Testing Times

As this Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent, we hear again of Jesus testing time in the wilderness. Because we are in the year of Matthew, we get his version. Jesus is baptised and is declared to be the God’s Beloved Son. The Spirit then takes Jesus into the wilderness to face the big questions. What kind of beloved son will he be? How will he live that out?

The wilderness is a harsh place where there is no hiding. Here he fasts and prepares. He is anchored in God. And at the end the Satan tests this identity.   How will he respond? Will be put his own needs first or trust that God will provide? Will he succumb to the dramatic and lure of fame, or will he trust God and meet the needs of those who encounter him on the way? Will he seek power and fortune, or seek nothing for himself and live in response to God’s compassion and justice? The Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount come out of this experience. They are who Jesus is.

We too are beloved children. But too often, like Adam and Eve, we forget, and we strive for what is ours already. They strove to be like God when they were already created in God’s image. They forgot who they were, with dire consequences. We too strive and forget, with dire consequences for God’s world.

Lent is a time when we ask “who are we as God’s beloved children?” We are invited to anchor ourselves in God and to take time to reflect on how we might live that out. We are invited to join Jesus in placing the beatitudes at the centre of our lives too. This Lent I wonder I wonder what distracts us from living as beloved children – what do we need to fast from? And what do practices do we need to develop that will help us live the beatitudes?

This lent we will take some time to hear the story of some who have persisted in living the beatitudes. I hope they will help us think about what it means for us to live as beloved children serving God’s creation.