Beyond the Patio

FORTY DAYS TO A NEW BEGINNING
Mark 1:9-15

I remember one time talking with children during a church service about the subject of moving from one place to another. I fully expected that the children would relate moving with some painful experiences like leaving friends behind, leaving the house that they had grown accustomed to, leaving what was familiar.  To my surprise they talked about moving as a wonderful experience in which they met new friends, did new things, were introduced to a new style of life.  It ruined my plans for the children’s talk that day – I had planned to deal with the difficulties we had with change.  But it was OK.  Instead we ended up talking about the excitement of new beginnings.

It is true.  There is excitement in new beginnings.  When we start off on a new educational pursuit we are filled with anticipation as to where it might lead. When people get married there is a great expectation as they enter into a new partnership.  Welcoming a child into the family, starting a new job, meeting new friends can all be exciting events in our lives.  They bring a new sense of vitality, a new source of energy, a new appreciation of life.  It is truly exciting.

The other side of the experience is also true.  There is some pain in new beginnings.  We are called out of a  familiar and comfortable world into an unfamiliar and strange world.  We don’t’ know whether we will be able to do the new work.  We don’t know what kind of parents we will be with a new child.  We don’t know whether we will continue to like the new surroundings and the new people that surround us.  We sometimes fell isolated, alone, unsupported as we embark on the new venture. Too many changes can lead to a dangerous level of stress in our lives.  We often can’t see where the new beginning will take us and we are afraid.

New beginnings can be exciting and at the same time fearful.

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However, it is important to make new beginnings.  To some extent that is what life is all about. I don’t mean that to really find meaning in your life you have to move from one place to another.  But our lives are a series of new beginnings in which we have to find meaning in each one of them.  We all move from childhood to adulthood.  That can be exciting or traumatic.  That is what adolescence is all about.  Then there are various stages in our adult life that we need to adjust to. We all have to meet new people from time to time .  We all face new demands – relational demands, economic demands, political demands.  After all we live in a community, a city, a nation, a world, and the mere living with others on this planet is demanding.

When I look at the story of the people of Israel in the Bible, it is one of continual change and new beginnings.  They had the understanding that God was with them in the midst of these changes and as they faced yet another new beginning.  In fact they saw God as the change agent and that is was indeed God who was bringing about change and leading the people into new beginnings. In the Hebrew scripture that we read today we have the story of Noah.  The flood was a new beginning for humanity.  The rainbow was a sign of God’s promise and commitment to humanity. We find later in the story of Moses, that the passing through the Red Sea was a new beginning for the people of Israel. They entered into a new covenant with God.  We read through scripture that they had to return time and time again to renew that covenant.

It is interesting to me how water always seemed to be a part of the new beginnings.  Sailing in an ark upon the flood waters, passing through the Red Sea, crossing the Jordan river all brought people to a new situation and a new understanding of their life together.  When John the Baptist appeared with his message of repentance and turning to a new life, he baptized with water. Jesus, when he was about to begin a new ministry, was baptized by John in the Jordan. He came out of the waters of baptism ready to proclaim his new message.

In today’s Gospel he was driven into the wilderness after his baptism where he was to decide what his life and his message was to be.  Certainly his proclamation through word and action was new.  It must have excited the people and at the same time frightened them.

David Butterick in his book The Mystery and The Passion speaks of how the apostles heard this new message and passed it on. He writes:

In the Beginning

Although we may be jaded by sermons that chase Bible verses tediously for twenty minutes or more, original listeners heard the gospel as a huge excitement. If the Epistles are any kind of witness, the apostles announced a changed world. The human world, they claimed, has begun all over again; we are living now in a “new creation.” They invited startled listeners to join God s new humanity. Did they use the word salvation? Yes, but when they spoke of salvation, they were not handing out stamped tickets to heaven or offering a happy armful of Jesus. Salvation certainly did not mean a cop-out from the wised-up, worldly world. No, for the apostles, salvation was a new social order, forgiven and free, in the midst of a worn-out world. Salvation was life, not self-destruction; love, not nagging self-interest; and freedom, true freedom for neighbors. Come, cried the apostles, come and be part of the world s new beginning. In a way, they continued the preaching of Jesus: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15).

David Butterick, The Mystery and The Passion, A homiletic reading of the Gospel traditions, Augsburg Fortress Press, 1992, p.1 &2

“Come and be a part of the world’s new beginning”.  Certainly early Christian baptism had that sense to it.  It was a new beginning. Passing through the waters of baptism made the new believer part of a new creation.  They became a part of a new world order in the midst of a ‘worn-out world’.

Now that is exciting and scary.  There are always those who have status, security and power in the old order that will be threatened by such a proclamation.  The Cross upon which Jesus died becomes the cross that the follower of Jesus bears as well.

Just as the people of Israel found it necessary to renew the old covenant with God time and time again, the early Christian church found that it was necessary to renew their baptismal covenant regularly.  Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection eventually became a traditional time of baptism.  People prepared for baptism for about three years.  In the final stage of their preparation, the whole community of faith became intensely involved, so that the Baptism on the Eve of the Easter, was not only a new beginning for those who were baptized but for those who were already baptized and were renewing the baptismal covenant. It was always a new beginning for the Christian community as a whole.  The emphasis of the six weeks before Easter, which now we call Lent, has had an emphasis on new beginnings.   Jesus calls us in the Gospel today, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15).  It has just as much meaning to us now,  at the present time, as it did to the startled listeners at beginning of Jesus’ ministry . This is a new beginning for us as individuals and for us as a community of faith.  We are called in the Gospel to begin again.

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What does it mean to begin again?  God only knows but we can speculate generally.

It means first of all capturing a renewed vision of the church.  I think that vision comes before anything else.  Our vision moulds our life together.  It creates the kind of life that we will have together.  If our vision is limited to keeping the plant going, making sure that this church continues the way it always has, then our style of life will reflect that.  It will be one of self preservation.  If our vision of the church is broad and the horizon wide and includes the work of the church as creating a new society, then our life will reflect that mission.  It will include a passion for peace, a commitment to work against all manner of oppression , a stewardship, or trusteeship of all that has been given us in this world, including the environment, a responsibility for the total well being of humanity.  Our liturgy, our nurture, our witness will all reflect that vision

What else does it mean to begin again?

To begin again may be to discover a new meaning in life.

To begin again may be to come in touch with a new power for living

To begin again may be finding a new basis for our life together

To begin again may be finding a new perspectives in our studying the bible, a fresh understanding in participating in the Eucharist,  a revitalization in our prayer life.

To begin again may be one of these things or all of these things

This Lenten season can be exciting.  It is a chance to begin again, for you, for me, for all of us together.  It can also be fearful because we never know where new beginnings will take us.

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