St. Luke’s in the Meadow Episcopal Church
1 Lent—March 9, 2025
Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91, Romans 10:8b-13, Luke 4:1-13
Homily preached by the Rev. Canon Linda S. Taylor
This is the first Sunday of the season of Lent. The color of our worship has changed to purple, signifying our sorrow for the ways we have separated ourselves from God by the choices we have made. Lent is a time for rethinking our lives—a time to bring our lives closer in alignment with the teachings Jesus gives us. It’s a time for recognizing the choices we face every day and focusing on ways that we can choose the actions that bring us closer to God, to each other and to our community.
Today’s gospel is about choices. After his baptism, Jesus goes away into the wilderness. The tempter is with him, but there’s no mention of anyone else. Jesus is alone—he’s alone with temptation. He can do anything he wants. He can turn stones into bread, enough to feed all the poor people of his land—enough to feed all the people of his world. He can test out those words he heard at his baptism. He can show himself and the world he is the Son of God by using his power for parlor tricks. He can have power and dominion over the whole world. He can change the way the world’s nations are run—bring an end to war, change the distribution of wealth, make peace and justice reign throughout the world. All he has to do is worship the tempter. That’s all.
Most of us know about the tempter. We know about temptation. The American Sign Language sign for temptation is a couple of taps on your elbow—like someone inviting you rather surreptitiously to an action we’d really rather not talk about out loud—even to ourselves. Children know about the tempter. Temptation comes to us early and often. Each of us experiences the tempter, and that experience is sometimes strongest in our ongoing preparation for the ministries to which God calls each of us. In our own lives, when we’re alone in our own little chunks of the wilderness, the tempter comes to be with us. Like all people of God, we struggle to make choices that allow us to live into God’s plan for us and for creation. Most of the time, we’re only too aware of our potential to fail, only too aware of the temptations that are clearly not part of God’s hope for us. But the struggle to avoid the temptation of things that seem so right at first glance—like the temptation to overwork or overcommit—that may well be another matter. The whole problem with temptations is that they hook us. Things that don’t attract us in some way don’t tempt us, and a lot of things that attract us are frequently disguised as good choices. Those are frequently the things that pull our lives out of balance—things that pull our focus away from God.
Jesus didn’t give in to the tempter in the wilderness because he knew what he was about. He knew that he wasn’t sent to free people from physical starvation but to feed our souls so that we will feed and care for one another. He knew that he wasn’t sent to show God’s power in meaningless tricks but to show how God’s power is available even when we are at our most vulnerable. He knew that he wasn’t sent to drag people into covenant with God but to tell us of God’s love and remind us of our choice to turn to God.
This was Jesus’ first occasion of temptation—right at the beginning of his ministry, while he was still learning who he was and what God was calling him to do. He didn’t give into the tempter because he was grounded in his faith and guided by the commandments. And what about us? I know that after all these years I am still learning who I am and what God is calling me to do, and I’m willing to bet that’s true for all of us. So, what are we going to do when temptation comes to us? How do we differentiate between the tempter’s call and the call to follow Christ? How do we discern the way we’re supposed to live?
I doubt that you will be surprised to hear that we have some criteria for discernment very close at hand. The description of what it means to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The Baptismal Covenant promises. Page 304 in the Book of Common Prayer. At least four times a year, we renew our vows to worship God in community, repent our sins, proclaim the Good News, serve Christ in each other and work for justice and peace. That’s the list, and that list can shed a lot of light on the road ahead.
As you look at the list, I invite you to pick one promise to focus on during this season of Lent. I suggest that you not yield to the temptation to focus on how you’ve failed to honor that promise in the past. Where you look is where you’re going to go. Just think of what it’s like to learn how to drive. Where you look is where you are going to point the car. Further I invite you to think of one change you can make in your life that will help you keep that promise. Just one promise—just one change. Not a whole string of amendments of life. Just one thing that will support you in living more completely into your life in Christ. It takes at least 14 days to build a new habit, and our gracious God has given us these 40 days of Lent—to look at our lives, to invite the Spirit into our hearts and to take one step closer to Christ.
Thanks be to God.