First Sunday in Lent (Year B, RCL)

Lent began as a time of preparation for the covenant of baptism. The Year B Lenten readings very much ring out this theme of covenant, starting this Sunday with the covenant with Noah and its interpretation in 1 Peter as the covenant of baptism. The coming weeks feature the covenants with Abraham and with Moses and finally the covenant written upon our hearts in Jeremiah 31. Developing the theme of covenant might be an edifying way to let these Lenten scripture readings prepare congregations for Holy Week—especially the high drama of the Easter Vigil, centered on the waters of baptism.

There’s a reason that flood stories are so universal: we fear wiping ourselves out through our own violence.

In a culture that finds repentance unintelligible, impractical, or unnecessary, we are called to witness to its intelligibility, beauty, and importance.

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.