2024 02 18 Sermon Into the Frying Pan
Into the Frying Pan
Lent 1 B
Mark 1:9-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22
Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
Last spring when I was traveling in Italy with my family, we had a wonderful dining experience in this little village on Lake Como, where our meal was cooked for us by a home chef in her kitchen. You may remember that I talked about this in a sermon last year, and I focused on part of the conversation we had with our host, Monica. Well, for today and the analogy I’d like to make, I’m looking back not to our conversation, but to the meal she was cooking. The beauty of Italian cooking is its simplicity, which allows for the flavors of the individual fresh ingredients to shine through. This being Italy, one of the courses Monica prepared for us was pasta, made fresh that morning. But what really stood out to me was how she cooked the tomato sauce to go with it. Maybe this technique is familiar to you, but the method was so simple and (in hindsight) obvious, that you might think it’s funny that I was so impressed with it.
She heated olive oil in the pan, added some diced red onions, a little salt, a little garlic—so far so good—but here was the new-to-me part. Monica simply took some fresh tomatoes, cut them into quarters, and let them cook down for a while with the other ingredients. Nothing fancy at all; and I realized I had just learned an easy way to deal with all the extra tomatoes I grow my garden! As Monica cooked, in a few minutes’ time what had just been fresh tomatoes on the vine were transformed into a delicious sauce. She mixed the pasta in with the sauce to finish cooking it, sprinkled on some fresh oregano and parmesan cheese—and we were ready to enjoy!
This is an analogy to Lent, because during this season of seeking repentance and new life in God, we offer our whole selves to God so that we can be transformed to more closely resemble God’s vision of who God always meant for us to be. We go from being like those fresh whole tomatoes, to being cut up, sautéed, broken down; from firm to soft, raw to cooked, but finally we end up as a delicious sauce (so to speak). Now—put yourself in the place of one of those tomatoes for a moment. You’re probably saying: “I don’t want to be cut up! I don’t want to be sautéed! I don’t want my firmness broken down into a sauce. It sounds painful to be thrown into that hot frying pan! Hey! Chef! Why are you doing this to me!?!” But the chef—who already loves those fresh, firm, uncut tomatoes, just as they are—also has a vision for how much more delicious and flavorful those tomatoes can become. The tomatoes must die to their former way of being, in order to be brought to a different way of being—to be given a new and different kind of life—which in turn brings joy and new life to others.
When that tomato realizes how it could end up, as a delicious sauce—even though it must go through a process of change that is uncomfortable, maybe even painful at times—well, the chance to let go of the “old self” and become something even better makes the difficult journey all worthwhile. And that is like repentance!
It is also like Jesus, who in today’s gospel was driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by Satan, and threatened by the wild beasts. Like the tomato in Monica’s kitchen, Jesus was already “Beloved” just as he was, but he also needed the experience of facing adversity both spiritual and physical. He needed to be tested so that he could learn to trust God when things weren’t going well; and so he could learn that when he faced the time of trial, God would be with him to provide extra help, extra strength, and even send someone who would care for him (in this case angels) to help him persevere when he felt most vulnerable.
Three years later, Jesus would need to draw on everything he learned during his time in the wilderness when he went to the cross. Then, even from the cross, Jesus knew that he could fully trust God to be at work to one day bring something good out of such cruelty and pain. And the good God brought out of the evil turned out to be the best news of all—the fulfillment of all of God’s promises, through Christ risen from the dead; and in being raised, his transformation was the embodiment of God’s vision of justice triumphing over evil, life defeating death, and sorrow turned into joy.
Before he could get to all the good stuff, though, Jesus first needed to be tested by God, and tempted by Satan in the wilderness, and in so doing he learned how to turn towards God—this was for Jesus’ sake, but for our sake, too.
Since Jesus has “been in our shoes”, therefore, we know that what Jesus felt in the wilderness is similar to what we might feel when we go through temptations and trials. Because he has felt them, he knows how to help us through them. These things are never comfortable, they are frequently painful, and sometimes they’re just plain awful. Yet by following Jesus, we too can learn to turn towards God and trust that God is present with us. We can look for God to provide that extra help, that extra strength, in our time of need. And like Jesus, we can also look for God to send someone into our lives to care for us and help us persevere when we feel most vulnerable (whether that be an angel, a regular person, or a regular person whom God uses as an angel.)
There is one more important point I’d like to make about Jesus’ experience: just like him, when you are driven into “the wilderness” and face testing or temptation, you are already a “Beloved” child of God, even before you did anything to earn it or deserve it—and baptism is God’s sign and promise of this truth.
So, my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, when you find yourself out in the “wilderness”, or thrown into the frying pan, or you’re going through an uncomfortable time of change, or when a painful time of trial comes your way, remember that God’s love for you is secure, and he wants to help you to become (like the tomato) a “delicious sauce”, transforming you into God’s vision of who God always wanted you to be. God’s love given in Christ is the starting point and the goal, even when the temptations are strong, and the tests are painful, and it’s hard to face our need for repentance. God isn’t done with you yet, and the new life that awaits you in Christ makes the difficult journey all worthwhile. Amen.