Bullseye

The presidential seal of the United States shows an American eagle clutching arrows (the symbol of war) in one talon and an olive branch (the symbol of peace) in the other. On earlier versions of the seal, the eagle is shown facing towards the arrows. When Harry Truman was President from 1945-1953, he decreed that on all future versions of the seal the eagle should not face towards the arrows but towards the olive branch. He said he wanted to make it clear that the United States should be turned towards peace, not war. Unfortunately, that’s not always so.

What about our lives. In which direction are we pointed – towards peace or war? Towards understanding and tolerance or revenge and retaliation? Towards love or anger and hate?   Towards being sorry for what we have done and repentance?

These are appropriate questions to ask and then answer because today is the First Sunday of Lent when we heard from Mark that Jesus said to those in Galilee: “Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  Jesus says the same to all of us today and right here.  

To repent we must have a sincere regret and sorrow of heart for our having offended God by our sins.  We promise to change how we live our lives in our own personal deserts where we have sunk into quicksands made of anger, envy, fear, and hate. In a Star Way-like way, we allow ourselves to be thrown by Jabba the Hutt into sand pits inhabited by Sarlaac – that tentacled, sharp-tooth beast inhabiting the Great Pit of Carkoon on the desert planet Tatooine.  Some of you just raised your eyebrows and are asking: “What is he talking about?” Well…  

This year is the 25th anniversary of the first episode in the 1999 Star Wars movie prequel trilogy – The Phantom Menace with its battle between good and evil – light versus darkness. For us that battle is always on-going. Satan is our menace, but clearly is not a phantom.  Satan has flesh and blood and is the father of lies. When we lie or believe in and spread lies, Satan has taken on flesh and blood. Our dark sides take control, and we all have dark sides fighting against the light within us.

I reference Star Wars with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader because we begin Lent with a reminder that Satan always tempts us and intends to defeat us – we, who live among many wild beasts seeking to devour us. Remember, our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. We are on the menu.

Evil and resulting suffering are real. All of us at one time or another have gone wrong. We have listened to the Garden of Eden snake, so to speak and have fallen into pits of regret, sorrow, and despair with their tentacles dragging us down.  

We need a rescuer, and we have one called Jesus – our Christ. This Lent we reach for his hand as we repent and ask for forgiveness for what we have done and for what we have failed to do.  Jesus tells us to repent and believe in the Gospel. Christ then raises us up.

Not only do we need to be concerned about deserts and pits into which we might fall, we should be concerned about floods like the one described in our first reading from Genesis. We are not talking about the floods like in the story of Noah or those that have covered our roads and coastal areas caused by storms and torrential rains. It’s about the storms in our lives bringing crashing waves and rising waters threatening to overwhelm us. These include sickness, infirmities and disease associated with old age, troubled marriages, children who suffer from addiction to drugs and alcohol, loss of jobs, homelessness, lack of food for our children. This list of floods seems endless.

We need an ark, and we need rainbows – hope. A rainbow is a sign of hope, the beauty after the storm, a pot of gold and good fortune at the rainbow's end. Like Noah, we need to look for those rainbows reminding us that we have a covenant between us and God.  During Lent let’s strengthen that covenant through repentance enabling us to withstand the storms in our ark we call the Church.

  I end with a quote from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians about the battle against temptation and evil. Jeus was tempted in the desert. During these next 40 days, we will be tempted every day and everywhere. So, here is how we can equip ourselves for that contest of wills – ours against Satan’s represented by evil in its many forms.

Draw our strength from the Lord and from his mighty power. Put on the armor of God so that we may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil, so that we may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold our ground. Stand fast with our loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and our feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:10-17).

Satan has flaming evil arrows. But we all have God’s arrows called faith, hope and love, with love being the sharpest arrow in our quivers. So, let’s draw our longbows, use the devil as our target, and shoot our three penetrating arrows to slay all evil temptations this Lent. When we do, we will hear Jesus yell: “Bullseye!” But let’s be very careful because when other people draw their bows, those targets and bullseyes might be on our own chests due to our own devilish ways. Therefore, let’s all repent and believe in the Gospel.

Deacon David Pierce