First Sunday in Lent

Readings – Deuteronomy 26: 1-11; Psalm 91: 1-2,9-16; Romans 10: 8b-13; Luke 4: 1-13

Baptized in the Jordan River by his cousin John, Jesus, “full of the Holy Spirit”, headed into the wilderness.  He went on a retreat.  Where was the Holy Spirit leading him, this 30-year-old career carpenter of Nazareth, son of Mary and Joseph?

The first temptation was to use ministry to satisfy his own needs.  After forty days in the wilderness, he was “famished”, and could turn a stone into a loaf of bread. 

The second temptation was to gain power through compromise.  He could control “all the kingdoms of the world”, if he turned his back on God. 

The third temptation was for Jesus to test the promises of God, in fact, to deliver him from death in Jerusalem.  We would later learn that Jesus would not escape death, but rather would accept death, and three days later defeat it at sunrise on Easter Day. 

For St. Luke, Jesus, there in the wilderness, resolved the three temptations that would continue to confront him during his three years of ministry — the temptation to serve himself, the temptation to secure power by compromise, and the test to do his will rather than God’s will.

These three temptations always present themselves on the first Sunday in Lent, the traditional time of re-newal, of re-orienting, of re-examination, of re-focusing, of re-penting, as we walk toward Easter.

This brings to mind the story of Jack, the painter.  Perhaps you have heard it.   

As a painter, Jack would often thin his paint so that it would go further.  When the church decided to do some deferred maintenance, Jack was able to put in the lowest bid.  He got the contract.  As always, he thinned the paint with lots of turpentine. On the last day of the job, while up on the scaffolding, he heard a tremendous clap of thunder. the clouds parted, and it poured.  It poured so hard the Jack fell off the scaffolding, and the thinned paint washed off. There was a tremendous voice from heaven.                                                                                          

RE- PAINT!  RE-PAINT!  AND THIN NO MORE!

Jack did as directed. He repainted, and he thinned no more. 

This Lent, like every Lent, we are asked to re-paint, to re-focus, to re-orient, to re-examine our lives, and to walk more closely with our God.

I will share one suggestion that may perhaps fit your situation.  Years ago, at Virginia Theological Seminary, I had the honor of taking an Old Testament course with Dr. Murray Newman. In the class, he had us commit to memory the following A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down to Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.  When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.  The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.  So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.

Professor Newman taught that this was the first creed of the People of God.  It ends with thanksgiving.                                                                                                                                                                                  I bring the first fruits of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.

This declaration of thanksgiving articulates our need to give thanks, and that, in fact, supersedes the needs of others who receive our gifts.  In giving thanks and being generous, we are walking with our God who is generous.  There is, in fact, no thanksgiving without generosity.  To give thanks is to give! 

This last week at the Selinsgrove Area Ministerium we were asked to share what we each were going to “give up” for Lent.  Someone responded, “Nothing”.  All were silent.  She continued, “I am going to give generously to my church, the library, the American Red Cross, and to other community organizations”.  For Lent she was re-orienting her life through generous thanksgiving.  She was re-painting and would “thin no more”. 

This Lent I invite us all to re-paint, and to “thin no more”, to grow our thanksgiving and to grow our generosity. 

We need to be forever vigilant.

The devil… departed from [Jesus] until an opportune time.   

The same tempter will come back again, and again, and again.

We, the people of faith, need to respond again, and again, and again with Thanksgiving and with Generosity. 

Amen