Lent 1C, February 17, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of our callings, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

The Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit in the wilderness. It’s a little gentler version than the Gospel of Mark’s description of Jesus being driven out to the wilderness by the Spirit. It was after he was baptized, according to Luke, but not before Luke recites Jesus’ genealogy. It’s a curious place to put a 77 generation genealogy – four chapters in to the story. But for Luke, it becomes the connective tissue between the baptism and the wilderness in which Jesus began his work – his ministry. The genealogy demonstrates that Jesus is a child of Israel, a child of all humanity, and a child of the Creator. Our lectionary does this crazy thing of splitting the story of Jesus’ baptism which we heard at the beginning of Epiphany, early in January, and this time in the wilderness. In the last six weeks we’ve heard all kinds of other stories in between the baptism and the wilderness, like last week’s account of the Transfiguration which comes much later in Luke. But the Gospel narrative is that Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit at baptism goes immediately into a harsh place of physical and spiritual danger.

I wish I could show you some pictures right now of the Judean wilderness. I’ve never seen a place so barren and beautiful in all my travels: rounded rocky black mountains, devoid of any vegetation as far as the eye can see. It looks more like the moon than any place I’ve ever been. And because the hills are so steep and are so many, people in the area can seem to come out of nowhere in no time. It’s a perfect place for robbers and other kinds of thugs to ambush a sojourner traveling through the territory.

I sometimes wonder why Jesus went into the wilderness immediately after he was baptized. I wonder what he longing for or what he needed to learn – what he needed to think about – what he needed to prove to himself or others or the Divine by going into that physically and spiritually dangerous place. The story is that Jesus spent forty days – in other words, a very long time — in that harsh landscape. Maybe Jesus was trying to figure out what to do next. Maybe he was trying to figure out what had hit him (or filled him)! Maybe he was preparing for the work that would come next.

The story goes that while Jesus was in the wilderness, he was tempted by the devil. The thing about being tempted is – well, it’s tempting! Jesus was tempted by things that tempt us — tempted to be self-sufficient – to turn a stone into bread to ease his own hunger. He was tempted to gain authority by serving something less than holy. He was tempted to try the impossible to prove how extraordinary he was or to prove how extraordinary the Source of all Being was.¹ The Christian story goes that if a very human child of the Divine was tempted by things that tempt us and he resisted the temptations, maybe there is hope for us too!

I wonder if Jesus went into the desert, whether it he was driven or led, pushed or pulled, to test his vocation – his calling. You probably have heard the great definition of vocation by Frederick Buechner. He says that vocation is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep need meet. I wonder what Jesus might have learned about his vocation that he would not have learned had he avoided the wilderness. I wonder what difference his encounter in the wilderness made in the time that came after the wilderness? What did he do differently or understand differently because he survived that wilderness time?

You know, the Greek word for devil, diabolos, or the Hebrew word, satan, can refer to anyone who brings charges against someone else. Jesus had just experience at the moment of his baptism a voice assuring him that he is the beloved child of the Holy One. Now he’s hearing a voice that is saying, “oh yeah? Prove it. Prove it. Prove it. You’re not so special.” I think the difference between the Holy Spirit and the Devil is the difference between building up and tearing down a sense of belovedness. In his answers to that tearing-down voice, Jesus asserts some things that later become hallmarks of his ministry and teaching.

The first hallmark is that self-sufficiency is not the divine intention for humanity. “One does not live by bread alone.” The rest of that quote that Jesus cites from Deuteronomy is “but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” And every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord is about loving the Holy One and loving one’s neighbor as oneself. That’s what’s always needed in addition to bread: Love. It’s not just about getting one’s stomach to stop grumbling – it’s also about relationships. Perhaps Jesus was getting clear in this challenge about how much relationships were going to matter in his work.

“Worship the Lord your God and serve only God.” This comes from a section of Deuteronomy that calls for the community to reject idolatry. Attempts to achieve greatness or gain authority by selling out in small or big ways to golden calves of money or power or security are forms of idolatry that persuade us that ends justify means. The alternative is humble service with honorable means and deep integrity and its attendant risk. Perhaps Jesus was getting clear in this challenge about how to focus on the journey more so than the destination

“Do not put the Lord your God to the test,” comes from the same section of Deuteronomy and it reminds listeners of the Hebrew people who feared that they would not reach the promised land because they were parched and lacked water, but then water was provided by the Holy One. This is a Torah story that teaches us to stop asking for or demanding proof of the existence or the love of the Holy One, and just keep doing the next right thing. Perhaps Jesus was getting clear in this challenge about how to trust rather than test the Divine — all the way to the cross if necessary.

So on this first Sunday of Lent, I want to remind you that the word Lent comes from the Middle English word for Spring. It is a word that embodies hope. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the days are getting longer and lighter (and that always makes me feel more hopeful). In churchy terms, Lent is the season when we get ready for Easter. In a religious sense too, Lent is a word that embodies hope. It’s not hope in something that may happen – it’s hope in something that has already happened and keeps happening. One of the amazing and wonderful truths of the Easter story, though, is that resurrection doesn’t care whether people are ready or not. Just like gravity doesn’t care whether we are ready or not – or whether we like it or not – or even whether we believe it or not.

So Easter will come this year on the last day of March, whether we are ready or not. But for many of us, celebrations are better when we are prepared – when we are ready to celebrate. The season of Lent in the Church invites us to spend a good long time getting ready. And the Church gives us some strong suggestions about how to do that – through special giving to alleviate poverty, through a special focus on prayer, through fasting (the opposite of feasting), through study of the Bible. It’s a preparation program of diet and exercise actually. Many of us aren’t really that fond of diet and exercise. However diet and exercise really work to promote health and fitness, physically and spiritually. And for faithful people in community, it’s not just about personal health and fitness – it’s about the health and fitness of our parish, of our Church, and the health and fitness of the wider world.

I like to say that one of my jobs as your priest to recommend diet and exercise. When you take on an activity for Lent or let go of something for Lent, you might think about what you need to be able to celebrate Easter more fully when it comes, as a way to help you choose a diet and exercise program. As your priest, I want you to take some time during these 40 days in your particular wilderness, so that you might figure out how to live into your vocation – your calling – more deeply and fully. What is your vocation? Each of us has a vocation. Where might your deep gladness meet the world’s deep need? I want you to take some time to get ready for whatever you are being called to do next so that you can celebrate Easter more fully when it comes. Begin this Lent to get in better shape for the blessing of the Easter proclamation that Love is more powerful than any sin. Do whatever you can this Lent to get ready for going more fully, more wholeheartedly, into the place where your deep joy will meet the world’s deep need.

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1. Sharon Ringe, quoted in The Bible Workbench 14:3.

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