Christians across the world are now keeping the season of Lent. For many people, Lent is six weeks of trying to give up alcohol or chocolate. In recent years, the Church has also suggested that people do something new as well as give something up, perhaps finding time to read the Bible more regularly or to join a Bible-study group, maybe making an effort to walk more instead of using the car, or giving generously to charity, and so on.

But, if we are to keep Lent seriously, it has to be about more than giving something up or taking something on. Lent is about a time of penance and preparation for the great celebration of Easter. It’s a time of self-discipline and of recognising our total dependence on God.

If we are going to take something on or give something up, it is important that we ask ourselves why we are doing it. By abstaining from things we enjoy, we are, in the words of Timothy Radcliffe, “brought back to our deepest desires, for peace and justice, for the fullness of life and ultimately for God”.

Lent is not mainly about denying oneself but about growing in faith and devotion to God. By allowing other things in life to take a less important role for a period, we are able to concentrate more on allowing God to take first place in our lives. Many Christians see Lent as a time of trying to live more simply so that our dependence on God can be seen more clearly. There are few things that we cannot live without, but often the clutter of our daily lives leads us to investing in things the worth which is due to God.

The word “Lent” comes from Anglo-Saxon, meaning Spring. Through observing Lent, we can bring Spring to our lives, for when we lay aside the inessentials, we can allow the breath of God to sweep through us and rejuvenate us. The seasons of the Church’s year help us to recognise where the true source of our life comes from, and to gain an abundance of life that we otherwise fail to see.

I wish you all a life-filled Lent.
Sarah

Deuteronomy 26.1-11; Romans 10.8b-13; Luke 4.1-13

At first sight, the temptations of Jesus might not seem to have much to do with us. Not many of us are really tempted to turn stones into bread, or to worship the devil or throw ourselves from the top of a tall building.

If we look at Jesus’s response to the three temptations placed in front of him, we can get more of an idea about how they might affect us.

If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.

Jesus responds “One does not live by bread alone.” He is quoting from the book of Deuteronomy, about the time when Israel spent 40 years wandering around the wilderness.
In those times, they Israelites made the wrong decisions; underlying this story is the theological point that where they got it wrong, Jesus is getting it right.

First, the Israelites, having left Egypt, moaned that they had nothing to eat, that they would rather have died in Egypt than escape. So God sent manna and quails for them, and provided for their needs. They were to gather only what they needs; anything left over became wormy and was of no use.

They moaned about the manna, but God had supplied their needs. Life was not to be ordered by their preferences, but by God.

The Israelites had become fixated on what they wanted and had failed to realise that God had already provided for them.

I think in our day and age this temptation of desire is a very real one. What people see as essentials in life has become equated with what they want. Possessions and belongings have taken on a greater significance than is necessary. People become fixated by the things they think they need - the latest wide-screen TV; computer technology; children have to have the latest toys - often expensive ones; and we seem unable to be happy with what we have.

What we need and what we want have become as one. I have found it interesting that in the past fortnight or so, politicians have finally begun speaking out and saying that money is not the be-all-and-end-all of life. Of course, a certain level of income is important so that children and others have enough to eat and drink and a home in which to live, but much of what we are depriving them of is our time, our example and our care.

It’s always humbling for me when I see or hear people who live in truly poor conditions who are happy and able to be thankful to God for what they have, rather than constantly hankering after more, which sadly so many of us do.

As we search for greater wealth, we lose sight of the fact that all that we have comes ultimately from God. We make ourselves the creators of our well-being, and we fail to acknowledge our dependence on God.

If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.

Jesus responds “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” Jesus’s response comes from a passage talking about other gods.

If you remember, the Israelites became fed up when Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the law from God. They decided to make another god for themselves, since they decided that Moses had disappeared. So they built the golden calf.

God had rescued them from Egypt but their quality of life hadn’t, in their view, improved much since they’d had their freedom - so much for the old God, let’s try a new one.

The devil was offering Jesus worldly power and glory. How tempting that is! How tempting it is to want others to think well of us, to want others to honour us! The cult of celebrity does just that - it gives worldly honour and glory to people; it makes gods of things other than God.

It’s not always easy to live against the expectations of others. I know that very well from my ministry in the Church. Other people have many expectations of what their clergy should be doing, of how we should be on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Because of the expectations of others, many clergy and ministers end up suffering burn-out. Don’t misunderstand me - I’m not putting all the blame on parishioners; we ministers are responsible for our own well-being - but it’s not always easy to stand out against the pressures.

And it’s not only clergy. Many of you will have faced work or home situations where the expectations of others dominate how you live and react, whether those expectations are from a boss, from your children, from a parent, a neighbour, a fellow Christian or so on.

It’s very easy to want to be accepted by others and thought well of. But out true identity comes from the knowledge that we are children of God, and not from pleasing others. The important thing, Jesus says, is to make God the focus of your life, and not some ephemeral thing.

Jesus turned down the worldly power and glory.

If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.

Jesus said: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” Jesus’s response links back to the story of the Israelites testing God at Massah in the wilderness. The people of Israeli had reached a place called Rephidim. It was a dry and thirsty land; they needed water. They quarrelled and moaned, and were ready to stone Moses for killing them of thirst. They were testing God, and God’s reliability.

The devil was tempting Jesus to be reckless, to test out whether God’s promises would hold. It is the opposite of trusting God to keep his word.

The Israelites were tempted to give up on life and on God. Jesus was being tempted to throw away all that he had for the sake of trying out God.

I wonder how we succumb to this temptation, to be reckless, to live our lives as if we don’t trust the promises of God. It’s tempting to say when things are tough, either that we want to give up on life and God - and I’ve been there, that rock-bottom place where death seems the preferable option - or to forget God and do it anyway, the things we know we shouldn’t, but do because we can’t see that life can get better so what does it matter.

So often we are tempted to test out God, to try and solve things our way, to turn towards a quick fix.
We challenge God by our behaviour and attitudes. We often want to follow paths of our own making and not those led by God. And our seeking a quick fix can often have an adverse effect on others.

Where the Israelites failed to follow God’s path, Jesus succeeded. John Pridmore, in last Friday’s Church Times, points out that in fact all three temptations could be seen as one for Jesus, as a temptation to take the easy path and not the path of the cross.

The key to Jesus’s response to being tempted was, I think, two things. First he was in a good relationship with his Father. He spent time with God, in prayer and reflection. He gave God the greatest priority in his life and would not allow that to be deflected by anything else. In all that he did, he sought the will of God.

And Jesus was deeply rooted in Scripture. Each of his responses was Scriptural. He responded using the Word of God. Christians today have, in general, a shameful lack of knowledge of our Scriptures. Many, many people who call themselves Christian and worship regularly rarely read the Bible outside the context of church services.

To become fully immersed in Scripture as Jesus was, which will help us to avoid temptation, we need to pay attention to our Bible. We need to become familiar with it. It’s one of the amazing characteristics of the Bible that there is always more to learn. But I am saddened by the lack of attention paid to it by so many people.

Jesus counteracted temptation through his rootedness in God and his knowledge of the Scripture. The way out is the same for us.

I’m going to end with words of St Paul from the first letter to the Corinthians: “So, if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”