Pastor Lea encourages you to reflect on Jesus’ 40-day wilderness experience leading to his temptation and hunger, using it as a model for observing Lent, with a focus on prayer, confession, and reflection.            

Deuteronomy

When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.  You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, “Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.”  When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into 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; 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.  You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God.  Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

 Luke

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.  He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.  The devil said to him.  “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”  Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.  And the devil said to him.  “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.  If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”  Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”

Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”  Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”  When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

On this first Sunday in Lent it’s important for us to hear the story of Jesus’ sojourn in the wilderness because he is the model for us as we enter into our own 40 day season of Lent.  Actually it’s 40 days plus 6 Sundays (in case anyone is counting).  I’m hoping many of you are considering how you will observe a holy Lent. 

However you plan your time, it’s important to include such things as prayer, confession, and reflection into your schedule.  Maybe even most important is building some quiet time into your life, so that you can listen for God’s guidance.  I’m one who trusts that God will set us down where we need to be and will provide a way for us to bear fruit of some sort, even in the desert. 

Now, in Luke’s account of Jesus’ desert time, he makes a big deal about letting us know that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit and that the Spirit led him, not INTO the desert, the Spirit led him THROUGH it.  So, the Spirit was his guide during that time in the wilderness, and for those 40 days he ate nothing.  That’s when, in his state of intense hunger, he had his time with the devil.  And each round found Jesus coming back at that old devil, countering what he was told and how he was tempted.  How he did that was with a scripture quote, mostly from what we call the book of Deuteronomy.  As I mentioned before, the Spirit didn’t deliver him from his time in the wilderness, but, rather, it showed him the way through it.

I know that many of us have some awareness of what it’s like to wander in the wilderness.  Most of us have some experience of going through tough times.  Sometimes having desert times is just the way life unfolds. 

Sometimes it’s due to the actions or the behaviors of others.  Sometimes our deserts have something to do with how we have messed up.  Sometimes we lose jobs or loved ones or relationships or we lose our footing.  Sometimes we find ourselves in the desert because of the state of our nation or the actions of our leaders or things that happen over which we have no control (like now).

Sometimes mood swings will have us in the party mode one day and in the dumpster the next.  Sometimes our deserts have to do with disease of some sort or another from which we’re suffering.  Anyone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol knows what it’s like to be in the wilderness.  Anyone who loves an addict has been to the desert.  Anyone who deals with a mental illness knows about times wandering in the wilderness.

Jesus’ time in the desert, though, ought to provide hope for us all, EVEN for those of us who are the least hopeful.  We are told, not that God reached down and bailed Jesus out, but, rather, that the Spirit led him through the wilderness.  Even then, he had to endure the temptations, but he was given what he needed to rise above those big old promises that the devil offered.  The Spirit saw him through those trials as well.  Jesus’ intimate knowledge of scripture allowed him to courageously answer all the devil’s offers. 

If we need more proof that God is with us throughout our journeys, we can turn to the Deuteronomy reading.  There we hear the ancient words, “A wandering Aramean was my father” which begins the story of OUR ancestors in the faith.  (Incidentally, this is one of the oldest writings in our Hebrew scriptures).  That wandering Aramean was Abraham of the Genesis stories.

Also mentioned in that text is Moses, leading the children of Israel out of Egypt.  They did their share of wandering in the wilderness and ultimately, after a mere 40 years (a lifetime in those days), God brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey. 

And so, we Christians continue the faith tradition of wandering as we embark on yet another Lenten journey of our own, knowing that wandering had brought our ancestors to the places they needed to be.  

Wandering in the wilderness may help to stretch our limits, enlighten our minds, change our hearts and feed our souls.  God’s ever-present Spirit is still reaching out to us, beckoning us to enter this desert place that, though it seems empty and desolate, is simply alive with challenges for our minds, our hearts and our souls. 

If this is a rough time for you, a dark night of the soul, what better time to submit yourself to God, to allow God to have his way with you, to allow God’s Spirit to lead you through this time.  The most holy Lents of my adult life have been what we might call “the worst of times.”  Because I felt hopeless, it was natural, even easy, to surrender my life and my will to God’s.  I prayed without ceasing because it was all I could think about.  I was even crying out to God and demanding that God do something.  Every nerve in my body seemed to be tuned to the Spirit because I knew that I was out of ideas, out of energy and out of excuses.   It was up to God to lead me through my own personal wilderness.

…And God did, changing me in the process, opening my heart and my eyes and my ears, allowing me to heal from the wounds of my trek in the desert, setting me in the right direction.  Now, I’m not saying that I got it all together after those 40 days of several Lenten seasons, but I grew closer to God and embraced the healing love of Christ in ways that I hadn’t known before.

This Lent I am dealing with the death of my brother and the frightening state of our nation.  I am searching for hope in this dark time.  Even though we are experiencing more and more light as we approach the Spring Equinox, I find there is darkness unless I work to find the hope.  We Christians can be the holders of hope for each other and for the world because, in Christ, we are given hope.  The Spirit that led Jesus through the wilderness offers hope to us because God is way bigger than whatever happens at this time or any time. 

I had lunch with Anita Rayburn who subbed as our musician for a few weeks.  Anita is also a retired UM pastor and a big reader and thinker.  We were discussing this matter of hope.  She suggested that holding hope is like the ancient people who didn’t yet know how to make fire.  When they had a fire, they tended it with the greatest care, making sure it continued to burn through the night and over the day because it was that which kept them warmed, fed and alive.

And so it is with hope.  We must tend to those precious embers, keeping hope alive even when things can seem so very dark.  Hope is born from the Spirit.  Hope stays alive in our hearts.  If you are feeling hopeless, find a friend, a sister or a brother in the faith whose fire of hope is still alive.  Ask them to help you ignite your embers of hope so that you can endure these hard times.  Jesus’ sojourn in the wilderness may have some similarities to what we are enduring right now.  So let’s keep hope alive, like our ancestors kept their fire alive. 

…I wish for each of you a holy Lent, a season in which you give yourself the gift of time with God.  Pray, reflect, journal, walk in the woods, have holy conversations–whatever opens your heart and soul to this way of the cross that Jesus walked.  You may begin to know Jesus in ways you never dreamt were possible. You may find hope in the most unexpected places.   Amen.