1st Sunday of lent 2023

Years ago, I seen a book for sale at the University book sale . It was an old, slightly faded paperback with what looked like an intriguing title: The God I Want by Mitchell, it was a collection of essays by various public figures explaining the kind of God they could cope with, the God, they could bring themselves to believe in. The book consists of personal attempts by individual writers and thinkers to forget all they have ever learned about God and to ask themselves what God, if any, they really want. The chapters, written independently of each other, raise profound questions about the nature of belief, about human need, about the problem of evil and pain, about the person of Jesus and the roots of Christianity. The question persists – was man created in God’s image or God in man’s? An image that we can all relate to

None of them said they wanted a crucified God. The cross of Jesus simply bars the way to that approach by confronting us with something that so offends common sense that it makes us start back at square one. It directs us, at the start of our search for God to a scene which tells of the absence of God, the strange and the  ever present wisdom of God.

It tells us that if we are to find the true God, we need to give up our ideas of what God should be like and sit and listen for a while. It tells us that the journey to find God starts, not with human wisdom, human chattering,( what’s it called here? Clecking) and speculation on what kind of God we might like, what kind of God we can get our heads around, what kind of God we can bring ourselves to believe in, but instead, we should stop talking, just for once. The journey to God begins in silence, not speculation. God for me is a god that is always there for me, and I maybe have felt at some point in my life I was all alone, but for some reason this was only a glitch in my faith and realisation that we are never alone. Do we live with a fear, that we are not forgiven, seeking identification  a sense of belonging as we live and reflect in every day life, do we simply want only to seek the kingdom of god or do we understand the path ways of life are varied yet with one true destination and my journey is like yours it is no different I seek to find light in my life and this is a light that expels all darkness.

God is good, in faith we know he gives us everything we need. With this sure hope we begin this Lent pondering what we might learn from this Sunday’s Gospel (M4). There are two themes (among many) I would like to explore: the importance of Scripture, and what it means to enter a wilderness. (this could easily be everyday life and all its obstacles)

In the wilderness Jesus stands firm against the temptations of Satan, using scripture as a weapon. We too can arm ourselves with this living gift of scripture to guide us every day to an encounter with Jesus himself. 

In this Sunday’s reading we encounter the power of Jesus’ word – ‘man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God’ (M4:4). How, this Lent, will the words which come from God’s mouth be the most essential part of your day, the thing from which you draw life, the place where you encounter Jesus himself? 

And from this we source joy, hope, inspiration, and a place of encounter with Jesus. It prepares us for the work that we are called to do. As faithful people we have come to see that it is the word that sustains us, inspires us, humbles us and helps us see more clearly what we need to do as we work supporting evangelisation,. Our encounter with scripture helps us to pray for wisdom, and the ability to do our job right, to strip back our own personal preferences and learn to trust each other as we seek after the Lord together.   

When Jesus enters the wilderness, he does so to spend time in prayer with his Father – something he did repeatedly during his ministry. As we enter our Lenten ‘wilderness’, I encourage you to do so in order to seek an encounter with Jesus, the Word. What can we do to still some of the busyness of our lives in order to encounter the Lord every day? Perhaps consider using this Lent as a time of retreat into scripture – a time to build and nourish your inner spiritual life. 

Although it is good and necessary to find time for quiet and solitude, it is important to remember that our faith is not a private journey. It is meant for sharing with others. In doing so, those you encounter will help you become more aware of God’s endless and generous outpouring of grace into your life to enable you to continue to answer His call. 

We can all identify with moments in our lives where we enter a ‘wilderness’, a place where we lack spiritual consolation. For because ‘we walk by faith, not by sight’, we perceive God as ‘in a mirror, dimly’ and only ‘in part… our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice, and death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a temptation against it.’

When our faith is shaken, and we are vulnerable we can be tempted to begin to believe that we are alone and that we are not loved. As Christians we know this can never be true for we are never alone and we are always loved. When we are tempted in our ‘wilderness’ if we have developed a love for Scripture, we can be sure that we can turn to the word of God to be comforted, for quoting Psalm 119‘your word is a lamp for my feet, and a light for my path’

For we are an Easter people. As you ponder the image of Christ in the Wilderness that accompanies this post, remind yourself of what comes next – baptism in the Jordan, with the appearance of the Holy Spirit, the calling of the disciples, many miracles and vast crowds, the triumphant entry into Jerusalem and then the ‘wilderness’ of the cross, confusion a sense of loss, followed by the glory of the Resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  

Jesus, who is love, was never alone in the wilderness. In your Lenten ‘wilderness’ you are never alone, and you are always loved. God is good, in faith we know he gives us everything we need. This Lent I encourage you to spend time increasing your familiarity with Scripture, through prayer, read and read again and reflect  as I spoke about last week.

 Your time with scripture is an essential part of your Christian journey, for we do quoting Matt 4:4 ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes  from the mouth of God’. So folks our journey in lent has begun and no doubt with place obstacles in our way as we journey along this path, but let us be assured our God is Good, loving caring but most of all, Always with us. Amen.