The Adventurous Lectionary – The First Sunday in Lent – February 22, 2026
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
Lent is a complicated season, a time of mindfulness and awareness of both the better and worse angels of our nature. It is a time of reflection and penitence, of spiritual decluttering, inspiring the giving up certain goods for greater goods. Lent is also the season of simplicity, of letting go of privilege and everything that stands in the way of our awareness of God’s vision for our lives and relationships. Lent is the season of getting back to basics, of spiritual focus, of going from the worship of many things to the worship of the One True Thing. Purity of heart is to will one thing, as Kierkegaard asserted. This unity of spirit is also the invitation to experience and respond to God in all things and constantly ask at life’s intersections, “What would Jesus do?” or “How can I add to the beauty of the world?” or, in worst case, “How can I mitigate the ugliness perpetrated by nations and their policies?”
Yet the goal of Lent is not sacrifice and lamentation but rejoicing. Jesus celebrates a wedding feast, producing the best wine in abundance. When we prune the detritus of our lives, the light of divine energy and illumination flow in and through us to bring healing, and the sense of joy and peace, to the world.
A SEASON OF MINDFUL SELF-AWARENESS. “Pause, notice, open, and respond” is at the heart of Lenten spirituality. Lent is a season of mindfulness, in which we are invited to practice our own form of the Ignatian Examen or examination of conscience. Lent invites us to ask whether our values and actions are moving us closer or further from God’s vision for our lives and the world. On that note, Lent is also the lengthening of days in which we commit ourselves to God’s Green New Deal and God’s Social Shalom, to becoming God’s companions in healing the earth, and this means action as well as contemplation. In Lent, we embrace wokeness and leave sleepwalking behind as we look at our lives and social order, repent our complicity in suffering, and embrace our vocation as God’s companions in healing the earth.
WHAT WILL WE CHOOSE? The heart of the Genesis passage involves the twin realities of mortality and decision-making. Mortals are limited and finite in space, time, and influence, and need to recognize our limitations for our own and our planet’s well-being. There is no reason for us to literalize this story. The legendary couple live, as Paul Tillich says, in a world of “dreaming innocence” and then are thrust into the world of ambivalence and ambiguity. Their lives evolve from being “naked and unashamed” to recognizing the vulnerability of nakedness. This “fall” makes their lives more complicated; yet, the complexity opens the door for new possibilities. The story of Adam and Eve describes our own journey from childhood to adulthood and the evolution of the human race which is not only a fall into sin but a fall upward into freedom and creativity.
Though both Adam and Eve try to abdicate their responsibility, blaming the woman and the snake, respectively, they must take ownership of their actions from now on. Neither the snake nor the woman or man can be blamed, despite their culpability; we have made the choice, and we still make the choice -for life and death for us and the planet. We are the primal couple, and we must make choices, and live with the consequences. During Lent, repentance leads to responsibility and agency in our personal and community lives.
Yet, despite the ambiguity of their decision, God still makes a way when there is no way. They must leave the garden of ease and innocence, never to return. There is grief in this departure but also adventure lies ahead. Adam and Eve become civilization creators. They start over, plunging themselves now into the novel ambiguities of history, and bring about new creations. We too have left the garden of innocence. We know death and destruction and our complicity in the evils we deplore. Yet, this knowledge of good and evil is an invitation for growth and maturity, to embrace the process of divinization, prized by early church theologians such as Irenaeus and Athanasius of Alexandria.
SELF-AWARENEESS AND THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY. The Psalmist is aware of the need for self-awareness on the spiritual journey. Lack of mindfulness, revealed in covering up their own sin, leads to psychosomatic illness that can only be addressed through confession. Confession is not a matter of ritual or even guilt but recognizing the heights and depths of human experience and our own complicity in the pain of the world. An honest look in the mirror delivers us from defensiveness, delusionary thinking, and projection of our faults on others. Confession is not a quid pro quo transaction, nor does it ensure a return to health. Rather it reconnects us with God and our neighbors. Confession, like your medical physical, is aimed at healing not punishment. God is out to heal us not hurt us. Confession cleanses the soul so that God’s light can shine through, and we can experience infinity in finite living.
