Sermon of 25 February 2007, First Sunday of Lent
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Readings: Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16, Romans 10:8b-13, Luke 4:1-13


The temptation of Christ immediately following his Baptism is one of the earliest stories I remember from the Bible. I’m not sure when I first heard it as a child, but for some reason it stuck with me as a pretty amazing and extended interaction between Jesus as a wise but very vulnerable and human person and Satan as the great tempter and tester of each of us in our own weakness. I remember understanding, even as a child, how important it was that even though Jesus could have done the things Satan tempted him to do, that he didn’t do it. To this day when I hear the often quoted phrase “man cannot live by bread alone,” it reminds me of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.

There are three key pieces to our readings this morning, each tying into the spirit of contemplation, penitence, and self reflection we’re drawn into as we enter this season of Lent.

We are reminded in our reading from Deuteronomy to reflect on our spiritual journeys – on our own personal history as people of God. Within this same reminder is the reminder to offer up to God the first fruits of our labors, in which God has blessed us. Lent, as an introspective time of personal examination and growth, draws us into that conversation with God that takes a look at where we’ve been, where we’ve come, and asks the big questions of “how has God been active in my life and in the process of becoming that has brought me to this day?,” and “how have I been active in bringing God’s kingdom to those around me through offering up some of the fruits of the abundance God has lavished on me?”

The second Lenten call comes to us from Paul’s letter to the Romans, in which we are reminded this Lent to focus on the salvation offered to us through faith in Christ. Coming out of our own salvation history with God, we are called by Paul to examine what our faith means to us as members of Christ’s body in the world. By having and acting out of our faith, we continue to cultivate and nurture our relationship with God through our response to God’s many calls in our lives to be Christ to those around us in the world. By our prayer life, we interact with God in a very personal and meaningful way, and it is especially appropriate during this time of Lent to give special attention to our faith, our prayer life, and our spiritual grounding and well being. Paul encourages us, especially today, to contemplate the deeper significance of what faith in Christ truly means to us not only as Christ’s body in the world, but as an individual who is deeply and profoundly loved by God.

The third call to us comes through Christ as we are called to a remembrance not only of Christ’s divinity as proclaimed at his baptism, but of his humanity, which is tested under the most dire of circumstances as he, alone in the wilderness, hungry and thirsty, is tempted by all of Satan’s cleverness to claim the divine power at his command rather than suffer in human flesh. Christ’s response is faithfulness to God, courage, and strength. In this encounter, we are reminded that Christ has experienced the dire roots of human temptation. Though he succeeded in mastering his wants and desires in the face of temptation, it wouldn’t be called “temptation” if he hadn’t struggled with each decision. From Christ, in this encounter, we are reminded that God will give us the strength to face every temptation, every need, every suffering moment of our sometimes tortured existence. All we have to do is allow God’s love and compassion for us to lift us up and carry us when our own burden gets to be too much… Sometimes this comes through the help of friends, other times through prayer, other times simply through the plea for help that cries out from deep within our own hearts. In whatever form it does come, we are encouraged to have faith that it WILL come and that we will not be left alone in the wilderness of our most desperate moments. And so we are called, finally, this Lent to be mindful of God’s sustaining presence in our lives – to contemplate on those moments when we have felt particularly sustained or protected by God’s presence.

Earlier this weekend, youth from St. Martin’s, from Lutheran Church of the Incarnation, from Davis Lutheran Church, and from Davis Community Church gathered at Davis Community Church to voluntarily experience hunger together. This is an event called the Thirty-Hour Famine, and is an annual event that is designed to help raise awareness for hunger, disease, and poverty around the world. The teens sign-up for the event as much as two-months before hand, and begin raising funds, all of which are donated to World Vision, the agency that designed and provides resources for the event. They provide services in some ways similar to those provided by Episcopal Relief and Development, helping to provide food, education, sanitation, and safety to some of the most poverty stricken areas of the world.

Basically how the weekend works is that the kids who attend agree to stop eating after lunch on Friday at 12:30. They finish their school day without snacking, they go home from school without an after school snack, they do their homework without the promise of dinner, and then they come together at the sponsoring parish (Davis Community Church this year) to talk together, engage in hunger simulations about allocation of resources in different countries, and just to be in solidarity through their fast. The agreement is that they won’t eat a single thing for thirty hours. During that time they drink water and have the option of drinking juice – though some refused anything other than water.

Yesterday morning, after going without food for about eleven hours, our teens made upwards from forty sandwiches for the homeless and poor of Davis, which they distributed for about two hours during the Farmers’ Market, and the remainder of which they donated to the cold-weather shelter last evening. Our later afternoon activity was a door to door food drive. Designed as a scavenger hunt, three separate groups went out into the downtown neighborhoods of Davis with a specific list of supplies to gather. Proteins, vegetables, fruits, starches, grains, even some desserts and jam. We were surprised and delighted by the generosity of our neighbors around Davis, each group returning within an hour having filled their list of twelve to fifteen items.

We broke our fast at 6:30 pm, having gone without food for a full thirty-hours. We had a simple meal of soup, bread, and salad, garnished with a few sandwiches that were left over, and a bit of kettle corn (thanks to the forethought and generosity of Dori from DCC, who picked up a bag during the Farmers’ Market and saved for dinner).

The experience of the retreat was, for many, the first time they had experienced true hunger. Yet it was amazing how little these hungry teens complained about their rumbling stomachs, and it was both rewarding and very promising to be with them as they, out of their own hunger, fed the poor together with real compassion for how they must feel on a daily basis. God’s presence was a constant companion this weekend, as evidenced by some of the teens’ own comments and prayers, in their compassion for one another and for those who live every day of their lives in the same desperate need that many of them began to feel as the hours mounted without relief of their hunger. While they could see the end of their own hunger, many of them voiced and felt a solidarity for the first time with those in our community and our wider world who have no end in sight for their own famines.

This has been an amazing start to my Lent this year, and it is a striking experience to have juxtaposed against today’s readings where Jesus goes straight from his Baptism into the wilderness of deprivation and personal testing. I can’t think of a better way to have prepared for this first Sunday of Lent, and for this particular reading than the experience of this fast, and it leaves me with the hope that I have come to associate with the heart of Lent. That though we may be preparing for Christ’s passion and death, it is in the hope of the resurrection. That though we may be contemplating the depths of our own spiritual life and questioning our responses to God in our lives, it is in the hope of a refreshed and reinvigorated relationship with God. And that though we may be taking on new spiritual disciplines or giving up something to keep us mindful of the deeply spiritual nature of Lent, it is the hope of coming into greater awareness of the Spirit’s work in our lives and hearts.

As part of our work this Lent, Bishop Beisner has challenged us to be intentional about our Lenten practice of contemplation and personal and collective inquiry. In light of today’s readings, we are asked to remember and tell the story of a time of trouble in our lives when God was indeed our refuge. And so in closing today I invite you into a few moments of quiet reflection. Take a few moments to think of a time in your life in which you experienced God in a uniquely profound way. As refuge, as protector, as comforter, as provider.

What was happening?
Who else was involved?
How did you perceive God’s presence either in that moment or looking back on that moment?
How did it effect your understanding of God’s presence in your life?
What have you done with that experience to keep your relationship with God growing and fresh?

As you continue to contemplate this experience or these experiences this week, I invite you into a Lent filled with the hope and anticipation of exploring God in ways that will deepen your relationship and your understanding of the profound mystery of God’s love for each of you as individuals.

Amen.