St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
March 9, 2025
Year C: The First Sunday in Lent
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13
Remember Our Baptism
Let us pray.
Loving God,
When we are tempted, help us to remember our baptism.
Help us to remember your bond of love with us.
Help us to remember our call to loving service.
Amen.
Today is the First Sunday in Lent and you may have noticed that there have been a few changes around here since last Sunday.
Most of our shiny things have been put away or veiled.
We began the service with what’s called the Penitential Order, which includes the Ten Commandments, the Confession and Absolution.
We will refrain from saying the “A” word until the great feast of Easter.
And we entered and will leave in silence.
We make all these changes to shake us from our usual church routine, to help us get into the solemn spirit of Lent, this holy time when we prepare for Easter by taking stock of the ways that we have fallen short, when we ask forgiveness, and, with God’s help, strive to live more faithfully and lovingly.
And on the First Sunday in Lent, we always hear the story of Jesus’ forty days and nights in the wilderness – Jesus’ time of hunger and thirst – Jesus’ time of temptation.
The Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke all tell the story of Jesus’ wilderness time. And they all note that Jesus went – or was led by the Spirit – into the wilderness right after his baptism.
You’ll remember that at his baptism, the Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove and the Voice from heaven said, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
And then to the wilderness for Jesus’ time of testing and temptation.
I don’t think that this is simply historical chronology.
No, the Evangelists are making the point that baptism is not magic.
Baptism does not exempt us from wilderness times – maybe quite the opposite, actually.
And baptism doesn’t excuse us from hunger and thirst, doesn’t protect us from suffering.
And even if we’re baptized, we’ll still face temptations, especially when we’re tired or hungry or frightened.
But the bond that God makes with us in baptism gives us the strength to resist temptation – or, when we mess up, baptism gives us the confidence to ask for pardon and begin again.
I want to say a couple of things about Jesus’ experience in the wilderness.
First, note that the Tempter caters his temptations for Jesus – tempting Jesus to use his unique identity and power not to serve and save others but to serve and save himself.
I imagine the Tempter saying, “Go ahead, turn those stones into bread. We both know you can do it. And won’t that bread be so delicious?”
But Jesus is bread for the world, not bread for himself.
I imagine the Tempter saying, “We both know you’re the King, but most people aren’t catching on. Just worship me and the whole world will bow down before you. Everybody wins!”
But Jesus isn’t a worldly king. He’s a servant king, a king who washes feet.
And finally, the Tempter tempts Jesus to take the leap, trusting that the angels will rescue him from falling.
“You are the Son of God, aren’t you?”
But when Jesus takes the leap, he will stretch out his arms on the cross, and no angels will come to his rescue.
The second thing I want to mention is that the Tempter quotes scripture – a warning for us that the Bible can be, and often is, distorted and misused to mislead and harm.
And finally, let’s not miss the ominous conclusion of this story:
“When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.”
We know other “opportune times” when Jesus was tempted, maybe even more sorely tempted than he was in the wilderness.
Remember when Peter got so upset at the thought of Jesus suffering and dying, so upset that he “rebuked” Jesus? And probably because he really was tempted to turn away from his path, an agitated Jesus “rebuked” Peter right back, “Get behind me, Satan!”
And, of course, near the end – or what seemed like the end – we have the deeply moving image of Jesus in agony, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking the Father to spare him this fate.
But I confess that when I hear that ominous note of the Tempter returning to Jesus at an opportune time, I always think of a work of fiction, The Last Temptation of Christ.
The novel by Nikos Kazantzakis was published in 1955 and Martin Scorsese’s movie adaptation came out in 1988. Although, by today’s standards, they’re both pretty tame, the novel and movie were quite controversial in their times.
What seems to have upset people most was the depiction of a real flesh and blood Jesus – Jesus our brother, who faced real and earthy temptations, just like us.
But it seems to me, that’s the point – and that’s been the teaching of the church all along – that Jesus the Son of God is a human being just like us, tempted as we are but did not sin.
What I find most moving about both the book and the movie is the last temptation itself.
While Jesus is suffering and dying on the cross, the Tempter finds the opportune time to tempt Jesus with – not some supernatural act like making the nails disappear – but an ordinary life – to be married, to have children, to spend his days earning a living in the carpentry shop.
Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with any of that.
Except it wasn’t Jesus’ path.
It wasn’t his mission.
It wasn’t his call.
The Last Temptation of Christ is a work of fiction, but that last temptation feels very real.
And maybe it feels real because the Tempter tries to lure us in similar ways.
The Tempter tempts us to forget our baptism and just live pretty much like everybody else out there – not bad necessarily, but not what we’re called to.
The Tempter tempts us to forget our special mission to seek and serve Christ in absolutely everyone.
“Everyone! That’s just too hard,” the Tempter says.
The Tempter tempts us to forget our calling to love our neighbor as our self.
“C’mon, let’s be realistic here,” the Tempter says.
And if we give into the temptation to forget our baptism, well, you know the Tempter won’t stop there.
Maybe the Tempter then tempts us to treat certain people as “less than,” to judge other people based on how they look or speak or believe or vote or love.
And maybe the Tempter then tempts us to get swept up in the fury of these days, adding our fuel to the fire, further dividing our community, our country, and our world into “us” and “them,” forgetting that for Christ, in Christ, there is no “them.”
There is no “them.”
Just “us.”
All of us.
We won’t have any baptisms during Lent – yet another Lenten sacrifice - but this holy season is a very good time to remember our baptism.
Baptism isn’t magic.
But God’s baptismal bond of love with us is indissoluble – giving us the strength to resist temptation and the courage to ask forgiveness when we falter.
We may be tempted to just live like everybody else, but our baptismal promises call us to a different way, the costly way of Jesus, the way of loving service, the way to Easter and new life.
With God’s help, in our moments of temptation, may we remember our baptism.
Amen.
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