First Sunday in Lent (Year B, RCL)

Here in Minnesota, Lent is an almost unbearably slow wait.

Monastic vows sound familiar to anyone who's been to a wedding. In both marriage and celibacy, we promise to be faithful.

For some Christians the most important characteristic of God is God's "unchangeableness," God the same--yesterday, today and forever.

For myself, I value those instances in which God changes God's mind, "repents," we might even say, of past behavior.

What can we possibly find in Mark's terse temptation account to help us in our wilderness wanderings?

In the Bible, the ambiguity of shame is unmistakable.

For the people in Noah’s day, there was no scientific warning of a natural disaster, just a crazy man building an ark.

Sometimes I’m watching TV news and reach the point where I cannot take in all the violence and destruction. So I turn off the television and try to get involved in something that will take my mind off the news. God, however, does not have that option. God does not have a remote control to change the channels. God cannot move to the suburbs or close a door to hide from the violence. God’s eyes are not averted. God’s heart is not numbed.

The realization that one has enemies, personal or professional, can make one adopt a guarded and self-limiting stance toward life. Yet in Psalm 25, where someone is wrestling with this kind of situation, we see the psalmist reaching out to the one he can trust as not treacherous, to whom he can relate, secure in the knowledge that in God he has a source of steadfast love.

In an account in which only Satan, wild animals, and angels are with Jesus, the reader is also present.