Patrick Comerford
Lent began on Ash Wednesday, and today is the First Sunday in Lent (Lent I). In the Orthodox tradition, this first Sunday in Lent is known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy (ἡ Κυριακὴ τῆς Ὀρθοδοξίας), also known as the Feast of Orthodoxy or the Triumph of Orthodoxy, remembering the final defeat of iconoclasm and the restoration of the icons to the churches.
Later this morning, I hope to be involved in the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, leading the intercessions.
The Six Nations Championship continues this afternoon. Having watched the matches between Ireland and France and Scotland and Wales yesterday, I plan to find somewhere appropriate in Stony Stratford to watch today’s fixture between England and Italy (3 pm).
Before this day begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Luke 4: 1-13 (NRSVA):
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 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. 3 The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ 4 Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.”’
5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ 8 Jesus answered him, ‘It is written,
“Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.”’
9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
“He will command his angels concerning you,
to protect you”,
11 and
“On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’
12 Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ 13 When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading today (Luke 4: 1-13) brings us to the beginning of Christ’s ministry, when he was tempted by Satan into taking a series of shortcuts to glory (see Luke 4: 1-13). Christ is tempted three times with words from the scriptures, and three times Christ responds with words of wisdom from the scriptures:
• One does not live by bread alone (verse 4; see Deuteronomy 8: 3).
• Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him (verse 8, see Deuteronomy 6: 13).
• Do not put the Lord your God to the test (verse 12; see Deuteronomy 6: 16).
As this drama unfolds, we are moved in each sequence to a greater height each time. We start with Christ standing on the ground, amid the stones and boulders of the wilderness. From there, he is brought to the mountain-top where he looks across the kingdoms of the world. Then he is taken to Jerusalem and the pinnacle of the Temple, to think about the heavens and the angels.
As readers, we are challenged to move from the temptations that affect our own lives to temptations that have consequences for the lives of those around us and the temptations that concern the world we live in, and then the temptations that hinder our understandings of eternity.
It is a dramatic movement from my own life to the spiritual lives of others, to the social, economic and political life of the world, to life eternal. It is a stern reminder that there is no such thing as personal sin unless there is also social sin, with consequences throughout all time.
TS Eliot’s play Murder in the Cathedral was first staged in Canterbury Cathedral 90 years ago in 1935. This verse drama is based on the events leading to the murder in Canterbury Cathedral of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. It was written at the prompting of Bishop George Bell, a friend of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
The dramatisation in this play of opposition to authority was prophetic at the time, for it was written as fascism was on the rise across Central Europe. The principal focus of the play is on Becket’s internal struggles. As he reflects on the inevitable martyrdom he faces, his tempters arrive and question the archbishop about his plight, echoing in many ways Christ’s temptations in the wilderness when he has been fasting for 40 Days.
The first tempter offers the beleaguered Becket the prospect of physical safety:
The easy man lives to eat the best dinners.
Take a friend’s advice. Leave well alone,
Or your goose may be cooked and eaten to the bone.
The second tempter offers him power, riches and fame in serving the king so that he can disarm the powerful and help the poor:
To set down the great, protect the poor,
Beneath the throne of God can man do more?
Then the third tempter suggests the archbishop should form an alliance with the barons and seize a chance to resist the king:
For us, Church favour would be an advantage,
Blessing of Pope powerful protection
In the fight for liberty. You, my Lord,
In being with us, would fight a good stroke
At once, for England and for Rome.
Finally, the fourth tempter urges Thomas to look to the glory of martyrdom:
You hold the keys of heaven and hell.
Power to bind and loose: bind, Thomas, bind,
King and bishop under your heel.
Becket responds to all his tempters and specifically addresses the immoral suggestions of the fourth tempter at the end of the first act:
Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain:
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
In the Gospel stories of the temptations in the wilderness (Matthew 4: 1-11; Mark 1: 12-13; Luke 4: 1-13), Christ is tempted to do the right things for the wrong reason.
