional and spiritual.  Major choices face people as we debate matters of life and death. Complex moral dilemmas confront us on all sides. Nothing is every simple or straightforward. And yet, the call to turn back to God is ever simple, ever fresh and ever life-giving.

How does Mark 1:12-15 speak to us on this first Sunday of Lent 2018?

The Kingdom of God…

The phrase ‘kingdom of God’ had deep resonance in Jesus’ milieu. It may be a little lost on the world today, unfamiliar or unfriendly to human notions, metaphors and institutions of royalty. But, the idea of the Kingdom still has currency and relevance if we understand it as a spiritual reign or ruling over minds and hearts freely accepting of this. It signifies a reign of personal and social freedom and justice. The two go hand in hand. It implies that those who are poor, oppressed, excluded are brought into the centre of our communities and listened to and empowered. There, peace and love are established where, before, suspicion, resentment and factionalism prevailed.

And the kingdom belongs to those who received it with childlike simplicity, trust and openness (Luke 18:17). It is a common practice to associate the term and the idea of the kingdom of heaven with the world that it is to come, or, simply that which is after death. But, it is clear from most usages of the term in the Gospels that the kingdom is also in the here and now in our midst – very near and about to break into our little world.

In the life of the Christian community there are times when Jesus’ followers over-identified or reduced the Kingdom of God to the ‘Church’ (and that very often in strictly party denominational sense). Others over-identified or reduced the Kingdom of God to some interior, subjective state of feeling or reasoning. The truth is that both perspectives are valid and needed!

It is near to us ….

It may be a question of time or place. In truth, we can say that our lives are short and the day we anticipate is nearer now than was the case yesterday.

Repent…

Lent is very much about repentance.  To repent is to turn away from something. It means turning away from all that is harmful, poisoned, destructive within us and around us. This is difficult because we seek refuge, sometimes, in falsehoods, riches and comfort – the comfort of our systems of thinking and association that surrounds us all the time. We are invited to return or turn back to the basics of

• Doing what is right 
• Believing in what is true 
• And avoiding what is evil for ourselves and others.

Our role is not to go about confronting people with the language and a system of ideas that means nothing to them. Rather, we are invited to gently lead others to where they are ready and willing to go in their own time at their own pace. Ultimately, we are called not to announce the word so much as to live it and thereby draw others into the family of trust, belonging and purpose which is the community founded on the example, teaching, death and resurrection of the Jesus who continues to live in our midst.

And so….

This lent let’s take that prayer, Our Father, seriously and practically meaning what we say and putting it into practice day by day. And ‘Your Kingdom Come’ will be a reality more and more as we walk towards Easter. And we will be amazed to find that it is indeed true that ‘For the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory are yours’. Put another way it means:

• Power is everywhere
• Change if possible
• Hope is vital

May Lent 2018 be a special time for each of us as we move from winter to spring and as we prepare, hopefully, for other winters and springs on this earthly journey. For the kingdom of God has come nearer to us this year. We must make haste, focus on the Gospel, change what needs changing in our lives now and trust and believe in the good news that Jesus announced 2,000 years ago and still announces to each of us and all of us together today.