On Wednesday morning, someone coming into the building for a meeting saw our sign directing folks here to the sanctuary for Ash Wednesday worship and bravely, and curiously, asked, “What is Ash Wednesday?”
That same morning, I told the preschool children that we were beginning the season of Lent and explained how this “season” was different from winter or spring.
You may remember that in November I told you how surprised I was that the grocery stores had moved from Halloween to Christmas so quickly. Well, this time, it was the heart-shaped boxes of Valentine’s chocolate that were being replaced with Easter’s marshmallow Peeps just as rapidly.
Stopping
and
observing
this season of Lent is counter-cultural,
certainly, in the secular world,
but even in other Christian traditions.
because Lent lets us pause.
It invites us into reflection.
And it helps us learn how to live as citizens of the kingdom of God.
Our readings today tell a story that moves from
Adam and Eve’s disobedience, choosing a way that is in opposition
to God wants;
to the psalmist’s vivid description of the burden of carrying our
sin and trying to hide from God,
and the liberation received in confession and forgiveness;
to the gift of God’s grace and the righteousness given to us
through faith;
and finally, to Jesus in Matthew’s gospel.
We meet Jesus in the wilderness immediately after his baptism in the Jordan River where he was declared God’s beloved Son.
Often, when we hear the story of Jesus being tested, we focus on the temptations themselves or who the devil or Satan is in this story, but today, I want to focus on Jesus’ response.
Again and again, Jesus refuses to believe the lies or tricks of the tempter, and responds, “It is written” as he rebuffs the devil with words that have been given to him by God.
He isn’t carrying a pocket Old Testament or a Bible app on a smartphone. He knows the words because they are written on his heart.
Jesus rejects sin – that which is not of God – and instead responds to temptation with Scripture and faithful obedience to God.
In Judaism, there is a prayer that is practiced every morning and every night. It’s found in Deuteronomy 6, and it begins with the command,
“Hear, O Israel”!
The prayer is,
4 HEAR O Israel. The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your HEART and with all your SOUL and with all your STRENGTH.
It begins with the Hebrew word “Shema”
– “Hear” or “Listen” -
and then after describing how we are to love God,
the text continues,
urging God’s people to write God’s words not only in holy books,
but on our hearts.
But that’s not all.
In Hebrew, there isn’t a different word for “Obey”.
In SHEMA, hearing, listening and obedience are all related.
In the same way, our practice of
hearing God’s Word,
listening to God’s commands and promises, and
being obedient to God,
are all integrated into our lives of faith.
When Adam and Eve are tested and offered the deceptive chance to become
like God with the knowledge of good and evil,
they choose to distrust God’s Word - what they had heard –
and be disobedient. And they were separated from God.
In his response to temptation and the tests that he faces,
Jesus embodies faithfulness,
choosing God
instead of acting outside of what God wants and promises.
In his confrontation with the lies the tempter offers,
Jesus shows us how we are to respond
by virtue of our baptism,
when we were named beloved children of God,
and made righteous – in right standing with God –
by the gift of the Holy Spirit,
and by virtue of our faith in Jesus
whose obedience, all the way to the cross,
is stronger than Adam’s disobedience and failure.
We are to choose God,
to submit to what God wants,
and to humbly trust in God’s future for us.
Amen.
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