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SERMONS

The First Sunday in Lent
March 9, 2003

What is the weather going to be like today? It looks like spring is finally arriving. And two days of sun almost brings more joy to me than I can stand.

Do you care? If you don't then you are an uncommon person. The weather is a popular subject of interest and concern. Particularly when the question is whether or not it will rain.

For most of us interest in the rain has to do with our own convenience. If it is raining it will be more difficult to run errands, my clothes are liable to get wet and muddy, I may have to cancel plans for outdoor activities, the kids may have to play inside.

For some it is more important: a matter of livelihood. Builders don't work, and don't get paid, when it rains. Either too much or too little rain can ruin a farmer's crop.

And at times it is a matter of life and death. Within the past year we have the tragic contrast of deaths due to drought and famine in Africa; and death, destruction, and dislocation due to flooding associated with recent storms.

We must have water to live. But too much water will kill us. Our readings today are all concerned with water. They also present its twin faces. From Genesis we read the conclusion of the story of Noah and the flood.

You remember the story. People became so evil that God decided to wipe them out with a great flood. Only Noah--because of his righteousness--and his family were saved. At God's command Noah built an ark and in it he, his family, and assorted animals rode out the flood. We are presented with water as the bringer of death.

The gospel presents us with the water of the Jordan River, the only source of fresh water in the Judean wilderness. In this water Jesus is baptized and identified by God as the Son, the Beloved.

But the epistle reminds is that it is not so easy to distinguish water of death from water of life. Its writer reminds us that both waters are one. All water can bring death, and all water can bring new life.

In the ark Noah and his family were brought through the death of the flood. And they were given the promise of new life in the covenant that God made with them. A covenant marked by the sign of the rainbow.

The waters of baptism are also waters of death. It is only in our own ark that we may pass through them safely. That ark is Christ. Paul reminds us that through baptism we die with Christ. And with Christ we are raised to new life.

We begin our Lenten journey with the sign of water. The water of baptism. The sign of death to sin and of new life. We will end our forty day journey with another sign, the sign of the cross. Also a sign of death. And in Christ a sign of promise. The promise of victory over death and of eternal life through him with the Father.

Water and the cross. Death and life.

David Christian
The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi

Genesis 9.8-17
1 Peter 3.18-22
Mark 1.9-13