Recalibration: Lent One

Beyond Self-Improvement: Lent One

Gen. 2:4-9, 15-17, 25-3:7; Ps. 51; Rom. 5:12-21; Matt. 4:1-11

Have you ever noticed how Lent can feel like a spiritual fitness plan? Give up chocolate, add prayer, subtract bad habits, multiply good deeds. But what if I told you that the first temptation of Lent is not chocolate. It is not coffee. It is not whatever we decided to give up. The first temptation of Lent is far more subtle. It is the temptation to reduce Lent to self-improvement; to treat these forty days as a spiritual wellness plan; a private project of moral renovation; a religious version of getting in shape.

The Divine Drama, Not Self-Help

And in a community like ours — thoughtful, disciplined, serious about faith — that temptation can hide under very respectable language. We can turn Lent into a well-managed spiritual strategy. But here's the truth: Lent is not about curating a better version of ourselves. It is about entering the divine drama. Think about it this way: For one hundred years, this parish has not survived by clever self-renewal projects. We have endured because Christ has been faithful. And if we misunderstand that at the beginning, we will spend forty days rearranging furniture instead of surrendering to resurrection.

Why Forty Days? The Pattern of Recalibration

The Church did not randomly select forty days. Forty is never random in Scripture. Consider the pattern: Forty days of rain in the flood (Genesis 7–8). Forty days on Sinai while Moses received the covenant pattern (Exodus 24:18). Forty years of wilderness wandering after rebellion (Numbers 14:33–34). Forty days Elijah walked to Horeb to encounter God—not in wind or fire—but in the still small voice (1 Kings 19:8). Forty in Scripture is the space between promise and fulfillment. The interval between exposure and renewal. The time when illusion is stripped and truth surfaces. When we see forty, we know God intends recalibration.

The Garden: Where Illusion Was Born

To understand Lent, we must return to the beginning. In Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17, we find abundance. Trees 'pleasant to the sight and good for food.' Permission before prohibition. Gift before boundary. 'You may freely eat…' God is not restrictive. He is generous. Life flows outward from Him.

But then came the serpent's question in Genesis 3:1-7: "Did God really say…?" This wasn't about fruit—it was about autonomy. The temptation was not curiosity. It was autonomy, independence, self-sufficiency. To determine good and evil apart from God. To seize moral authorship. To replace communion with control. The serpent introduces suspicion. The first distortion is subtle. God's generosity is reframed as deprivation, deficiency, lack. Illusion enters. God is withholding. God is limiting. God cannot be trusted.

The Heart's Wilderness

That pattern still lives among us. The illusion that if we just manage our lives carefully enough — if we plan well enough, give enough, serve enough, renovate enough — then we will be secure. The wilderness begins inside the human heart. Even as a priest, I feel this too. The temptation to make sure everything is strong and stable and impressive. But Lent strips that illusion. We are not saved by competence. We are saved by communion, relationship with Him.

From Exposure to Renewal: The School of Psalm 51

Psalm 51 teaches us the difference between self-improvement and true repentance. David doesn't negotiate or make excuses: "Against you, you only, have I sinned" (Psalm 51:4). "He understands that sin is not merely rule-breaking. It is rupture. It is disordered love. It is a heart turned inward. When David cries, "Create in me a clean heart" (Psalm 51:10), that word 'create' is the same word from Genesis 1. David knows repentance requires new creation. This is the difference between self-improvement and repentance. Self-improvement modifies behavior. Repentance asks for resurrection, a new way of living.

Two Adams, Two Humanities

Romans 5:12-21 reveals the cosmic scope of our condition. "Through one man sin entered the world…" (Romans 5:12). Adam's disobedience does not remain private. It becomes structural. Corporate. Transmitted. Humanity bends inward, but Paul refuses despair. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). Here is the second Adam. Christ. If Adam grasped, Christ surrendered. If Adam disobeyed in abundance, Christ obeyed in hunger. If Adam hid in shame, Christ stands in obedience. Lent is not about improving the first Adam. It is about participating in the second Adam, Christ.

The Wilderness: Refusing the Shortcut

In Matthew 4:1-11, the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness. That is important. This is not accidental testing. This is covenant renewal in action, a deliberate re-walking of Israel's path. Jesus faced three temptations, each echoing Israel's wilderness failures. And each time, Jesus answers from Deuteronomy —the very book reflecting on Israel's forty years. “Man shall not live by bread alone…” (Matthew 4:4, referencing Deuteronomy 8:3). The temptation is not food. It is illusion. The illusion that we live by consumption. That appetite is sovereign. That comfort defines reality. In our culture, we are tempted to believe that security comes from accumulation, stability from control, meaning from productivity. Lent confronts that illusion.

From Forbidden Fruit to Offered Bread

Genesis begins with forbidden fruit. The Gospel culminates in offered bread. In Eden, humanity took. In the Upper Room, Christ gives. “This is my body.” The Eucharist transforms everything: In the wilderness, the devil says, “Turn stones to bread.”At the Table, Christ says, “I am the Bread.” We do not come forward because we have managed Lent well. We come because the Lamb has been slain and stands risen. We do not live by bread alone —but by the Word made flesh, given for us. The Eucharist is not self-improvement. It is participation in the second Adam - Jesus Christ. Here illusion dies. Here desire is recalibrated.

Putting It Into Practice

As we enter these forty days, consider these questions:

Examine Your Motivations: Where have we reduced Lent to a private project rather than a participation in God's covenant drama? Instead of asking "How can I improve myself?" ask "How is God inviting me into His story?

Identify Your Illusions: What illusions about comfort, control, or autonomy is God exposing among us? Notice where you're trying to manage outcomes rather than trust God's provision.

Choose Communion Over Control: How might fasting, prayer, and almsgiving recalibrate not just our habits, but our desires? Use these disciplines not as self-improvement tools but as ways to surrender control and deepen dependence on God.

Embrace Honest Exposure: Remember that Lent is not about becoming impressive. It is about becoming honest. Not about curating virtue. But about surrendering illusion.

The Journey Forward

We follow Christ into the wilderness — so that we may follow Him to the Table. And from the Table, to the Cross. And from the Cross, to resurrection. From garden lost to garden restored. From scapegoat to Lamb. From illusion to truth. From death to life. Come, then. Not as achievers. But as those who hunger. And receive the Bread that does not deceive, the Lamb who does not fail, the obedience that becomes our life. This Lent, resist the temptation to treat these forty days as your personal renovation project. Instead, step into the divine drama where Christ has already won the victory you could never achieve on your own.