Bread, Circuses and Power

Sermon at Windsor United Church of Christ, Feb. 22, 2026

 Psalm 1; Matthew 4: 1-11

Let’s start with bread. 

Who here likes bread? 
Do you have a favorite? 
Shout it out!

Mine is cinnamon raisin. It is often part of my breakfast. 

For the ancient Israelites, a form of bread called manna came down from the skies and sustained them during parts of their 40 years in the desert. And as they looked for a messiah, they envisioned someone who could feed them forever, just like God had done in their desert wanderings.

So when this devilish figure told Jesus after he had spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness to turn stones into bread - “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” – some of the Jewish people who heard this story would have considered this as a way to find out if this strange man really was the messiah they had been waiting for.

But Jesus was not about making bread for himself. He was about making bread for the world – not really so far from that ancient Jewish idea of what a messiah might do. 

A bit later in the Gospel according to Luke, we’ll hear about how Jesus took a few loaves of bread and managed to feed a whole crowd. 

We’ll read about him breaking bread at dinner with religious leaders and tax collectors and prostitutes, finally breaking bread with his closest followers on the night before he was executed and then breaking bread again after his resurrection – and his followers recognizing him in that breaking of bread.

Jesus was showing us not just how to reject this idea of only feeding ourselves. Through his life, though his actions, he was showing us how to feed those around us – our families, our neighbors, even those in lands far away. You do that here with things like the food pantry, helping with Norski Nibbles, with Food for Kids, with Our Churches Wider Missions offerings. 

So the tempter wanted Jesus to turn stones into bread for himself. Nope – this is not about me. And bread is not enough to sustain us in any case. We need God’s word to sustain us.

OK, then, let’s try something else. How about jumping off the very top of the temple? Sure, the angels will catch you and you will wow the crowds. Just think of all the attention you will get.

It turns out that Jesus was not really about doing dramatic things to get attention. (Yes, I know, he rose from the dead, which is more than a little dramatic, but that was not quite the same.)

But both the tempter and Jesus both knew that crowds will pay attention to drama. Have you noticed that in your lives these days?

We think we can amaze people and they will admire us. In this era a battling for attention, jumping off the temple - or climbing a nearly 1,700 foot skyscraper without ropes like Alex Honnold did in Taiwan last month - is a good metaphor.

We have a term for it these days – the attention economy. The one who gets the most attention wins. Or at least makes the most money or gets the most votes or gets the most likes. 

Maybe the test for us is a little different than the one for Jesus. Maybe the test for us is to get our focus back to the things that really matter, not the latest shiny object, not the clickbait that flies by on our screens. 

Journalists Jim VanderHei (who grew up in Oshkosh) and Mike Allen wrote this on their news site Axios last week: “Your reality is formed from what you read, see, listen to and experience… The people you follow, the videos you watch, the podcasts you hear, the news you read all shape the world you know.”

So much comes flying at us and it is not all under our control. Maybe as we go through this Lent, we can consider that the temptation for us is not to jump off the top of the temple – or free climb the 11th tallest building in the world – but rather the temptation for us is to let our attention be captured by too many things that really don’t matter. 

Here’s a fun side note. A few years ago, I had a chance to visit some of the holy sites in Israel and Palestine. One of them is the mountain described as the place in the wilderness where Jesus faced these temptations. You take a cable car up. And while you are there…you can visit the Temptation Cave. Yes – it’s a gift shop.

Of course, the folks around us – especially our kids – notice where our attention goes. And not just in gift shops.

A few years ago, according to a management consultant, Disney World executives wanted to know what captured the attention of infants and toddlers in the theme parks and hotels in Orlando. So they hired someone to observe. Was it the costumed cast members or the animated creatures or the twirling rides or the smell of snacks?

It turns out it wasn’t all the magic that Disney had created. It was their parents’ cell phones, especially when the parents were on their cell phones. The kids saw what really attracted attention.

Let’s take a break from putting your attention on me – at least I think your attention is on me. Let’s pay attention to each other. I know this is out of the normal pattern, but would you look to the person to your left and say “Neighbor” -- “I see you!” And now look to the person to your right and say “Neighbor” -- “I see you.”

