Ashes to ashes and dust to dust feels very poignant to many of us right now. We are burying friends and loved ones. The reality of our frailty isn’t hypothetical.


To live into this reality during Lent is to let go of the World’s call  - and turn to God’s call "whose power in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.”


The call to repentance - to turn to God is our daily practice, but as you know, Lent offers us a period of time set aside in our calendar to reflect on our life in God.


We aren’t doing this to self-flagellate.
We are doing this to self-regulate.




While we know Lent as a time of penitence, it is also a time for bringing ourselves into balance: Self-regulating.


(Just to use a silly example: Lent should not be about giving up chocolate for a month. If it really is your issue, then Lent should be about changing your relationship with chocolate.)


Sacrifice is not about giving something up momentarily. Sacrifice leads us somewhere. It is about change.


Jesus’ sacrifice changes us by showing a way into forgiveness and love, union with one another; an understanding of ourselves as the Beloved.


Walking these 40 days in the desert with Jesus is about coming to terms with how we are are challenged by the World, tempted to fall into those behaviors which are self-seeking, controlling, manipulative… because ultimately these behaviors are what makes us feel “wretched” as the Collect says.
But sacrifice as a way of re-balancing ourselves is a very useful practice.


Athletes practice to change and better themselves. I was quite taken recently when I realized that athletes who function at a high level share some of the language that we use in the Spiritual life. My friend who is a masters swim coach and a marathon runner used some of that recently in a conversation.


When there is a balance between tension and letting go it’s as if there is another body living within me. It requires the right attention and being grounded. Then there is a contact with a life force; a wellspring from which this force flows and returns. (1)


This is the flow that athletes describe! This is also a description of meditation. And the flow that comes from consistency in prayer life.
In Lent we are practicing letting go with a higher purpose. It can be a type of practice that we take on - or a type of practice in self-imposed sacrifice.


When we practice either approach, we come to understand ourselves and our inner workings. We also become a little more awake - a higher flow of energy arrives.


It is a way to “Know thy self.”


Participating in the 40 days of intentional prayer, reflection, or a type of fasting attunes us with the journey Jesus was pursuing. Jesus was fasting and praying to attune himself with God.


Know thy self.
What balance do I want in my life, not just for forty days, but something I can practice with God now - that will continue to enhance my life into the future?


Engaging the Spiritual Life is about movement. It is leading us to “know thyself" in the context of a higher flow - a life in God.


For all of our frailty and our weakness, we do have access to this wellspring of life in the Spirit -


- finding this flow with God allows us to bear all things, endure all things, and do “infinitely more than we could ever ask or imagine.”

My friend Rosalie Richards came to see me last weekend. You may remember, she preached at my celebration of ministry. We had a couple of nice days together, both late nights of chatting as well as a shared day of meditation and reading (kind of like parallel play!)


Rose shared with me that the eighth ecumenical council of 869 held in Constantinople was concerned with whether we are body, soul, and spirit - or simply body and soul.


The Ecumenical Councils, held in what is now Turkey, included Christian Bishops of varying faiths that came together to agree on universal Church doctrine, to create peace, and were attended by anywhere from 150 - 500 leaders depending on the year. Different faiths today  recognize different meetings as legitimate. There have been 21 gatherings over nearly 1900 years…


But getting back to 869: apparently the decision was made that we are body and soul. (Removing Spirit)


And perhaps this theological decision has influenced us much more than we know. Making us Two-fold rather than three-fold (paraphrasing Rosalie Richards).


We say that “praying shapes believing”… and while it may sound backwards… I’m sure many of us feel that how we were taught to pray as children had a big effect on what we came to believe about God - or even pushed us to stop believing for awhile…


We talk about God as being a Trinity - but we think of ourselves as body and soul…



But we actually struggle so much with this duality. We often expect our body to just do its thing and play along. If we yearn for a healthier body we delve into discipline: mind over matter.


We live in a world of duality: things are easier when they are black and white, partisan, this or that… God is in Heaven…while we are on Earth…


The particularity of Spirit as part of our humanity may challenge us. Spirit belongs to the realm of the Kingdom. It is mystical. And that makes us uncomfortable (R.R.) because after all we are grounded here on Earth…


right?


It is why the transfiguration can feel challenging.


The Transfiguration of Jesus is a mystical experience. We aren’t that comfortable with it - even though we say we believe in the Holy Spirit.


The Transfiguration is about a cosmic frame of reference, a reference to the Kingdom that does exist. Something that fills us with Awe… and like the disciples, may also terrify us.


I was taken by this moment of terror. It is the first time that I focused on Jesus’ response.
I do not recall ever noticing that Jesus doesn’t know what to say!


(Jesus always seems to have something to say.)


“He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’” 


Jesus doesn’t know what to say. But he models listening.


Then what Jesus does say to Peter, James, and John is: Don’t tell anybody! Not until after the Son of Man has risen from the dead. He wants the people to listen to him as a man; as one of them, as the Son of Man.


The disciples’ mystical experience might terrify others too - or worse confuse Jesus’ message: interpret Jesus' healing message with a message of power.


