Jesus is alive – death is defeated and love and life have triumphed – and not only on that wild, confusing first day but every day – which means that resurrection is the way God orders creation. Hope triumphs over despair; joy over sorrow; life over death. On the first day. On the last day. And on every day in between, even when we don’t see it. The world is full of resurrection stories.

…sometimes, this is what waiting for the resurrection requires of us – clarity, conviction, and courage in the face of that which we know to be wrong, know to be a perversion of the Good News of God in Christ.

I think this is what is required of us now, as Christians living in a time when the Christian faith is being named as source material and motivation for self-serving hatefulness, bigotry, and violence.

We know that, most of the time, resurrection is a long time coming. So how do we avoid getting stuck in sorrow or outrage; how do we hold on to hope in the face of despair; faith in the face of evil; no matter how long we have to wait for Easter Sunday to come?

On this first Sunday in Lent, we are given two stories of temptation with two very different outcomes so that we might begin the season with self-examination: which choice have I made? Whose lead have I followed? In whose service do I place my abilities and my talents? What kind of world am I helping to create?

Do not give up on the kingdom of God – and do not give up on the people of God who are, together as a body, given to the world as salt and as a light to reveal the goodness and beauty of God’s way, especially in the face of injustice and oppression and persecution and despair.