Wilderness and floods

As we journey through lent each year, the Church provides us with similar foundations. Each year, on the first Sunday in Lent, we journey with Jesus out into the wilderness as he is tempted; on the second Sunday, we travel with Peter, James and John up a high mountain where Jesus is transfigured. These two elements can help to orient us through the season of Lent and prepare us for Easter.

In this year, the church pairs the temptation in the wilderness in the Gospel of Mark with the end of the story of the great flood from the book of Genesis. The connection between the two stories is even clearer when we remember that just before today's Gospel, Jesus has journeyed out to the Jordan valley, to be baptised by John in the Jordan River - when the heavens are thrown open, the Spirit descends upon him and the voice of the Father is heard - 'this is my beloved Son.'

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Recorded at St Paul's, 10am (11'40")

Garden and wilderness

As we begin this new season of Lent, we are taken back to the garden of Eden to witness both the life of tranquility and peace that originally existed and then the condition during and after the fall. When the serpent entered into the picture, the lies and deception begin to flow and the consequences are immediately felt. The coexistence of heaven and earth - with God living in peace with the humans in the garden and sharing life and enjoying each others company - all of this changes, and the man and woman discover they are naked. Now shame becomes a reality and they try to hide from one another by covering up behind their fig leaves. We think we are more sophisticated and hide behind titles, honours, work, houses, toys and gadgets. But the choice that Eve and Adam made are still open to us. Will we stay with the Lord in the garden, or will we allow the exultation of human freedom to drive God out of lives as we flee into the wilderness?

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8'02" (St Brigid's, Gwynneville)
Lent 1A

(Last week was the Bishop's Pastoral Letter for Lent, which was played in the place of the homily across the Diocese.)

Purification in the desert

First Sunday in Lent - temptations in the desert. Deut 26; Rom 10; Luke 4

We begin the forty days of Lent by journeying with Moses and Jesus into our shared history, so that we have time away from all the distractions that we so often fill our lives with, to reflect on those questions that are actually at the heart of everything that there is. Questions like 'who am I?' and 'who is God?' Questions that resonate with the majestic reading from St Paul to the Romans (chapter 10) that the word is very near to us, and if we confess with our lips and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord we will be saved.

It is this spirit of laying aside our distractions that we can join with Jesus in the desert, to confront the accuser, the Satan and address these three temptations. The first, in changing stone into bread, addresses our desires to use sensual pleasures to answer our deepest needs; the second is the desire for power and control; the third is making the ego the centre of the whole world. Jesus addresses each temptation directly through the power of God's word - reminding us that when we take time to be alone with God, we will have the same power to address the most central and pressing questions of our own hearts and respond to the Lord in the same way.

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Recorded at Sacred Heart (11'26')