First Lent
First Lent Luke 4:1-13, Duet.26:1-11
Don't bother looking for the word "Lent" in a Bible dictionary. There was no such thing in Bible times. There is some scant evidence that the earliest Christians fasted for 40 hours between Good Friday and Easter but the custom of spending 40 days in self denial and in prayer did not arise until later. This Lenten season didn't come about until the time when the initial rush of Christian adrenaline was over and believers had gotten very ho-hum about their faith.
The forty days was meant to call Christians out of the comforts of their every day culture, off the couch, away from the flannels sheets, the stew cooking on the stove, the game in the background and back to their senses. Forty seemed a good Biblical number; Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness learning to trust the Lord. Elijah spent 40 days in a cave before hearing the still small voice of God and Moses spent 40 days on a mountain waiting for God to give the law. And of course there was also the story of Jesus' own 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by the devil.
So the early church announced a season of Lent. Lent from the old English word Lenten meaning "spring". More than a reference to the warm weather season before Easter, Lent was also an invitation for a springtime of the soul; a time to clear out the deadwood of our lives, a time to do some internal soil preparation, receive an extra dose of spiritual nourishment and patiently wait for new growth. 40 days of discipline, cutting back, pulling together. 40 days--an opportunity to look inward, to take time for a spiritual check up--a little self discernment. Not a vacation mind you, not the kind of place you go to "get away", to relax. No the wilderness was never that, the wilderness was ever a place where you come up against it, where when you take all the excesses away you find out what you're made of--You find out who you are and probably more importantly, Whose you are!
So it is Lent and we're ready for this season, this springtime of the soul. Where do we begin, how do we start? Our lessons for today have some keys for us, some hints for all of these lessons address the question in our hearts, "Who am I really? And what is it I'm to be about?
As I've mentioned before, I serve on the ministry committee of our Metropolitan Chicago Synod. Part of the work of that committee is to deal with individuals who feel that they have been called into the professional ministry of the Lutheran Church. We walk with them through an extensive process that includes four interviews, extensive psychological testing, five recommendations and three personal essays over the course of four years. It is a cumbersome, sometimes wrenching process to discern the will of God for their lives. All of this process could in reality be summed up in our lessons for today.
We ask: Where did you come from and how did you get to this point in your life?
What do you really believe? What are your deepest motives?
What do others say about you and how do you respond to them?
Such questions are not unique to those who would seek a professional vocation in the church but to everyone who has been called by God to be a Christian, to everyone who would profess their faith. It is the Lenten discipline, the spring of the soul.
Where did we come from and how did we get here?
What do we really believe?
What do others say about us and how do we respond?
Probably the earliest affirmation of faith in the whole Judeo Christian heritage comes from our first lesson today. "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor, he went down to Egypt and lived there as an alien...and there he became a great nation...When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, we cried to the Lord. The Lord heard our voice. The Lord brought us out of Egypt. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land..."
What might we say about our beginnings...Where have we come from...A rich entrepreneur is my father, a hard working laborer is my father, an unknown presence was my father or my mother or for that matter all my ancestors. But he Lord brought me out of Egypt. I got to be here because God who is gracious and merciful got me here.
The other day, I read with sadness an article about the children of Iraq. Half the population of Iraq is under 18 years of age. These children are experiencing their third war in 20 years. One Iraqi psychologist wrote "For more than three decades, young Iraqis have been forced to learn how to kill. We must now learn instead about dialogue and compromise. Otherwise, we will continue to produce psychopathic personalities for whom violence is simply a means of negotiating daily life."
Never, never will these children be able to escape the horrible memories of their lives, the wilderness that they have existed in. but as a Christian I must believe, and hope and pray that the Lord will bring them out of Egypt, that with an outstretched arm and with a mighty power that God will bring them to a new place.
Certainly I can not answer for you but I can ask, how has God brought you to this place? We can each ask, Who am I? And perhaps we can answer; I am one whom God has redeemed. I am one whom God has brought out of the land of Egypt and to whom God has promised a land of milk and honey.
What do you believe? The epistle from Paul puts the argument very clearly, "The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart, because if you confess with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." The process of discernment asks us all "What is in my heart?" and if in my heart, What is on my lips?
There was a time in the not so distant past when it was the thing to do to espouse religion. When membership in a church was a good networking opportunity, when our affiliation was good for the image, good for business. I doubt that anyone cares particularly now, and perhaps that is a good thing. Perhaps that will cause us to ask,"What is really in our hearts? What do we confess with our lips?
This weekend the movie "Amazing Grace" opened in theaters. Though I have not yet seen it I have been hearing a lot about it. It is the story of John Wilberforce who because he believed with his heart and confessed with his lips worked over the course of 49 years to get an anti slavery bill passed in the British Parliement. Clearly he was not alone in his efforts but
Finally our Lenten discipline will cause us to ask, how do others see us and what does that mean for us?
Yesterday I received a telephone solicitation. "Hi I'm James from the starlight foundation and I'm calling because you're known to be a generous and kind person."
Now what am I to do? Am I to be bowled over by this flattery, am I to feel that I have to live up to James' expectations of the kind and generous person he knows me to be. No doubt James' cause is good. All the devil's causes were good too. How could Jesus turn down the opportunity to feed the masses, how could Jesus step aside from political mastery over the entire earth. The messiah should be the one who does those sorts of things. That's our expectation...
Recently in my work on the ministry committee I did an interview with a man in his upper thirties. Graduating from college he began working for a large corporation and by diligence and intelligence rose through the corporate ranks. The positions were lucrative and for the most part interesting. Two years ago when his supervisor moved to the Chicago area she arranged that he should be promoted the Chicago area as well. He began to question the direction of his life. He began to sense a lack of fulfillment in what he did. He began to look for interests and healthy relationships apart from work. As he struggled with his feelings and made changes he began to find a richer fuller life. He hadn't realized how much he had changed until this same supervisor confronted him one day, "You seem different now than you were in New Jersey, less focused, less aggressive. You're a different person and I've got to tell you I liked the other one better." Oftentimes others can be a good mirror for who we are but their expectations are not always the best gauge for our lives. Jesus says to the disciples "who do you say that I am?" And Peter answers, "You are the Christ". But when Jesus suggests that that means he has to go to Jerusalem, to suffering and death, Peter is quick to retort that that is not the role of a Christ, a messiah, a savior in his book. Get behind me Satan, Jesus says to Peter "If you are the Christ then..." If you are the Son of Man..." The devil keeps trying to make Jesus question what he knows to be true, what God has already told him, "You are my son my beloved."
God has given us that assurance as well. In Baptism God has claimed us to be God's own.
In this Lent, this forty days, this springtime of our souls let us use these lessons for today as a guide. Let us take time to be reminded that it was God who brought us out of the land of Egypt and rescued us with a mighty arm, Let us remember the word that is in our hearts and on our lips is that Jesus Christ is Lord and that God has raised him from the dead.
Amen