LENT 2020: Week 1, Day 1

LENT 2020: Week 1, Day 1

Wednesday, February 26, 2020: Ash Wednesday:
Genesis 2.15-17, 3.1-17; Psalm 32; Romans 5.12-19; Matthew 4.1-11

“The devil is but another name for our impatience,” says Stanley Hauerwas in his commentary on Matthew. “We want bread, we want to force God’s hand to rescue us, we want peace - and we want all this now.” 

In this Lenten season, and especially in this election season, may we resist the temptation to “accept the devil’s terms for the world’s salvation,” which Hauerwas says leads to the belief that “we have no time to be just.”

Yes, there is a great urgency to the problems of poverty and income inequality, of racial injustice and sexism, of healthcare, and of so much more. And, yes, we need solutions. 

But, while elections are important and have very real consequences, we must also remember that, as Hauerwas reminds us, “Jesus is our bread, he is our salvation, and he is our peace.” Political figures are not our savior.

No matter who wins the primary, no matter who wins the next election, there will be no immediate fix to our problems. In fact, things may very well get worse before they get better.

And so, over the next forty days, let’s make an intentional effort to “learn to wait with [Jesus] in a world of hunger, idolatry, and war.”

Let us continue to work towards solutions to the big problems of our world. And let us continue to work for structural change. In the meantime, though, let us guard against letting the urgency of our problems lead us to taking shortcuts to justice.

As Hauerwas reminds us, “The devil is but another name for our impatience.”