Mark 1:9-15
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.
Many of you joined me in watching live as NASA’s rover named Perseverance safely touched down on the surface of Mars on Thursday. I watched it live out of a combined sense of responsibility (feeling like it was my duty to watch and be a part of a significant achievement for our nation) and curiosity (would the mission be successful?). I was surprised to find myself on the verge of tears as I watched this scene unfold:
I think what had me so choked up was a sense of admiration and awe in witnessing the culmination of years of constant hard work and attention and the extreme brilliance of the scientists and engineers, all in service of the audacious desire to reach and learn more about our neighboring planet. I realize this is not the first rover to successfully land on Mars, but that does not diminish their accomplishment. In fact, it adds to how impressive the accomplishment was. Repeat success means the first time wasn’t a fluke, they did it again and can do it again. It’s how our beloved sister Bettina must feel when Alabama wins the college football championship every single year. Their 86th championship in a row wasn’t any less impressive than any that had come before (at least, in the minds of Alabama fans).
Unlike sports championships, however, this was a victory for everyone. Every person can celebrate this testament to human achievement, determination, and scientific discovery.
I found it interesting that the phrase “Seven minutes of terror” was used to describe the anticipatory period right before the rover’s landing. That was certainly a great marketing tactic to get people to invest emotionally in the event. But I wonder how nervous the Perseverance team really was. They had, after all, dedicated an unfathomable amount of time and resources to crafting models, formulas, and simulations to ensure the mission would be a success. I’m not discounting their achievement in any way, but I think that whole-hearted and authentic celebration was less a surprise and more an expression of joy at seeing all their hard work pay off.
Again I’ll dip back into a sports analogy. Every time we witness a game-winning buzzer-beater that secures victory for a team, we think about how incredible and unlikely that shot was. What we don’t truly realize is just how much time and hard work that athlete dedicated in order to make that game-winning shot a statistical probability, rather than a miraculous stroke of luck. We’re a couple of weeks away from seeing Valpo’s 1998 NCAA tournament game-winning shot over and over on TV. Actually, we’re not weeks away, let’s watch it right now:
After that game-winning shot, the team talked about how they had practiced that play every day. We relive and celebrate that moment each March not because it was improbable, but because it was planned for, practiced, and flawlessly executed–a testament to what can be accomplished with hard work, time, and focus.
There is a challenge in all this, though. I’ll speak for myself in admitting a certain amount of sadness because it's hard for me to imagine being a part of a team that accomplishes something as incredible or worthy of celebration as a 290-million mile hole-in-one. I’ll never be on a team rushing the court after a game-winning shot. And that’s the challenge, right? Sure, we were not a direct part of that success, but we can be inspired by them and commit ourselves to the hard work of dedicating ourselves to a purpose bigger than ourselves.
All of this can inform our life of faith, particularly in this season of the year that we call Lent. People tend to struggle with the idea of the season of Lent. What do I give up? Do I give something up or add something? What is the point of living any differently for 40 days anyways? What if my Lenten fast doesn’t even last as long as my failed New Year’s resolution?
The season of Lent is a time of preparation and examination that stems from the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. This story in Mark’s gospel is pretty succinct–only two verses long–and we’re not told the exact nature of Jesus’ temptations. This gives us the freedom to recognize our own temptations and work to root them out, with the help of God. The temptation that you are invited to root out of your life is anything that distracts you from believing that you are God’s beloved and that God’s love is enough for you. The list of possible temptations is too long to adequately cover here, but suffice it to say, I doubt a daily snack of chocolate or eating meat on Fridays is really what’s separating us from experiencing God’s love. Our temptations are for power, control, wealth, despair, worry, independence, numbness, willful ignorance, laziness or overwork, just to name a few. Something in that list might be pulling you away from the experience of God’s love, and that is what you are invited to address throughout this season.
I’ll conclude by going back to Mars for a moment. Here’s one of the strangest facts about the martian rover landing. The rover successfully landed 17 minutes before the NASA team knew it. That’s how long it takes a signal from Mars to reach Earth. The thing they joyously celebrated had technically already happened 17 minutes earlier.
We, like those scientists and engineers in the JPL control center, await the news of a successful mission; the mission: to see Jesus raised triumphantly from death and to find our true identity in this fact.
The good news, of course, is that this event has already happened, it just takes 40 days until we hear the Easter proclamation. In the meantime, we watch with eager anticipation for signs of life out of death. We do our part to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and dwell with God in scripture. Each day we trust God to give us the strength to create a little more distance between us and our worldly temptations. We take steps to live in a way that contributes to the health and wellbeing of our fellow man and the planet we call home. And we commit ourselves to the hard work of dedicating ourselves to a purpose bigger than ourselves.
May you be aware of those things in your life that seek to pull you away from God’s love.
May God’s angels wait on you and serve you in your restorative and life-giving work.
May you endure the suffering and disappointment that accompanies everyone’s Lenten journey to the cross.
May you dedicate yourself to a purpose bigger than yourself.
And May you celebrate Jesus’ victory over death and the powers of darkness with the enthusiasm and relief of a room full of NASA mission controllers.
Amen.
