March 10, 2019

C15: The First Sunday in Lent, Year C (2019)

Carla Pratt Keyes

What’s so special about Lent? Carla Pratt Keyes says, “Lent provides us with a space to examine the stories we tell, to face the feelings behind those stories, to name the longing and pain and fear we feel and to learn from those feelings.” In Luke 4:1-13, Jesus enters the wilderness and has stories shouted at him by the devil. He has to face these stories and overcome them, just as we must in our wilderness seasons. On this first Sunday in Lent, Keyes, pastor of Ginter Park Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia, challenges us to think about what truths we might uncover if we dare to examine the stories we tell ourselves. “The question,” she asks, “is will we go there?”

Manuscript available: click HERE