Lent I 03/09/25
The Still Point
A Time of Meditation and Reflection
The First Sunday in Lent
... At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance... T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norton
Peace on each one who comes in need;
Peace on each one who comes in joy.
Peace on each one who offers prayers;
Peace on each one who offers song.
Peace of the Maker, Peace of the Son,
Peace of the Spirit, the Triune One.
Opening Prayer
God of our pilgrimage, we have found the living water. Refresh and sustain us as we go forth on our Lenten journey, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Scripture Reading Luke 4:1-13
After his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 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. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'" Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 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. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" 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, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Poem: “Come Wilderness” by Daniela Danz
Come wilderness into our homes
break the windows come
with your roots and your worms
spread yourself over our wishes
our waste-sorting systems our prostheses
and outstanding payments
cover us with your rustling greenery
and your spores cover us that we may
become green: green and reverent
green and manifestly green and replaceable
come weather with your storms
and sweep the slates off the roofs come
with snow and hail smash
through the collective sleep
we are all enjoying in our beds
our worn rationalizations come ice
and form glaciers over the shadow banks
and our drive for liquidity
come through the cracks under the doors
you desert with your sands fill
our desolation up until it forms into a solid mass
rise up over the search-and-rescue teams
and our growth compulsion trickle into
the control panels of the missiles
and the missile defense systems into
the think tanks and the hearts of internet trolls
just leave the hedgehogs with their
snuffling so that it may calm us
come rising sea levels
up over our shorelines both the developed
and the undeveloped the homey
lowland areas wash
jellyfish into our soup bowls
and ramshorn snails into our hair
as we swim in each other’s direction panicked
with our yearning for one another
because almost nothing is left because it’s all gone
and thoroughly soaked through with regrets
finger-pointing and tranquilizers
come earthquakes shatter the apartments
which we built on the foundations
of how we always did everything
come tremors fill the mine shafts
the end of work and
the literature of redemption bury anger
and affection and all manner of added values
swallow up the memories come tremors
hurry so that the bedrock covers us
so we are covered with water desert weather
and over everything that which covers all the wilderness.
Meditation
These days, we think of a journey into the desert as a beautiful vacation destination. We book hotels, rent cars, maybe hop on a tour bus, admire the striking desolate scenery and spectacular sunsets from our air conditioning or our spendy camping gear, and then we're back home with a flick of a boarding pass or a few hours on an interstate. But to the contemporaries of our Gospel passage, the desert wilderness was anything but Instagrammable. A hearer of this story of Jesus traveling alone deep into the desert would have been appalled and terrified. They would know, viscerally, that this man Jesus was indeed walking to meet his own death.
The Gospels reveal how mindful Jesus is of the ever-present reality of death. He speaks frequently of his impending death, and his preaching and teaching hold death in a central place of reverence. But this theology of death is not death for the sake of gloom, grief, and finitude. Instead, it is "death - so that...", revealing death's true identity as a mere part of the resurrection cycle and the reality of eternal life. Jesus is continually unmasking death, in all its forms, to expose the divine life springing forth from it. The grain of wheat dies so that...it may bear fruit. Jesus welcomes the death of Satan's temptation with open arms as he willingly walks into the place where living things go to die, and there he meets three mirrors of his human egoic self...and as he resists identification with them, each egoic death prepares him to begin his public ministry. Jesus opens his loving arms to death again and again, even to death on a cross, so that "the whole world may see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made." (Book of Common Prayer, page 528).
Daniela Danz's poem welcomes the apocalyptic overthrow of life as we know it by nature's awesome and destructive power. We might wince at the violence of it or wish to turn our faces and hearts away from witnessing the obliteration of the world we know that we feel we have some control over. Jesus taught his disciples that those who wished to save their lives would lose them, but those who were willing to lose their lives for his sake would obtain eternal life. He said this knowing, from personal experience, how much a person wants to preserve their own life, how much a person wants to avoid death. Jesus said this, knowing what awaits those who are willing to be a grain of wheat. From the time on Ash Wednesday when we are blessed with ashes and the words of death are spoken over us - "remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return" - Lent is an invitation for us to deepen our relationship with death in all its forms...death of habits that do not serve us, death of distractions that drain us, death of our illusions of control, power, or esteem. Lent is a season set apart for us to be formed for our life as continual wheat grains, and when we open our arms to that trust fall, oh! What life springs forth at each wheat grain's little Easter!
Questions for Reflection
- What are some different forms of death you have experienced? Perhaps these have been actual physical deaths, or perhaps deaths of identities, dreams, relationships, or opportunities. Name these honored dead before God. Consider how you might dedicate a special time for grieving these deaths during this season of Lent.
- The world around us tends to be disconnected to death. Our American culture tries to avoid thinking about or facing death, often hiding or downplaying death and dying, preferring unrealistic illusions of youth and immortality. Consider your own relationship to death. Do you feel connected to its movement and cycles through your life? What does a healthy relationship with death look like for you? How might this season of Lent offer you time and space to deepen and integrate your connection with all the different forms of death (physical, egoic, etc.)? What are your needs when it comes to relating to death, and how might the calm quiet of Lent be a support to you and your journey with death, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually?
- Can you recall a time when a "grain of wheat" died in your life, and you witnessed or experienced flowering and fruiting as a result? What nourishment came into your life as a result of that grain of wheat's fall? Imagine the fruit from the grains of wheat that have died in your life arrayed in a field around you. How many of you would that fruit feed?
Prayers
We bring before God someone whom we have met or remembered today
We bring to God someone who is hurting tonight and needs our prayer
We bring to God a troubled situation in our world
We bring to God, silently, someone whom we find hard to forgive or trust
We bring ourselves to God that we might grow in generosity of spirit, clarity of mind, and warmth of affection
We offer our thanks to God for the blessings in our lives
We name before God those who have died.
Now to God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or conceive, by the power which is at work among us, be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all ages. Amen.
Accept our thanks for all you have done, O God. Our hands were empty, and you filled them.
May Christ’s holy, healing, enabling Spirit be with us every step of the way, and be our guide as our road changes and turns, and the blessing of God our Creator, Redeemer and Giver of life be among us now and remain with us forever. Amen.
Reflections this month offered by: Kathleen Schmidt
