The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Lent is so different from any other part of the Christian Year. That difference is symbolized visually by covering crosses, icons, and paintings, simplifying our worship space, and making it more somber, less festive.
Likewise, today we recited the Great Litany, a series of prayers that covers almost every conceivable human need. Next week we will say the Decalogue, the 10 Commandments, and also next week we will say the Prayer of Confession at the beginning of the service, rather than later on, everything setting a strong tone of penitence.
Many of us have made a change in our daily lives to mark the season. We have given up something to remind us in a small way of our Lord’s supreme sacrifice for us.
Many also try to take on something for Lent, like extra Bible reading, extra time for prayer, attending one of our adult educational offerings, a weekday Mass, or Morning or Evening Prayer. Yesterday around 50 people attended the retreat at DaySpring, conducted by Fr. Wilson. These are terrific ways to observe Lent.
Lent is a great season in which many Christians dedicate themselves to a greater emphasis on their faith. Even though we are now four days into Lent, it’s still not too late to give something up for Lent or to take something on.
On this First Sunday in Lent, the Gospel recalls Jesus’ baptism, in which he was anointed by the Holy Spirit. That baptism marked the beginning of his earthly ministry. St. Mark tells us that immediately the Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness, where he stayed for 40 days. During this time he was tempted by Satan.
Here Jesus was, at the beginning of his ministry, after having had a true mountaintop experience in which God said, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased,” and immediately afterward he has an encounter with evil in its purest form.
There are several lessons for us in this short account of Jesus’ temptations, for unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark does not tell us anything about the specific nature of the temptations Jesus endured. First of all, there is a being whom we call Satan, whose purposes are to draw us as far away from God as he can, because he wants to possess our souls. Arguably, his biggest accomplishment so far is to have convinced the modern mind that he doesn’t exist. A faithful Christian once asked me, “Do you really believe in the devil?” for she had dismissed such belief long ago as a remnant from a prescientific world. And I said, “Yes, I do. Our Lord Jesus clearly contended with the devil. And while human beings are quite capable of doing unspeakable evil on their own, and while I do believe that some people are much too quick to blame Satan for their own or someone else’s wickedness, I also believe that Satan is very much at work in this world, seeking every opportunity to encourage us to leave the presence of our heavenly Father. Satan exists.
Secondly, when you draw closer to God, when you become more interested in your faith and doing the things of faith, don’t expect the battle with evil to be any easier. In fact, all of the evidence suggests the opposite. The closer you get to God, the more Satan is active. Over the years I have learned to expect that the closer we get to Holy Week, the holiest time of the year, the more I can expect to encounter some form of evil – usually through conflict among members of the Body of Christ. Satan doesn’t want your life to be transformed, he doesn’t want you to experience fully what Jesus’ death and resurrection mean for your life, and the closer you get to that saving event the more actively Satan works against it. Satan and other forces of evil are to be found in the holiest of places.
Third, the temptation that is the most dangerous is something that will never even be noticed as such, and it will look like something desirable. Helmet Thielicke said, “If the serpent had asked Eve: “Do you want to become an active atheist? Would you submit a notarized statement, calling it quits with God?” Eve would have thrown up her hands in horror and given the serpent a proper rebuff.” Instead, the serpent tempted Eve by suggesting that the forbidden fruit would taste good and would make those who consume it like gods themselves. The most effective temptation doesn’t look like something bad at all, but something good.
Finally, the goal of temptation is to take our focus off of God and put it on ourselves. Again, Thielicke, writing in the mid-20th century, hits the nail on the head when he says, “There is one thing we must understand clearly… And that is that we hardly ever sever our relationship to God standing up and shaking our fist at heaven like Prometheus, denying and renouncing God with a planned defiance. As a rule this decision against God is made in a far more tepid way; it occurs almost unnoticed by the apostate mind.”
Temptation today may simply consist of filling our schedules so full that we do not have the time to spend in prayer, reading the Bible, going to church. In 2012, the latest year for which I could find figures, Americans spent 34 hours a week on average watching television, over 4 and a half hours on Facebook, and 3.8 hours on email. No wonder people don’t have time for God. The most effective temptation will never be recognized as such; it will simply draw you away from focusing on God, and the more you’re drawn away, the more you don’t miss God and the things of faith, until one day it dawns on you that God isn’t present to you anymore and you can’t remember how that happened. If the Tempter is successful, it won’t even matter to you by that time. When it will matter is when something happens, some crisis, and you realize you don’t have the resources spiritually to deal with it.
You and I are here, worshipping God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We’re on the right track, in other words.
Lent is a time for the faithful to tweak things a bit. It is a time to allow God to be even a greater part of our lives, with the hope that the good habits that get established during Lent will endure, so that we will have grown stronger in our faith and made better able to withstand the assaults of the devil. May you and I find Lent in the year of our Lord 2015 to be just such a time.
Sermon preached by The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
The First Sunday in Lent
22 February 2015