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Scripture reading for the week – Mark 1.14b-15 (Common English Bible)

Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, saying, “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!”

Reflection

            Watching the news and readings the papers these past few weeks, it seems like all hope for a mature political discussion are lost. On a Congressional hearing on “religious liberty” which dealt with women reproductive rights NOT ONE WOMAN was invited to share her experiences and opinions. Political candidates keep questioning the faith of the President, with one of them even accusing the President of having a “phony theology.” Even more, this same candidate argued that the President did not know how to lead because he is not supporting his policies on the Bible. (Any good, orthodox Baptist would wonder why in the world we have a Constitution if the policies of the State are to be founded in theology. Isn’t that exactly what the founders tried to avoid?) More close at home, the anti-marriage organizations that hide behind gentle names like “National Organization for Marriage” have vowed to keep people from… getting married! (How is that for irony?!) And the list goes one…

            What do all these have to do with Lent? Probably nothing. But when the world around us seems to be out of control, it is good to remember the words of our spiritual leader and teacher, the peasant, humble, Jew from the outskirts of Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth, who proclaimed: “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom!”

            Perhaps this season of Lent should serve us not as a call not to “give something up,” but to put our hands on the plow and keep planting the seeds of God’s Reign. It seems like today more than ever we need to make real God’s dream of a new system in which we all have a part. I believe that Lent will mean nothing if we take this time to only look at our personal journeys and forget about the world that surrounds us.

            It is true that this season should serve us to reflect on our lives, our needs, and our own journeys. But it is also true that when Jesus retreated to the wilderness – which is the starting point for the tradition of Lent – he did so believing that his own transformation would bring about a complete transformation of the world. He called this “the kingdom of God.” This new realm was the one in which the Holy One was ever present and where the poor, the destitute, the weak, the women, the children, the sick, the widow, the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender, and all those who had been rejected by society found their space and their voice.

            Perhaps it is not a bad thing to pay attention to the crazy things that politicians are doing. Perhaps these are the signs of which Jesus spoke, the signs of the end of times, and the beginning of the reality of God’s Real, God’s Dream, God’s new way of doing things… and you and I are about to embark on the project of making sure that this Dream of God becomes a reality, even during Lent.

In the journey with you,

Pastor Manny