“A Love that loves us best of all!”

First Sunday in Lent 18 February 2018
(Genesis 9:8-17 Psalm 25 1 Peter 3:18-22 Mark 1:9-15)

“A Love that loves us best of All!”

[When this sermon was first preached on the First Sunday of Lent, it was enhanced with a PowerPoint presentation depicting Maurice Sendak’s book, “Where the Wild Things Are!”]

This past Wednesday I began my day as I do every Wednesday—with the Middle School and High School youth at breakfast. What was different this past Wednesday was that because of Ash Wednesday, I offered ashes to whomever wanted them. There were 7-8 youth for whom I made a cross with the words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return.”

As part of the morning ritual, I always lead a prayer and, in addition to thanking God for the food as well as for the persons who got up early to make the breakfast there are always two things I ask God for: 1. that these students be kept safe throughout the day; and, 2. that they make good choices and decisions during the school day.

By mid-afternoon on Wednesday I had heard the tragic news about the shooting at the Florida High School and 17 persons being killed, and I couldn’t help but think back to the morning with our youth. I wondered if any of the Florida youth killed had been marked with a cross of ashes and had heard the words earlier in the day “Remember you are dust and to dust you will return.” The most shown picture on the covers of various newspapers and FaceBook posts was of a woman hugging her daughter, and I could clearly see a cross of ashes on the woman’s forehead. “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

In the midst of yet one more story of tragedy, we come to this First Sunday in Lent. And on this First Sunday in Lent, we go into the wilderness with Jesus.
Most of us might want to say that “wilderness” is not a place we experience in our day-to-day lives. I would beg to differ, which is why “Jesus in the wilderness” is a really important way to begin the season of Lent each year. And it also takes me to one of my favorite children’s books, “Where the Wild Things Are.” Let’s take a look!

At the very beginning of the book, when his mother calls her son, Max, “Wild Thing,” Max responds to her, “I’ll eat you up!” and is immediately sent to bed without any supper.

That is when Max puts on his wolf suit and decides to make mischief of one kind and another. His room becomes a forest, and a boat tumbles by and he sails off to where the wild things are. The wild things roar their terrible roars and gnash their terrible teeth and they roll their terrible eyes and show their terrible claws. Until Max roars back at them and they become afraid of him, so they make him king—and then the rumpus begins.

Soon after, Max sends them off to bed without their supper; but Max is lonely and wants to be where someone loves him best of all. So he gets into his boat as the wild things roar their terrible roars and gnash their terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes and show their terrible claws–but they are sad; and Max sails back into the night of his very own room where he finds his supper waiting for him.

Our world can often feel like a wilderness where we can be terrified by the dark sides of our lives. But here’s, I think, the difference between our world and the two stories of Max and of Jesus going into their wilderness. I believe for us today, the wilderness comes to us. The wilderness comes into the security of our homes and into the safety of our communities. The wilderness comes into our churches and our schools and our families. The wilderness came to the people of Parkland, Florida, in a most tragic way on Ash Wednesday.

In the Bible, we encounter the wilderness in many different ways. Especially in the Old Testament, the wilderness plays an important role in people’s journey with God. Sometimes it is a place of refuge, sometimes a place of exile. It can be the place where God’s people are formed into a community, a place of testing and faith; but most importantly, it is the setting for an encounter with God.

In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus begins his ministry by going into the wilderness. Each story is slightly different. As one of the inmates said on Friday morning at the prison…..I’m living my wilderness. And then this inmate noticed how when Matthew and Luke tell the same story we are told that Satan names three specific temptations, [“…if you are the son of God, turn the stones to bread, throw yourself off the temple, bow down and worship…”] In Marks’ Gospel no temptation is mentioned by name; however, I think we are given a strong hint as to what the temptation must be. It is no accident that in the verse directly before we are told that “the Spirit immediately drove Jesus into the wilderness and was tempted by Satan…” we hear the ending to the Baptism of Jesus story where the voice from heaven says, “You are my Son, the beloved….” [vs. 11]. I want to suggest that in Mark’s Gospel, Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is to no longer believe He is the beloved Son of God. And I will most earnestly suggest that to be our greatest temptation—that we no longer believe we are beloved daughters and sons of God! I’ve already seen the posts on Facebook saying God was not allowed in Parkland High School; therefore they paid the price. We simply cannot give into the temptation to believe such bogus and reprehensible theology!

Yet, in the book, wasn’t this Max’s greatest fear? Despite all the fun he was having in the wilderness, he was lonely and he was afraid his mother no longer loved him. But when he returned, he discovered his answer when he saw a glass of milk, a piece of cake and a bowl of soup waiting for him in his bedroom.
In our world today, the wilderness comes to us as heartbreak, sickness and disaster, and too often we begin to think God no longer cares or loves us.

However, contrary to all human reasoning, might we even encounter God in such places? In the wilderness areas of our lives, might this lent be a time simply to slow down enough, to allow God to love you as God’s beloved child?

On this first Sunday of Lent, we begin in the wilderness. Forty days from now we will arrive at that hill outside the city of Jerusalem, on the Friday we call “Good.” We will stand at the foot of the cross. And that is where we will truly find a Love that loves us best of all. Amen.