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We human beings, actually all of life, are tuned into the seasons, the turnings of the earth. The more we are cognizant of our relationship with our planet the wiser we are. For all things are connected, the tiny creepy crawling things and the enormous thundering mammals; the air in our lungs tomorrow and the winter wind moving in today from the plains. We two leggeds are dependent on the earth, we come from the earth.

This past Wednesday, many Christians throughout the world received ashes upon their foreheads. We said the words, “From dust you came, to dust you will return.” God has created a circle of life which includes life and death and life beyond death. Ash Wednesday is a symbolic marking of the beginning of Lent, a church season that helps us prepare for Easter. The word Lent comes from an Old English word meaning to lengthen. It is not a coincidence that the church season of Lent occurs about the time when we in the northern hemisphere begin anticipating spring. The days are lengthening. The Church as a human organism embraces its own Rites of Spring. Ritual accompanies the changing seasons - the seasons of the earth, our lives, and our faith.

The color of Lent is purple. One reason the Church uses this color is to symbolize Christ as king. Not an earthly king, rather, one who comes to conquer death and rule from above. Purple is a color of royalty. I believe that it was an expensive dye and process.

Purple is also a color denoting self discipline and repentance.

Purple or lavender is the color often highlighted in the gay/lesbian/bisexual and transgender community. Purple Power was a liberation cry of the late ‘60’s. Why purple I don’t know. Perhaps it was an adaptation from the Holocaust pink triangle. Gay men were labeled by an inverted pink triangle. Socially deviant women were labeled by a black inverted triangle. And of course, as Jerry Falwell called to our attention in 1999, Tinky Winky is gay and purple!

Alice Walker, in her wonderful novel, The Color Purple, singles out this color as one that God wants us to notice. “It [pisses God off] makes God mad if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” Perhaps Shug on God’s behalf is inviting all of us to pay attention to purple – royalty, repentance, the glbt community and Lent.

Depending on your religious upbringing, Lent carries assorted baggage. For the more conservative and fundamental churches, Lent is pretty much absent. Those with Catholic roots may understand Lent as a time of fasting, giving up things, and meditating on the stations of the cross. (Fridays, for me, meant tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I hated fish in my youth.) For most mainline Christians, Lent is a season of focusing on our sinful or in need of healing selves. It is a time to be painfully honest about our shortcomings and our need to repent. This year, Vicki has offered us the tangible and rich symbolism of rocks to assist us in owning our need to forgive and be forgiven. We are invited to bring a rock, a stone to the pile growing in the sanctuary, as a sign of our committing to God our desire and our decision to be an agent of reconciliation.

Lent is a somber season. Easter is out there but not yet. Lent need not be a beat ourselves up season. Our introspection can lead us to more life giving, life nurturing awareness and habits. Rather than giving up something, we can choose to do something – like acknowledging the people we love with acts of kindness; like reaching out to persons we do not know with acts of kindness.

Lent can also be a wilderness journey – a time not just for these 40 days but a period in our spiritual sojourn that confronts us with temptation, testing, and cries pleading for God’s presence. Lent can be instructive.

Today’s gospel is an instructive story of Jesus being tempted by the devil. The three temptations can be categorized as a challenge or temptation for power. Turn these stones into bread. Use your power to satisfy a physical need. We’ve been there. Not literally, but our physical needs have led us into temptation. What is our criterion for answering the innocent and not so innocent invitation to, “C’mon, go ahead. I know you want to.”

The second temptation is about political power. All the kingdoms of the world can be yours if you worship me. Political influence, popularity at school or work, a secure bank account. Name your desire. It can be yours. Sound familiar? How do we compromise our faith and our ambitions?

The devil has placed Jesus on the pinnacle of the Temple. Jerusalem’s temple is the White House of the Jewish world. This is where important events happen. This is where God shows up. If your faith is so powerful, if your God is so mighty, throw yourself down to the streets below. Will not the angels protect you? Will you not even stub your toe? (The devil is referencing the Psalm we heard earlier which is an assurance of God’s protection.) We are tempted daily to doubt God. We are engaged in a spiritual power struggle.

In this season of Lent may we be especially mindful of our choices. And while we are thinking about choices, let us choose to come to the table that Jesus sets, where God says, I love you.

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