Genesis 9:9-17; Psalm 25; Mark 1:9-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22
The more I hear or tell that story about the ark, the less comfortable it makes me feel about all those people who were drowned. Think of it - a whole society swept away, like those disaster pictures we see on television sometimes of people crouching in trees or on rooftops, hoping against hope to be saved. And of course the ones we see pictures of are the ones where camera crews and rescuers have reached them in time.
But though the story of the flood might give us an impression of God as an angry and indiscriminate destroyer, washing away the innocent with the guilty, only saving the seasick few within the ark, that impression needs to be supplemented by the short and mysterious reference to that same story we find in our second reading this morning, from 1 Peter. For somehow those drowned in the flood, far from being eternally lost, have turned into the ‘spirits in prison' to whom Jesus also issues his proclamation: the kingdom of God is near, so change your mind and believe the good news! If that is true, no one is barred from God forever, unless they choose it.
The writer of 1 Peter likes to link up different stories in the Bible with the story of Jesus and our own stories. Not only do we have this more hopeful ending to Noah's story, where thanks to the death of Jesus both those outwith the ark and those within can eventually be rescued, we also have that watery tale linked up with the stories of our baptisms and that of Jesus, which we were considering a while ago, shortly after Christmas. And immediately following his baptism in our Gospel reading this morning there is yet more possibility for linkage between our stories and the story of Jesus: his temptation in the wilderness, which marks for us the beginning of the season of Lent. This is the year of Mark's Gospel, so we don't get all the technicolour detail supplied by Matthew and Luke about what sorts of temptations Jesus suffered or how he dealt with them. All we know from Mark is that ‘he was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him'. And somehow that sparse telling is enough for me to reflect on the realities of my own life.
For temptation to deviate from God's will for us comes in many different shapes. There is very little point in my trying to tell you about your temptations, when you know them, so to speak, from within. What's more important for us this morning is to think how Jesus can help us to conquer them.
Though the idea of Lent comes directly from the life of Jesus and his forty-day stay in the wilderness, using this time before Easter to deepen our faith is not in itself a Presbyterian habit. I suspect for some here it may feel rather artificial, like setting up hurdles of faith in order to see if we can jump them, or like new year's resolutions - and we all know what happens to most of those. Yet like our reading from 1 Peter, this year's Christian Aid suggestion, Count Your Blessings - you'll find the first week's worth of suggestions on today's order of service, and there will be more every week in Lent - also works by making links between different stories: this time between our day-to-day lives and the daily realities of others in different parts of the world. Rather than letting Britain and Europe become an ark of prosperity in a sea of drowning deprivation, rather than giving way to the temptation to think that those far away matter less to God than we do, Count Your Blessings helps us recognise that the people whom our money goes to help are, like us, descendants of Noah and his family; members of the human race, whom God has promised never again to destroy.
That's one way to use the season of Lent: to spur us into positive effort for others, of the sort we would applaud but not necessarily get around to at other times of year. It's something worth doing whatever the season, and I hope many of you will take up the challenge, keeping a running total of the amounts you pledge every day, so that at Easter we will be able to collect it all together and send a good big cheque to Christian Aid.
Another traditional way to use Lent is to think and reflect more deeply on our faith. Some of you, I know, will be taking up the opportunity to attend groups on the last week of Jesus' life, on the life and prayer of Julian of Norwich, on how we can make green issues part of our lives, or on the myths and realities of Celtic Christianity. If that sounds interesting to you, there's still time to start.
But if we're not study-group sorts of people, and not everyone is; if we don't go in for Lent as a season of particular denial, and not everyone does, how can we fight the temptations that are part of every Christian's experience, whether we're Catholics or whether we're Presbyterians?
Reading the Bible may feel like something we've done at Sunday school and get every week at church without doing more of it on our own - but it's amazing what questions and ideas can still arise in our minds with a passage we thought we knew inside out and back to front, as well as what verses may seem totally unfamiliar to us. But whatever we read, it's surprising how it can help us reflect on our lives and give us the wherewithall to make good choices. If you're not sure where to begin, a psalm a day would be a good target; if you're feeling more adventurous, why not read through Mark's Gospel, so you know what I'm going to be preaching about all this year?
We know that Jesus took time to pray on his own - we know, because people always made such a fuss till they found him again! For some of us, time alone to pray may be hard to find. For others, the difficulty may be concentrating on God with anxious thoughts or over-crowded schedules going round in our minds. Jesus knows our circumstances, what is and what is not possible. Five minutes' prayer a day may not sound much, but compared with continual guilt at not having managed half an hour, it's a good solution. And the peace that God's presence can bring in prayer helps us to see the right decision when we are tempted, and to take that choice.
One more thing I'd suggest, of all the many ways you could make this Lent one in which you could come closer to God and to others, and that is the offering and receiving of forgiveness when things have gone wrong. I find it hard to forgive people who have hurt me; but I also know that I can hurt others too. Offering and accepting forgiveness takes courage, because you don't know how the other person will react, but it is a Christ-like thing to do, so if we ask for Jesus' help, he will give us as much as we need. For, as we have read today, Jesus too was tempted. He knows how it feels.