Discernment, temptation, and Spirit

Text: Luke 4:1-13

I don’t know why it was that the Spirit pushed Jesus out of the baptismal waters right into the wilderness to undergo temptation but every year at this time we read this story to begin our Sundays in Lent. And if you read ahead to the next few verses in Luke’s Gospel to what happened after Jesus left the wilderness, you’ll see that the Spirit was part of that business, too.

So, it seems like a hint, doesn’t it? That the Spirit of God, which we receive at our baptisms, directs us, recruits us, presses us forward and deeper into our lives with God. That the Spirit is active in our lives. In the Gospel of John, Jesus proclaims that it is the Spirit that will lead us, his followers, into truth, even when that truth might be at the edge of the unbearable. It is the Spirit that is with us, opening our eyes, prompting us, when we are listening for what it is that God is doing in the world and what it is that God wants us to do in the world, even when, or perhaps especially when, we are exhausted, confused, frustrated, and lost.

On Ash Wednesday, when some of us gathered here to remember that we are dust, to remember our mortality and to embark on the holy season of Lent with its emphasis on self-examination and re-orientation, I suggested that this year, both as individuals and as a parish, we see and use our time in Lent to ponder these two questions:

What does God need me to be right now in this world?

What does God need our parish to be in our city and in our neighborhood?

I suggested that it would be good to change the focus that many of us have during Lent from self - what do I want to give up for Lent or what do I want to take on for Lent - to God - what does God need me to be right now in this world? How shall I reorient myself toward God while discerning God’s work in the world and in our lives?

Because we are beginning to emerge from a time of pandemic - which is not over, but does seem to be falling into remission for now - and because we are beginning to look more purposefully toward a time of emerging from our own time of wilderness as a parish, this interim time, we are also experiencing some feelings of uncertainty. What now? What do I say, how do I act, how do I feel, what should I decide in the light of all the changes that are happening and the nagging worries that accompany all change?

And that is where the Spirit comes in to our own discernment, just as it did with Jesus as he spent time in the wilderness discerning his call from God after his baptism, as he faced temptation to ditch the plan to follow God and settle for Satan’s tempting offers of self-determined power and short-term gain, as he went out into the world to proclaim the good news. He was filled with the Spirit, accompanied by the Spirit, comforted by the Spirit.

The Spirit is with us, too, in our own discernment, both individual and collective, as we wonder how to know what God wants for us. And we are reminded today that, particularly if we are experiencing anxiety, we will be tempted to look for power and short-term rewards as we discern. Discernment is usually a long game punctuated by flashes of insight that should be tested out, which is especially crucial when we are facing a time of wilderness that begins with endings and disruption, but will eventually result in new life.

So in our season of Lent that is not an end in itself but a time of preparation for new life, let us keep asking the question: What does God need me to be and what does God need our parish to be, now?