First Sunday of Lent
Sunday 9th March 2025
Deuteronomy 26.1-11
Luke 4.1-13
Half a day ago I was here in the cathedral, along with about a thousand others, to hear the experience of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her husband Richard, a meeting which was specifically set on International Women’s Day. Yesterday was also listed in my church Calendar as for commemorating 3 historic luminaries: Edward King (once principal of my theological college), Felix (an Anglo-Saxon bishop of East Anglia of whom I know nothing), and Geoffrey Studdert-Kennedy, a heroic First World War army chaplain (whose grandson Andrew I know well and was formerly Vicar of Marlborough in this diocese). Today – 5 years on – is listed as a national ‘Covid Day of Reflection’; it’s also the first Sunday of Lent, and so draws our attention particularly to the temptation of Jesus.
And then, to add a characteristically Lenten cherry to the top of this over-iced cake, we have just sung what I have always found to be one of the most depressing of hymns – 40 days and 40 nights. It is with these various things in mind that I now find myself preaching to you this morning.
So I am for the moment going to ignore all of that, and with extreme mundanity tell you what I did at the start of the day: I got out of bed, washed, shaved, put my clothes on, and had breakfast. We will all have done some such basic preparations. We make ourselves ready by doing a few simple but necessary things. We focus. We clear the distractions so that we can get started. In my case at least, and in contrast to today’s gradual hymn, that sets me cheerfully about my day.
There is a towering heap of earthly distractions. I have listed some of those which are bearing in on me this morning; I could easily have listed many more. Every one of us will have our own lists of what can easily be clutter to distract and confuse us; for every one of us it is probably best to do first things first. To ready ourselves.
Which brings me back to Lent. Its purpose is to simplify our lives, to put aside their complications and distractions, and to focus us on what matters. Take today’s readings: there’s a lot I could be saying as I reflect on Deuteronomy – the all too present-day echoes of the Old Testament occupation of their promised land by the Israelites; the sacerdotal role in the life of God’s people; the bold insistence that worship of God demands that we celebrate all God’s bounty along with the aliens among us. There’s more. But I simply want you to notice that God’s people are told to use the first fruits of each season as a way to worship God. They were agricultural and pastoral people, so that was mainly food. We aren’t, our lives are differently structured – so what in our daily, weekly, monthly rhythms might we use to remind us of God?
And what simple message can we draw from the story of Jesus being tempted? In extremis, alone, desperately hungry, conscious of special power and a mission from God, pulled in many directions: where does he focus? Not on the distractions, but on the enduring presence and certainty of God.
Lent for you in a nutshell: Eyes on God. First things first.