February 14, 2016

Susan Adams

Lent 1     Deuteronomy 26:1-11     Luke 4:1-13

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"Today's programme is brought to you by the number 40" – as Sesame St characters used to say when my children were little!

The readings for today are connected by the number 40: 40 years wandering around in the wilderness after Moses, and, for Jesus, 40 days in the desert facing up to his future.

Both readings invite us into a period of remembering – facing our past, and then they invite us to face our future.

The week preceding Ash Wednesday is known in many parts of the world as 'Carnevale' (translated as goodbye to meat) It was, in the past, the occasion for party going, for eating the last of the meat and for remembering good times and fun in the midst of scarcity and dark – it was a celebration of life in the face of possible death – It was the period at the end of the winter months when food was getting scarce. We symbolically used up the 'last' of our eggs to make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. Lent, as a season in the liturgical calendar of the church, began about 300 CE, after the Council of Nicaea. It was a time of self discipline, of giving things up and being aware of the frailty of human life. It made a virtue of necessity at the end of winter when food was scarce.

When thinking about the 40 years, and especially the 40 days, it helps to remember that fasting is a mechanism for inducing focus – for inducing visions, and sharpening memories – it was not about self-denial for the sake of doing without!

We begin Lent hearing the invitation to remember who we are – 'wandering Arameans' – in other words hearing an invitation to remember that our ancestors were once in need of hospitality and welcome in a strange land. For those of us who are of European descent, our forbears in this country were provided that hospitality by people very different from themselves: the Maori people of this land provided welcome hospitality in the first instance. Perhaps this points us toward an attitude of hospitality to refugee and migrant people arriving in Aotearoa New Zealand in our own time; perhaps we are being encouraged to open our hearts even though we might be fearful our culture and even our way of speaking, will change in ways we can't imagine or hope to be in control.

We also hear in the readings for this 1st Sunday in Lent, provocation to be thankful, to embrace an attitude of gratitude. It is good to bring into focus aspects of our lives that induce a sense of gratitude in us: it is good to bring into focus our vision of how the great the world could be with its diversity of peoples, abundant food and resources, even its capacity to regulate our excesses; it is good to take time to be aware of how we, each of us, can live so that our vision can shape the future.

At the same time we can recall stuff that we are not proud of. These times act a caution, reminding us of how easy it is to be seduced by promises of things to come, by dreams of self-aggrandisement and over abundance; by hope in something different from what we have. It is all too easy to fall into a feeling of dissatisfaction with our lot, this can be an unfortunate by-product of unrealistic self-centred hope: of the popular 'I deserve it' mind-set... (school adv. 'The world is his!')

The hope of our faith is bigger than that. It is about our world restored to a place of love, sufficiency and wellbeing.

We tell the story of Jesus' struggle with evil while all alone in the wilderness. (We can link our own struggles with this). For the early followers of Jesus, those for whom the gospel stories were written, the story of his struggle and vanquishing of evil would have been vindication he was who the voice of God, heard at his baptism, said he was "...my son in whom i am well pleased." Powerful stuff. Jesus had to work hard to hold on to the vision of community and human worth in that place of temptations and taunting. We do too.

But, most importantly, the invitation and challenge to us of both these important readings is to recall that we are community and as community we are invited to be glad we have each other with all our different approaches to life, our different skills and different insights, and to remember we are people of God: we are the resurrected body of Christ of which we talk more at Easter. It is important to take up the invitation to remember the vision that has inspired us, the big story that shapes us. It is important to remember that how we choose to live today will impact on how our children and grandchildren will be able to live in years to come – for we will join their legion of ancestors. This is a time for retelling the big story of who we are, a time to retell the myth that shapes how we have chosen to live and which empowers us.

Today we are going on a picnic, to a beautiful place with plenty of food to share. It might not be a traditional way to begin Lent, but it is nevertheless appropriate to begin with an opportunity to remember who we are; to knit our body together in community; to remember with gratitude that this land, this people, this faith we share overflows with good things. It is good to remember and be grateful.

I invite you in the 40 days of Lent, to remember who you are with honesty: the best and the worst. I encourage you to be aware that the best calls forth gratitude and a generosity of heart and mind in response; and the worst ? ... well that is an opportunity to change, knowing that in God, the very breath of life, all things are made new.