Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent (February 22, 2026)
Transcript
This transcript was generated by YouTube AI and edited for clarity.
May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated.
What strikes me about this Gospel story is how Jesus sees right through the devil. He sees right through what the Great Litany calls “all the crafts and assaults of the devil” — all the sweet words and clever tricks.
I see it most clearly this year in the third temptation. The devil takes Jesus up onto a high mountain, and from there it is as though Jesus can see all the kingdoms of the world — all the governments, all the empires, all the places where power and wealth are concentrated.
And the devil says to Jesus, This is mine to give you. All the kingdoms of the world, all the wealth and the power of the world — it is mine, and I can give it to you.
But Jesus sees the truth behind what is happening. He sees that the world — its power and wealth and ways, its governments and institutions and all its people — is captive. Captive to what St. Paul calls not enemies of flesh and blood. You are not fighting one another, Paul writes. You are not fighting creation. You are not fighting the image of God. No, you are fighting against the spiritual forces of evil, against the powers of this present darkness.
People and institutions and governments and wealth and power are captive. And Jesus sees it. And he wants to set it free.
We can see it too. I think that is part of the grief and the horror and the trauma of this present season that we are all going through together as a community and as a country.
Let me name two examples.
First, with the Epstein files: the tentacles of exploitation and dehumanization are everywhere — in the highest halls of power and locally here in our own communities. What is being revealed is the lie that one human being is another’s to exploit or harm or dehumanize. The tentacles of that evil are everywhere. And what is being revealed is that we are captive to it.
Second, the presence of armed and masked guards in our communities, capturing people on our streets without due process, separating families. This is sin. And it is being revealed again — not far away, not in other lands, but here in our own communities and counties — where members of our own congregation and our neighbors are afraid to go to the grocery store because of the color of their skin or the language they speak.
The world is captive to the powers of this present darkness. And Jesus sees it. And he has come to set us free.
He says to the devil, “Away with you, Satan.” And just like that, the vision is gone. The devil departs, and the presence of angels — the presence of God’s protection, guidance, and refuge — is revealed. There they are.
We are entering a season in which we have gone out into the wilderness with Jesus. And I think part of our invitation — what we are called to do in this season of Lent — is to begin to see as Jesus does, to distinguish truth from a lie.
It is because Jesus can distinguish truth from a lie, love from hate, good from evil so clearly that he has power over the captivity of the devil and can banish him.
The gift — the spiritual gift — of discernment is also ours through Christ.
You know the great Reformation hymn… A mighty fortress is our God: a bulwark never failing. In one verse, Martin Luther writes about the power of the devil and the captivity of our world — its institutions and its people — and he says of the evil, “One little word shall fell him.” And in one of his journals, Luther wrote what that word was.
The word is “liar.”
If we can see the lies for exactly what they are, we have the power to say, “Away with you.”
And the thing about this captivity from which Jesus came to free us is that it is not just out there. Satan does not only have a hold over certain people we might like to point to. Satan has a hold in here. And this is where we become free. Because what happens out in the world has no power to hold us captive, no power to stop the power of love, if we become free here.
So in this season, we begin to distinguish truth from lies within. I like to tell myself: don’t believe everything you think.
I wrote a list of lies that hold me — or people I love — captive. You could probably write your own list.
What are the crafts and assaults of the devil, of the spiritual forces of this present darkness, that are living within me?
Maybe one of these will resonate with you.
You’re on your own. There’s no one to help. Whatever it is you’re going through, it’s not worth praying about, reaching out about, asking for help. Whatever it is that you’ve done, it’s not forgivable. You’re on your own.
This is a lie.
The truth is that we are in this together. We’re in this together. We’re in this with God. And, as Bishop Barbara Harris famously says, “the power of God behind you is bigger than the problem in front of you.”
Another lie: looking around in despair and saying, “There’s nothing to be done. There’s no point.” Or believing that whatever it is you might do is insufficient against the powers of this present darkness.
But the truth is — and the Great Litany says it well — all we are called to do is to be faithful in what we have been given to do, to carry out our several callings with singleness of heart. Pray. Make one phone call.
I met someone on Thursday afternoon who was fostering dogs, and she said, “This is how I stand up to authoritarianism.” And I said, “You genius!” Because anything that builds community and spreads love counts. No one is powerless.
If you think you’re powerless, if you think there’s nothing you can do, that is a craft and assault of the devil.
And maybe one last lie — so insidious: fight fire with fire.
When we see hatred and dehumanization, when we or people we love are treated with name-calling and contempt, the knee-jerk reaction is to respond with contempt, to call names, to hate back.
But the truth is, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
We are here becoming people who can tell the truth from a lie — both within and without. It is a gift of discernment. It belongs to us by the power of Jesus, to whom we belong by virtue of our baptism and our sharing in Holy Communion.
One little word shall fell him.
Liar.
Because the truth burns within us.
Amen.