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The
First Sunday of Lent Based on the readings from Genesis 9:8-17 & Mark 1:9-15 Spring
is a new beginning.
Long before we see the signs of new life that tell us that winter
is past, the earth is beginning to prepare itself for spring.
Already we are seeing signs of that new beginning.
Days are beginning to lengthen.
Soon the signs will become more tangible – new colour, new
life, warmth. And
along with the beginnings of new life will come also the violence that
accompanies re-birth.
Rivers will fill with rushing water.
There will be the inevitable springtime thunderstorms.
Our
human experience of new beginnings also carries with it both the
gentleness and the turmoil of spring.
Both are necessary to produce new life, new growth.
With all the wintry weather we have been experiencing it may not
feel as if spring is close, but Lent is the Church’s springtime.
It is the time for us to be reborn in gentleness and violence to
the new life in Christ.
New
beginnings are exciting.
I think of some of my own new beginnings.
I grew up in the hustle and bustle of the inner city of Toronto.
There has always been a comfort for me in being surrounded by
tall buildings.
The noises of the city, the rumbling of cars and streetcars,
factory noises, are all a natural part of my world.
How
different my life became when, at seventeen, I moved up north to begin a
teaching assignment at an Indian Residential School on James Bay.
There were so many new experiences.
Flying for the first time, my first class of children,
experiencing a new culture, learning to drive a skidoo, a canoe trip up
the Fort George River! The night sky lit up with stars! The northern
lights dancing with beautiful colour! The howl of the wolves that was
enough to raise the hair on the back of my neck!
New
beginnings involve risk.
They call us from our familiar, comfortable world into a strange
and unfamiliar one.
We can feel isolated, alone and unsupported as we embark on a new
venture or relationship.
It is difficult to see where it all may lead.
My early teaching experience certainly had its storms.
I was living in isolation far away from family and friends.
During ‘freeze up’ and ‘break up’ no planes could get
into our northern community so for weeks on end we had no contact with
the outside world.
I was working with small children taken away from their homes and
families and cultures.
I left home barely three weeks after the tragic death of my
younger brother. The
story of Noah and the flood is an epic story of a new beginning.
In the beginning God created the world.
God created it out of goodness.
But evil entered into the world. From the destructive waters of
the flood God began over again.
God entered into a covenant relationship with Noah.
Covenant helps us to understand that a creating God not only
brings us into existence, but also enters into relationship with us.
It breaks down the barriers between God and humanity giving
meaning and hope to our existence. The rainbow becomes a symbol of our
solidarity with God and all of creation.
It is an intuitive association and one that requires our
reflective thought.
Mark
tells us about a new beginning in Jesus' life.
His baptism in the Jordan marked for him the beginning of
his earthly ministry.
Privacy ends, public life begins.
It marks too a covenant relationship between him and God.
It is a point of intersection, a meeting of heaven and earth.
“You are my Son, the Beloved,” God tells him.
The Spirit of God enters him enabling him for what lies ahead.
It
is for Jesus as it would be for any of us, a time of decision, of
pressure, of anxiety.
How
do we make a new beginning in our spiritual life?
Baptism is a new beginning for us.
We go down into the water to die.
We come out to new life.
It is an exciting moment in our lives as we make a decision to
follow Christ.
It is an exciting moment as we enter into relationship with God.
It is an exciting moment as we recognize the Spirit of God at
work in our lives.
But there is also risk at entering the water.
It is a time to let go, to lose control, to become vulnerable.
“But
I was just a child when I was baptized,” you may be thinking.
And there does come a point in our spiritual lives when we will
want to renew that covenant with God.
Whenever there is a baptism we are given such an opportunity.
Many people experience times of renewed commitment through a time
of retreat or a conference or a renewal movement like Cursillo.
We need to experience times of change
and growth. They
may be times of great joy, the birth of a child, a new relationship.
Often it happens because of the turbulence of life, times of
disaster, or uncertainty, a death in the family, a move, changing jobs,
unemployment, sickness, and retirement.
Both are opportunities to draw closer to God, opportunities for
spiritual growth and recommitment.
Lent
offers us an opportunity to renew our baptismal covenant, an opportunity
to develop our relationship with God.
For Lent is a time of self-examination, of checking our focus, of
sorting our priorities.
It is a time to reflect on God's promises and to recognize our
failure to live up to our part of the relationship.
It is a time to begin anew, through repentance, through seeking
God's guidance, through struggle, and through renewed commitment.
It is a time to seek God's guidance.
Hopefully we begin to rely on God.
May it be a time of renewal and hope! Lent is a time for a new beginning. We are invited to reconsider our baptismal covenant and rededicate ourselves to a continuing conversion. We are called to begin again to enter into the death-resurrection process. We do not know where this new beginning will take us, but together we enter into a journey from ashes to Easter. |