Again & Again: God Meets Us

 Mark 1:9-15       Common English Bible

About that time, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. While he was coming up out of the water, Jesus saw heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down on him. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”

At once the Spirit forced Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among the wild animals, and the angels took care of him.

After John was arrested, 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!”

My earliest memories of the church are all very positive.

When I was five years old, my parents moved to Roselle, Illinois --- which was then the farthest reaches of the western suburbs of Chicago.

The formative years of my Christian experience took place there --- and it was there that I stood before the church and confirmed my baptism and claimed it for my own.

But what I remember most about the Roselle United Methodist Church (we became united while I was there) are two things.  

It was during this period that I developed my love for coffee --- I took a little coffee with my sugar. --- Now I drink my coffee black.

We must not have had donuts --- because it is coffee that I remember.

Second --- my love for live music

The church put on a teen night, in the basement and even though I wasn’t old enough --- I always got to go and hear the local bands.

But it wasn’t until later that I learned --- what I have come to believe --- are the most important lessons from God.

There are two parts to this lesson --- and I think we can learn them in any number of different ways.

Individually

Or hand in hand

As I reflect back on my life --- I am pretty convinced that I learned them independently.

The first of these two ideas that I learned is that GOD IS WIH ME

For whatever reason --- I have always felt the presence of God

Sure there have been times when I have felt abandoned by God

But they are few and fleeting

In hindsight --- I can always see that God has been with me.

What I have not always felt --- is the love of God

I think this was especially true when I was younger

Though Sunday School --- and the culture

I saw God as mean and angry

Always looking for a reason to punish me.

It was almost a mentality of a God filled with wrath --- disappointed with me

It wasn’t until years later that I began to see and experience a God who loved me unconditionally.

And that completely changed my relationship with God

Today is the first Sunday in the season of Lent.

Lent is a 40 day period in which we are called to prepare ourselves spiritually.

As the book of worship says:

During this season converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism.

It was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins

and had separated themselves from the community of faith

were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness,

and restored to participation in the life of the Church.

In this way the whole congregation was reminded

of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ

and the need we all have to renew our faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church,

to observe a holy Lent:

by self–examination and repentance;

by prayer, fasting, and self–denial;

and by reading and meditating on God's Holy Word.

It is seen as an austere season

A time of self-reflection

Traditionally in the Roman Catholic Church one is not allowed to be married during this season --- although in the last few years a number of parishes have changed that practice and now allow weddings but not all parishes.

It is often seen as a bleak, dreary season.

The words we proclaim as the ashes are placed on the forehead are:

You are dust --- and to dust you shall return.

But what if we turn this season on its head?

Instead of focusing on the NOTs --- what we cannot have --- wat we are giving up

A season of depravation

Rather focusing on the opportunities

Pope Francis reminds us of this opportunity when he remarked:

Yet we are dust in the loving hands of God, who has breathed his spirit of life upon each one of us, and still wants to do so.

After the creation stories in Genesis, we get the story of Adam and Eve and the beginning of civilization.

Right away things don’t go as God had intended.

Humankind decides to go their own way.

So God decides to destroy the earth with a great flood

I don’t know about you --- but that is a story that I have always found troublesome

Regardless, God chooses Noah --- and invites him to build an ark to protect his family and a pair of each animal on the earth.

This is the story I asked you to read at home this week, particularly when God makes a covenant with Noah.

“This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and everything living around you and everyone living after you. I’m putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll remember my covenant between me and you and everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth.” (Genesis 9:9-16 The Message)

What God wants us to remember is not the destruction --- but the promise --- the covenant

The promise that even in the midst of pain --- God is there.

All four of the Gospels tell us the story of Jesus being baptized by John in the river Jordan.  They each bring their own unique twists and insights into the story --- but each want us to know that --- the baptism of Jesus is the start of his ministry.

In our earliest gospel Mark’s telling of the story we find great efficiency of words.

In seven verses we learn of three major events in the life of Jesus.

The first event is his baptism --- it is here where a voice calls out to Jesus and proclaims: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

God claims Jesus as his very son.

The second event is what we call the temptation in the wilderness.

For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by Satan. Wild animals were his companions, and angels took care of him. (Mark 1:13 The Message)

The final event in rapid succession tells us of the arrest of John the baptizer and the beginning of Jesus’s ministry.

There is one common thread through all three of these stories 

--- the presence of God.

In the most important moments of life --- in Jesus’ life and your life --- God is always present.

Recently, the Thursday lunch group was talking about stories

I asked everyone to write down the pivotal moments in their life story

The good --- the bad --- the ugly

And then I asked if they saw a theme

One theme was crystal clear to me --- at all those moments 

The high ones and the low ones

God was there.

The same is true in the life of Jesus

God was always present in every moment in his life

God meets us where we are --- but the good news is --- God doesn’t leave us there.

God gives us the opportunity to move forward

To move from being aware of God’s presence --- to embracing God’s presence.

Remember how I told you that it was at the Roselle UMC that I began my love affair with music

When I work on my sermons I generally have music playing in the background.  

Just as I got to the part where I was talking about God’s presence a song began to play on the radio by Blindfaith.  

Some of you probably recognize the group.

The song goes:

I have finally found a way to live just like I never could before

. . .

I have finally found a place to live, in the presence of the Lord

In the presence of the Lord

How has God come to you --- again and again --- in your life?

I invite you to take a look at your life --- note those “turning points” and see if you don’t find God there as well.

God meets us at these edge places of our life

In suffering

In uncertainty

In reluctance

God meets us there --- but more importantly --- God promises to stay there with us.

God never promised to get rid of the hard places --- what God promises is God’s presence.

So as we begin this season of Lent --- God promises to stay close by

God wants us to recognize that presence and celebrate it.

We sang to start this service “God is here!”  

God is present and drawing us close.

My we live in that belovedness

And may we act as if that belovedness is the cornerstone of our lives.

CLOSING PRAYER (“Prayer by Sarah Are | A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org.”)

We believe in a God who is everywhere and right here,

Bigger than the sky and in the smallest details,

All at once and in every moment.

We believe that God meets us where we are—

In heartbreak and high hopes,

Around crowded tables and in quiet homes,

In joy and in suffering,

In loneliness and in connection,

In sanctuaries and in living rooms,

In marches and in waiting rooms.

We believe that nothing we do or leave undone

Can distance us from God’s love.

God is forever drawing us close and pulling us in.

Again and again, God meets us where we are

And invites us into wholeness.

Thanks be to God for a love like that.