What would be wrong with Christ turning stones into bread (see Matthew 4: 3; Luke 4: 3-4) if that is going to feed the hungry? With showing his miraculous powers (see Matthew 4: 3; Luke 4: 9), if this is going to point to the majesty of God (see Matthew 4: 4; Luke 4: 10-11)? With taking command of the kingdoms of this world (see Matthew 4: 9; Luke 4: 5-7), if this provides the opportunity to usher in justice, mercy and peace?
Let us not be deceived, these are real temptations. Christ is truly human and truly divine, and for those who are morally driven there is always a real temptation to do the right thing but to do it for the wrong reason.
Too often when I am offered the opportunity to do the right thing, to make a difference in this society, in this world, I ask: ‘What’s in this for me?’
When I am asked to speak up for those who are marginalised or oppressed, this should be good enough reason in itself. But then I wonder how others are going to react – react not to the marginalised or oppressed, but to me.
How often do we use external sources to hide our own internalised prejudices?
How often have I seen what is the right thing to do, but have found an excuse that I pretend is not of my own making?
I hear people claim they are not racist, but speaking about migrants, immigrants and asylum seekers in language that would shock them if it was used about our own family members who have moved, say, to America or Australia.
The victims of war in Ukraine or the Middle East or boat people in the Mediterranean or the English Channel are objects for our pity on the television news night after night. But why are they not being settled with compassion, in proportionate numbers here?
How often do I think of doing the right thing only if it is going to please my family members or please my neighbours?
How often do I use the Bible to justify not extending civil rights to others? Democracy came to all of us at a great price paid by past generations, but how often we try to hold on to those rights as if they were personal, earned wealth?
How often we use obscure Bible texts to prop up political, racist, social and economic prejudices, or discrimination on the grounds of gender, sexuality or marital status, forgetting that any text in the Bible, however clear or obscure it may be, depends, in Christ’s own words, on the two greatest commandments, to love God and to love one another?
We can give in so easily … we can convince ourselves that we are doing the right thing when we are doing it for the wrong reason. And when we allow ourselves to be silenced or immobilised, those we should have spoken up for loose a voice, and we loose our own voices, and our own integrity.
A wrong decision taken once, thinking it is doing the right thing, but for the wrong reason, is not just about an action in the present moment. It forms habits and it shapes who we are, within time and eternity.
The Revd Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), a prominent German Lutheran pastor and an outspoken opponent of Hitler, spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. He once said:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.
In each case in this Gospel reading, Christ is asked to be complicit in social sin for tempting, self-centred reasons. Whenever I am tempted to look after my own interests first, there are always consequences – potentially dire consequences – for those around me.
In the first temptation, Christ is invited to take control of the essentials of life for his own personal comfort and gain. He is asked to prove himself by turning the stones into bread. He is asked to take control of nature and the environment and to use them to meet his own personal need for food. The consequences of looking after my own needs when it comes to the supply of food has left us with an abundance of food in northern Europe, both naturally grown and produced food and genetically-modified food.
Controlling the supply of food without fully considering the social consequences for others and the needs of others is one of the first great social sins. When the Church feeds the hungry, we are seen as encouraging charity. When we challenge the reasons people are hungry we are easily accused of interfering in politics and economics. As the late Dom Helder Camara said: ‘When I feed the poor, they call me a saint, but when I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a communist.’
Try to imagine how famished Christ was after 40 days in the wilderness. I get a migraine if I do not eat regularly; I cannot imagine how unbearable life is for those who are hungry on a regular and continuous basis, day-by-day, every day.
Desperate people are willing to do desperate things when they are hungry they are even willing to go against their own better interests. The Children of Israel murmured after 40 years in the wilderness without proper food and shelter. They were so unsettled they were even willing to go back into slavery in Egypt. The fear of hunger allows people to accept structural injustice and unjust societies. Yet, as Archbishop Helder Camara pointed out in his book Spiral of Violence (1971), structural violence is the beginning of all violence.
In the second temptation, Christ is invited to take control of civic space for personal gain. He is taken to the top of the mountain where he is shown in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and is offered glory and authority.
