Homily at Parish Mass Lent 1 2015

Genesis 9:8-17

1 Peter 3:18-22

Mark 1:9-15

The sermon slots in Lent are going to be a bit different, as we’ll be using them for part of our Lent Course, “Hope, Actually”, which we’ll be exploring in greater detail on Tuesday evenings.

What we’re going to do this morning is that I shall say something briefly about today’s gospel reading and unpack some of the things that are going on there. But then it will be over to you to discuss that in pairs or in threes, for you to think about how the Gospel might apply to us here and now. And today we are looking at the joy of the Gospel, and how we can communicate that effectively.

So, today’s Gospel reading. Mark’s gospel is very compact and here at the outset of Jesus’ ministry we have three key themes set out for us.

First, the preaching of John the Baptist warns people to be ready and to repent because the Kingdom of God is at hand, the Lord is coming to visit his people. That is really important news. For the Jewish people it had been centuries since God had last sent a prophet or spoken to them in any way. They had suffered from many foreign invasions and were now occupied by the Romans. The temple in Jerusalem, supposedly the centre of the faith, was widely regarded as fake, just the power base for a priestly elite, but not the place where God dwelt with his people. Even the most faithful were wondering if God had not finally forgotten his people. So when John says, get ready, that’s ending, God is coming to you, that’s big news and people sit up and take notice.

Secondly, at his baptism Jesus is identified as the Son of God. His identity and calling are established. He is the Messiah, the fulfilment of the hopes and prophecies of old. In the temptation in the wilderness that calling is tested and found to be true; and Satan is defeated. Satan in the gospels personifies the destructive spiritual power at work behind the façade of the world: the power of oppression, accusation and exclusion that manifests itself through empires and political structures. Jesus the Messiah has come to defeat those powers.

Thirdly, this is happening now. The time is fulfilled. The centuries of waiting are over, God’s promises to his people have been remembered, and the time of liberation has come. This is huge. At last! It’s like winter has lasted for five hundred years and at last it’s the first day of spring. And this brings both joy and urgency to the message of Jesus. Joy, because this is good news for all but especially for the poor, the outcast and the marginalised. Urgency, because there is now no time to lose. The word “immediately” occurs again and again in Mark, Jesus did this then immediately went on to do that, and so on. The time is now.

And this urgency and joy bring with them a challenge: repent, and believe the good news. Repent, that is, turn around, and see what God is doing, so that you can join in. And believe in the good news. Faith is needed. There will be opposition, as has already been hinted at, because John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, has already been arrested. But have faith, believe that this Jesus, who will be opposed and crucified, is nonetheless the Messiah, the Son of God. Believe that it will be through his death and resurrection that Satan will be defeated and God’s liberation of his people will be achieved.

And the time is now, so be ready to share the joy of the good news.

Now it’s over to you. Turn to the person next to you, or if it’s easier join in threes, but no more as everyone needs to have a chance to speak. There are a couple of points for discussion on the news sheet, and please share with your neighbour what you think. You won’t be asked to report back today but if you come on Tuesday night there will be an opportunity then to share your insights.

• ·      Thinking of people we know of personally, who communicates the “joy of the Gospel” most clearly? What enables them to do this? What can they teach us about effective Christian witness?
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• ·      Are there ways in which the Church or Christians might be obscuring the joy of the Gospel, and what can we do about it?

Homily for Ash Wednesday 2015

Joel 2.1-2,12-17

2 Corinthians 5.20b-6.10

Matthew 6.1-6,16-21

What is it that we most deeply desire? That is the question we are asked today, and through this season of Lent.

In today’s gospel reading Jesus sharply criticises the popular religious practices of his day, which, at least in this passage, were all about being seen.  Jesus is exposing what is in his hearer’s hearts, what it is that they desire. In a religious society, those who practiced their piety openly were approved of. They gained status and reputation. Jesus is asking, do we desire that sort of approval? Do we desire to be like that sort of person? If we do, then our desire comes from someone else, second hand. We have forgotten what we are created for, our truest and deepest desire, which is God.

All of today’s readings in one way or another speak of a journey of salvation, the path of return to God who awaits us. And this is a path we must seek with the heart and soul, it is not simply a matter of external observances. It is about desire, and to learn what we most deeply desire we look into our hearts.

And this means also that we must expose the false desires which will never ultimately satisfy, so that we can detach ourselves from them and return to the Lord. True life is to be found in him, but all the time we seek it elsewhere. So all the time we are comparing ourselves with other people. If someone is well known and has a good reputation they seem to exist more solidly, more definitely, than I do. Everyone notices them, they must be really alive! But who notices me? So I desire to be like them. And I have forgotten to seek God who is my true desire.

Our own society is much less religious than that of Jesus. Our temptations are for different things, but they are the same at root. What does our society value? Not religious practices, but successful careers, glamorous lifestyles, perfect families, possessions, wealth, power. These are the aspirations by which people in our own day measure themselves against others, desiring what they’ve got, wanting to be like them.

The words of Jesus uncover those desires, show us what they are: desire for an illusion, that will never satisfy. Jesus tells us that to learn what we most deeply desire we must return to our Father, in secret. For it is in secret, in the depths of the heart, that we must seek God who is the only true source of our being and our life.

So the path of salvation and reconciliation leads us within. Jesus says “whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” The secret inner room in which our Father waits for us is within, in the heart, the depths where he gives the inexhaustible gift of the Holy Spirit who is our true and eternal life.

To return into this secret room we need to repent, that is to turn around and change direction. Saint Augustine after his conversion from a dissolute lifestyle prayed, “O God, you were within me, but I was outside, seeking you among your creatures.”

This is exactly what Jesus is saying today. Do not follow the false desires which lead us away from ourselves as we seek to possess what other people have got. Seek instead our truest and deepest desire, the desire for God, who leads us within to find our true life in him.

In Lent we observe a number of external practices, marking with ash, discipline and self-denial, the things we give up. But these are not ends in themselves. They are about uncovering our desires, all the ways in which we are seeking outside ourselves, seeking satisfaction and life among creatures, instead of seeking the one true source of life and being in God. 

And Lent is a time of repentance, returning to our Father, because we have discovered that the desires we were following will not satisfy us eternally. Instead God calls us to discover once again our deepest and truest desire in him. So Lent is a time of joy, and of life. We should not go around with gloomy faces! Yes, there is hard discipline in discovering, and letting go of, the false desires we have been following. But we are returning to the one true source of life and being, the desire for which we are created, which is God himself, in whom alone is all our life and joy.