Journeying through Lent

Lent 1, Yr C, RCL

February 25, 2007

My friend, Wilma Jakobsen told me this joke a few years ago…

A priest was confronted by a mugger while walking down a dark alley. The thief demanded the priest’s wallet. As the priest opened his coat to reach for his wallet, the thief saw a clerical collar and realized this was a priest. Immediately he apologized and said, “Forget it, Father, keep your money; I had no idea you were a priest.” Both nervous and relieved, the priest took out a cigarette and offered one to the stranger. “No thank-you,” the thief replied, “I gave up smoking for Lent!”

Ever since the beginning of the Church, after Christ’s death, Lent was a time of penitence or repentance for those who had turned away from their faith and been excluded from their faith communities. It was a time for reconciliation and a welcome back to the community at Easter. Since that time, Lent has become more a time of devotion, penitence and preparation for the entire community.

At the beginning of the service we did what is known as the Great Litany, a set of intercessory prayers. It has been used from as early as the fifth century in Rome. It is used at various times of the year and in various services, but most noticeably, it is used at the beginning of Lent. It is a roadmap for us this Lent as we continue our time of devotion, penitence and preparation for Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. It is a set of prayers that reminds us that God is with us, and intentionally asks for God’s presence in our lives.

I remember the first few times that I heard this when I was old enough to remember what was really going on in church. I kept wondering, is it ever going to end? Aren’t they repeating things? What is going on? Are we going to start doing this every Sunday? Etc. Yes, the Litany is long, but if you think of all the ways that we can separate ourselves from our Creator, you can see that it could go on much longer to cover all the bases. The Litany is not about calling God to come to us, for God is already with us. It is about us calling upon God so that we might see God’s presence in our lives. We ask God to have mercy on us, to spare us from evil and sin, and from all other offenses.

Some people don’t like to talk about sin, thinking that it is an outdated term, thinking that it doesn’t mean anything anymore. However, sin is real, sin is what separates us from God – sin can be anything. Today, during the Litany, sang, “Good Lord, deliver us.” Deliver us from sin, blindness of hear, pride, hypocrisy, hatred. Deliver us in all that we do, that we might find you again and again, in all that we do. We sang, “Beseech thee to hear us, Good Lord.” HEAR us. When you hear someone, it is not merely listening to them, it is receiving what they are saying and sharing that burden, that petition, that sadness, that emotion, that piece of their lives with them. We are asking God to hear us, God to be near us, God to guide us.

The Litany reminds us that we are continually on a journey with God. Each of us here and the people around us are all journeying with God, be it consciously, or unconsciously. During Lent, we call upon God to help us make that journey a conscious journey, one that can change us, one that can call us into a new life.

On the first Sunday in Lent, we always hear about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Jesus has just been baptized and is then sent away into the wilderness. When I think of this particular series of events, I always smile to myself, because it seems that is often how it is in our very own lives. We have an incredible experience and then, come crashing down and have to deal with the wilderness in our lives. This is often the case because once you have had an incredible experience, once you have seen God in a new way, you cannot go back, you cannot stay there, but you have to go forward and try to figure out what all this means. That is exactly what Jesus is doing today. Jesus goes into the wilderness to find himself. To come to terms with who he is, to discover what it means to be human and divine. He is tempted by food, power and pride. The devil is trying to get him to use to the powers that he has not for good, but for gain.

Now, I don’t want you to think that the devil is the usual, red horned, red tailed, evil grinned devil, but the devil is that thing that causes any of us to use our powers, our lives for our own gain rather than for the good of the world. When I am being tempted to do something, it often feels like I do, in fact have the devil on one shoulder, saying, “Go for it, this is cool, what can it hurt” and an angel on the other shoulder saying, “You don’t need that, what good will this do, will this hurt anyone.” When this is happening to all of us, we feel the tug inside of us, we feel we are being torn between a choice. That is one of the joys and struggles of being human, we do have to make difficult choices. Who, what, where do we turn for a guide? Whenever you are wondering what the right thing to do is, look at what is in front of you and ask yourself, what will this accomplish? Does this thing bring me closer to God, does it bring me closer to knowing love, does it bring me closer to my neighbor? Remember Jesus’ commandment, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself? That is our guide, that is the way for us to follow.

We are on a journey – this journey does not end – because it is a journey of relationship. Like any relationship, it will grow, change, go astray, find its way again and continue on. It is not a straight journey, it is not an easy journey, and during Lent, we are deliberately on this road, looking for where God is in our lives. On this journey, we will all face times in the wilderness, when we feel we are alone, when we feel like we have nothing left, when we have to go again and find ourselves and who God is calling us to be. One of my favorite lines of the Great Litany says, “ That it may please thee to inspire us, in our several callings, to do the work which thou givest us to do with singleness of heart as thy servants, and for the common good.” We do no figure out who we are once and for all and be done with it, God calls upon us to do different things all through our lives. Each time we find that we are being called to do something else, is often the time that we will once again find ourselves in the wilderness, or at least in a place where we have to discover who we are once again. Each time we change, we have to rediscover ourselves and our lives with God. That is why prayer is so important – it is a constant conversation with God, a time for us to find direction, comfort, our calling – a time for us to continually find ourselves and our direction on the journey. It may not be comfortable or easy – Jesus’ journey was not comfortable or easy – but it is who we are and we cannot avoid that.

So on this journey, May the Lord Bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his Countenance upon you and give you peace, both now and evermore.