Prayer

Lord as we ponder your words open our hearts that we may understand and know you. Amen 

Sermon    

  I would say that for the most part most people I know like jelly beans or their more flavorful cousin the Jelly belly which is a jelly bean that tastes like other things. Like popcorn or chocolate.  Did you know it takes three days to make jelly beans and they can trace their origin to biblical times in the form of a Turkish delight. 

What do jelly beans Lent and the temptation of Christ have in common. Well maybe the devil tempted Jesus with jelly beans. No that’s a bit ridicules. 

The connection is time.  Jelly bean sales are highest at Easter and given our choice we could skip the Lenten stuff and go for the Easter and the jelly bean.  But as it takes three days to make a jelly 

. I find it hard to grasp that this is the first Sunday in Lent. I feel like it was just last week I was planning what we would be doing for Christmas Eve.  Do you remember when you were young, how time moved?  Summer went on for ever.  Your Birthday always seemed so far away.  Now a days its “really another year has already gone and I am how old now?”  Time is a matter of perspective. It moves fast it moves slow. It’s too long, it’s too short.  One of the wisdoms I have gained over the years is to never wish time away. Time is a gift.  The gospel this week is the traditional for the first Sunday in Lent.  Jesus is driven into the wilderness for 40 days. Mark is a little lite on description.      we get an almost flash card telling of the story.  Mark gives us just the facts.  Jesus is baptized, God speaks to him and tells him who he is. Jesus driven in to the wilderness where he is tempted. (not with Jelly beans)  Jesus begins the preach.   



       Jesus is driven into the wilderness. What happened we don’t know but it was an essential part of the journey a time of coming to grips with what he had learned.     

The Greek word translated “drove” is a very strong word that could be equally translated “compelled”, “coerced”, “constrained” or “pressed”.

It almost suggests that Jesus could not have not gone into the wilderness. He felt a divine compulsion to go into the desert! It was the natural response, given the decision he had just made. He needed time to be alone and to reflect both on his decision and the implications of that decision of having given himself to making the kingdom of God happen.

To maybe find his way. Here we can wonder if he was tempted with the same things that tempt us. Yes our worlds are very different but at the core many of same concepts are shared.

 Forty days that’s not to long. A month and a bit. I learned that forty does not really mean forty. In biblical terms it means a long time.  The wilderness is not a long time to be endured but embraced. It is in the wilderness where we find the time for reflection. To be undistracted by the everyday and look inwards   

We begin lent in the wilderness a time for us to find our way. To seek out answers direction, divine presence.    To use that old saying of Soul searching  One writer suggests that

 Like Jesus we hunger for something that will fill the emptiness inside of us.
In the desert there is little water or food to quench those needs. In the same way this world offers us nothing real and meaningful to fill our emptiness. Oh, once in a while the world shows us a mirage, but it is only an illusion. And so we are tempted to try to fill the emptiness with things that are not good for us. We try to fulfill our need for love with superficial relationships. We try to fulfill our need for peace by trying to ignore or escape the pain around us. So just like Jesus we are tempted. Tempted to take shortcuts. Tempted to make up our own way.

 

    To walk the Road with Jesus takes courage because at times it leads us into the wilderness. It is hard to be reflective about ourselves We are tempted to quit, or ignore what is in front of us. Or set blinders on and be single minded. To close ourselves to what God would have us find, the truths that may be there that we may not want to grabble with.   

Moving through lent can be like being an explorer setting a course into the unknown but trusting that the earth is not flat. That there is something over the next horizon.  You must just persevere long enough to discover what that might be.

  Steve Beckow writes.

The spiral is perhaps one of the oldest symbols of human spirituality known to humanity. Although its meaning varies depending on the culture, it can be found in the artwork of most people of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The oldest spiral symbols can be seen in Ireland at the megalithic site of Newgrange Doubt and Nought a grouping of ancient burial mounds. where these mysterious symbols date back to about 3,200 B.C.

When one looks at these symbols from a spiritual context, they have profound meaning and depth as symbols of unity and ascension.

Spirals are believed to represent movement through experiences in life.  The Celts in particularly viewed this symbol as one of progressive development, growth and expansion as we make our journey towards the center and towards the light. At the spiral’s center is where we find spiritual balance and realize our deep 

The Lenten journey is not just about our own journey but our journey together. It is also about reaching out to others who are no longer on the journey of faith. Its about offering an invitation for those that no longer journey with us. 

 Its about gathering in the faithful to walk the pathway back to our center.