GRACE GREATER THAN SIN. The passage from Romans speaks of the universality of sin and grace. Though sin and death are real, and touch everyone and everything in the ambiguities of even our best intentions, their power to dominate is finite. We are the sinful children of sinful parents growing up in a sinful world. This is not an apology for a literal doctrine of original sin, which is neither biblical (first we begin with the goodness of creation) nor theologically appropriate (God seeks to heal not punish despite our waywardness). Indeed, Grace abounds, and in its universality provides hope for even the “worst” of us. In Romans, sin is not “original” but part of the human condition, shaped and transformed by the ultimate – and prior – love of God. Sin is also not biological or communicated through sex, but a social reality, which we must seek to eradicate to lessen the impact of inherited sin. We are also, when we turn to Christ’s way, “little Christs,” as Luther says, who mediate grace and healing to one another.
THE WILDERNESS JOURNEY. Jesus goes to where the wild things are, and discovers the wild things are internal as well as external. Jesus’ journey into the wilderness points to the importance of mindfulness in the spiritual journey. Fresh from his mystic experience following his baptism – and the affirmation “you are my beloved child” – Jesus goes into the wilderness for a retreat to discern his vocation. He is God’s beloved one, endowed with power and energy. Like the primordial couple and persons of power and influence today, his power can create or destroy. Jesus is tempted by valuable and worthy things – power, security, and sustenance – all of which can destroy us if we turn from God’s vision for our lives. Jesus’ response to the temptation is an exercise in simplicity and mindfulness. We see this in the policies and language of politicians and moguls. He is aware of temptation, but he takes it to God in prayer. He places God’s vision at the heart of his decision-making and is able to use his temptations as a way of finding his true vocation.
SATANIC POWER AND DIVINE REDEMPTION. The question of the reality of Satan, described in Jesus’ wilderness retreat, is an important one. Although most readers of this commentary don’t believe in a personal Satan, the powers of evil are real and destructive. I have for decades counseled persons to stay away from Ouija boards, Satanic rituals, and the “dark side.” We need to be on guard for the evils that can take over institutions and persons, often unknowingly. Indeed, we see whole sections of our government burning incense to the most divisive and destructive policies as if they are ordained by God, a god who sadly resembles Satan more than Jesus. Still, though we don’t affirm a literal Satan, we can recognize satanic personages, both spiritual and political, whose work promotes chaos, division, and destruction. The powers are broken, as Walter Wink says, and the powers can also be transformed and healed. This challenges us as citizens to examine, challenge, and critique the evils of our own Empire, and do what we can to be God’s companions in healing the soul of the nation and the world.
Lent reminds us of the need to put first things first, and the first thing is God. When we seek God’s realm first, we cultivate simplicity and self-awareness and awaken for God’s way amid life’s many possibilities.
In Lent, let us go on a daily wilderness retreat. Stepping back and simplifying. Examining gracefully our temptations and pruning what gets in the way of embodying God’s vision in our personal, relational, and political lives.
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Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC. He is the author of over eighty books, including Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet; Creation Sings: Forty Days of Spiritual Wisdom from the Non-Human World; Messy Incarnation: Meditations on Christ in Process; and Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries. His latest books are Creation Sings: Forty Days of Spiritual Wisdom from the Non-human World and Three Wise Wisdom: The Twelve Days of Christmas with Mary, Elizabeth, and Anna (volume seven in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” series along with the recently released Lenten devotional, Just a Little Walk with Jesus: A Spiritual Saunter with Mark’s Gospel and Whitehead and Jesus: An Adventure in Spiritual Transformation. He is married to Rev. Kate Epperly, D.Min. and lives in Potomac, Maryland.
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