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Maybe it is on the door frame in the
laundry room at Grandma’s house where you marked the spot that you
finally outgrew your older sister. Do you see the dirty finger
prints on the top of the door frame going out of the front door cause
your finally tall enough jump high enough? Hand prints and paw
prints are left in concrete. Scars are left behind on trees. For
about six years I covered up the scar that matches leave on
carpet…that was until we packed up our house to move.
We leave behind marks and marks are
left on us. The physical ones are the easiest to see but there are
marks which leave far more telling and influential impressions on our
lives. These marks are left upon our lives most often by places,
predicaments and people. When and where have you seen your life
marked? Who has made an impact on you? I regularly credit Don and
Jon Hall and Curtis Martin who were both youth counselors and
Scoutmasters in Troops for shaping me.
The marks are marks of grace for they
are gifts to us. They are teachers and markers, guides for our
journey. Each mark is unique; their power and purpose aren't always
the same. I think it was evident that Elizabeth’s story is a story
of just such a mark. We may not all have such an experience of
divine intervention but marks of grace aren't intended for just a one
time thing as Elizabeth noted. They are for a lifetime. But one
thing I'd like you to remember is this as we journey through the next
six weeks...Jesus is only baptized once. Once was enough.
Check
out Mark 1:9-13 CEV ...
About
that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him
in the Jordan River. (10) As soon as Jesus came out of the water,
he saw the sky open and the Holy Spirit coming down to him like a
dove. (11) A voice from heaven said, "You are my own dear Son,
and I am pleased with you." (12) Right away God's Spirit made
Jesus go into the desert. (13) He stayed there for forty days while
Satan tested him. Jesus was with the wild animals, but angels took
care of him.
Before Jesus goes to the wilderness
there is this moment. Before His ministry gets underway, before he
takes responsibility, Jesus takes pause to be marked – marked by
the baptism of John in the Jordan River. The voice of the God the
Father spoke and the Holy Spirit as a dove descended upon God the Son
confirming Jesus as the Christ. And “Right away God's Spirit made
Jesus go into the desert...(v12).”
Now Mark's desert has some
distinctives...
God knows there are wilderness
times.
God knows there are temptation
times.
God knows there are wild beasts
out there.
We'll come back to those in a minute.
But let's remember that one baptism was enough. A true mark of grace
like baptism will continue on indefinitely signifying you are God's
own. Once done, it never has to be repeated, the Holy Spirit does
not have to be reminded you are a son or daughter of God. A mark of
grace isn't for the moment but for the moments which follow.
Other gospel writers get into more
detail regarding the temptations. But that Mark keeps it simple and
concise, I think, is more than just keeping with his story. The
history of the desert is different for us all. Sometimes the desert
is a wilderness and that is what we face: isolation. Other times the
desert place is about facing temptations: yes, it is about Satan.
And still other times there are wild beasts and the desert presents
itself as a struggle for survival.
In the early centuries of the church,
there were a group of men and women called the abbas and the ammas
who went to the desert following this very pattern. Their histories
and writings confirm the marks of grace are to sustain us no matter
what we face in the desert.
What we dare not lose sight of is that
Jesus faced all of these. God, in the flesh, left a mark by facing
all that the desert place has to throw at us. The writer of Hebrews
explains that... “[Jesus] had to be one of us, so that he could
serve God as our merciful and faithful high priest ...And now that
Jesus has suffered and was tempted, he can help anyone else who is
tempted. (Heb 2:17-18 CEV)”
Is it easy for me to talk about
suffering? No. So much has been said about it and not understood.
As a pastor, what I can tell you that the mark of baptism is mark of
adoption into the family of God. Communion is a mark of grace which
sustains us on our journey. But those aren't the only marks I carry.
I carry the marks of radiation treatment from cancer. I get to
admit to my tattoos that marked me. Earlier this month, I woke up
and suddenly discovered I had lost close to 40% of the vision in my
right eye due to a swollen optical nerve. As I have walked through
the desert these days, I have been reminded and upheld by marks of
grace. Those same marks from cancer became marks of grace in my desert of vision loss and I have been reminded - "...now that Jesus has suffered and was tempted, he can help
anyone else..."
In a recent devotion in
The Upper Room,
the writer shared hearing a conversation between two high school
girls where one said, “I’ve unfriended Jessica.” “Really?”
came the reply.” “She really messed up this time. Our friendship
is over for good.”
This act of “unfriending” —
removing someone’s name from a list of friends onFacebook — has
become so common that “unfriend” is now in dictionaries. It is
sad that friendship is tossed away by a tap on key or a swipe on the
screen. We all do stumble and it has been the help of a good friend,
more often than not, that has helped me back on track.
Unlike people, however, God will never
unfriend us. In fact, today is about how far God has gone to FRIEND
us. He became like us. Gave us the mark of grace in baptism and
marked himself in the struggles of the desert so he can help anyone
else. My invitation to you today is to accept the friend request of
God.
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