lent1-st-pauls-homily
Homily for Lent 1: St. Paul’s 2/18/2018 lectionary See what I mean about Mark’s gospel. How hard it is to move through it? Here we are this Sunday still in Chapter 1. We were reading from this part of the gospel back at the beginning of Epiphany. But today we begin a different cycle within a cycle. We follow a Lenten pattern for the season of Lent, then a separate cycle of readings during Easter season. Jesus’ experience in the wilderness by tradition begins the Lenten season. It so happens that this Marcan account of the wilderness experience, following the baptism, is the shortest of the 3 versions of the Synoptic gospels. In abrupt fashion, not unusual for the gospel of Mark, he tells what went down, there in the wilderness, and moves on with his Gospel. The wilderness experience is deeply associated with Lent. I learned on Wednesday that you have a tradition of keeping a little desert in the holy water fonts during Lent. A reminder for us of this basic ass...