February 22, 2026 | First Sunday of Lent @ Holy Trinity Lutheran Church – Buffalo, NY
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This past week, as we celebrated Ash Wednesday, I think we stirred up more questions than we answered.
We asked repeatedly:
What is Lent all about?
Why do we observe Lent?
What’s the purpose of Lent?
Is it for giving up chocolate, coffee, smoking, alcohol?
Is it about categorizing our thoughts, our words, our actions as either “good” or “bad”?
Is it all about what we’re not doing — where we fall short?
Is Lent about darkness and sin and shame and temptation and all those heavy churchy things?
Is the purpose of Lent for us to be beaten down, shamed, demoralized — as if these serve some purpose, as if they are some kind of sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God?
What is Lent?
Why do we observe it?
Repentance… sure. But why the emphasis on sin?
What would God’s purpose be in that?
An Alternative View of Lent
In one of the congregations I served in Maryland, there was a woman named Bonnie. Bonnie absolutely loved Lent.
Before my first Lent there, she explained to me why it was important. Lent, she said, is guilt-producing and demanding — and the more so, the better. She took it seriously.
On Ash Wednesday that year, we read the Invitation to Lent, the same one we read here: “I invite you, therefore, to the discipline of Lent—self-examination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love—strengthened by the gifts of word and sacrament.”
Lent felt like something to be endured — a necessary evil to move us from the celebration of Christmas to the joy of the resurrection at Easter. It was something to get through.
But Bonnie, in her own way, helped me see Lent differently.
Not just as something to endure — but as a season of its own kind of beauty.
A season of simplicity.
A season of clarity.
A season that is less about Jesus being absent and more about Jesus’ presence.
Jesus in the Wilderness
Today we hear about Jesus in the wilderness.
He has just been baptized by John in the Jordan. The heavens opened, and he heard, “You are my beloved.”
And then — almost immediately — the Bible tells us that Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tested by the devil.
But doesn’t it seem odd?
The same Spirit that descends on him…
The same Spirit that fills him…
That Spirit leads him into the wilderness?
The wilderness was a rough place and not safe at all. It was also the place where God’s people had wandered for forty years after the Exodus.
So the wilderness was not just a location, but an experience.
Out in the wilderness, starving, alone, and being tested in every way by the devil, Jesus was not any less full of the Holy Spirit than he was after being baptized by John the Baptist.
In the wilderness, he was not less beloved.
He was not less claimed.
He was not less held by God.
The Wilderness Is Not About Shame
Maybe that’s the shift.
Lent is not about punishment or shame.
It’s not about pretending that temptation doesn’t exist.
It’s not about beating ourselves up so God will be pleased.
It’s about clarity.
In the wilderness after the Exodus, God’s people sometimes felt abandoned. But they weren’t. God provided manna. God provided quail. When there was no water, Moses struck the rock and water flowed.
God was with them the whole time.
The wilderness was not proof of God’s absence.
It was the place where they learned God’s presence.
And so it is with us.
There are wilderness moments in our lives — times of temptation, uncertainty, darkness, fear. Times when we feel unsure and unsettled. Times when the darkness feels stronger than the light.
But in those moments, God does not abandon us.
Instead, wilderness moments are often when we experience Jesus’ presence more fully.
“You Are My Beloved”
Before Jesus faced temptation, he heard these words:
“You are my beloved.”
And that same word is spoken over you.
You are God’s beloved.
Lent is not about “becoming” beloved.
It’s about remembering that we already are.
It’s about learning to walk through the wilderness steady and grounded because we already belong to God.
Our Lenten Focus
As we continue through this season of Lent, we’ll explore different themes each week:
- Partnership with God — We do not go through this life alone. We partner with God.
- Prayer Has Power — We’ll talk about what prayer is and what it means.
- Miracle Mindset
- Life Has Purpose
- Resurrection Is Real
Stepping into the Wilderness of Lent
So today, on this first Sunday of Lent, we step into the wilderness of Lent knowing that we can walk through it steady because we already belong to God. We are already called beloved.
And that is enough.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Epicurious Lutheran 
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