Sermon 21st February 2021 – First Sunday in Lent Text: Mark 1:9-15 – Ministering Angels in the Wilderness

 Sermon 21^st February 2021 – First Sunday in Lent

Text: Mark 1:9-15 – Ministering Angels in the Wilderness

 

Wasn’t that quick? We woke up Friday morning to discover that we were back into lockdown for the 3rd time.

We thought everything was going okay. We had hit zero cases – or as people call them – donuts – for something like 4 weeks in a row – twice. The Australian Open had started – I had even been to Punt Road to watch a game of football with Richmond V Brisbane in the women’s competition. Businesses were starting to feel confident again with city workers being told they can have 75% of the workforce return to their workplace. Restaurants and other businesses were getting ready to make up for lost business over the last lockdown with Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year being celebrated. With borders being opened in other states some were even planning long awaited holidays. And we were even hoping that masks might finally come off inside.

 

And then the news came – as of 11.59pm last Friday – a 5 day lockdown as a circuit breaker because of a new outbreak that is much more infectious than previous strains. Weddings cancelled – Valentine’s Day cancelled – holidays cancelled – Masks back on everywhere - we were thrown back into the wilderness – and it all happened in the blink of an eye. It shows how life can change in the blink of an eye and not just during times of pandemics. Take your eye off the road for a second to check that text message – An angry punch thrown that sees a life ended. The bible even talks about Christ’s return being as such: In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. And look at Jesus today – baptised – hearing the loving words from his heavenly father – this is my Son whom I love – and what happens next: The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts.

Our other 2 readings also talk about that sudden twist of events using the example of Noah.

 

Jesus, in Matthew’s Gospel says - in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; No one expected life to change so quickly – so drastically – that saw all of humankind wiped out other than Noah and his family. But it’s not all doom and what we see in the example of Noah and Jesus in today’s reading is the promise and assurance of God’s presence with us in our time of need. As Noah exits the ark to re-establish the earth God promises him an assurance when he says: When I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

And likewise with Jesus as he spends 40 days in the wilderness – no food or drink – tempted by Satan – surrounded by wild beasts – while all looked hopeless, we read that Jesus was not alone - the angels ministered to him. In those times of difficulty the wilderness can be overbearing – feeling of abandonment where, like Jesus, we cry out – my God, my God, why have you forsaken me.

 

As we begin our Lenten journey this year – a Lenten journey that was interrupted mid-stream last year as we entered into our first lockdown – we begin this journey with uncertainty also. Ash Wednesday already having been cancelled, it is easy to sit in anguish wondering if we’re ever going to see a normal yearly cycle again.

But whatever this journey has before us – our Lenten journey, as our life on earth – begins with Baptism.

Jesus earthly ministry began with his Baptism  Paul’s earthly ministry began with Baptism. Peter’s mission after the resurrection began with his call for the people to be Baptised. And today Peter reminds us of our Baptism as to where we draw our strength in times of wilderness:

He says: baptism, now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

 

We pass through many periods of wilderness in our lives, and sometimes our very faith as Christians is seriously challenged.  We feel alone in our struggle against them.  But there are “angels” ministering to us in the deserts of our lives: when a situation seems impossible to break through and a friend turns up unexpectedly; when we are distraught over the death of a loved one and  friends shares their experience of grief and courage; when an anonymous friend comes during these days of lockdown and social-distancing to drop off food at our front door; when our faith is dry and we pray wondering why we bother, but a friend tells us that they have been praying for us;  Maybe that ministering angel is you.

 

Christians are called to be ministering “angels” in the wilderness, ministering to each other. Wilderness and deserts can be uncomfortable and unwelcome but they can also be opportunities for us to be ministering angels to each other where WE become angels unaware.So as we journey this Lent let us look out for each other. It’s very easy to become self-focused as we become despaired at the state of the world around us.

Let us look out for each other and be ministering angels to one another and we may even discover that as we minister to others we are indeed ministering to ourselves. And just as God placed the rainbow in the sky to remind Noah of his promise in the covenant between him and Noah – God has also placed Christ before us to remind us of the New Covenant that is signed, sealed and delivered by his body and blood in Holy Communion to assure us that the Kingdom of God is near and that as we journey through the wilderness Jesus is with us always till the end of the age of our journey – believe the Good News.