February 17, 2024 – The First Sunday in Lent

The first Sunday in Lent recalls Jesus’ baptism and subsequent testing in the wilderness. Today’s Psalm underscores that the season of Lent is a sustained process in relationship with God. The struggle against enemies is bound up with hearing and learning the teachings of the Lord over time.

 

The language in today’s psalm recalls the time that Israel spent in the wilderness after their liberation from bondage in Egypt. The psalmist begs God for leadership in the paths of righteousness, recalling not only the stories of God’s leading by pillars of cloud and fire, but also the whole formation of Israel as a people. They were given identity and were taught the paths of righteousness over forty years before they were able to enter the promised land.

 

A number of features of wilderness time are suggested in the psalm today. They are the reality of enemies and treachery, the wilderness as a time and pace of instruction in the counsels of the Lord, where we become mindful of our need for forgiveness and are humbled before the steadfast love of God.

 

Whether we choose to enter the wilderness or are in some sense driven there, we will surely encounter enemies. Our enemies can be found outside us and within us, but for most of us, most of the time, the real danger lies within. Even someone we perceive as an enemy – someone with whom we are at war and who is trying to kill us, someone at work who is trying to force us out, someone at school who is cheating and getting ahead of us, or someone with whom we are entangled in legal conflict – can tempt us to forget who we are as beloved creatures of God. When we forget who we are, we become subject to all kinds of thoughts and behaviors that make us less than we were created to be: vengeful, mean, scared, depressed, murderous, or otherwise inclined to self-destructive or addictive behaviors.

 

Those enemies are within us, and we pray WITH the psalmist that they not “exult over me”. As we choose forty days in the wilderness, we will forgo many of the things that keep our attention outside ourselves and will look for resources within. When we make such a choice, we soon will be reminded of the reality and power of the demons that beset us. Enemies are what we renounced at baptism, among all those things that draw us away from God’s love and grace.

 

In the wilderness, we will learn or learn again the paths of the Lord. This teaching in the way of true knowledge is granted to us in part because we ask for it, waiting for and longing for God. Knowledge is granted to us in part because God is upright and “therefore… instructs sinners in the way.” This is modeled in our worship: We pray to God and place ourselves in relation to God. Then we listen to readings and we respond. We hear the word interpreted for our community and respond in the words of the Nicene Creed. We offer intercession and prayer. In the act of praying, we realize the absurdity of our requests to the Lord, and so we humble ourselves and confess our sins.  As we seek to enter the presence of God or to choose the wilderness, we will soon find ourselves pleading for forgiveness along with the psalmist. We are led to an attitude of humility, kneeling. When we are forgiven and reminded of God’s grace, we stand as a symbol of being raised to the nearer presence of God. And finally, we pray that others may also know the presence of God in the community and their lives as we share God’s peace with one another.

 

Psalm 25 suggests some aspects of what happens in the wilderness and therefore what we might either expect or seek during Lent. We all seek spirituality, and in Lent we are invited to attend to that seeking. The psalm reading ends with what we could actually call a sermon in itself: “God’s goodness will be shown to the sinners and to the humble, and it will be shown with a road… a way through… a path… that leads to love and faithfulness, for those who are willing to walk it.” Lent asks each of us to choose our path, to make a decision about who we are and whose we are. Here at the beginning of this strange season, we answer God’s call not with words, but with our steps. Watch your feet.