Deacon Christina Cernansky
1st Sunday of Lent, Year A: Matthew 4:1-11
I speak to you in the name of Source, God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, mother of us all.
Before I moved to Idaho, I was, I guess you can say, a city girl. I spent much of my time in college and post-college time, so about 20 years, in the city. But I wasn’t always this person. Growing up, I was blessed to spend time in Florida, building sandcastles and looking for dolphins out in the deep blue sea. At ten, I moved to Georgia and was amazed by the lush forests, and later I lived on a ranch with horses, dogs, cats, fish, and even birds. I loved this time, in nature, hanging out with so many different shapes and sizes of animals.
After wandering through the wilderness, finding my way in my teenage years, and then settled into college. I got the political bug, and started… chasing some form of “success”. This version of success had me turning away from the Holy Spirit and, at times, desiring to fill my heart with Golden deities. I was lost, walking my own road to Jericho, which led me to the Gem State. When I visited Idaho, it was as if my soul found a home. I was introduced to hiking and hot springs, got back into skiing, and started rebuilding my relationship with Creator. Ironically, I found God walking through the wilderness in the wilderness of Idaho.
This is the first Sunday in Lent, we are on the fifth day of 40 days of reflection, and we are asked to do some introspective work, if we are up to it! In today’s readings, we hear about Jesus’ journey into the wilderness. He knows what is to come; he knows he needs some rest, reflection, and he decided to go yonder, as his forefathers, Moses and Elijah, taught him. Jesus is tempted, three different ways, to turn away from God’s grace.
As some of you know, I took a handful of classes on indigenous voices in seminary and reflected on this reading in the First Nations Version of the New Testament. I’d love to share with you the indigenous nations’ voices take on Jesus 40-day journey into the wilderness.
Jesus, in this version of the bible is called “Creator Sets Free. Here, in verse 1, it starts with Creator Sets Free, guided by the Spirit who led him into the desert wilderness to be tested by the accuser, the evil trickster snake. For 40 days and nights, Creator Sets Free ate nothing. His body became weak, and his hunger grew strong. When the evil snake saw this, he came to him and whispered. “Are you the son of the great spirit?” he hissed, “prove it by turning these stones into frybread”.
The Sacred teachings are clear: the creator said, “human beings cannot live on frybread alone but on all the words that come from the mouth of the great spirit.”
The Evil trickster then took him to the Great Spirits’ sacred lodge in the Village of Peace (Jerusalem). He set him at the very top, high above the village. “Prove you are the son of the Great Spirit and jump down from here!” the evil snake taunted him. “Do not the Sacred Teaching also say, his spirit messengers will watch over you to keep you from harm? Will they even keep your foot from hitting a stone? “Yes, Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said back to him, “but they also say, “Do not test the Great Spirit”.
Once more, the evil trickster took him to a high mountain and showed him all the great nations of the world with their power and beauty. All of these will give you the snake and smoothly, “If you will highly honor me and walk in my ways!”
Creator Sets Free Said, Get away from me. Accuser, for it is written in sacred teachings: “The great spirit is the only one to honor and serve.” The evil trickster would think of nothing more to test him with, so he slithered away to wait for another time.
Isn’t that beautiful? Nowhere in this Lenten story are we called to repent from sins, but we are called to look inwardly, to act accordingly, and to turn away from temptations. We get to learn three ways that Jesus was tempted. He is tempted by flesh (which is gluttony with a myriad of desires), tempted by ego to have power and control, by controlling God’s will for our lives, and lastly, tempted by ego, to gain riches and rule over nations and lands that we have no right to claim as our indigenous siblings remind us of.
Think about that: a large part of our culture, which is sometimes built on the conversation of sin, deflects from the larger story here, Jesus’ story that we read today. Being transformed, allowing the Holy Spirit to work within us, through us, we also play a role in doing the work necessary to deliver us from temptation. Jesus once again demonstrated to us how we are to turn away from the trickster’s temptations of flesh, of power, and of ego. Every day, we are tempted by these things; every moment, we get to turn towards God’s grace or towards the tricksters’ temptations. As I mentioned earlier, I know this place well. I lived in that life for many years, but the wilderness was calling me, the Creator who sets us free, was calling me, to come back into the unbounded love in God’s Kingdom.
We learn that it’s not about showing devotion, but about staving off these temptations. It’s not to show God that you’re getting a pat on the back, a gold star, or a fast-track access pass to heaven. We are called to turn away from behaviors and habits that block us from God’s grace, mercy, and understanding. We are called to be of service, to help achieve the wonderment of the Kingdom of God.
On our new banners here, we notice there is Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Some folks don’t necessarily agree with what happened after apartheid, but I think we can all agree that the work he set out to advance the reconciliation process was effective. Archbishop Tutu was the head of the “Truth and Reconcilation Commission”. He knew that the country would not heal unless these tough yet heart-centered conversations took place among neighbors.
Those who were doing the oppressing had to admit, repent in front of a panel of folks, say it openly, and commit to turning towards a more community-centric focus. For the country to start the healing process, they had to “reconcile” with one another, to achieve the Kingdom of God in this new vision of South Africa. The panel would then decide whether that repentance was enough; if they had blood on their hands, they might need to serve time in prison and so forth.
Desmond Tutu was taking a page from Jesus play book. Knowing full well that the trickster is always at bay, his neighbors needed to reconcile those behaviors that prevent us from living out God’s compassion, mercy, and grace. We get to recognize, and repent, find God in those spaces in the wilderness, in the self-doubt, in our ego-driven society. We get to find the Holy Spirit at work, in the spaces where we turn away from God’s mercy and grace, and in the spaces of our temptation.
In a few weeks, we will mourn Jesus ‘ death and lean into his resurrection. But why did Jesus die? I might ruffle some feathers here, so bear with me…Saying he died for our sins can be some kind of cop-out; it’s a scapegoat. He died fighting for justice; he died shining light on the double-standard, hypocritical Pharisees who excluded many, while also lifting up the conversation on the deplorable conditions the Roman Empire instituted across God’s land.
Yes, he died for us to have eternal and lasting life, but I encourage us to dig a little deeper during this Lenten season. He died for us to have eternal lasting life, for what? For us to stay stagnant, to stay in habits that don’t serve us well, that we pass judgment, that we stay in low maturity behaviors, to be puppets of the Pharisees or Roman Empire? Or are we called to turn away from temptation and pray to be delivered from the trickster?
I will leave with a message from Bishop Ann Ritonia, the Bishop of the Armed Forces. I received this letter last week and invite you to hear her words. “Over the years, I have come to cherish this season not so much as a time of punishment or penance, but as a time to reset. Lent offers us a pause, a moment to step out of the constant demands of service and leadership long enough to notice what has quietly settled in our souls. In that pause, God meets us with mercy and helps us clear away what no longer gives life.
The prayer book calls Lent a holy invitation, an invitation to honesty, renewal, and what I like to think of as spiritual spring cleaning.”
I love that metaphor, don’t you, “spiritual spring cleaning”…When we rejoice in 35 days, let’s try to remember that we are called to be renewed and tasked with inviting God’s will to have the cobwebs cleared out!
We are called to step into God’s will, to be constantly shaped, and to have an incarnational experience in our formation. Is there a trickster holding us back? During this Lenten season, what habits are not serving us well, that are blocking us from God’s will, of being of service? What is holding us back from our own wilderness experience that is keeping us away from God’s love? Amen.