March 9: The First Sunday of Lent

I once heard a preacher talking about his young son. His son was about four and in a phase when sleeping through the night was a challenge for him and for his parents. He woke often with fears and tears. He would make his way down the dark hall to his parents’ room in the middle of the night with stories of monsters under the bed and wolves in the closet. It was too dark. He was too thirsty. You name it, nothing was right. So, his parents did the things parents do. Put up nightlights; left a cup of water by the bed; checked under the bed and in the closet for creepy things. Tucked him in; said their prayers and told him he was very loved.

Of course this did not make much of a difference.

And finally, one night the exasperated and sleep-deprived preacher when awoken with his little boy’s face a centimeter from his own said, “Go back to bed. Now. Jesus is with you.”

With that the little boy reached his arm up in the air as if to take a hold of Jesus’ hand and said, “Come on, Jesus, looks like you are the only one who’s going to get me back to bed.”

Today is the first Sunday of Lent.  he 40 days we set aside to get ready for the great gift and mystery of Easter. The 40 days we set aside looking for Jesus to remind us of the way home. I don’t know about you, but some Lents have had more impact than others.  Some years I’ve been challenged, my faith deepened, my understanding of the Kingdom of God changed into something I had not yet imagined. Some years I’ve barely noticed it was Lent even as I produced programming for the season. Some years Lent was just another six weeks that was added onto a life situation that felt like a permanent state of Lenten life.

There are so many different ways to enter into Lent. It can honestly be overwhelming trying to decide what discipline you might take up or habits you might put down. I find it helpful to remember that the complexity of my efforts, all my plans and good intentions, are not what pleases God. “What we do for Lent is far less important than who we become,” says author Paula Gooder.

I don’t know how this Lent will unfold for me this year just yet. But I am prayerful, grateful for the chance to right-size myself and to turn myself toward Jesus knowing that I will forever be learning how to follow him. Time to remember to reach out my hand to the one I know will lead me through the dark. Trusting that Jesus is near to me, as near to me as God’s word.

Last Sunday we heard God say at Jesus’ Transfiguration, at the revealing of his glory, before the glory of the cross… This is my son, I love him. Listen to him.

This Sunday we pick up back at the beginning of his ministry, just after Jesus is baptized as God proclaims the same thing. This is my son, who I love.

The scripture tells us that the Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness where he fasted and found himself tempted, which seems pretty terrifying to me.

Except the wilderness would have been known to Jesus, Jesus already knowing the story of God’s abiding love in the wilderness.

• The wilderness is where Adam and Eve headed after they showed themselves out in all their humanness.
• The wilderness is where Abraham and Sarah travelled; the wilderness where they sent Hagar and Ishmael.
• The wilderness is where Moses and the Israelites spent 40 years searching for home.

In all these times of wilderness journeying, God was very near. Very near to those who ventured out or found themselves out in the wilderness. Near to them when they trusted in him, and near to them when they believed themselves to be abandoned by him.

Jesus finds himself in the wilderness confronted by the devil, with evil, evil that would have him turn his back on the Word of God. But Jesus’ responses to this call to corrupt God’s love is clear. The word of God was near him.

Jesus is famished after fasting and the devil says, if you really are God’s son, the one he loves so much, you command these rocks to turn into bread for you to eat so you will not be hungry.

Jesus replies with a teaching from Deuteronomy in which the Israelites are reminded that it was God who provided for them in the wilderness, humbling them so that they could understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD THAT COMES FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.

We are not fed in the wilderness by our own doing, but by God’s grace. Relying on that is how we are fed first.

Then the devil tries again, this time showing Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Listen, I’ve got control of all of this and I’m able to sell it to you for a low, low price… all you have to do is worship at me, kneel down at my feet.

Again, Jesus turns to Deuteronomy.  THE WORD OF GOD on his lips. I will worship God and serve only him. There is no price, no power that will change that.

We are called to honor and worship GOD above all else. Those who claim to offer us power and glory in the here and now, easily, at the expense of the dignity of others should make us take notice. Those kinds of promises of power are hollow.

In the devil’s last attempt to sway Jesus, he picks him up and sets him down on the top of the temple in Jerusalem telling him if you really are God’s son, so special and loved by him, you could just throw yourself over and surely your God will send angels to catch you.

And again, Jesus responds with words from Deuteronomy, words he knows by heart. I’ve no need to put God to the test. I am clear about God’s love.

God has shown us time and time again the abundance of his love. We are not like a child with our hands hovering above the stove waiting to see if our mother will stop us. We can trust in God’s word and God’s love because we know we belong to him.

In each temptation presented to him, Jesus holds up the truth of God for us. Jesus refuses easy outs or short cuts to satisfy himself, to gain power and glory by giving up on what he knows to be true. He makes no attempt to dare-devil, to Evil Kinevil his way into showing how important he is, how much God loves him.

This Lent as I want to pay attention to who I am called to become. How these temptations Jesus faced are bound up in my life too.

What are ways that I can put down my false sense of self – self-importance, self-reliance, self-sufficiency – all my selfishness and remember by whose grace we are fed daily?

Am I honoring, worshipping something, someone, or some group other than God? What are the ways I am putting my hope and trust in something or someone who is NOT GOD?

Where are the areas in my life I am asking God to prove it to me that I am loved? Who am I judging by wondering if God loves them enough?

As this passage ends, the Spirit who sent Jesus out sends him back towards Galilee, back towards home filled with POWER to teach and heal. Not to gain power and dominion for himself but to show us how very near to us GOD is. And this will lead him to the cross, where we are shown just what the Power and the Glory of God’s LOVE looks like. Not one thing like what was offered to him out there in the wilderness.

I love an image from Maya Angelou. Her grandmother, who had lived a life in the wilderness of poverty and oppression, would say as she was about to walk out of their door, straightening herself to her full six feet in height, “I will step out on the Word of God.”

I will step out on the Word of God.

The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the message of faith that we preach)

Reach for the hand of the one we are called to follow and step out on the Word of God.  

Amelia McDaniel