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Sunday, February 18, 2024

Distracting distractions

Sermon for the first Sunday of Lent

We know why the Lord 
is tempted.

St Paul in his letter
to the Hebrews
says that Our Lord
is tempted
so that He can sympathise
with us 
in our temptations.

But we are tempted
all of our lives
not just forty days and forty nights.

How can Our Lord
be tempted as we are
but without sin
if He only endures it
for forty days?

[PAUSE]

We know this isn't true.

St Peter 
inadvertently tempts Jesus
by trying to prevent
His crucifixion.

And,
even in Gethsemane
the temptation for Our Lord
 to give up
is enormous.

If Jesus is tempted
all throughout His Incarnation
as we are tempted,
what are these forty days 
and forty nights of fasting
and praying for?

Let's be careful.

It is only after forty days and forty nights
that the Devil starts tempting Him
as far as we know.

It is because He is hungry 
that the Devil starts 
trying to get Him to turn
stones into bread.

The Devil believes
that Our Lord's hunger
that will be the weak point
in His dedication to 
His business of doing
the will of His Father.

And that's his mistake.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord is taken into the desert
by the Holy Ghost
precisely for Him
to wrestle with temptation.

These forty days 
are days of preparation
for hard work.

They always have been.

For forty days,
Noah was in the Ark
not sitting twiddling his thumbs
but preparing things 
for the new life 
after the flood.

For forty days,
Moses was up Mount Sinai
preparing to deliver
the law to the Israel.

For forty days,
the Ninevites fasted
in repentance
and were saved.

These forty days
are always a preparation
for battle, 
for a new life,
for new business to do.

This is why
Our Lord remains with us
for forty days
after His resurrection
to prepare the Church
for the new mission.

Where the Devil makes his mistake
is that Our Lord fasts 
forty days and forty nights
In order to wrestle with temptation,
to meet it head on
rather than be surprised by it.

[PAUSE]

Temptation often 
takes us by surprise.

It preys upon us
at our weak spot
in order to catch us out 
and distract us from our business
of repentance
and the search
for God's righteousness.

Not only does Jesus
identify with us in our temptation,
He shows us that the way to deal with it
is by prayer and fasting
in order to meet it head on,
to expose our weaknesses 
to ourselves
and to immerse ourselves
in the things of the Holy Spirit
which war against 
the spirit of the age
and the materialism 
of the world around us.

[PAUSE]

Lent helps us mean business
when we seek to turn our lives
to Christ and His Kingdom.

The Devil seeks to distract us
from this business.

If he can't win against Jesus,
then he cannot ultimately win
against hearts that are focussed
on the business of God.

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