Jesus was avoiding human power; the temptation. Don't tell them yet - not before the deeper understanding of his identity - and the identity of his followers as the Body of Christ.


—-


Yesterday, I was at the installation of our new Bishop, Matthew Heyd, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It was a packed house, which means a couple thousand (at least) were in attendance.


The body of Christ. We are the church.


The guest preacher, Winnie Varghese’s sermon had one theme. The Question:


“Does the Church have anything to say to the world at this time?”


We cannot presume to know what God is saying, but we as the Body of Christ, the Church do have something to say.


The Body of Christ has existed for two thousand years - and it evolves and grows and shifts and changes, as it must. God is not static and our lives in God are not static.
Thank God!


God the Trinity is moving, always filling up, and self emptying in a dynamic flow of giving and receiving:  God to Human Son, to Spirit.  What does this dynamism look like today in our lives - in the church, and in the world?


I would disagree with the decision of 869. If we are made in the image of God - then we are also three-fold. We also belong to the Kingdom in this mystical relationship that recognizes spirit as energy… the spirit in and of our lives.


What are we being called to?


Are we listening?


What does the church have to say at this time?


It’s not about telling the world who God is - What God says…it’s about listening for the Spirit of God in our hearts - and in this generation -


What do we have to bring to this generation?


——-


In our diocese there is a five year mission review that the diocese is undergoing, now that we have a new Bishop - and they put out two questions for us to consider at our annual meetings.


They want us to answer these questions as a group ( if possible) so while you’re sitting at your tables, maybe eating, and you have a few minutes you could look at these -
Just two questions. I’ve put them on the flip side of the agenda.

1. “If we are going to experience renewal in our community, we need to…

1. The second one, very similar: “If we are going to experience renewal in our community, we need to stop…”

We’re gonna collect them - I’ll compile them. They want me to send them to the diocese. They really just want a one sentence answers…


…based on your listening, your witnessing to the needs of this generation… If you all have the energy to do that, please do.
and consider …what the spirit of our church has to offer in service to the dynamism of God, working in our lives.


So if we can let go of the fear - perhaps the terror -


What would you have the church say to the World today?

There is a story from the desert fathers:


“Abba Lot came to Abba Joseph and said:
Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my little fast, my prayer, meditation, and contemplative silence; and, according as I am able, I strive to cleanse my heart of thoughts: now what more should I do?


The elder rose up in reply and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became lit like ten lamps of fire.
He said: Why not become fire? [1]”


This story was shared recently in a meditation by Spiritual writer Christine Valters Paintner. She goes on to say:


“I love the story from the desert fathers.. In the spiritual life we keep our practices, spend time in prayer, seek God in all things, and yet at some point even all this is not enough—and we are asked to become fire. Becoming fire means letting our passion for life and beauty ignite us in the world…. We are called to set the whole world on fire with our passion for God.”


Now in our reading from Mark, which is a very brief reading… A lot happens: There is a lot of passion!


John the Baptist baptizes Jesus; the Holy Spirit descends, God speaks; and the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan; John the Baptist is arrested and Jesus begins his ministry. All in six stanzas. Wow.


That’s a lot of activity, feelings, passionate work and prayer. All of this for seeking and sharing this passion for God.




This morning we hear from Genesis - about God’s wild and passionate irrational behavior…
and God’s passionate promise to a covenant relationship.


And Jesus’ very life is another covenant relationship.


In Genesis God is promising to never respond with rage and destruction against the World ever again. And God promises all of the World, all of the creatures.


And Jesus is the covenant which says that God forgives us all of our trespasses, all of our failings. Again God makes this promise through Jesus for the entire World.


As we say in the Eucharist: “This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”


Jesus’ life was the covenant, not simply his death and resurrection. When we speak of the Glory of God - the passion of Jesus the Christ…. I believe that passion goes all the way back to this moment in the river with John (and probably years beforehand).


But in these six stanzas Jesus makes his contract with God; through his baptism, through his time of self -reflection and temptation in the desert - and into his ministry.


There are great comparisons between the opening of Genesis and Mark’s very opening lines:


“This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.a 2As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:b"


And as we know Genesis famously opens:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”


Jesus shows up at the river with the Spirit hovering. There were also a lot of other people clamoring to the Jordon. John the Baptist had a much larger following than Jesus.
(And wisdom says) If you are seeking God, that relationship - you are already on your way.


We are here “on the way” along with those 1st Century Jews seeking…


Seeking forgiveness and communion.


Lent is a time set apart in our calendar to reflect on our lives in God. It is traditionally a time of penitence. To many of us, this is about giving up bad habits.


But traditionally Lent is a time when people prepared for Baptism. It was also a time when those who had been separated from the Church were reconciled and forgiven.


Lent is turning and returning to God. It is a great reminder that we were baptized into Christ as his own - and we are forgiven in Christ as the beloved.


So I have set the font out for us as another reminder of our baptism. This sacrament is our individual and communal covenant relationship with God: The Baptismal Covenant.


