Lent I: Luke 4:1-13
“God of the wilderness, your Spirit leads us to face the truth, unprotected and exposed: in our times of trial, help us to resist the worship of empty power and the illusion of invulnerability that we might find our true food in Jesus Christ, the Broken Bread. Amen.” --Prayers for an Inclusive Church On Wednesday, we were invited into the observance of a holy Lent. We confessed, we were reminded of our mortality through the imposition of ashes, and we shared the Eucharist. And now we find ourselves in the desert wasteland with Jesus, and there are temptations all around. If we go back to chapter 3 of Luke, we are reminded that Jesus is sent out into the desert by the Holy Spirit just after his baptism...just after the heavens are parted and God declares that Jesus is the beloved. Imagine the wilderness...it isn’t a forest of trees like we have here...between the central plateau of Judea in Southern Palestine and the Dead Sea was a thirty five mile stretch of dusty hills, bare and jagged rocks, peeling limestone, hollow sounding ground and it was hot like a furnace. It is not a place of tranquil walks on hiking paths, it is a place known as Jeshimmon--the desolation. The wilderness wandering is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and some scholars argue that he goes out into the wilderness to figure out how his ministry will be--how will it be different from other self-proclaimed Messiahs, how it will be more encouraging and transformational, and how it might be more revolutionary. William Barclay, New Testament scholar and theologian, posits that three temptations speak specifically to the ministry that Jesus is about to embark on: “The temptation story shows us Jesus choosing once and for all the method…[for his ministry]. It shows him rejecting the way of power and glory and accepting the way of suffering and the cross.” (The Gospel of Luke, 42). Following Barclay’s theory, let’s reimagine the conversation between the devil and Jesus. Verse 3 reads, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” In other words, “If you want people to follow you, use your wonderful powers to give them material things”--bribe them. Jesus’ response is that material things are not life giving. In verse 5, the devil takes Jesus to look out over the kingdoms of the word and says, “I shall give to you all this power and their glory...All this will be yours if you worship me.” In other words, “Strike a bargain with me...compromise a little with evil and [people] will follow you.” Jesus’ response is that you can never compromise with evil; you can never compromise with the standards of the world. This is hard. We are taught to play nicely, to play fairly, to be willing to compromise. But when we are asked to compromise our integrity, to compromise our beliefs, to compromise our ministry for the sake of glory, power, wealth...the answer has to be no. And finally, in verse 9, the devil says that Jesus should throw himself down from the parapet of the temple, causing the angels to support and save him. In other words, give the people a sensation--a miracle--give them something they want to see over and over again. It is the temptation of fame, of the 15 minutes of headline news, in our world...becoming an internet sensation. But that sensation doesn’t last. So what does Jesus learn about his ministry out there in the desert? That bribing people to follow him, that compromising his integrity, and trying to claim fame for himself will not work--these are not in line with the message of love, grace and forgiveness that he wants to invite people into. I think these are lessons that the church wrestles with today. How do we get more people inside our walls? What traditions, beliefs and rituals are we willing to let go of to be more appealing? What flash in the pan, super exciting event or other miracle can get us in the paper this week? There’s nothing inherently wrong with revisioning the mission and ministry of the church...it’s actually very important to our vitality. But when it becomes about US--getting people inside OUR walls, letting go of OUR identity as Christians, getting OUR name in the paper--then we’ve given into the temptations of the wilderness. Jesus’ mission was and is to love our neighbor and our enemy, to care for the widow, the orphan, and those on the margins, to seek and give forgiveness freely. Jesus’ mission isn’t about self-service, but the service of others. But what about the personal wilderness and the temptations we face on a personal, day to day level? I know I face the temptation of complacency, anger and frustration, an inability to forgive myself and others...surely I’m not the only one. So what does the story of Jesus in the wilderness teach us? Where is the good news? A friend who is really struggling right now with his own wilderness said to me the other day, “Jesus went into the wilderness as a sign of solidarity with all those who are suffering, wandering, tempted and lost. He engaged the devil as a model for us; as a way of learning how to say no in the face of great temptations.” Pretty profound reminder for me. So what are the things that we need to say no to? In looking back to the Litany of Penitence from the Ash Wednesday service, there are some themes that I think we could consider for our own individual Lenten disciplines: --saying no to holding onto anger, frustration and resentment, and instead offering forgiveness --saying no to complacency, blindness to suffering and indifference to injustice and instead offering care, support and service to others --saying no to over-consumption, waste and pollution and instead practicing good stewardship of the environment and our treasure --saying no to prejudice, judgment and exploitation of others and instead listening carefully and opening our hearts and minds to transformation --saying no to distractions and over-commitments and instead spending time with God, with family, and with one another. Some of these disciplines are hard and take time; they require us to be vulnerable and willing to change. The wilderness is a hard place to live in. We too have a choice about how we want to live and be in the world. May this holy Lent be a time of self-reflection, listening, and forgiveness. Amen.
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AuthorI don't know what the future of the church is, but I know that we will continue to be a place of sanctuary and hope, working towards healing in the world. Archives
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