February 14, the first Sunday in Lent

Valentines day is today. We are surrounded by images of pink hearts and chocolate and flowers. We remember love and seek to show expressions of love to our partners. We may hope to begin some new relationship or we are already lucky enough to have someone who is our beloved. Whatever we do will be a grateful response to love we have known.

Perhaps this doesn’t have much to do with Lent. Even if we consider that St. Valentine was a martyr who died for the faith and because helped soldiers get married who did not have an official right to be married – what does this have to do with our Lenten disciplines? A rule-breaker for the sake of love doesn’t seem like a Lenten inspiration.

In Lent, we do consider our motivation and our purpose. Why do we do what we do? In this season, what should we do instead? This is just the sort of thing that is going on as Jesus is tempted by the devil. The devil asks questions. The temptation is to do something good for the wrong reason, or to do some good thing that isn’t at the right time.

The shorthand understanding of the temptation of Jesus would be, “Don’t eat the rocks. Don’t worship the devil. Don’t jump off a building.” The temptation isn’t towards something we would normally reject. We are only tempted by what is attractive to us. We are tempted to do the right thing the wrong way.

We are tempted with the desire to change our purpose. We don’t eat rocks, but we are tempted to take things into our own hands. We are tempted to speed things along and use our sense instead of following what we know to be God’s timing. Think about how we would fail to show our love with the gift of a vacuum cleaner or a free oil change. We have to consider what the one we love truly desires. The sin is in misdirection. Instead of doing the hard work of listening and discerning, we want to rush off and do what we already know how to do. The sin is in letting go of the possibility that God may have something else in mind. The sin is the assumption that we know best – instead of admitting we don’t know at all. We want the mediocre we know rather than the mystery we must wait for.

Unlike Jesus, we have not been offered all the riches and powers of this world. We are not in a position to rule the world. We are tempted to have power over others instead of submitting to God. What would happen to our gift giving if we tried to control the one we loved? So many relationships are unhappy because one of the partners seeks to change their beloved. When we are always waiting for someone else to change, we lose the opportunity to change ourselves. We lose sight of the gifts the other person has that attracted us in the first place. Whenever we seek to push or dominate without cooperation – we are creating a world for our convenience.

Instead, God invites us into communion. God invites us to recognize how we are all in this together. Consider the words Paul writes to the Romans, “there is no distinction, there is neither Jew nor Greek, the same Lord is Lord of all and generous to all.” Instead of controlling and ruling, God invites us to sharing and working together.

We are not tempted to jump off a building. Yet sometimes we are tempted to excess. If we are tempted to do anything to impress the one we love, perhaps it is not a true relationship. Do we need to prove love? We are tempted to make our little side agreements with God. We participate as long as we get something out of it. The truth is, God isn’t putting on a show for our entertainment or our satisfaction. God calls us into new life – but life on God’s terms. We think we know what we need. We think we know what will work (if only God would listen!) Except we are learning that the big show and fancy advertising don’t work anymore. People don’t need to be distracted. We need to be saved. We need to know the love of God and we need to know the way of life.

We know love when we see it. It’s not something we can buy. When we find real love, there’s nothing we can add except ourselves. In fact, this is what we must do – give ourselves completely to the ones we love.

The temptations we face are different from Jesus in magnitude. We are always being tempted to give up the way of life and salvation for some sort of easy and cheap substitute. Let’s have none of that. Let’s keep to the path we know God calls us to. For now we may find ourselves in a wilderness. We may be discouraged. We also know that if we keep faith, God will help us along the way.