That’s way better than whatever might be showing up elsewhere in our attention economy.

For Jesus, he was not about to test God with one dramatic action. Instead, he let his teachings and actions get people’s attention over several years as he moved through Galilee and then all of Israel. He used that attention then as a platform to spread the good news that God’s realm was in the midst of the people if only they would live according to the vision that God held out to them. There we are again – God’s word is there to sustain us, not flashy stunts.

OK – one more test. Here you go, Jesus. You can have so much power – all the kingdoms of the world – and for such a small price. Just fall down and worship me.

Getting and keeping power is so tempting. 

I have been thinking of a couple of stories about this temptation. One is especially timely today.

Yes, I know last Monday was Presidents’ Day. But today is the actual birthday of George Washington, that very first president. He was born in 1732 – that’s 294 years ago. He led the American forces in the Revolutionary War and was so revered that he was the unanimous choice to be the first president. And then he was re-elected unanimously to a second term. When it was time to run for a third term – to hold on to power and the admiration of the citizens of this new nation - he said no.

It was simply that he understood that power was not something to cling to. He was tired, he wanted to go back to Mount Vernon, he wanted the nation to have a truly contested presidential election. 

How many of you have seen the musical Hamilton, either in person or on TV? There’s this wonderful scene in there where Washington tells Alexander Hamilton that he will not seek another term.

At first, Hamilton doesn’t believe him. So Washington starts to sing:
   One last time.
   Relax and have a drink with me.
   One last time.
   Let’s take a break tonight.
   And then we’ll teach them how to say good-bye, to say good-bye,
   You and I.

And then a bit later, he sings, 
   The people will hear from me
   One last time
   And if we get this right
   We’re gonna teach ‘em how to say goodbye.

Let’s not turn George Washington into Jesus. But there is a lesson here about seeking and clinging to power. There is another ancient story as well.

A man named Cincinnatus – yes, our city of Cincinnati is named after him – was a Roman leader some 500 years before Jesus was born. He was a powerful figure in his prime, even a dictator at one point. After his retirement, he returned to a life of farming. But when the Roman army was nearing defeat from a rebel force, Cincinnatus was brought back from his farm to take control of the state. Within 16 days, they vanquished the foe. And then he gave up his power again.

Power is a tricky thing – not just for government leaders but for business executives and yes, for clergy. Even for people in positions of power in organizations or – gulp – congregations. Knowing when to use power for good and when to let it go is one of life’s harder choices. 

Henry Sanders, the publisher of the news site Madison365, wrote about that this past Wednesday. He said: “There’s a quiet shift that happens in leadership if you’re not careful. You start believing that if you don’t hold it together, it won’t hold…The more responsibility you carry, the easier it becomes to assume everything depends on you.”

So over time, leaders stop operating from responsibility and start operating from control, he observed.

Jesus knew how to weight the cost of power. He knew that evil could take control and that what really mattered was keeping his focus on God – worship and serve only God was how he put it.

In our Call to Worship today, we said “It is God who sustains us, not the temptations of this world” so “We follow our faithful Lord.”

In the Psalm we heard – the first of the 150 in the Book of Psalms – we about not following the path of the wicked – those who think bread is just for themselves or who want all of our attention or who cling to power for control. Instead, the writer of the Psalm said those who delight in God are like “trees planted by streams of water…whose leaves do not wither.”

You see, the temptations that Christ was facing in that wilderness place really have some relevance to our lives today. Yes, he later taught his followers to pray “lead us not into temptation,” but first, he showed us what we can do when temptations come along.

Instead of turning stones into bread for ourselves, we can break bread with others as we are nourished on God’s word.

Instead of striving for attention or letting others’ gimmicks distract us, we can keep our focus on God’s love and how we extend that to those around us. 

Instead of making our lives all about seeking and clinging to power, we can sing a song like “Lord, I lift your name on high.” It is God whose power can guide us. 

So as we walk through this season of Lent, let’s watch for opportunities to share what we have, to see the goodness and the needs of those around us and to let God’s power pull us forward.

Amen.