A Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent
The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie
Deuteronomy 26:(1-4)5-11
Romans 10:(5-8a)8b-13
Luke 4:1-13
Psalm 91 or 91:9-15
Life is a test;
it is only a test.
If it were your real life,
you'd have been given better instruction.
That's a "signature quote" from an Internet acquaintance (The Rev. Ted Neuhaus).
Jesus is being tested in today's gospel. "Temptation" & "test" are translations of the same word in the original text. Jesus knew where to find good instructions -- he continually quotes Scripture.
So we do have some "instruction" for the tests that Life sets before us. We look to the Bible, and as Episcopalians, also to our Tradition and to our own Reason and Experience. To prepare for the test, we sit on the Anglican "three legged stool" -- Scripture, Tradition, and Reason. It seems that there is a "reasonable" connection between the "tradition" contained in our Prayer Book and today's scripture readings.
There is a parallel between Jesus' three temptations in the wilderness and the instructions we heard for a Holy Lent on Ash Wednesday -- prayer, fasting and almsgiving . If you fast, it's tempting to turn stones or almost anything else into bread. If you give away much, possessing kingdoms becomes more tempting. And if in prayer you surrender everything, how tempting it is to show off your spiritual powers. What we are asked to do in Lent looks like a setup for temptation.
The prayer, fasting, and almsgiving of Lent sends us into the wilderness, where, like Jesus, we can experience hunger, letting go, and surrender. The actions of Lent send us into the wilderness, where we will be tempted.
The gospel tells us that it is the Spirit, not the devil, that drove Jesus into the wilderness where he was tempted. This is the Spirit testing. That puts one phrase of Jesus' prayer in context: "Lead us not into temptation" or "Do not put us to the test." Jesus knows what happens when the Spirit does that.
There in the wilderness, where there's nowhere to hide, we face ourselves only too clearly. And we meet the tempter: not some guy in red tights carrying a pitchfork, but the emptiness and powerlessness of our lives and our desire to fill that desert with anything that comes along: with stones turned bread, with alcohol or overeating; with the latest book or toy or kingdom or bank account;
with control or sex or people who flatter us. When the Spirit drives us into the wilderness we usually run really fast away from it, looking for relief. We "ascend to heaven" and try to bring God down to our level, filling our lives jam packed with "good things" and "hard work." Or we "descend into the abyss" of abuse, alienation, or addiction, and claim "the devil made me do it."
We may search everywhere and work hard to fill the deserts of our lives. But the Letter to the Romans suggests another route to fill that emptiness: Slow down. Be still. Stop searching heaven and hell for Christ. Remember "The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart."
We are not alone in the desert, the Word is there with us. We cannot face the leading of the Spirit or the tempting of the Devil on our own.
Why do you suppose the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert to be tempted? Why do you suppose the Church sends us int the wilderness each year? Is it an unfair temptation? Is it a test of strength? Or is it, as the best tests are, a learning experience? Perhaps it is only when we are empty that we can discover that the Word is indeed nearby, on our lips and in our heart, waiting to fill us.
We think of Lent as a time of "letting go" but the reason to let go, to give things up, is to make space to be filled, to "take something on."
When the Spirt leads us into those Lenten empty wildernesses, fasting, alms giving, and prayer are natural, good and holy. But they are not enough. We need to do something to fill up the empty places they leave behind: When fasting, feast on scripture; when giving alms, reach out for and rejoice in the gifts that others offer you; when praying and surrendering to God, be empowered to act on your prayers .
You don't have to go very far to be filled to overflowing: