1 Lent, Yr C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
1 Lent, Year C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Romans 10:8b-13 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Luke 4:1-13
In the name of the one, holy, and loving God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit…
was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,
where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” (Luke 4:1)
This period of 40 days for Jesus
fell between the time of his baptism
and the beginning of his public ministry.
That’s quite an initiation for a baptized life!
In the early days of the Church there was no need for a season called “Lent.”
Christians who refused to pledge allegiance to the Emperor
by professing allegiance to God alone,
were tossed to the wild beasts for sport.
So, in the earliest days of Christianity,
if you professed to be a Christian,
the stakes involved were very clear.
But, as time progressed and Christianity became the approved religion of the day,
Christians were able to blend into the rest of society.
Life got a lot more comfortable,
and people forgot that their whole life came from God and belonged to God…
and not to earthly powers and institutions.
So… the 40 days before Easter became a time
when new converts to the faith were taught Christian ways…
and notorious sinners served their time of penance
before being restored to the Communion.
It was not until the Middle Ages that the Church introduced the season of Lent –
a time to clear out some space in our lives so that we could once again remember
that all of who we are and all that we have comes from God
and comes to us as gift.
This was the challenge of Jesus’ temptations those 40 days in the wilderness.
Remember that he was just baptized in the Jordan and claimed as God’s Beloved.
Then the devil tempted him in the wilderness at his weakest point.
The devil tempted him with food and power and safety,
but the point isn’t the specific temptations.
The point is not what Jesus was tempted toward
but that he was tempted away from trusting in God.
He was tempted away from knowing that he was God’s beloved
and that God – and God alone - would sustain him in this earthly life.
Now, despite the devil’s temptations, Jesus affirmed his relationship with God:
he affirmed his trust in God to provide for and sustain his life…
he affirmed his dependence upon God and God alone.
So, in our current culture,
what is the point of these 40 days of Lent?
It is a time when we are reminded that our very lives are a gift from God…
that all that we have comes to us as a gift from God…
that our entire lives are dependent upon God –
and upon God alone.
It is tradition to give up something for Lent,
but you could just as well take something on instead.
The point is to create some open space in our lives where we can dwell with God
and reaffirm that, for life, we depend upon God and nothing else.
Lent is a time to renew our “yes” to God and the life God affirms in and through us.
Many years ago, we bought a house…
and with the house came a rose garden with 12 tea rose bushes.
I had never tried to grow roses before,
so I went to the bookstore and bought a copy of “Roses for Dummies.”
It was most helpful.
Every year starting just about this time of year,
I followed all the steps to prune my roses.
It seems to me a good analogy for the Lenten journey.
First, you prune out the deadwood
because that is where diseases and insects can get in and harm the healthy wood.
Then you cut out all the branches growing inward
so that the center doesn’t get too crowded.
Then you cut out any branches thinner than a pencil in diameter
because weak branches cannot support the weight of new blooms.
At the end of all this –
and it really does take courage to cut all of this away –
I would end up with about a 1-foot high stick figure of a tea rose bush.
The key is to leave enough healthy wood that is strong enough to bear new life
and to keep the center open to light and air.
That seems to be a fitting image for the Lenten journey…
trim out the deadwood:
anything that leads us away from life and away from God…
and open up the center to the Light to prepare for new growth.
Now, to return to Jesus in the wilderness…
When he was famished, the devil tempted him to turn stone into bread.
He was then tempted to seek his own glory and power.
But, Jesus claimed his dependence upon God alone.
This Lent I invite us all to ask:
Where is the deadwood in our lives that needs to be pruned away?
What are those things that tempt us away from complete trust in God?
Perhaps it’s negative Facebook posts,
or the news,
or even friends or family who are not reminding us that we are God’s beloved.
Another way to look at it is to ask ourselves this:
How do we open up our center – our hearts – to God’s healing Grace?
What draws us closer to God?
Perhaps we go for a walk and observe the beauty of God’s creation
or visit or call a friend we haven’t seen in a while to check in.
Perhaps we spend time in prayer or meditating on Scripture,
or take a nap to rest our body and mind.
Perhaps we read the Psalms
or sing some hymns that draw us closer to God.
Paul tells the Church at Rome:
“The word is near you,
on your lips and in your heart.”
This is true.
God is as near as our very breath!
Jesus knew this out in the wilderness.
It was how he was able to resist the devil’s temptations.
This is the purpose of Lent:
To remind ourselves that God is as near as our very breath.
God will sustain when we wander in the wilderness…
when temptations arise to lure us away.
And….God longs to welcome us home and enfold us when we get lost or confused.
So…how do we open our hearts to God
so that we can hear that voice which calls us “Beloved”
and reach forth with new life through our very lives.
The invitation is before us…
the invitation to embark upon a holy Lenten journey
on which we are renewed by God’s Grace.
The journey is not easy,
and at times it may be downright painful to prune away some of that deadwood,
but on the other side of the wilderness is resurrection –
life abundant!
I pray blessings upon our journeys this Lent,
that our relationships with God and with one another may be nourished and deepened.
Amen.
