By Revd Fiona Bennett (From Seeds October – November 2026)

As we enter the Seasons of Wholeness (October) and Remembrance (November) I am interested this year to notice an increasing number of resources and talks about how to hold integrity and balance in a culture of polarisation and sound bites.

This is not an easy or simple task but an ongoing discipline which seems to be confronting a hydra empire of economically motivated media and fear driven by overwhelming change. The Seasons of Wholeness and Remembrance seem like a good time to take stock and refresh that discipline of holding integrity and balance.

When Jesus was starting out his ministry, he was asked to confront what kind of Messiah he was going to be. In the wilderness he was tempted and those temptations forced him to identify who he was and how he would carry out his ministry.

Would he seek to be a Messiah who responded to the immediate demands of hunger (this is not about starvation) or could he see farther to make wiser choices?

Would he be a Messiah who would demand specific results from God and in doing so publicise his status to the world?

Would he be a Messiah who would bow down to the ways of force, domination, violence (the ways of the Empire) because they seem to get the job done more quickly?

Jesus managed to resist these temptations; he saw the bigger picture, he lived in the confidence but uncertainty of faith, and he trusted the slow ways of love. He was not respected, trusted or understood by many of those he met, but he held his own despite that.

The story of Jesus’ temptations is for me a key to following Jesus. It offers the path of the discipline of love and grace. It may be a story we generally associate with Lent, but in our present culture of polarisation and sound bites, I believe it offers Jesus’ path to wholeness and a story to remember.