First Sunday of Lent
Lord Jesus Christ,
You see how bent over we are
Under the weight of the world’s habits.
Unburden us
Clear the path within our soul
Lift up our heads to see you
Our hearts to love you
To follow you
To stay with you.
Ash Wednesday and First Sunday in Lent
The lectionary guide takes us into the wilderness as Jesus is being led by the Spirit into this deserted place. Take some time to adjust to this barren landscape: rocks, sand, stony gravel. No houses or gardens, just a few scrubby trees. Sink into the silence.
Be present to this emptiness – where all that is familiar is stripped away and there is nothing but you and God.
(pause, be present)
After forty days and nights of fasting In this silent barrenness a voice sounds:
“If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
Jesus is famished. In the haze of the rocky floor, the stones begin to look like loaves of bread. And he knows he has the power. But the devil’s offer twists the reality of God: “IF you are the Son of God . . . “ This is the mark of the devil’s temptation: an attack on God-given identity; who we truly are in the image of God. Who Jesus truly is as the Son of God. The temptation is not about what we as human beings are attached and addicted to; this is the way of the world and its temptations – to catch us where we are already caught. The devil’s ploy is much more sinister: to speak into the God-breathed core of who we are, where resides our deepest self and the charism and gift of who weare. Transforming stones into bread is the offer – but the act is so construed as to hinge on Jesus’ identity: If he is the Son of God.
Our identity is both a gift and a given – from God. We do not earn or need to work to make ourselves into something or somebody. We do not need to pull of spectacular feats to prove who we are. And Jesus knows this. His very sustenance is in God. This is the reality which Jahweh invited his people to embrace as they tracked the wastes of the desert on their way from Egypt to the land of promise: to know that God gives them manna as a gift, and that they are more than physical body. They are created in the image of God and God-breathed; spirit at the core. Hence, only bread will never satisfy.
The devil is not done; not yet. Twice more he attempts to infiltrate the very fiber of Jesus’ being, to divide him off against his very core self and God. Satan offers him all the kingdoms of the world and their authority, if Jesus will worship him – if Jesus will allow the devil and his ways to enter deep into the core of who he is and in so doing bow before this arch-enemy of God. Again the devil tries: If you are the Son of God, do the spectacular: prove that God exists and can show up to do the miraculous. Just think how the people would respond! Again, the “if”. Again Jesus leans into the givenness of who he is, and into the simple trust that he does not need to prove God’s existence or presence. God is. God is present.
Jesus remembers the rebellion in the wilderness, when the people riled up against Moses because as they pitched camp at Rephidim they could find no water, complaining that Moses had brought them out of Egypt to kill them and their children and livestock, and hurling the accusation that they did not know if Jahweh was present and with them or not. (See Exodus 17:1-7). Thus Jesus responds to Satan, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. We do not need to prove God’s existence or presence, or manipulate God into showing up. Water is provided – from the rock. And the people drink. God is present. God provides.
And when the devil is done with this round of temptations, he leaves. And angels come and give Jesus sustenance and care, a table set on the floor of the wilderness.
Pause, turn your attention to God.
As you are ready, get in touch with how you are tempted.
How do you respond?
Become aware of the gift and givenness of who you are as a child of God, indwelt by the Spirit of God.
What confession do you desire to make?
For what are you grateful?
Dear Lord,
Help me to listen
Free me from being blind to who you are
Release me from captivity to the world’s ways
Help me to listen
Amen
Ash Wednesday and First Sunday in Lent
- 2/15 Monday: Luke 4:1-8
- 2/16 Tuesday: Luke 4:9-13
- 2/17 Ash Wednesday: Psalm 51:1-17; Joel 2:1-2,12-17; 2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
- 2/18 Thursday: Deuteronomy 16:1-11
- 2/19 Friday: Romans 10:8b-13
- 2/20 Saturday: Luke 4:1-8
- 2/21 First Sunday in Lent: Luke 4:9-13