March 5, 2025
I am currently reading Subversive Christianity: Imaging God in a Dangerous Time by Brian J. Walsh. While not a book ostensibly about Lent, it does raise some very Lenten themes: self-examination, reflection on one’s worldview, and a call for repentance. Written in 1992 – with a second edition in 2014 – Walsh’s words resonate across time to our culture and way of life today.

He argues for a Christian worldview of love setting itself over against the mechanistic worldview of today that is caught up in the myth of progress and the culture of more, bigger, and better. Our problems of today have not been solved by “more, bigger, and better.” Indeed, our problems themselves seem to be more and bigger and particularly horrifying. Walsh writes, “What is at stake here are fundamental allegiances – loyalty to different gods. Another way to say this is that Christians live out of a worldview, or a vision of life, that is different from the worldview that dominates Western culture as a whole.”

This is powerfully revealed in the temptations, or testing, of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness; our scripture reading for this coming Sunday. Satan tempts Jesus with possessions (change stones to bread to meet your needs), power (rule all the kingdoms of this world), and prestige (angels will catch you when you fall from the top of the temple). What makes our world go around today? Possessions. Power. And prestige. What makes the Christian way of life go around? Loyalty to the one merciful and loving God who calls us to a different way of life. Prayer. Peace. And justice.

Rev. Eric