This Week in Worship
First Sunday of Lent
Mar 9, 2025: What’s Waiting in the Wilderness
Matthew 4: 1-11

Rev. Dr. Leslie Taylor, preaching

Jesus’ ministry begins in the wilderness.

Immediately after being baptized, claimed as God's own beloved child, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. It is tempting for us to stay in the glow of baptism and move immediately into Christ's ministry, but the movement of the Spirit in this text is clear: Jesus must go to the wilderness. He must experience hunger, fear, scarcity, and loneliness. He must be brought to the point where the tempter's offers become more enticing. There is something for Jesus to experience in the wilderness.

This passage is central to our practice of the season of Lent. We observe this forty-day season to match Jesus' forty days in the wilderness — and like Jesus, we are led into this wilderness by the Spirit. Despite physical weakness, Jesus finds spiritual strength to hold fast to God. As the distractions of the world fade away, the things that are truly important come into focus, and the tempter's diverting words lose all power. Perhaps one of the gifts of the angels that dwell in this wilderness is the opportunity to discover how courageous, how steady, and how faithful we have the ability to be.

That does not mean that these forty days will be easy. That does not mean that we will not fall short or beg for an easy way out. But it does mean that here, at the beginning of our own forty days, we are reminded that both devils and angels are waiting for us in the wilderness.

The way we worship is the way we live.

Worship is the work of the people, bringing together our fullest selves in a communal act of love and gratitude.  Each voice is important; each person is valued as the Spirit draws out our authentic gifts and talents, shared in the ever-widening circle of God’s people.  We hope you’ll join us this week as we gather to worship the God of extravagant welcome.