A Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent
February 25, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry
Photo to the left is the devil puppet Laura designed and created for the children's sermon.
Luke 4:1-13
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'" Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. (New Revised Standard Version)
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In our Gospel lesson from Luke, we hear about what happens after Jesus is baptized. Normally, when we have baptisms here at church, they are followed by family dinners—usually lovely luncheons with a pretty cake for dessert. While Jesus gets baptized, however, he gets no lunch and certainly no dessert. Instead, he gets the desert. That’s right. The Spirit him drives him to the wilderness.
Still dripping with the blessing of his baptism, Jesus is thrust right into Satan's clutches against a desolate backdrop of the Mediterranean desert. This is the place that many people went to fast and pray in order to listen more closely for God’s voice. We don’t know exactly where Jesus went but tradition has it that he climbed up into a cave of Mt. Quarantal, where the Monastery of the Temptation is located today. There, he is without food or any of the other standard comforts. There, he is tempted by the Adversary three times, yet he withstands these temptations. Then, he emerges after his 40 day fast, a stronger man of faith, ready to proclaim the good news.
This is not the first time the bible tells of difficulty in the wilderness. Jesus' temptation echoes the bitter, painful wanderings of his ancestors on their 40 year journey of deliverance from bondage in Egypt into the freedom of the Promised Land. The wilderness is the haunting place in the long story of God's beloved people from Noah to Abraham to Moses and Elijah, and now Jesus himself struggles in the wilderness. So the history of God's chosen people floods into this story of the 40 days Jesus spends in the wilderness being put to the test.
And Jesus' temptation does not mark the end of wilderness struggles. The Desert Fathers and Mothers were Christians who lived in the Egyptian desert during the fourth and fifth centuries. They rejected the prevailing culture of their world, a world—they declared—that preferred darkness to light. So they escaped to the desert to keep themselves from conforming to the ways of the world. Thomas Merton explains: "Society was regarded by the Desert Fathers and Mothers as a shipwreck from which each individual had to swim for their life...They believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenants and values of what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster."
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to say that that was a problem of the fourth and fifth century Egyptian society only? Alas, prevailing attitudes in our own time and place could also be considered a shipwreck. Our culture tempts us to abandon God’s will, to become entangled in forces of darkness that threaten our souls. Have we been sucked into the seductive powers of our modern wilderness, so much so that we've forgotten to swim for our lives?
Mother Theodora, one of the Desert Mothers I described, explains: "You should realize that as soon as you intend to live in peace, at once evil comes and weighs down your soul through boredom, faintheartedness, and evil thoughts...It dissipates the strength of soul and body, so that one believes one is no longer able to pray. But if we are vigilant, all these temptations fall away." These temptations fall away? But how? How did Jesus do it? How in the world did he pass through the wilderness of temptation and escape unharmed? This is what we long for our Gospel lesson to teach us.
Remember that he is baptized immediately before all this begins—he is claimed as God’s beloved child and filled with Holy Spirit. Each time the Adversary tempts Jesus, he responds by quoting from the book of Deuteronomy. In doing so, he is connecting himself to Israel's history—to the long story of God's people. Each time he rejects the way of worldly power and domination. And in the end, his weakness, humility and compassion prove to be the strongest power.
We, too, are surrounded and guided by the Holy Spirit through our baptism. We, too, are connected to the men and women of the Bible, our ancestors in the faith. Like them, we are set apart to be light in this dark wilderness. We do not belong to this world. We shouldn't grapple for power as the world does! Our true identity is that we are God's own daughters and sons. We belong to God—not the world. And we see by Jesus' example that in our weakness, God's power is made manifest.
So what does all this mean for our Lenten journey? In the ancient tradition, pagans converted to Christianity by preparing for holy baptism during the 40 days before Easter, that they, like Jesus, would be tested to see if they proved worthy. They would follow the ancient Jewish method of repentance: covering their head in ashes, wearing a sackcloth, refraining from bathing, and fasting and praying as they openly repented of their sins. They embraced weakness in order to be empowered by Christ.
The Christians were struck by the joy and radiance on the faces of the newly baptized, and so they decided to join in. They too, wanted to experience the thrill of new birth, of new life, of new strength rising from their weak, human bodies. They wanted to rekindle their faith, apologize for their lukewarmness, and experience deeply the joy of the resurrection. That's how Lent came to be a part of our church year. And this scripture of Jesus' temptation always kicked it off.
To conclude, I bring you the story of Desert Father, Abba Arsenius who also longed for this new life. He prayed to God, "Lord, lead me in the way of salvation." God's voice came, saying to him, "Arsenius, flee from the world, be silent, and pray always...these are the sources of salvation." I think these commands so beautifully summarize the spirituality of the desert:
• to flee —that is to resist being shaped by the temptations of the world; to swim for lives so that we may instead be shaped by the Spirit of God at work within us.
• to be silent — that is to make time in our busy schedules for God, especially during this Lenten season, and to seek God in the silence
• to pray always — to descend with the mind into the heart and there to stand in the presence of God and be transformed by the Holy Spirit.
Our Lenten journey is a time of repentance and of resisting temptation. As we seek to deepen our inner life and prepare to experience the Easter resurrection, my friends, let us boldly to flee from the world, be silent, and pray always.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
© Laura E. Gentry 2007
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