Mark 1:9-15

Lent 1 – Year B

Mark 1:9-15

In long years gone ago, while traveling to High School sports games there would be the opening of bus windows and loud singing –
     Everywhere we go people want to know who we are,
     so we tell them, we are MG [school name or initials], mighty, mighty MG.

Last week we were on a mountain top singing this same rowdy ditty transformed to a meditative mantra,
     Everywhere we are we still want to know who we are,
     so we say we are beloved, very, very beloved.
[The cadence changes an emphasis upon "we" and places it upon "are" – will have to consider whether this is helpful or not, but for now I'll let it stand hope someone will clean it up.]

This week, about as low down as we can get on the surface of the earth, we are still singing this love song. You are still singing it from last week, right?

When the dearly beloved was asked a week ago about listening to 38 years of my sermonizing she was quick to respond, "each sermon is new, and yet each sermon is the same." When further queried, the clarification was that each sermon was crafted for its setting, even when preached three times in a row on a Sunday morning, but that it always said the same thing, "We're beloved, now how are we going to transform the world."

Presuming there is more truth than not in such an affirmation, it is amazingly mysterious how many changes can be rung from such a beginning point. So, let's sing it again . . . .
     Everywhere we are we still want to know who we are,
     so we say we are beloved, very, very beloved.