Preached on the First Sunday in Lent (Year C), March 9, 2025, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Seattle, Washington at the 5:00pm Mass by Kevin Montgomery.
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13
Christ in the desert, by Jan Toorop
PAY ATTENTION TO ME!
Wow, do you know how good it feels to say what probably every preacher has wanted to say? Every teacher or parent has said it. Heck, I’m sure every one of us has said it or at least thought it from time to time. Sometimes, we really do have good reasons to get attention either personally or professionally. Other times, we just really crave attention, even me. I might be a huge introvert, but I actually kind of like having a bunch of people focused on me. (For limited periods of time of course.) Whether it’s here preaching or even playing George Washington in the Colonial Williamsburg play way back in second grade. Nothing wrong with that. It can be good, uplifting fun. But . . . imagine how much more attention people would pay if angels were to appear on either side of me and then lift me up. Maybe Satan was onto something there.
It’s an interesting way of saying it, “pay attention.” I recently listened to an episode of Ezra Klein’s podcast about how the primary currency today socially and politically is not money, but attention. And Satan was offering the same currency to Jesus. I can imagine how the temptations might have gone if it happened today:
Hey, Jesus, look at the world from up here. It’s a total mess, and it’s getting worse by the day. But you can do something about it. Actually, only you can fix it. I know that. You know that. But you can only do it with influence, and what gives you influence? Attention. Spectacle. Engagement. Jump. The Big Guy’ll see it. He’ll send angels to catch you. Think about how much people will notice if you’ve got some angels lowering you down to the ground. The videos will go viral. Just be sure to kick back some of that attention to me. That’s how it works. It’s the art of the deal.
Now don’t get me wrong. Attention isn’t necessarily bad. A baby needs attention if they’re to be fed or changed or just need comforting. You can’t make social change if everyone’s ignoring you. The church has to get people to notice if we’re to spread the Good News. So did Jesus.
But attention isn’t just for its own sake. It’s always directed to something. But what? Honestly, a lot of the time it’s directed to ourselves to feed our own egos, to cover over a sense of isolation, to make ourselves feel bigger and less insignificant. It makes us the center of our own worlds. But then who do we bow down to? That’s part of what Satan was trying to do with Jesus. “No one else is going to provide for you. If you want to survive, you’ve got to do it yourself. Surely, you know how things are supposed to be run. You have to seize the power to do that so that no one else will mess it up. Do you really expect that your ‘Heavenly’ Father has your back? Test him. He’ll send his angels, right? If he doesn’t, I can always send mine to lift you up and show everyone who’s really the boss.”
Jesus didn’t fall for it. He rejected what Satan was offering. And later Jesus was lifted up. Not by twelve legions of angels. Not even by one angel. But by Roman soldiers on a cross. Jesus does rule the world, not through strength and force, but through weakness and love. He feeds not himself, for he’s already full of the Spirit of life. Instead, he feeds others. Not with stones turned into semi-nourishing bread but with his very self. He takes the attention we give and directs it to the most marginalized among us and then ultimately to the Source of all that is, who gives us new life through the Spirit. So this Lent, pay attention. Not to the spotlight, but to those overlooked in the shadows. Not to your own glory or the glory of the world, but to the love of the one enthroned upon the Cross.
Pay attention. Pay attention.