For the first Sunday in the season of Lent, Rev. Cari preached on Mark 1:9-15, the text suggested for the day by the Revised Common Lectionary. Because the gospel of Mark doesn’t waste words, we’ve heard much of this text before! But the two verses pertaining to today’s theme are the ones concerning the Spirit “driving” Jesus out into the wilderness, where he is tested by Satan.

Rev. Cari took the opportunity given by Mark’s lack of detail on the “tests” themselves (for that we need Luke and Matthew’s accounts) to share some observations from her attendance at Moderator Carmen Lansdowne’s “Thriving” event at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church. Speaker Afdhel Aziz (and Moderator Carmen herself) offered a grounded, hopeful presence in the face of “polycrisis” in the church and world at that event.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, despairing, or even cynical, so this kind of hopeful, yet realistic ground orientation provides us with steadiness. Rev. Cari suggests the season of Lent can be a time of practicing this groundedness, even if we feel lost.

Jesus emerges from his 40 days of testing with his first sermon on his lips, including the invitation: “Change your hearts and minds!”