Readings for the Day
On Wednesday this last week, we heard the words “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
The Ash Wednesday service pivots on a soul-baring confession of the insidious and invisible clutter of our spiritual lives and our failures to recall our own faith and God’s grace. Ash-smudged, humbled and forgiven, we gathered to share a meal and recall holy Love’s power to vanquish death.
We left the sanctuary thinking about the invitation to keep a holy Lent. A holy Lent draws our focus to our personal relationship with God, a relationship we may take for granted or forget. The prayer book invites us to self-examination and repentance, to prayer and fasting and almsgiving, and to a deeper engagement with Scripture.
When we choose a Lenten discipline, we are choosing a 40-day fast that draws our attention back to God. We may add something into our lives or choose to refrain from something. Either way, we say “yes” to a holy practice, and, in effect, say “no” to something that draws our attention and affections away from God and flourishing.
A Lenten discipline focuses us in the ‘now’ moment. In each breath, thought, and action - and how our interactions with ourselves and others reflect the God in whom we believe. Striving to live the future we desire, a vision free from injustice, anger, and falsehood, we choose a discipline to practice for the next seven weeks.
Intentionally living our Lenten practice means incorporating time with God in prayer, practicing our intention, and self-reflection on how it changes our spiritual life.
I am the first to admit that it’s easy to lose our motivation and get distracted from our Lenten discipline. Life just gets busy. We’d rather sleep an extra 15 minutes than get up earlier to say Morning Prayer or read our Bible. It’s easy to join our friends or co-workers in criticism or ridiculing banter. Or to insist on being right rather than listen to someone else’s ideas. Or to go on feeling silenced. Holding awareness of ourselves and our Lenten discipline takes energy and discipline, and sometimes a measure of courage. Besides, no one will know if we cheat just a little – no one except God and us, that is.
Why is it again that we are doing this? Oh, yes, to turn our focus away from our desires and toward God at those moments when we are tempted by evil.
Jesus faces three moments of temptation in today’s gospel. First, food for a man who has been fasting for 40 days. Second, safety to a man who has spent 40 days alone in the wilderness, contemplating the risky possibilities of living into his baptismal ministry. And who may know already that it won’t end well in Jerusalem. And, third, power over all the kingdoms of the world offered to a man raised by humble working parents living under occupation. Each time Jesus refuses Satan's offer and rebuffs him using Scripture. Jesus shuts down temptation by reaching deep into his relationship with God.
The devil starts each temptation with, “If you are the Son of God...” Evil beguiles, knows just the right questions to ask to make us doubt ourselves.
Jesus resists the bait. He is content to be hungry as we are hungry. At risk and vulnerable to death, as we are. And he refuses to seek power apart from his relationship with God. He stays present, in the moment, to his truth, his faith in God’s promises of grace and mercy. He refuses to be drawn into grandiose or catastrophic thinking about future what-ifs. His strength comes from his humble acceptance of absolute dependence on a God who loves him and desires flourishing for all of humanity.
How often does the devil play on our fear or pride? Tempt us to live into a false image of ourselves? Advertisements and social media besiege us with messaging that attempts to amplify feelings of loneliness, insecurity, and inadequacy. Every one of them undermining our God-given identity with the promise that if we buy this car, repost this meme, eat that magic gummy, or make our teeth brighter we will be acceptable. The message is simple: you are not enough. Not skinny enough, smart enough, attractive enough, strong enough, rich enough to deserve respect, love, and acceptance. And here’s the thing: it’s all a lie, a demonic attempt at spiritual identity theft.
The temptations of the world aren’t things we really need to be whole and happy humans – though the advertisers and influencers would like us to believe they are. We already have it all.
Our identity is secure in God, and nothing can separate us from the love of God. In our baptisms God declares us to be God’s own beloved sons and daughters, created whole and beautiful. God promises to love us always, and gives us every thing need to flourish and live.
Whatever we choose for our Lenten discipline or fast, the purpose is the same for each of us – to call us back to our identity as beloved sons and daughters of God. We do that with intention, by clearing out the corners of our spiritual lives where God’s light of hope and grace doesn’t always get in, and by standing up to the lure of deceptions that demean and dehumanize us and others. Humbly acknowledging that we forget to live into God’s vision for us, Lent calls us back to the God who, by grace, never needs to be convinced to love us.
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