Genesis 9: 8 – 17 / Psalm 25: 1 – 9 / I Peter 3: 18 – 22 / Mark 1: 9 – 15
This
is the homily prepared for St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Gene
Tucker for Sunday, February 21, 2021
“THE PROCESS: PREPARATION, TESTING & NEW
LIFE”
(Homily texts: Genesis 9: 8 – 17, I Peter 3: 18 – 22, and Mark
1: 9 - 15)
The living
of life often involves recognizable, repeated patterns. These patterns can be
quite helpful in enabling us to negotiate the challenges that will inevitably
come into one’s life, and they enable us to make sense of events as they take
place in our own life and in the lives of others.
One such
recognizable, repeated pattern that comes to mind as we consider the Old
Testament and Gospel readings appointed for this, the First Sunday in Lent, is
one of preparation, testing and then, new life. Hold onto that idea for a
moment while we consider other examples of the process of preparation, testing
and new life.
Our
educational system is built on such a model: Students prepare to enter school,
they are exposed to a regimen of education and testing, and once that process
is through, they graduate and enter into a new phase of life. The same can be
said most any system of training….we see evidence of it in the military as
recruits prepare for their transformation from civilian life into the life of
the military. Once their time of education and training is complete, they then
begin a new life, serving in whatever branch of the armed forces they are in.
Those in preparation for ordination (and I am mindful that we currently have
two such members of our St. John’s community in such a time of preparation)
undergo the same pattern.
Now, let’s
turn our attention to our Genesis reading, which recounts God’s covenant, made
with Noah, that He would never again destroy the whole earth by flood, and our
Markan reading, which recounts Jesus’ baptism and then His time of temptation
in the wilderness, a time of forty days’ length (upon which the season of Lent
is patterned). And, since the three appointed readings for this day are so well
chosen, let’s spend a bit of time with the First Letter of Peter.
We begin
with Noah. To see where our text today has come from, we need to back up into
the book of Genesis a bit. There (beginning with chapter six), we read that
Noah was told by God that a great flood was coming, and that he and his sons
needed to begin building an ark so that they could survive the flood waters. At
that point, Noah had a choice to make: He could have ignored God’s warning and
done nothing to prepare. Instead, he began building. We don’t know how long it
took him to construct the ark, but given the dimensions found in Genesis, the
building process couldn’t have been a short one. (Perhaps it’s possible that people came by to
watch Noah and his sons at work, wondering what they were doing and why. We
don’t know that for sure, and Genesis doesn’t tell us.) But Noah built the ark,
and in time, the time of testing came as the rains fell, the waters under the deep
were loosed, and the earth was flooded. Noah, his wife, his three sons and
their wives, eight persons in all, survive the flood, beginning a new life. The
visible sign of that new life, which now carries a new guarantee that God will
never again destroy the whole earth by flooding, is the rainbow, the sign of
God’s covenant with Noah and with all of us. So, to sum up, Noah prepared by
building the ark, he endured the testing of the flood, and he began a new life
after the waters had abated.
Now, we
turn to our Lord’s baptism and the account of His forty days in the wilderness
as we have it in Mark. (If part of this text sounds familiar, it should, for we
heard Mark 1: 4 – 11 on the First Sunday of Epiphany back in January, the
Sunday on which we remember and celebrate our Lord’s baptism.)
Jesus’
ministry didn’t begin without preparation and testing. It began with His
baptism, by which He signified that we, too, are to do as He did and undergo
our own baptisms. Recall that baptism signifies that we have died to our old
life, we have been buried with Christ in a death like His, and we rise to new
life in a resurrection like His. (See St. Paul’s explanation in Romans 6: 3 – 9
for this understanding.)
But then,
He goes out into the wilderness, where He is tempted by Satan1 for forty days. He neither eats nor drinks during this time. He is alone to
face the temptations2 that come to each and every one of us, for He, like we, are all subjected to
the same forces which would seek to sever our relationship to God and to one
another.
The time of
temptation is over. Jesus emerges, ready to begin His ministry. Mark tells us
that He says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent
and believe in the Gospel.” (Mark 1: 15) His time of preparation and testing is
done. New life now begins.
As we begin
this holy season of Lent, we might ask ourselves, “How has my time of
preparation, of testing, and of new life unfolded?” That process unfolded at
some point in the past for all who have passed through the waters of baptism.
The writer of First Peter likens that passage to the passage of Noah and the
others in the ark. The explanation and the connection is a wonderful one: First
Peter tells us that the waters of baptism aren’t for the cleansing of the body,
but for a safe passage through the water, a passage much like Noah’s. A new
life in Christ begins as we emerge from the baptismal waters.
But baptism
isn’t the end of the journey. We will face the same process again and again in
life; We will have to make the choice: Do I prepare for the time of testing?
Will I withstand that difficult and challenging time with God’s help? If so,
then I can have the hope of a new chapter in life on the far side.
Lent calls
us to just such a choice. It calls us to get ready for the time of testing. It
calls us to recall that that time may not be at all easy. It may be a time of
vulnerability, of admitting to God our innermost thoughts and desires, desires
that threaten to wreak havoc on our own relationship with God and with others.
Lent says to us, “Don’t ignore this. Don’t set it aside. Face it, with God’s
help.”
For a new
chapter in life awaits, a closer and more intense relationship with God, a
renewed relationship with others. What a wonderful promise!
AMEN.
[1] The word “Satan” comes from the Hebrew, where it means “adversary” or “enemy”.
[2] Mark omits the specific temptations that Jesus faced. Matthew and Luke both provide details.
