Even. There.*

1^st Sunday of Lent, Year B

(a few days early)

Genesis 9:8-17

Psalm 25

Mark 1:9-15

On Wednesday evening

After our Ash Wednesday service here

We processed out

And the horror of the news out of Broward County Florida

Was there waiting for us

Bits and pieces

17 students and teachers dead

Shock, confusion, inability to process

And a part of me wanted to turn around

Get back in the pew

and fall down on that kneeler

Later, when I got home I wondered:

Why didn’t I?

Why didn’t I turn around

Get back into that pew

And fall to my knees?

Then I had a frightening thought:

Is such news becoming too familiar to me? 

I am glad that today

We have Mark’s concise version of Jesus tested in the wilderness

Maybe this is the perfect year

The perfect time

For the less specific

Having specifics can offer its own kind of temptation

It goes something like this:

Well…here we have Jesus

Facing the temptation to power, influence, and stardom

And he resists…he conquers…Good job Jesus!

And then I begin to think…

Well surely…

when I am at my strongest

…my Superwoman best

Surely then… I can be as successful as Jesus

I, too, can ‘stop a speeding bullet’ and resist satanic forces!

Surely, I can imitate Jesus!

He’s the sinless Son of God…for pete’s sake!

Who the heck do I think I am

How did I forget about his singularly powerful advantage!

NO…this year

…in light of the mayhem of evil and pain and loss

That is unfolding in Florida

This year

I am welcoming the

silence and scarcity and minimalism of Mark’s account.

This year

I am imagining that Mark is asking us to get at the root of it all

Could it be

That the most basic temptation of all

Is the temptation to believe that

I am…you are…the world is

ABANDONED by God???

Just voicing it…is tempting me

We just heard the second part of the Noah story this morning

And the clear message is that of COVENANT

God declares emphatically

I WILL REMEMBER MY COVENANT

I WILL SEE THE BOW

AND I WILL REMEMBER

And remember the Pslamist’s cry in Psalm 25?

It is the cry of one tempted to give up

Lift me

Show me

Lead me

Remember me

Guide me

The Psalmist is barely hanging on

God remembers God’s covenant

It is my temptation…to forget

In the wilderness Jesus doesn’t forget

All the way to the cross He doesn’t forget

The covenant is the promise of God’s presence…

I am with you…In the garden

I am with you…On the cross

You are not alone

EVEN. THERE.

Yes…EVEN. THERE.

And neither are we alone

What do we need when we are tempted to forget?

Sometimes I think…that WE think…that we need to be left alone!

But maybe what we need is for someone

To step in and remember on our behalf

Isn’t that what the Body of Christ

The Church

St Stephen’s

Is all about?

It is where we come,

Both physically and sacramentally

to keep each other, and the world, connected…close in prayer?

To step in and remember on someone else’s behalf

Even a someone who is a stranger?

All those families

The Students

Teachers

Members of the greater community

I can’t imagine how strong the temptation to forget must be

To forget that God is always present

That God is EVEN. THERE.

EVEN. THERE.

Not as a magic-fixer,

or an answer-giver,

a problem-solver, or a blamer

THERE,  as a companion

Com-pan-ion

The word means to share bread…to share presence

So maybe

Falling on our knees

Is a sacrament of sharing bread…

A sacrament of sharing the presence of Christ

Maybe falling on our knees

Is a way…a great way for those who are far away

To be a com-pan-ion in the pain

In some sense

Falling on my knees

Is my confession

That I believe in a God who is

EVEN. THERE.

It is a simple response
but it might just be the antidote

That will keep us from becoming too familiar

and too resigned in the face of evil and destruction and violence

This is NO effort to minimize

It is one hell of a temptation to believe that that

Empty

Deserted

Abandoned

Lonely

God-forsaken

Place

Is. Exactly. That.

But at its core

our Christian faith

a faith symbolized in jewelry and art

by a corpse on a cross

Professes that

EVEN. THERE.

Christ is always with us…

EVEN. THERE.

And the way we come to really believe that truth

Comes by way of direct experience

In our own sufferings…

We come to know that Christ is there with us

Precisely through those countless faces

It is in fact the natural conclusion of the Incarnation

We come to know that Christ is there with us

Precisely through

The COM-PAN-IONSHIP of others

The generous gifts of time and concern and prayer

…falling on the knees kind of prayer

We have a role to play

In making Christ present…EVEN. THERE.

into what looks to all the world as

God-forsaken-ness

And sometimes the only way to do that is to

Just

fall on our knees