First Sunday in Lent, Year A

The story has just begun, and temptation comes knocking. Snakes in the garden. Adversaries in the wilderness. Week one of Lent and our texts seem to want us to think about temptation—those confusing and tricky things that cross our paths and ask us to question what we thought we knew.
 
Is the work of Lent inviting us to reflect on how we engage these temptations, how we respond to this questioning of our knowledge? Would our journey toward Easter be served by reflecting about how best to respond to suggestions that there are other ways of looking at what we thought we knew. Are the characters in our stories being honest, considering the whole picture? And how do we as disciples in a complex world resist being hoodwinked by slanted and prejudicial viewpoints? How do we act to help a full and liberating story be told and heard and acted upon?
 
Important questions—questions that affect our ability to live well together, rarely have easy answers. Thanks be to God we are given a community of faith past and present, and a sacred web of neighbors and siblings whom we can journey with through the temptations of easy answers, if only we would choose to host them in sacred conversation.
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 † Psalm 32 † Romans 5:12-19 † Matthew 4:1-11
 
About the Art: Painting (detail) by Joyce Walker. Card design by Barbara Anderson. This is an image of a series of cards produced for Lent, 2023 based on resources from Sarah Are and sanctifiedart.org. Used by permission.

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