1st Sunday in Lent

 

Luke 4:1-13; Romans 10:8b-13

This is the first week in Lent as we begin our 40 day journey together with Jesus toward the cross.  Lent is an ancient and Holy time in the church.  Back in the earliest days of the church when Christianity was still a new religion, new Christians who were preparing to be baptized would undergo a special period of intensive preparation during the final 40 days before their baptism on Easter.  This period was designed to mirror other 40 day periods of preparation for an encounter with God found in the bible.  Like when Moses went up onto Mount Sinai for 40 days, and when Elijah journeyed for 40 days in the wilderness while escaping persecution and most importantly when Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness and was tempted by the devil before the start of his public ministry in the Gospel story we hear today.

As the church grew and became the dominant religion and as more and more people were baptized as infants or children rather than adults and adult conversion became more and more rare.  This 40 day period was expanded encouraging all Christians to remember and renew their baptisms each year in preparation for Easter.  So this season while marked by its penitential and somber nature is truly a time for active preparation not depression.    And these lessons that we read on this first Sunday of Lent help provide a path for us to go about this process of preparation by inviting us to renounce, profess and respond.

First we turn to our gospel lesson for today where we receive our model for the season of Lent and are invited to join with Jesus in renouncing the evil and temptation that surround us.  In a series of 3 tests, Jesus is called on to renounce the devil, sin, the powers of this world that often disguise themselves as God’s plan and the creature comforts of this world in favor of deeper focus and God’s will and the holy scriptures.

In his first test Jesus is confronted by ease and the comforts of this world.  Jesus has been fasting for 40 days and is of course very hungry and the devil simply invites him to turn some stones to bread to feed himself.  And Jesus refuses, reminding him that one does not live by bread alone, that the physical comforts of this world are not what is most essential.  By renouncing the bread Jesus is allowing himself to remain focused on God and not to allow anything else to draw his attention away from God. 

In this Lenten season we are invited to do the same.  For this is the true purpose of the Lenten fast, to renounce those things that draw us from God, allowing us to focus more fully on him.  Doing this may include fasting from some sort of decadent food items or creature comforts that allow us to feel real hunger and remember our dependence on God.  It may also include fasting from distractions, from those things that draw our attention away from God, fasting from television during dinner or in the evening.  Fasting from social media, the internet, the iPad or the radio in the car.  Or fasting from excess consumption, perhaps forgoing or reducing our spending at retailers and business whose values don’t align with the Gospel.  Setting aside these distractions, gives us the space to focus more on listening to how God is speaking in our lives and calling us to new life in Christ.

In the second test Jesus renounces the powers of this world that rebel against God.  Jesus sees all the kingdoms of the world and is invited to rule them.  At first this may seem like a good idea, we pray for God’s kingdom to come all the time.  But in order to do so Jesus would have to submit both to the devil and to the powers and systems of this world rather than God’s ways.

During this Lenten season, we too are invited to join in renouncing the powers of this world that rebel against God.  We are invited to join in service to those who are in need in projects both inside and outside this church.  But also while we serve, we are invited to consider the ways that the world allows such need to exist and the ways that the systems and power structures of this world have built themselves up in defiance of God’s will.  It is a time to consider how we got to the place as nation, and what we must do individually and collectively to right the ship.  It is a time to consider what political action we feel called to take and how to strengthen ourselves to protect the vulnerable in the months and years ahead. 

Finally, in the third test Jesus is taken to the very top of the temple and the devil asks Jesus to defy God and jump, to test the Lord and to take for granted this amazing body that he has been given and all the God will do to protect him.

This test provides us with the perfect opportunity to practice gratitude for the blessings God has given us and to renounce the complacency that allows us to take God’s good gifts for granted.  Do you take the amazing body God has given you for granted?  Are you putting God’s protection of your health and wellbeing to the test?  Perhaps it is time this Lent to take some extra care of yourself and God’s creation.  Maybe it’s time to make that doctor’s appointment you have been avoiding or to make a point of talking a walk or doing some other exercise a few times a week.  Maybe part of your Lenten fast is to choose healthier foods or cook more for yourself.  And while we are at it, we should consider how we are testing all of God’s creation with our behavior.  Maybe make a point of recycling more, using less energy,  avoiding so much waste or planting a tree this spring.

During this Lenten season we are invited to join with Jesus in rejecting sin, but we do so with the awareness that we cannot expect to maintain Jesus’s track record.  The devil is wily and the ways of sin are pervasive.  But Jesus does not leave us to contend with the devil all by ourselves during this season.  We may walk the wilderness road of Lent but we do not do so alone.

And the passage from Romans today tells us why.  Because the Word of the Lord is near to us, on our lips and in our hearts.  Our ability to contend with the devil is not what justifies us.  For as Paul tells us, all who confess Jesus as Lord and believe in their hearts will be saved. We are justified by the faith of our hearts not by our ability to complete the task of rejecting sin that Jesus has set before us.  And whenever we feel alone on our wilderness journey, we can remember Paul’s words that “the Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.  For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” 

One of the key features of the Lenten season in confession, where we consider the ways that we have failed to live up to God’s commands.  But once again, this is not to punish us or to make us feel bad, but instead it is a guidance toward ways that God is calling us to turn around and grow in our faith.  It is meant as an invitation to new ways of life.  And it is always paired with the promise of forgiveness and salvation, because Christ is well aware that we are never going to manage this alone.  Nor were we ever meant to.  And so, today, in just a moment, we are going to receive a reminder of this promise.  Because right after this as we do every week, you are invited to stand and say the creed together.  But this time I want you to focus on the words we heard from Romans “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  And remember today and every day of this Lenten season that your salvation is assured and that wherever this Lent journey takes you, Jesus will walk alongside you.  Amen.