St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cleveland, Tennessee

First Sunday of Lent
25 February 2007

We have for our Gospel lesson today this very mysterious scene where Jesus, having been baptized, goes out into the wilderness to prepare himself for his ministry as the Messiah, the Anointed One. This event in Jesus’ life is well chronicled in Matthew as well as Luke. Their memories of it are very, very similar. Mark summarizes this event in one verse in his Gospel. But it is clearly there - - this well attested reality that Jesus, after his baptism, went out into the wilderness for a time of preparing himself for his ministry. Obviously he came back and later told his disciples that, while he was there on this retreat in the wilderness, he experienced temptations. And that is where we get this Gospel lesson. Jesus told his disciples about the temptations that he faced while he was alone in the wilderness, and Satan came to him to tempt him away from his ministry. Again, remember the context, this is the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry as Messiah. He has just been baptized. So at the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus faces these temptations. He is faithful, of course, we know. So he does emerge from the wilderness. And, after a time of gaining his strength back from having fasted for 40 days, he then begins his ministry as Messiah.

This is a very mysterious text in that we have this conversation between Jesus and the embodiment of evil, the devil. The reality of Lent, which we are now in, is that this 40-day period we talk about every year before Easter is modeled on this scene from the Gospels. This is where the 40 days of Lent comes from. As Jesus went out into the wilderness to prepare himself for his ministry, we are to take 40 days before Holy Week in Lent to prepare ourselves to celebrate Easter with great joy.

I want to say this morning, in a fairly brief sermon, that I hope you see this season as a time of preparation for Easter. It is my experience in the church that Lent over the years has become a time that we simply think of as having to get through. “O, what will I give up this year?” Or, “What can I take on this year?” It is important to remember why we do these things. As I was thinking about this sermon, I remembered Professor Hatchett at Sewanee whom I had for Liturgy. Professor Hatchett knows as much about the Prayer Book as anybody. It was such a great honor to ‘sit at his feet’ for two years and try to soak in everything I could that Professor Hatchett knows about the Liturgy and about Anglican worship. Professor Hatchett used to say to us, “When you get out there in churches, and you are in charge of worship, whatever it is that you have the congregation do, know why you are doing it.” It is an important reminder. “Know why you are doing something.” There should be a reason. There should be an aim that you have in mind when you make a choice as far as what you do in worship. It is the same thing with Lent. As we give up something for Lent, or as we take on something for Lent, it is important to remember why. Why do we do this?

I joked at the Ash Wednesday Liturgy that I first came into the Episcopal Church, and I first heard the term Lent, I kept hearing people talking about giving up chocolate. They weren’t going to eat chocolate for five weeks, and I had no idea why. Because nobody articulated, “Why are we doing this?” No clergy said from the pulpit during that season, “This is why you give something up for Lent. Or, this is why you take it on.” People were just not eating chocolate. As someone who was not familiar with the Episcopal Church, I had no idea what was going on. It is important to remember why we are giving up something, or why we are taking on something. It is because every time we miss what we have given up, or every time we do what we have taken on, it reminds us that we are in a time of preparation for Easter. That is what Lent is about. It is not a time to beat up on ourselves, and then we can be happy with ourselves again on Easter Day. That is not the rationale for Lent. Lent is a time when we prepare our hearts to celebrate Easter with great joy, being freed from guilt, and being freed from anxiety. So whatever it is that we give up for Lent, or whatever it is that we take on for Lent, when we do that, it is to remind us to be thinking about Easter, to be thinking about our spiritual lives. Where am I in my relationship with God? That is why we have this season. The season of Lent, I have come to see, as a very positive time. There are churches that intentionally make Lent somber. I have heard the words depressing and Lent used together many times in the life of the church. That is not what Lent is about. Lent isn’t meant to be somber. It is meant to be taken seriously - - to be taken seriously as a time when we honestly examine, “Where am I in my relationship with God?”

So this morning, as Jesus went out into the wilderness to prepare himself to begin the ministry to which God the Father had called him, we are given this time to prepare ourselves to celebrate Easter. We are to do that by taking an honest look at where we are in our relationship with God. So I urge you as we begin this Lenten journey, as I urge myself, I assure you, to make use of this time, not to be frightened by Lent, not to find it a daunting thing, but to see Lent as opportunity, an invitation, to draw closer to the love of God. May his love, which we know to be true and real, be very near to us during this season of preparation for Easter. Amen.