First Sunday of Lent
But surveys get that job done too, especially anonymous
ones. I don’t want to do things that
take people out of the worship experience, no one does; so if I can make
adjustments without lessening the worship experience for someone else, of
course I will. Besides, I don’t like
excessively long prayers any more than you.
I’ve got pastor friends; we are a wordy bunch. Telling me, “Hey, that prayer was really
long,” isn’t offensive; it’s helpful. I
don’t want to be that pastor.
But then again, I don’t want to say too little either. Take the sermon, for example: for some (and
remember, the surveys were anonymous so I don’t know who you are), but some
would rather I not write out my sermon ahead of time. I get that: you don’t want a robot-pastor;
you want someone who believes in and is transformed by God’s Word. But I’ve actually tried showing up with just
Scripture and some notes. For a message
longer than a brief homily, it’s a train wreck.
I go off on tangents. I miss
vital points to the Scripture texts. My
stories don’t seem to have endings. When
I don’t write it out, I don’t say enough.
It is a bit like our Scripture lesson this morning. I like the Gospel of Mark because it isn’t
too wordy; you can get through the Gospel of Mark maybe in one sitting. But doesn’t it seem this morning that Mark
isn’t quite wordy enough? Doesn’t it
seem that there are things here that we should be hearing more about?
I can certainly make a point, in a prayer and in a sermon,
without saying more than needs to be said (and I honestly appreciate the
encouragement to do so); but there are also times when it is spiritually good
for us to take as long as it takes. We
live in a society where we can have anything we want whenever we want: we can
even pick and choose the items we consume or don’t, based on whatever criteria
we choose; but it is not so with faith.
With faith, rather than expecting God to meet our specific needs and
wants, we need to have the patience to listen for what God wants for us.
There are ways that we can keep our conversations brief,
right? Like asking “right?” If you agree, I can skip the explaining
part.
Like the phrase, “Yada, yada, yada.” You’ve heard that before, right? I used to think that I knew where that phrase
came from, but it turns out that no one does.
I had thought before this week that it had Hebrew roots because it
sounds like the Hebrew verb “yadah,” but I was way off and I don’t know where I
got that idea. But it’s okay because no
one else really knows where the word came from either: I’ve seen theories this
week linking it to old English, to Scottish, and even to Norwegian. So, long story short, we don’t know where it
came from; all we know is how the phrase was popularized in the 90’s.
The Seinfeld episode titled “The Yada, Yada” has some
morally sketchy parts to it, so I won’t delve too deeply into the plot
points. Except to say that the humor of
the episode involved what can happen when we shorten our stories with the
phrase “yada, yada, yada.”
Ideally, it’s meant to skip us along to the interesting
parts of the story and “yada, yada” past the less important parts. “I was super stressed out about the workshop
next weekend and how I was going to put everything together and get a sermon
done; yada, yada, yada, I got a guest preacher for next Sunday.” You get the point. But the Seinfeld episode was more about those
times when we “yada, yada” past the important stuff; that we assume people know
things they don’t know. For example,
there is a wedding scene toward the end of the episode and George comes in
without his date (the date that we found out earlier was a habitual
shoplifter). They ask him where she is
and he says, “She was getting shoes for the wedding, yada, yada, yada, I'll see
her in 6 to 8 months." You get the
point, but it seems he yadad past the interesting part of that story. Sometimes we yada, yada past the good stuff,
past the seemingly most important stuff.
Our Scripture lesson today is seven verses long. In those seven verses, Mark tells us about
the baptism of Jesus, his forty days of temptation in the wilderness, John’s
arrest and the beginning of his ministry.
That beginning, but the way, has some heavy theological concepts: the
nearness of God’s kingdom; repentance and belief; and what Jesus means by “Good
news.” All of this, in seven
verses.
As we begin this Lenten season, I’m struck by the thought:
did Mark just “yada, yada” past forty days?
“And the Spirit immediately drove Jesus out into the wilderness. Forty days later, yada, yada, yada, and the
angels waited on him.” We know from
other Gospel accounts that there was a lot that went on in that wilderness for
those forty days. Mark zips past it in
two verses.
Throughout Lent, I’m trying to center my attention on
Jesus. Lately, I’ve been focused
inwardly on who we are as a church and I’ve been encouraging you to listen for
God’s guidance in this as well. So it
occurred to me, as we journey through this season leading us toward Easter, it
might be a good reminder to look outside myself for a while; to keep our eyes
focused, not just on ourselves, but on Jesus.
So, personally through my own Lenten practices and professionally
through my preaching and teaching, my goal is to keep our focus on the life,
and words, and work of Jesus.
So it may seem strange that I picked a passage that seems
to “yada, yada” right past so much of that life, those words, and that
work. Well, there is a method to
it. I picked this passage to remind us
all that forty days is not so long. Now,
if you’re one to take on a fast for Lent then forty days seems like forever; at
least at first. But I think you’ll find,
by the end of those forty days, you’ll wonder where they went. The glory and joy of Easter morning will be
here soon enough and my hope for us is that we not just let this season yada,
yada by.
I encourage you this season to make the most of it: get to
know Jesus on a deeper level. Study his
life as it’s told in Scripture; maybe in other Gospels that don’t yada, yada as
much as Mark. Seek to better-know Jesus
in his Baptism as you reflect on the meaning of your own. Seek to better-know Jesus in his fasting and
temptations, perhaps as you take on a fast and reflect on what tempts you. Seek to better-know Jesus as the Good News of
God as you reflect on how God is calling you to be Good news to the world. Seek to better-know the kingdom Jesus
proclaimed as you look for it all around you.
Seek to better-know his call to repent and believe as you seek
repentance and deeper belief.
Easter will be here sooner than you think. May we make the most of this season and may
we know our Savior’s presence as we do.
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