Walking into Christ together. Lent's Invitation to Life.

Matthew 3

1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'
4 John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
15 Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

I remember the season of Lent in the rural Ireland of my childhood. As a child I remember Ash Wednesday when all, even the teachers in school, bore an ashen cross signed on their foreheads. This cross began, what was for us a season of penitance and self denial. We believed our moral reform would help us prepare our souls for Easter. For us children it meant giving up sweets and trying to live as better people for Jesus. But I now ask myself if this self purification and denial served rather to obscure the wonder of faith, the desert encounter with it's temptations and victories, and the Pascal mystery contained in this wonderful season. The ashen sign of the Cross contrasts with the mark of the beast and speaks not of human self-reform but rather of the mystery of our faith as Christians. In His death is our life. In His steps lie the liberating redemptive seasons of our lives. It is in surrender and total passionate abandon to the will of our God that the Christian believer finds the new resurrection life.

Jesus began His approach to the Jordan by living firstly a season of surrender to detachment. I imagine that for some time the Holy Spirit had been speaking to Him of change. Nazareth life was ending for Him. The simple joys of home, family, work, and belonging were about to be replaced by the adventure of stepping into the Father's purpose for His life. The Jordan stands for the powerful waters of Baptism, for the washing of the Word, for the immersion into a place of surrender and death to all that he could control and gain false human security from. The Voice beckoned. The Voice of prophetic revelation. The disturbing Voice of a sent one this time calling not only Israel to repentance and faith, but the Lamb of God Himself to His altar.

John had discovered his mission earlier. He was a man who had entered into the incarnation of his calling. He was a preparer and his instrument was the witness of his own surrender and the giving voice to that which the Father had revealed in secret.So are we as Missionaries of the Holy Spirit in this World. A postmodernistic secular society has no interest in the noise of our theological debate, or in our centuries old lust for power and control over Christ's Sheep. Western Christianity in it's institutional expressions has disgraced itself before Europe. It needs to deeply repent to be credible again. It needs to give back to Caesar what Caesar gave to it, and give to God that which belongs exclusively to God. It's total and unreserved love and allegiance. Two World Wars later a wounded World wanders in search of authenticity & the lived out witness of truth. Such was Palestine 2000 years ago, such is Europe today. Why did the people come out from the comfort of Jerusalem and the Temple to a wild man in a river in the midst of a wilderness? They came because he was the word he proclaimed! They came because he had the Word from God for the present moment! The Voice. They came because it was true and authentic.

Jesus, our Lord, was called to reorder the priorities of a life of 30 years with Mary in Nazareth to embrace the consecration of His vocation. Repentance is not only from sin. It is "Metanoia" - a turning in life. To go from faith to faith and glory to glory, we must leave yesterdays faith and yesterdays anointing and permit ourselves to live in the vulnerability of a spiritual poverty where we need the Voice and the Vocation of God the Father.

So much of western popular Christian thought & piety is pure illusion. We ask God to bless our old tattered lives when He says, "Let it die, and come follow me, and I will make you..." I speak now as a Pastor of twenty years. There is little authentic transformation in modern Christianity. But authentic Christianity is all about transformation. It is never static. It is a dynamic walk into Christlikeness for all eternity.

Jesus was available to the Voice of the Father and He choose to be vulnerable and willing. It led Him to the waters of the Jordan forever separating Him from His past life. It led Him into the anointing for the Messiah / Christ life. A fiery baptism in the will, love, power, and sanctifying fire of the Father. The same Spirit that led Him to the waters and the ecstasy of the anointing brought Him in contact with His own vulnerability and weakness and into direct confrontation with Satan and his real temptations for the Christ. It was the availability of Prayer, the Listening of Contemplation, the soaking and dwelling in the manifest presence, and the radical choice to completely and always obey the living Word that got Jesus through.

Such is your vocation this Lent. To follow in Jesus footsteps....

...From the security and comfort of Nazareth to the disturbing Waters of Consecration.

...From the impotence of self will and effort to communion with the Divine Will and His anointing.

...From the strife of busyness to the peace of availability.

...From the illusion of self autonomy, to the realities of His Lordship.

...From my will and life to His Voice and Destiny.

Now who says Lent and the desert are boring!

I pray that week by week you may come ever deeper into the realities of God and His will for you.

Your brother and servant,

Gerard+

Missionary of the Holy Spirit.