Sermon: 1st Sunday of Lent (Year C) | Sunday 9th March 2025 | St Anne’s, Wrenthorpe (Eucharist)
Luke 4:1-13 | Romans 10:8b-13 | Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Here we are, already in Lent… it feels like it was only five minutes ago that we celebrated together for Christmas, Epiphany, Candlemas…. I have just noticed that the Crib and the little people have gone!
And now we bring our journey to The Cross – of preparation for The Passion…..
I wonder what Lent is to you: now and in years gone by…
It’s too easy to make it all about us, our selves and the stuff we give up, or taken up – our efforts towards some kind of faithful discipline.
Perhaps we seek to become “better Christians” – whatever that might mean!
We seek to emulate Jesus…
And we begin Lent, as we always do, with a Gospel passage that records His time of testing, in the Wilderness…
I’m going to return to that in a moment, but first – some thoughts on memory.
Our other readings today, from the Book of Deuteronomy (which we heard) and from Paul’s Letter to the Romans (which I encourage you to read at home), both speak of recalling the past.
The authors of Deuteronomy knew the value of remembering, using ritual and story, so that, even in their unknown futures, Israel could recall its good fortunes, and be thankful. And when they did this, there should be a celebration, for everyone!
Paul knew all about temptation, and getting it all wrong. He also knew how easy it was for those early Christian communities to get the message of Jesus mixed up with their own ideas and interpretations.
Paul calls on his friends in Rome to remember how they came to faith:
He says…
8 “‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);”
And then he says…
13 “…Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
His Letter continues with encouragement to talk about it, share it, spread the Good News – in simple ways. Yet, always to remember their own calling.
And then so in Luke, as in Matthew and Mark… Jesus is led into The Wilderness.
Forty Days – an echoing memory, to Israels long, difficult period in the Wilderness…
Jesus is there for six weeks. It’s not a detox holiday.
Trip Advisor is rather silent on this kind of retreat….!
A physical endurance in which most would fail.
We cannot know how each day passed for Jesus….
What we do know is that He was tested by the devil.
Jesus had the Holy Spirit….
And previously, having been affirmed by God at His baptism, Jesus had some idea of what He was called to.
Does that help when you are alone, vulnerable and hungry, as Jesus must have been?
It would have been too easy to give in to the temptations offered, to rescue Himself, make everything go well and achieve it all…. Yes, In the eyes of the world, maybe…
To trust in God isn’t a fix for when we choose to do our own thing, regardless, and then expect God to pick up the pieces, and fall in line with us!
Pushing back against temptation isn’t easy.
Darkness can fall around us without our recognising it, and we may want the easiest, most painless route out of the hole in which we find ourselves.
The Wilderness, for each of us, looks different …
It could be a compulsion or an addiction – crushing, always guiding you back to it…
It may be a job or situation that has become awful and yet is too difficult to make better, so we just keep going, cutting corners, making excuses, being less and less of ourselves each day….
It may even be the simple truth that you read on social media – strong words that resonate with you, yet somehow seem to diminish, brutalise and reduce anyone that doesn’t look right, or isn’t one of us….
Maybe discipleship is just too time consuming… perhaps there are easier ways to salvation, to use religion for your own purposes….. just like the world does…
Temptation is subtle and attractive – quickly becoming logical, common sense, righteous…. And eventually, the only way.
Even in His darkest moments, Jesus remembered ….
He used passages from Deuteronomy to push back…
The devil neither feeds the hungry with good things, nor offers the bread of life from the mouth of the Lord;
The devil is not to be worshipped – for only God is God….
The devil will always lack the power to subvert the faithful, for they know that only Gods love is worth living and dying for.
God is not transactional…
God is transformational!
From baptismal joy… to this desolate place…. Here the Christ is to be found, His reality, His future, the light by which we are to be guided….
The Kingdom is not built on power or self-serving miracles but on humble obedience to God.
We don’t know temptation like Jesus did….
