Christ the King-Epiphany Church, Wilbraham

The Rev. Martha S. Sipe

March 9, 2025 / First Sunday in Lent

Luke 4:1-13

The word Lent comes from the Old English word, lencten, which refers to the lengthening of days that occurs after the winter solstice.  Lent means spring is – well, not here yet, but on its way.  You can tell because just about all the snow has disappeared.  We hear more birds singing in the mornings.  It’s Massachusetts Maple weekend.  The days have been growing longer, and we’ll really notice that this evening as we experience the first day of 2025 in Daylight Saving Time.  But the funniest (well, sort of funny) sign of spring is something I saw on Facebook this week.  The caption on the picture read: These days, the state flower of Massachusetts can be seen along every roadside.  And the picture was of an orange traffic cone inside a massive pothole – a pothole cone flower.  A quick internet search of pothole cone flower revealed that it’s not just Bay Staters who claim this as their unofficial state flower in March, but also New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and even New Jersey.  Ginnie Kasten asked me last week if we had potholes in Pennsylvania.  We did.  But I don’t know that PA potholes prepared me for the drive across Tinkham Rd. from Springfield.  There is no way to avoid some of the craters.  A streets crew filled some of them in this week, which of course means that now when you roll over them, all this sticky gravel gets thrown up under your car.  But at least at this point I don’t have to drive like I’m on a slalom course.  Potholes, though, are no laughing matter.  According to AAA, hard pothole impact can cause all kinds of damage to your vehicle, including knocking your wheels out of alignment.  They recommend that, if your car is pulling to the left or the right, you should take it to a qualified mechanic to test its alignment.

Testing alignment.  That’s another way to think about what is happening to Jesus during those 40 days in the wilderness.  We know this story as the temptation of Jesus.  But more recent biblical scholarship suggests that the word that our translation renders as tempt is better translated as test.  Thinking of this story as the testing of Jesus puts a whole different spin on it.  Testing, although perhaps just as painful as temptation, has a different purpose.  Temptation is an inner desire to do something we know we shouldn’t.  Tests are a little different.  We take tests in school to assess our learning.  Doctors run medical tests to make sure our bodies are in good working order.  Or, think about what happens when you take your car to the shop after a pothole misadventure:  your mechanic puts your car to the test.  A machine is used to measure the angles of the wheels and compare them to your vehicle’s specifications.  If they’re out of whack, the mechanic will then adjust the suspension to correct any misalignment.

Can we think of Jesus’ time in the wilderness as a test?  To determine if he is fully aligned with God’s purpose for him?  After all, the ministry he’s about to embark on once he comes through the wilderness is brand new.  He’s just come from his baptism in the Jordan River – so, perhaps literally, still a little wet behind the ears.  He’s just heard God announcing that he is the Son and Beloved One.  And he’s just about to begin his ministry in Galilee.  This is it.  This is where the rubber hits the road for Jesus, where he begins his work as the Savior of the world.  Is he ready, fully in synch with God’s will?  Will he pass the test in the wilderness?

With flying colors.  The devil tests to see if he will give in to his hunger and use his power to help himself by turning stones into bread.  He will not.  The devil tests him to see if he will seize power for himself?  He will not.  The devil tests him to see if Jesus will put his heavenly Father to the test.  He will not.  Jesus aces the test.  He is fully aligned with God’s purposes and will.

Lent can also be a time for us to test our alignment with God.  Just as our vehicles need periodic realignment, so do our hearts and minds.  There are many spiritual potholes that throw us out of balance.  If you were with us on Ash Wednesday evening, you heard a long list in our confession:  unfaithfulness, pride, envy, hypocrisy, apathy, self-indulgence, exploitation, negligence in prayer and worship, failure to share our faith, neglect, indifference, false judgments, uncharitable thoughts, prejudice, contempt, wastefulness, pollution, self-absorption – these are all potholes that, try as we might, we cannot always avoid . . . because we’re not Jesus.  And when we fall into those potholes, they damage us, and our relationships with God and one another.

As we prepare for Easter, Lent is the time when we are invited to realign ourselves with God’s purpose and will.  Whether you choose to respond to the invitation by praying more or reading scripture more or giving more – or by eating less or swearing less or worrying less – however you test your alignment and seek to repair your spiritual pothole damage this Lent, may you hear the voice of Jesus, spurring you on.  May you feel the Spirit turning you back toward God.  That’s what repentance is – turning away from all that is destructive and turning toward the love which embraces us, the light which guides us, and the life which is promised to us.  May the Spirit, which filled Jesus at his baptism, and which fills all of us because of ours – may the Spirit accompany you through these 40 days, through your testing, and bring you to the joy of life aligned with God in love for God, and for the world God so loves.