FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT
Prayer of the Day: Lord God, our strength, the struggle between good and evil rages within and around us, and the devil and all the forces that defy you tempt us with empty promises. Keep us steadfast in your word, and when we fall, raise us again and restore us through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
“Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” Psalm 32:1-2.
Our prayer for this first Sunday in Lent rings true with a particular clarity these days. The “struggle between good and evil rages within and around us” and we are tempted with a slew of “empty promises” at every turn. The Lenten challenge is to turn away from the allure of such promises, reject the claims the evil one would assert over our lives and lament our complicity in society’s systemic injustice. But is that really all there is to it? Is repentance only a matter of lamenting sin, turning away from evil and receiving forgiveness for past wrongs? I don’t think so. Over many years of leading my congregations through the season of Lent, the Three Days and celebration of the Resurrection, I have become convinced that we have not gotten repentance completely right.
A member of the worshiping community of which I am a part during the vacation season here on the Outer Cape recently summarized a sermon he heard in which the preacher declared, concerning the oppressive measures of our government against so many vulnerable groups, “I am not part of the so-called resistance. I am not resisting anything. I am struggling to follow Jesus and live into the reign of God he proclaims. They are the resistance.” I heard similar sentiments expressed by a member of one of our churches in Minneapolis involved with providing food assistance to persons afraid to leave home for fear of ICE violence. Disciples of Jesus practice the life of God’s coming reign in the face of resistance from a world unprepared to accept it. To be sure, such an existence takes the form of the cross, but its end is resurrection and a new creation. Thus, repentance is not merely or even chiefly a matter of sorrow for sin and turning away from evil. It is turning toward the imminent reign of God. Rejection of the devil and all his empty promises is not a precondition, but the consequence of this joyful turning.
What happens when we view the temptations Jesus faced in this light? The good news here is that God can be trusted to provide for our most basic human needs-and has so provided. Contrary to what the false apostles of scarcity keep telling us, this earth is capable of feeding, sheltering and caring for all people, notwithstanding the violence we have inflicted upon it. I recall a lecture I once attended led by a leader of my church’s global hunger ministry during which a woman posed the following question: “If God loves us so much, how come there are so many of these hungry people you keep talking about?” Without missing a beat, the speaker replied, “Many theologians and philosophers have struggled with that question and written thousands of books on the subject. But I think part of the solution to the problem is resting right there in your purse.” As the disciples learned when faced with a hungry crowd of five thousand, a little bit goes a long way when placed into the hands of Jesus, who calls us to trust God’s generosity as we practice our own.
The good news is that suffering, loss and even pain need not be feared. The devil would have Jesus believe that the reign of God will come without sacrifice. If you trust God, God will “rapture you away from the great tribulation.” “Your faith plants the seeds and God sends the harvest of prosperity,” “all things work out for good for those who trust God.” Quoting Psalm 91, the devil assures Jesus that he can safely throw himself down from the roof of the temple because,
“God will command his angels concerning you,’
and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
But there is more to this Psalm than the devil is letting on. The author of the psalm is quite possibly a soldier who has known the dangers of combat. Or perhaps he or she is the survivor of a plague. Whoever they may be, they have seen death up close and personal. They know that God “will be with them in trouble.” Psalm 91:15. That is quite different from promising that there will be no trouble for those who trust in God. To the contrary, Jesus knows that his trust in his Heavenly Father will subject him to opposition, suffering and death. But suffering and death, real though they surely are, do not have the last word. For that reason, they have, as Saint Paul says, “lost their sting.” I Corinthians 15:54-55.
The good news is that God’s reign comes without violence, force or coercion of any kind. Jesus has no need for “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.” Matthew 4:8. He knows that such glory and power are illusionary. As the prophet Isaiah points out, the nations “are like a drop from a bucket.” Isaiah 40:15. As went Assyria, Babylon, Persia and Greece, so goes Rome, the Third Reich, the Soviet Union and, perhaps soon, the United States of America. Contrary to what much of American Christianity believes, God does not need the United States, democracy or the constitution to implement or prop up God’s reign. Jesus knows that empires have only time to “strut and fret” their “hour upon the stage” and then be “heard no more.” MacBeth, Act 5, Scene 5. God has all eternity with which to work. God’s reign will come with or without our efforts. The only question is, will we accept Jesus’ invitation to participate in that joyous occurrence or throw our lives away in futile resistance?
In sum, I believe repentance to be a joyful opportunity. It is grounded not in angry reaction to the evil around us, but in a thankful response to Jesus’ invitation to live under God’s just and gentle reign. Joyful repentance is on full display in the words of Wendell Berry:
“So, my friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love somebody who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
The flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.”
Repentance is not mere resistance, but an affirmative response to the better live Jesus invites us to share with him. We don’t have to repent. We get to repent.
To be clear, repentance does involve sorrow for the time we have wasted in bitterness, envy, selfishness and greed. There is genuine and proper regret for the harm we have done to others and the wounds we have inflicted on our planet. But the good news of the gospel is that our past need not determine our future. What we have done cannot be undone, but it can be worked into a narrative of redemption. Again, as Wendell Berry urges,
“As soon as the generals and politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go…”
Let this Lenten season be one in which our sober acknowledgement of brokenness nevertheless glows with a measure of Easter joy.
Here is the full poem of Wendell Berry cited above.
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
Source: The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry, (c. Wendell Berry, 2016; pub. by Penguin Random House, UK). Wendell Berry (b. 1934) is a poet, novelist, farmer and environmental activist. He is an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, a recipient of The National Humanities Medal and the Jefferson Lecturer for 2012. He is also a 2013 Fellow of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Berry was named the recipient of the 2013 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. On January 28, 2015, he became the first living writer to be inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame. You can read more about Wendell Berry and sample more of his works at the Poetry Foundation website.
Peter's Outer Cape Portico 