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A Journey Through Lent: Self-Reflection

  • Prefatory
    • One of the lines in how we as Christians think differently comes down to how we view the response to what Jesus' ministry is about
      • There's a train of thought that argues that it is mostly communal
      • Then there's another that argues that it's predominately personal
    • We as mainliners tend to position ourselves on the former, at times at the expense of the latter.
    • However, Lent gives us an ideal moment to think through how what God is doing in this world - and what was revealed to us in Epiphany - affects us as individuals. How are we changed?
    • But, it's always against the backdrop of our previous season: its end is not just for us.
  • Self-Reflection
    • Who are you?
      • That seems like a silly question, but when we start to pick it apart, it gets more and more complex
      • Remember last we talked about what you'd say if we were sitting together for the first time?
        • Let's build out on that more - you're lot of those things
        • But you are also some of those descriptors too - your height, weight, age
        • You also have other roles you play - some given to you, some claimed.
        • At some point, we can feel buried by all of this, as there's conflict even without our own self... things win out at expense of others (father vs. pastor, for instance)
      • If Lent is a chance is a time to strip things away that weigh us down - the whole "give something up" - are there parts of us, if given the option, we'd be glad to jettison for a time?
      • What's at the bottom of all we are?
    • To understand that takes some self-reflection
  • The Gospel
    • When we see Jesus here again this year, we see him in a moment in the wilderness.
      • Wildnerness is often a place for supernatural wrestling
      • It's also one of the most thin spaces between humanity and the divine - even if it's not immediately accessible or understood.
        • The people of Israel and their wanderings often lost God for the desire for an oppressive past
        • Elijah couldn't find God at first in fire and storm, but in the silence
        • God didn't always show much immediately, but God did show up in more concrete ways in the wilderness.
    • He is having to take stock in who he is
      • I wonder if the devil is a character outside of Jesus, or if it's in Jesus.
        • Certainly, each of of us have moments when we hear a voice - a part of what we see of us, challenging us
        • And these aren't bad things!
          • Sustenance
          • Cultural Power
          • Supernatural Power
          • Who wouldn't want these things, especially if we just had to wave a hand?
            • And certainly, while we don't have that kind of mystical power, we make these decisions all the time
            • People choose to work stone to bread
            • Are willing to go to the ends of the earth to receive power
            • Try to bend the will of nature for their own ends.
        • But Jesus doesn't do it. Why?
          • Let's remind ourselves of the backstory here
            • Luke 2 41-52: Jesus' parents can't find him, and he's hanging out at temple, being all wise.
            • John the Baptist is telling people someone is coming
            • Lk 3 21-22: Jesus is baptized, and God says "you are my Son, the Beloved; with youI am well pleased."
            • Then, immediately after, we get a genealogy from Adam to Jesus.
          • Luke might be trying to tell us something, then.
            • That from the youngest of ages, Jesus found something deep in the stories of God's faithfulness
            • That Jesus also heard from God that he was loved, that he was pleasing to God.
            • He had also done the work in times outside of the wilderness - in baptism and study.
            • And, finally, that he was part of something that had been happening for generations.
    • When the moment of being in the wilderness happened, and everything else was stripped away, he found the core of his self.
      • These responses aren't just glib quick one-offs from VBS memory verses - these are convictions.
      • And certainly, if this is within Jesus himself, it's a moment to let go of roles and identities that might have seemed attractive, but weren't truly him or what he was called to be.
      • And, at least in Luke's telling, I want to argue this as a more compelling way to look at the text, simply because as opposed to Mark's telling, there are no supernatural angels to attend to him.
  • There are lots of ways that people who do this kind of help for a living will offer you to navigate self-reflection, figuring out who you are, and what you need to let go, but perhaps one in light of this year's Lenten journey, I might offer this:
    • Realize that we are in a wilderness.
      • This is multi-layered
        • COVID
        • Ukraine
        • Inflation
        • The church's transition
      • And our first move to be to recognize that the wilderness is still the thin space it's always been.
      • God is here, God can show up concretely, but it may be in ways we don't always expect.
    • Consider the good stories that seem to go back as far as time.
      • Can you remember a time so captivated by understanding God and listening that it made you lose track of the time or everything else?
      • This doesn't necessarily mean a "mountaintop" experience which can be so fleeting. Jesus instead was deep in engagement.
      • There may be something that resonates with you there.
    • Where are the times out of your baptism - your connectedness with God and the people of God - you hear God's voice saying God loves you, and God is pleased with you?
      • Where do you sense God's warmth?
      • When are times you want to hear God saying "You are my beloved, with you I'm well pleased."
      • Is it in service? Loving others?
    • The intersection of those things is probably the core of who you are called to be.
    • Everything else then might need stripped away, or at least pruned.
    • And when the devil offers other things - when the other roles are there, we can respond in the wilderness.