A sermon for the First Sunday in Lent, March 9, 2025. The scriptures are Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Romans 10:8b-13, Luke 4:1-13, and Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16.
On this First Sunday in Lent, we began our worship praying the Great Litany, the ancient prayers of the Church used at least since the 5th century. Our progression around the church symbolizes the 40-day season of Lent, a journey, a pilgrimage, a movement with Jesus towards Jerusalem. Though Lent is a particular season, it serves as a kind of “faith intensive” to practice how we make the journey of faith our whole lives. What are the joys along the way and what are the challenges?
Today’s scriptures start us off with the challenges, the warnings, the possible temptations. The first lesson from Deuteronomy can sound like a gift or a promise of God, until we think of countries who too much believe themselves to be the chosen of God, and believe they can therefore drive out other people, take other lands, or bully others in their way of thinking—whether those be other countries or our own. That reading from Deuteronomy ends by saying when a people remember their past, and when they live in gratitude, THEN there is peace within and peace with those the scripture calls “aliens” and foreigners. The temptation is forget and get full of oneself.
Both the Psalm and the Reading from Romans speak of God’s closeness and care. Stay close to God, and his angels will protect you.
In the Gospel, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and there Jesus is tempted. His temptations can, at first, seem strange and distant, but if we look at them closer, they can feel very familiar.
Whether we picture the devil as a little red man with a tail and pitchfork, or whether the devil is more that little voice inside each of us that second-guesses and accuses, the temptations Jesus faces are ones that we might be confronted with from time to time.
The first temptation that confronts Jesus, of turning stones into bread, is really the temptation of gluttony. It’s that temptation to satisfy ourselves with food and drink and stuff, to find happiness in these things. A part of the temptation is the devil (or the advertisers) convincing us that these are things we need (when we don’t). Or, they’re things we deserve (even though we don’t).
The second temptation of pursuing glory and authority of the world is not so different for us. There are the countless choices we make between doing the thing that will better our paycheck or professional standing or status, as opposed to doing the just, honest, true and decent thing.
And finally, the third temptation for Jesus to jump off the temple top and be rescued by angels. Perhaps it relates to us when we’re so uncomfortable in our own skin or our own situation, that we’re tempted to jump in any direction, to do something tragic or dramatic simply to change the situation.
To each of the temptations offered by the devil, Jesus quotes scripture. In other words, Jesus takes a deep breath, touches his spiritual base, and does whatever he needs to do to center himself and remind himself of who he is and of whose he is. Jesus can withstand the devil’s voice because Jesus has trained for this—through prayer, through showing and sharing compassion, and by spending time alone, learning from his room, from his garden, and from the sometimes-painful silence that comes in the face of Truth.
This Season of Lent invites us to practice being alone with God, being present with God not only so that we might know the power of God’s love in us, but also that we might be strengthened to withstand temptations, when they come. Prayer, spiritual disciplines, self-reflection, growth in faith—all of this is training for spiritual battle. It’s training whether the spiritual battle is one of pride, Christian Nationalism, prejudice, avarice, greed, deceit, or any of the other temptations that seem to rule our day.
On Ash Wednesday and throughout this season we’re reminded of classic spiritual disciplines such as spiritual reading or meditating on scripture, praying in a new way, saving money for a particular project or cause and giving it, fasting (whether that means giving up a particular food or drink, or fasting in a more creative way—avoiding waste, or limiting the use of water or plastic or gasoline.)
Maybe this year, you’re feeling called to a more active fast—organizing, protesting, writing letters, contacting politicians, boycotting, connecting with others…
Other things might easily become spiritual disciplines to clarify and steady: a daily walk, a time of reading or sitting still or writing in a journal. All of these, almost anything, really, if given over to God, if done with intention and mindfulness and a willingness to be used by God, can become spiritual disciplines to sharpen us and help us know when we’re being tempted. They help us focus. They bring clarity.
May we have the courage to meet God and the strength, with Jesus, to stare down the devil.