In the end of that service we say:
“Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon these your servants the forgiveness of sin, and have raised them to the new life of grace. Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.”
This penitential time of Lent is not about self-flagellation, but about self-regulation. It is about finding the balance we seek using practices and prayer and fasting. It is a way to reflect on our human nature. It is a time to inquire, and discern.


It is a time to awaken our divine nature to understand that we can persevere…with the knowledge that God's "power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine."      (The Book of Common Prayer, p.102)


Taking on practices during Lent is a way to follow Jesus into that forty day pilgrimage.


Don't forget: Jesus' time in the desert with the wild beasts and Satan also included angels. Jesus was not just getting to know his human side (and the beasts that tempt our human egos). His deep dive into the desert was attended by angels who helped show him his divine nature.


I love that John the Baptist tells us in Matthew’s gospel that he is baptizing with water, but Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.


I like to think of this fire as the power of the holy spirit to burn away that which is no longer necessary. That is what we are attempting to do in our prayer lives especially in Lent.


But also like Jesus, this fire -is a fire that burns with passion.


It is the passion in our hearts for the love of God and for the love of the world.


“Why not become fire?”

Demons sound completely foreign to us in this day and age, but in the time of Jesus, there was a belief in a whole structure of systems both in Judaism and the Greek world that impacted humans and human consciousness.


I began looking into this in 2009 when I wrote my thesis on Mary Magdalene (who was healed of seven demons by Jesus). The Roman Greco world believed that we had eight parts that made up our Souls. We had a commander, and then seven senses that could be dominated by demons. The goal in life was to have these parts unified and freed of the demons that would prey on our senses.


The casting out of demons was a way to liberate us, to heal those parts of us that were not in harmony. A particular illness perhaps not identified yet through early medicine but was very much preying on someone’s health was demonic. It sounds a bit more like medicine rather than myth when we can think of it this way.


Now Mark puts us on a fast track. Mark is our first Gospel written about 70 years after Jesus’ death. It is within the very first chapter of Mark that we hear Jesus came to heal the people and cast out demons.


The other Gospels take us through incredible stories of healing journeys - and in Mark it is one healing after another. There is no birth narrative, but the immediate recognition by John the Baptist that Jesus is the one sent by God - and Jesus’ mark (literally) is healing.


How has the message of Jesus Christ been so convoluted through the years… that people do not know this!


Power and corruption - and the use of bad theology to guilt people into submission has marked our Christianity.


Paul’s letter to the Corinthians may sound obscure taken out of context - but he is in fact emphasizing that spreading the Gospel should be done “not for building up the self” - not for control…but for the truth of the Word itself.


Jesus the Word came to heal, show inclusiveness and forgiveness. He was the literal manifestation of Love. Our outline of faith (the catechism) states that Jesus came to show us that the nature of God is Love.


The demons that see Jesus and want to name him… are a threat to Jesus so early in his ministry. They are a threat because they represent the temptation of Power and Corruption that Jesus wishes to avoid in his ministry (for himself and others). He wants others to see this is his ministry and not as his power.
How he deals with this tremendous challenge - is to pray.


The disciples go looking for him. “Everyone is searching for you.” The people are searching. They want to “see.”


We are not so very different from them. We also want to “see.” We want to know this healing energy up close - and working in our lives. Why are we separated from God - and how do we find our way back?


Now our collect says….
“Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in Jesus…”


“Sin” is also a term like “demon” that we struggle with today.
Theologically “Sin” means separation from God. The idea of “original sin” is marked in many of our heads - and makes us scared and angry…often because the term was abused by the corruption and power of spiritual leaders…


Last week Fr. Mac spoke a bit about sin and Adam of the Garden - and about Jesus being the “second” Adam. Adam of the Garden is our mythology that explores why we are here on Earth and feel so separated from union with God. (Otherwise termed original sin)…It is our way of making meaning for why we became separation from God; “subject to sin and death.”


Jesus the Second Adam is the way into reunion with God through Love.


The aspects of Jesus’ healing ministry available to us are love and forgiveness. While we may not be able to heal others or ourselves of disease, we can heal “dis -ease” by opening to others.


When we find it in our hearts to open to others - we heal.


There is an immediate sense of resistance when we are irritated or hurt by another.

But if we can find it in ourselves to remain open and take a moment to breathe - say one line from a prayer you love, one word - to pray as Jesus does - into this tension, into this resistance… we will find that the temptation to exert our own control and power over the circumstances lessens.


When we do this, we open up to help others be “seen.” We then can also see more clearly. Perhaps not immediately, but the pause gives us reflection… and that reflective time will continue to open us to the porousness of the Spirit.


We do not need to be in control of every circumstance. The Spirit of Love and understanding grows in these moments…


That is a big task for many of us because we are faced with big challenges. But on the other hand, what more is there to do in a life, but to keep moving forward through a love that transcends us.


This is the “saving" that Paul speaks of. He has “become "all things to all people, that he might by all means save some.”


We all need to be saved by the reminder that the Gospel - is about healing. Many of our friends have been hurt by the power of the church and the corruption of the message.


Let’s try through our actions, one breath, one prayer at a time to spread the True word.. The Good News of Love to others!


Amen.