Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. Luke 4:1-2

As Lent begins, we have repented, and have been marked as a sign of our desire to lead a new life. There has been a recognition of our mortality; life will not last forever, new life will. The mistakes of the past will not determine our future.

Hungry for God, we stand face to face with the extent of the brokenness in our lives. Our thirst for control, power, and to prove something is stronger than we thought. The mark on our foreheads has already worn out, no longer visible, yet still at work in us. The Spirit is leading us through this wilderness. We are not alone!

How do we resist these ingrained tendencies and voices?

Jesus knew the rhythms of his religious tradition. He knew the words, movements and actions that had been time tested for generations. The saints that had gone before had made their mark, even to the present day.

Liturgy is repetitive — it has to be! In that repetition the rhythms and movement of the Christian faith become a part of of who we are, become the instrument of healing the deep brokenness. Dan Benedict says it this way:

In the Liturgy we know God and experience God’s power to shape our lives and move us from the old selves to participation in the new creation.  (Patterned by Grace, 24-25)

In some ways our participation in the patterns of the liturgical life mirrors Jesus’ wanderings in the desert where the pattern of his community’s worship life guided him in faithful response to the devil’s constant offers of synthetic life.

On Ash Wednesday we were invited to go on this journey. We carry with us the instruments that will guide our way: prayer, fasting, and giving to the poor. On this first Sunday of Lent we know that the liturgy provides us with the cadences needed for this transformative journey. Just as Jesus walked in the wilderness with the Spirit as guide, so do we. We are not alone, and I believe that in the end the pattern of our liturgical life paves the way for our continual encounter with the risen Christ.

As we begin this journey of Lent I invite you to hear carefully the rhythms of your community’s worship:
+ Where are the words that will help you fight off your deepest tendencies towards brokenness?
+ What are the songs, prayers , and movements that come to the forefront in the midst of our times of wilderness?
+ What patterns will pave the way to the risen Christ?

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Luke 21:25-28

Most of us will arrive at our congregations on Sunday morning expecting the joy that we experience in the stores, television, and other public places. We are expecting Christmas music blaring, bows & lights, red and green everywhere and the manger scene. Instead we hear about the end of the world and to be watchful. This is not the kind of message that put us in a Christmas mood; this does not sound like “the most wonderful time of the year!”

Advent is a time of waiting for the savior, a time to acknowledge that a savior is needed.

A savior is needed because something is wrong with the world. The whole created order is not functioning as God intended, not living into its fullness. Humanity is not living out its calling to be stewards of all creation and to be part of a society that places the other before the self, and recognizes God as the giver of all things. This problem is cosmic in scope.

A savior is needed because we cannot fix it ourselves. Constantly distracted by our own desires and ways of life we cannot see our own need and the need of the world. We are too busy with life…earning, collecting, hoarding. Too busy to slow down and see the signs that help is needed. Even if we paid attention our first response would be a sense of helplessness. The struggles are so many, the difficulties so large. I can see why we would be paralyzed by those things that we actually see in the world.

Hurrying to Christmas is not what is needed. What the world needs is for the Christian community to stay alert and proclaim the need for a savior. And so, we proclaim:

+ A God who breaks into history to provide for its redemption.
+ The continuing need to resist injustice, oppression and evil in whatever forms they present themselves.
+ That creation continues its groan for the day of salvation.

In Advent we wait in hopeful expectation of God’s in-breaking for the healing of the world. We depend on God’s help to help us “stay the course” and we depend on each other as a community of faith to continue discerning and calling each other to accountability, keeping one another watching, seeking and actively rehearsing the realm of God in the world.

God has brought, is bringing and will bring salvation to the world. We wait in that hope and in waiting we realize that Advent is a “wonderful time” after all!

The wicked boast
about their desires;
greedy for profit,
they curse the Lord.
They say with contempt,
“God does not care!
There is no God!”
They know their way to success;
your ways are beyond them.

They mock who-ever resists them.
They claim to be invincible,
beyond the reach of misfortune.
Their mouths breed
curses, lies, and violence;
trouble and deceit
hide under their tongues. (ICEL)

Was this written just this past fall, when financial institutions were crumbling and crushing employees, families, organizations as they fell? It seems like it. A damning indictment of human nature if I ever read one.

And the fundamental problem is something inherent in all of us: our greed, our contempt, our lack of consideration of others…which goes unchecked by any moral compass or sense of ethics that has God as its foundation. “There is no God! God doesn’t care!” I don’t know if these words were spoken in boardrooms or hearing rooms or offices…but they might as well have been for all the now-exposed practices that left no room for compassion or rectitude.

Any true, living connection with God, deeply rooted in Christian tradition (or for that matter Muslim or Jewish, etc.), would have opposed the self-interest and objectification which was exemplified by the financial collapse…and opposes the rooting of self-worth in monetary or fiduciary terms.

The rest of the Psalm condemns the violent and wicked…so there might be fodder here for a discussion of the vicissitudes of war, the annihilatory ethic of terrorism, and more. But for today, I hope you are struck–as I was–by the cry out to God for deliverance from the human-wrought terror of abandonment and the sense of being preyed-upon for profit and wealth.

In this day, Holy God, comfort us in trust that we are not alone in our struggle,
but that even in our groaning we live in hope by the Spirit. Amen.
(The Daily Office, Vol. 1, p. 297)
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