Naming Empire’s Enticements

What does it say about our spiritual imaginations that Lenten fasts often center on our relationship to food, drink, or media, but less often on our relationship to power? As we begin Lent, Christopher Mack examines the testing of Jesus in the wilderness through the lens of how we steward and are enticed by power. [Matthew 4:1-11]

Reflection

• Where do you feel the pull to compromise your values and purpose?
• How might the power, perks, and prestige of Empire distract us from collective action?
• Where have you seen scripture, prayer, and community used to hurt and to heal? How might this change how you engage with them in the coming weeks?

Resources

• Book: Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading by Warren Carter
• Book: The Jesus Way: A Conversation On the Ways that Jesus Is the Way  by Eugene Peterson
• Litany: Levingston, Zhailon. “Hope: A Litany Claiming Another World Is Possible and On Its Way.” In Rally: Communal Prayers for Lovers of Jesus and Justice, edited by Britney Winn Lee 
• Vox Values