God finds us in our uniqueness….
And the challenge of temptation, isn’t short term!
We might make progress today, but…. Later in the week…? Who knows!
The devil went away from Jesus….but the devil always comes back for another go!
Earlier I said that it was all too easy to personalise Lent and make it all about us – what we are doing, what I am giving up….
Whether other people see us doing this, or it’s all done in private….
Actually it is personal, because it is about the challenge of temptation to our own soul, about our own commitment in response to God.
I won’t stand here and give examples of what you should be doing.
I haven’t got any – other than to talk and share, and not feel you are struggling alone.
Or I might encourage you to take up something as a new discipline, for this period.
There are so many ways that God’s grace can transform how you view yourself, and the world around you.
I have often wondered about the response from Jesus, about not living by bread alone. It gets misused by those who see spiritual nourishment as having more significance than physical need… I would say that it could be, and has been historically, an excuse to downplay poverty, expecting faith alone to sustain all human need.
And as we know, that is not what Jesus was saying. Jesus always understood the physical needs of those around Him. Food was important, sharing food, even more so.
For those who rely on benefits, food banks, hand-outs from friends; who struggle every day to consume enough to survive, or put food into their children’s mouths…. How can “good” choices always be made?
The temptation for everyone else might be to assume people make choices we think of as “bad” because they are tempted to sin, or because they don’t know any better.
Any temptation to choice and action that leads someone away from the law and solid ground is always going to be problematic.
Yet the sinful temptation to call-out those with less choices, less options, who are on the edge – those who Jesus came to sit beside – that is the greater sin – and an easy temptation to allow.
Jesus’ victory over temptation is not just personal—it’s cosmic. It signals the reversal of the Fall and the beginning of new creation.
It emphasizes that Jesus came not just to teach but to redeem and restore humanity by succeeding where Adam (and Israel) failed.
Remember …
“‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart’
The voice that whispers to you, in temptation – does it mention forgiveness and love?
Is it a voice that would comfort you in the desolation of pain and suffering?
“…Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The reality of evil is to be found in diverting you away from truth, hope, love…. And ultimately God.
The Bible doesn’t leave out the bad bits… it includes all the moaning and groaning, the hypocrisy and rubbish choices; the good and bad kings and rulers; those who sought a righteous path and ended up becoming wronguns…!
It’s all there…. To build a collective, long-term memory, that all are fallible except God, and that God chooses humanity in all its dreadfulness – regardless….
To remind us all that our natural tendencies to arrogance, idolatry, and the easy roads to power, need not be all that there is…. God always shows a better path….and gives a light to reveal the way…. And celebrates when we get there!
All Christians will know temptation at some point….
All of this, your Lenten journey, your own time in the wilderness, wrestling with temptation – it is all a part of the self-awareness that God calls us to as we seek His face.
Our ability to fight temptation, as disciples – draws less from self-hatred – and more to do with acceptance, trust, and belonging in the light of Christ, as the beloved, created by God…
For God hopes for us to hear only His voice, and keep going, on the way to the cross, through the transformation and redemption of new life in the Resurrection of Jesus….
And beyond: so, so far beyond….
So, my sisters and brothers, in the days to come… have faith, see the temptations to easy life for what they are. And we shall all see them…
Remember the paths that God had led you upon to get here…. Some filled with joy, some not so much…
Share the journey, the wisdom of self-knowledge you have gained, with everyone you meet.
And in turning aside – not from the world and those that need to hear from us – but turning aside from temptation in all its forms, poking the devil in the eye, and accepting yourselves, your journey, your humanity and brokenness, and your joy and optimism in the grace of God….
There will you find the resilience to face each day.
May the Christ who knows our earthly struggles walk with you this week.
Amen.
Image: Ivan Kramskoy, (1872) “Christ in the Wilderness” (WikiArt), Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
You should know: I use ChatGPT to assist with summarising referential and external resources. NEVER for writing.