A Sermon preached on Lent I, February 21, 2021 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
Genesis 9:8-17, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Mark 1:9-15
Our Old Testament reading this morning comes from the very end, you might even say the happy end, of the story of Noah and the flood. Our gospel reading consists of three short episodes: of Jesus’ baptism (yet again!), about the temptation in the wilderness, and the beginning of his ministry of preaching and proclamation.
On the surface at least they would seem to have nothing to do with one another and very little in common: on the one hand we have Noah, his family and as we know a selection of animal pairs surviving a primeval flood on an ark – so surrounded by lots and lots of water. On the other hand, we have Jesus being sent, driven into the wilderness. And this will have been the Judaean desert between the Jordan and Jerusalem, which is very arid and dry – so no water at all.
And yet ….. “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink” wrote Coleridge in the ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.’ The ocean can be a wilderness at times and if you have no fresh water you are in trouble. So that is one similarity. The time frame is another: in the story in Genesis rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights and once it stopped raining, after forty days, Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. (Genesis 7:12, 8:6) And as we heard Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days. The number 40 is used a lot in the Bible: Moses remained on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights. (Exodus 32) Elijah walked for 40 days and nights to Mount Horeb, the (other) mountain of God. (1 Kings 19:8) As a number it simply stands for a long time, but here it is also supposed to remind us of these other events and encounters.
Theologically we can make a couple of other connections. As the Epistle reminds us, the story of the Flood and baptism are often connected. The author of 1 Peter says that the flood prefigures baptism. Baptism is a symbolic drowning, we go down into water and come up into a new life. But there are differences. The Ark saved only those who were in it, while baptism stands for universal salvation. One interpretation of the rather obscure section in this reading, about Christ going to make “a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah,” (1 Peter 3:19-20) could be that Christ returned to the spirits of those who had died during the flood to offer them the salvation they had refused.
The second connection between the Flood story and Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, is in what happens when it’s over. Noah and his family and every living creature with them not only survive the flood. They leave the ark for a renewed world. It has been washed and cleaned. They receive a renewed promise, a new covenant on the other side of their wilderness experience. God promises that there will never be another flood to destroy the earth. The sign of this everlasting covenant between God and every living creature is a rainbow, for when we see a rainbow, we know that the rainstorm is over.
When Jesus returns from his forty days in the wilderness, it is time for him to begin his mission to renew the world. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news,” he says throughout Galilee (Mark 1:15) At the end of his mission, in Jerusalem, there will be another new covenant “for the remission of sins.” Its sign is not a rainbow, but bread and wine – the food and drink of everlasting life, the food and drink he had to do without while preparing for this mission. The covenant with Noah was about protecting humanity from destruction as a result of God’s wrath. I do not subscribe to those “punitive” atonement theologies that see the covenant that Jesus established with his blood as also being about protection from God’s wrath and punishment.
The protection Jesus offers us is not from God, God is - as Jesus repeatedly preaches and shows - love. It is protection against the consequences of our sinful nature such as war, exploitation, inequality, and discrimination. Jesus came to protect us from ourselves. The temptations that he resists – that Mark does not bother to describe, unlike Matthew and Luke – are temptations to put himself first. But his mission is to put us first and to teach us to do likewise: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” be tells his followers. (John 15:13)
How can we connect with these 40 days? Like all the feasts and seasons of the Church year they are a living lesson, reminding us of God’s saving acts. The 40 days are later followed by the three holy days – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter morning - when the world was made new and death was conquered, not by power and force, but by love. That is something for us to hold onto especially in this 49th week in Coronatide. Jesus’ victory cannot be taken away.
Jesus needed the wilderness experience to prepare for his ministry and for its culmination in Jerusalem. It was no accident that the same Spirit that descended on him like a dove at this baptism is what now “immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” (Mark 1:12) Jesus needed this period of time to focus. Jesus needed this period of time to connect with his Father. His will, faith and vision were tried and tested and strengthened. We need wilderness experiences and times alone with God, our Father, as well.
As I said a moment ago, the time of 40 days is supposed to remind us of Moses’ time with God on Mt. Sinai receiving God’s teaching: God’s easy to follow and even easier to ignore instructions on how to get on with one another and how to live with and for God. The 40 days are also supposed to remind us of Elijah’s journey to see God and pick up his new instructions. Our will, faith and vision are tested every day in the world. We can use this special time to see where they need strengthening and renewing and how. Do you need fresh teaching and inspiration in a book or course? Do you need to spend time with others in structured reflection? Will giving something up help you focus, and help the world a little too? Do you need time alone with God? Whatever you need, take it. But be realistic. It does not all have to happen in one single Lent. At the services on Ash Wednesday, I read a poem by the 17th century Anglican theologian and poet George Herbert. He too advises realism. It is often when we try to do too much, that we end up doing nothing at all. This is the verse in question:
It's true, we cannot reach Christ's fortieth day;
Yet to go part of that religious way,
Is better than to rest:
We cannot reach our Saviour's purity;
Yet are bid, Be holy ev'n as he.
In both let's do our best.
Christ has already been through the wilderness before us. Christ has already saved us – he is “mighty to save” in the words of the collect for today. Our observances in Lent, in these 40 days, are not to earn our salvation. They are to help us to know and understand it better so that we accept that gift fully and live accordingly. In the words of today’s Psalm (25:3-4): “Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.”
Amen.
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