Sunday 9th March – Lent 1A

TESTING, TEMPTING TIMES (MATTHEW 4:1-11)
Led by the Spirit into the wilderness
– to be tempted by the devil…?
Some say, tested,
yet odd it seems
that God would do as much.
An echo of a time long past
when the ancestors’ faithfulness
was forty years tested
in the wilderness:
and they failed.
Made their own god
ignored God’s word and way
and tested God.
Led by the Spirit into the wilderness
the one declared Son
prevailed.
Three times ‘no’ found voice
after forty days and nights alone
allowed a deeper-burning ‘yes’
to God.

Forty days of Lent;
not just a time for giving up
chocolate
cappuccino
or comfort
but listening,
discerning a deeper-burning ‘yes’
to God.
         © Jeff Shrowder, 2014.
  More for Lent 1A…