Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
Luke 4:1-13
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
We followed the lectionary through Advent to Christmas, and we will be returning to it through Lent until Easter. For those who may not be familiar with it, the lectionary is a three year cycle of Bible readings used by many churches, so congregations across the world will be hearing those same passages this morning. Each set of lectionary readings includes texts from the Psalms and the Old Testament, as well as passages from a gospel and a letter - I chose just two of the readings for this morning as four is a lot to handle.
Sometimes trying to work out why the readings have been put together the way they have is like trying to solve a puzzle, but there is a clear connection between the psalm and the gospel this week. In the passage from Luke 4, the devil invokes Psalm 91 through the reference to guardian angels, suggesting that Jesus could throw himself off the temple and walk away unhurt because no harm will come to those who love God. Jesus responds by quoting Deuteronomy 6, “Do not test the Lord your God”, essentially telling the devil he can’t use the text like that. It’s a striking example of one of the ways in which we can handle the Bible badly, and it seems to me that the devil’s error is not twisting scripture but taking it literally, when in order to understand it truthfully, we must read it in the context it came from and in light of all that we know of God and ourselves and the world.
The devil claims Jesus will not strike his foot against a stone, but if you really pick at the passage he is quoting from, you will see that the wilder claims about angels and lions and cobras are in the voice of the psalmist. The voice of God does promise rescue and protection, but also presence in trouble. God is not saying we will avoid suffering completely, but that we will be held through it and finally delivered from it. One day all will be made right, but until then faith does not keep us from all the horrors and hardships of life. That may not be what we want to hear, which is why the devil’s version is so tempting, but if we believe that God will protect us from all harm, then we do set these verses up as a kind of test which inevitably we or God will seem to fail, and that will only lead us into deeper suffering. If we can understand these verses as expressing the desire of the psalmist as much as the promise of God, and find in them an encouragement to faith against all the odds and an assurance that the final word will be salvation, they may bring true comfort rather than false hope.
If the passages are connected to one another then they are also connected to the season, with the gospel a natural choice for the beginning of Lent, the time of the year in which we prepare for Easter and remember the time Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for his earthly ministry of teaching and healing. Because Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilderness, Lent has traditionally been a time of fasting and praying for Christians. I wonder if you have given anything up for Lent this year. I once gave up bread and biscuits, and soon realised just how much of my student diet was made up of baked goods. Mike once gave up caffeine, and got so grumpy that his university friends banned him from ever doing it again.
Giving something up is hard, but I rather suspect that is meant to be the point, because if it was easy we wouldn’t learn anything from it. Bread and coffee may seem fairly trivial examples, but fasting can teach us valuable lessons about what is really important to us and what we really need. I think we may understand that now better than ever. I’ve heard a number of people saying that the past two years have felt like an extended Lent, as if we never fully emerged from the Lent that began just weeks before the first lockdown. We have given up a lot in these times, and most of it not by choice, but it has perhaps led us to a greater appreciation of the things that matter most.
Giving something up isn’t the only way to mark Lent though, and for the past few years I have instead chosen to take something up, practising an attitude of gratitude. It’s very simple, every day I write down something I am thankful for. It isn’t always easy, especially when the day has been long and stressful and the news has been full of horror and sadness, but then it becomes more important. That act of naming something I am grateful for is like a sunbeam shooting through the clouds on a grey day. It might not make things much less gloomy, but it does raise my spirits.
I wonder what you are feeling thankful for today. You may not be surprised to hear that my children feature in my gratitude a lot. Obviously we’re only a few days into this year, but I looked back at the last time I tweeted my days of gratitude, and highlights have included “Today I am thankful for Eddie's funky moves. I particularly enjoyed the flamingo hop and the flying narwhal.” and “Today I am thankful for my daughter spending the afternoon smiling at and trying to cuddle the picture of her and her brother on my phone.” It really does help to remember those little moments when they’re waking you up at three in the morning, which is one of many reasons I think gratitude is such a good habit to take up.
Whether we give something up or take something up, we don’t tend to head off into the wilderness like Jesus did, but sometimes the wilderness seems to come to us. By that I mean there are times when life feels tough and empty and lonely. We might be sick or grieving, or there might be things that worry us or frighten us. We might feel like life is testing us in the way that the devil tested Jesus. Those times are really hard, but just as the psalm promised deliverance from trouble, so the gospel tells us that these times do come to an end. The devil went away and Jesus returned from the wilderness, I imagine to a hot meal and a long sleep in a comfortable bed.
Our wilderness times may sometimes seem to stretch on forever, but they don’t. There will always be a hot meal and a long sleep in a comfortable bed waiting for us. And because Jesus has experienced the wilderness, we can trust that he knows how to stay with us in those times of sickness or grief or worry or fear, so we are never alone in them. I learnt this week that the Orthodox Church talks of Lent as a time of bright sadness, and think it is a wonderful expression that captures some of that wilderness experience. Christ may not take away all of our sadness, but he can make it brighter through his presence and the hope he offers.
When I first heard about bright sadness my mind jumped straight to Ukraine, as most of the population there belongs to the Orthodox Church. I cannot imagine what it is like to be in that country right now, but I pray that their understanding of bright sadness is helping to hold them steady and keep them hopeful. It has been extraordinarily powerful to see images of mass being celebrated in basements, and to watch footage of Ukrainian families reading Psalm 31 together in bunkers and shelters, its declarations of faith and pleas for mercy bringing comfort in the midst of calamity. God is present in every basement and every bunker, and I also believe God is weeping in the ruins of every destroyed building and standing in the way of every advancing tank, if only those set on war would see that and cease their violence.
Our wilderness may seem as nothing compared to a warzone, but suffering is not a game of top trumps. If it is real to us then it matters to the God who is in it with us, and perhaps we need to seek the steadiness and hope of bright sadness in this time too. However near to or deep into the wilderness you feel, and however you choose to mark Lent this year, may there be enough brightness to sustain you through any sadness, and may you be blessed with many things to be thankful for.
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Lord Jesus Christ you have walked where we walk and now you help us in our weakness: blessed be your name. Lord Jesus Christ, you have been tempted as we have and now you come to help us in our danger: blessed be your name. Lord Jesus Christ, you have suffered for us and now you help us when we reach our wit’s end: blessed be your name. Lord Jesus Christ, you were deserted and betrayed, and now you are with us when all others have gone: blessed be your name. Lord Jesus Christ, companion Christ, friend and saviour, we adore you, we love you, we need you: help us to follow. Amen.
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