How many of our political leaders in our society, in our world, use their leadership to give themselves power and command, to control, and to guarantee their personal gain? The use of political power for personal gain is so prevalent among politicians today that it makes people cynical and alienates them from the political process.
The invitation to throw himself from the pinnacle of the Temple holds no attraction for Christ, who later refuses to come down from the cross. He is not afraid of death. He knows where the true Temple is.
But, how often have those with religious power used that power to protect their own personal interests and to protect the interests of the Church as an institution? Who or what is worshipped in the temple of your heart?
When he was threatened with death and murder during the apartheid era in South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu declared: ‘I cannot help it. When I see injustice, I cannot keep quiet … But what is it that they can ultimately do? The most awful thing that they can do is to kill me, and death is not the worst thing that could happen to a Christian.’
In the final temptation, we see the real connection between social sin and idolatry. There is a world of difference between being political in the party sense and being prophetic in the unexpected sense.
When I visit people in hospital, I am engaged in pastoral care. When I question why patients are on trolleys, or why we have neglected spending on hospitals and the health service in some of the richest countries in the world, I are bringing together pastoral theology and the prophetic call of the Church. But I also run the risk of being accused of being political or, even worse, of being party political.
When we greet others with the sign of Christ’s peace at the Eucharist, we are being liturgically relevant. When I ask why the world is not at peace, why hundreds are killed in clashes and wars in Ukraine, across the Middle East or in Sudan, I am bringing the liturgy to life in the world, but I run the risk of being accused of being political.
In each of these temptations we see the subtle attraction of doing the right thing but using the wrong means.
Saint Matthew’s account says that after saying no to each of these temptations, Christ is waited upon by angels. His words could also be read as telling us messengers of good news ministered to him, those who proclaim the Gospel served him. At the heart of the ministry and mission of the Church, at the heart of our proclamation of the Gospel and our diaconal service, at the heart of our true worship of God, there is always a call to the Church to minister to and to serve the needs of others in a world that often deprives them of food and shelter, of political and religious rights, and of a true place in this world.
This is the ministry and mission Christ was preparing for during his 40 days in the wilderness. This is the ministry we in the Church need to remind ourselves about during the 40 days of Lent. And if we do this, then we can truly live in – and truly invite others to live in – the light and joy of the Resurrection as Easter breaks into our lives.
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 9 March 2025, Lent I):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Church and Unity.’ This theme is introduced today with reflections by the Right Revd Dr Royce M Victor, Bishop in the Diocese of Malabar, Church of South India:
This week marks the first Sunday in Lent and we share an extract from USPG’s 2025 Lent Course focused on the Nicene Creed.
The Nicene Creed, a fundamental tenet of the Christian faith, was formulated in the fourth century as a response to the crisis of disintegration that the church and the empire was facing due to various heresies. Its primary objective was to defend the faith and oneness of the church globally, and it remains relevant even today in bringing together all who believe in Christ Jesus. Its significance in fostering church unity is undeniable and is attributable to several key reasons.
The Nicene Creed establishes essential theological truths that transcend Christian denominational boundaries worldwide. Its affirmation of belief in one God, the Trinity, and the divinity of Jesus Christ provides a common foundation for Christians across the globe. In a diverse and fragmented religious landscape of today, it serves as a rallying point, reminding all believers of their shared core beliefs.
The Creed remains profoundly relevant in fostering unity within the church today. As Christians continue to navigate the complexities of a changing world, it stands as a beacon of unity, guiding them back to the essential truths of their faith.
For the full reflection from USPG's partner churches around the world, you can order or download the course HERE.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 9 March 2025, Lent I) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:
‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them’ (John 17: 25-26).
The Collect:
Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,
and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:
give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;
and, as you know our weakness,
so may we know your power to save;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Lord God,
you have renewed us with the living bread from heaven;
by it you nourish our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love:
teach us always to hunger for him who is the true and living bread,
and enable us to live by every word
that proceeds from out of your mouth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Heavenly Father,
your Son battled with the powers of darkness,
and grew closer to you in the desert:
help us to use these days to grow in wisdom and prayer
that we may witness to your saving love
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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