The Number Forty

Sermon: Gen: 9:8-17 and Mark 1:9-15
1st Lent March 26, 2012

The number 40 keeps popping up today, along with a number of other themes. If I were superstitious I might use it to play the lottery. The Old Testament reading about Noah, for example, is preceded in the book of Genesis by the story of the great flood. It rained 40 days and 40 nights in order to cause such a deluge. Then in the Gospel of Mark we are told that Jesus after his baptism was driven by the Spirit into the desert for forty days. And the season of Lent, which we began last Wed., lasts for forty days.

Then there’s the water. All that water in the flood, the waters of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan and the practice in the Episcopal Church of blessing the new waters for Baptism at the Great Vigil of Easter.

What emerges for me from this symbolism is a theme of death and resurrection. Yes, God made this idyllic world described in Genesis where all things were in harmony, but when men and women messed it up He got fed up and moved to destroy all life on earth. That’s the death theme. Yet he provided a way for life to regenerate by saving Noah, his family and all those animals. That’s the resurrection theme. And He set the rainbow in the sky after the rain as a reminder to himself, but mainly I think for us, that He will not destroy like that again. Now the rainbow doesn’t come after every rain or even after most rains, but when it does come and we get to see it is such a beautiful, hopeful sign.

Jesus goes off into the wilderness, like a death to his old life, certainly a major departure from His former life. He goes back to nature, to the elements, and comes out ready to begin His life of preaching. Baptism symbolizes all that dying to the old way and rising to the new life.

Lent is the time to think and pray about these things, a time for going figuratively into the wilderness to get our heads straight, to focus on elemental things, those things that are most important. It is a time to get rid of the debris that builds up in our lives, the old ways, as it were, those things that distract us from that which really matters. Hence the custom of denying ourselves as Jesus did, of giving up things during Lent.

It is time to stop focusing on things as problems or disasters, but rather as opportunities. Noah sensed this; he sent the birds out to see if there was dry land yet. They had a great opportunity to start the human race all over again and God sent them a rainbow as a sign of hope. Lent is a time to look for the rainbows. If we don’t look, we won’t see.

We have been through a bad time economically in this country, especially in this state, but there are signs that the worst may be over. We are not out of the wilderness quite yet, though, and before we leave the wilderness let’s resolve to not return to the old ways of taking things for granted. Times of scarcity are times of opportunity to band together and help one another. Times of plenty are times of temptations to just look out for number one, ourselves. So maybe as things continue to improve we will just return to our old ways and not remember the lessons learned in an economic downturn, like what is most important. Let me ask “what things are most important for you?”

As is my custom and as I mentioned last Sunday, I am recommending something to give up this Lent. In previous years the recommendations have been resentments, prejudices, and gossip. This year it is worry. Not an easy one. As a help let’s look at the Serenity Prayer. It is a prayer attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, the great Protestant theologian. He is, reportedly, President Obama’s favorite theologian. That would make sense. I hope the president has been able to pray the prayer and benefit from it during these three plus years in the wilderness. The prayer has been popularized by the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and the other Twelve Step groups. You know it already.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

Okay, let’s look at those three elements. If there is something bothering me that I don’t have the power to change, rather than worry about it, I need to just put it in God’s hands. If there is something about me that I need to change, then rather than fret about it I have to get on with changing it. If I am worrying about something and don’t know if I can change it or not, then it is time, big time, for prayer. So, I recommend we use the number 40. Each day of the 40 during Lent stop, center yourself and say the prayer. Ask the question what am I worrying about? Decide which of the three situations applies and move accordingly. Oh yes, four of the 40 have already passed. So that means do it twice for four days in order to catch up.