Sermon for Lent 1C – RCL
March 10, 2019 – St. Matthew’s
Luke 4:1-13
After
his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was
led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the
devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was
famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this
stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written,
'One does not live by bread alone.'"
Then
the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the
world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all
this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I
please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered
him, "It is written,
'Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.'"
and serve only him.'"
Then
the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,
saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,
for it is written,
'He will command his angels concerning you,
to protect you,'
to protect you,'
and
'On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus
answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the
test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until
an opportune time.
Today
is the first Sunday in lent. A time we
are called to prepare ourselves for Holy Week and Easter. A time the church invites us into a time of
self-examination and repentance. Notice
that the church invites – not demands – that we prepare during these forty
days. For the church to demand would be
bordering on being the tempter that Jesus encountered in the wilderness. To demand certain actions would be to assert
that we somehow know your relationship with God and your need to change that
relationship.
This
is also not about equating giving up chocolate, or alcohol, or some other thing
with Jesus being tempted by the evil one.
The temptations of Jesus are about identity theft. The devil in these temptations does not
really question if Jesus is the Son of God.
The devil acknowledges Jesus’ special relationship with God and tempts
Jesus to exert more power, to claim more.
The devil tempts Jesus to take on the kind of power that frankly the
world expects of the messiah. The devil
temps God to use a different kind of tool to bring about God’s kingdom. A tool of power and might. If only God would turn more power over to the
evil then we could get it over with and have God on the throne here on earth.
The
devil is trying to change Jesus from the one that Isaiah proclaimed who would
come to heal the sick, and open the eyes of the blind and make the pathway
level to a powerful emperor to rule the world.
To change Jesus form someone who challenges the power structures that
corrupt to embracing absolute power that Lord Acton, the 19th c.
British politician famously said corrupts absolutely.
The
good news is that Jesus rejects the temptation to change his relationship with
the godhead and with humanity. The good
news is that Jesus is determined to show that there is a different way that is
not the way of absolute power and absolute corruption. A way that recognizes a Love that is, in the
eyes of our world, crazy. A love that
loves all of God’s creation no matter what.
What
does this tell us about our lives?
Caroline Lewis from Luther Seminary suggests that “perhaps there is one
takeaway from Jesus’ temptation that might make a difference for a life of
faith, besides being reminded of the fact that Jesus is Jesus -- and we are
not. Perhaps the one parallel between Jesus’ testing in the wilderness and the
tests of our own lives is the identity test -- that who you are, who you have
chosen to be, who God has called you to be, seems to be a truth that is tested
often. In fact, every, single, day.”[1]
One
way we can prepare for Easter, for the day we remember that God’s love will not
be killed by anything humankind can do, is to focus on our identity. Not the identity that our society wants to
impart on us – the identity as a consumer, as a pawn in our political system,
as a democrat or republican. Not the
identity that Facebook creates as it serves us ads for anything we happen to
look at – or the algorithms think we should be looking at.
Lent
is a time to focus on our real identity. Our identity as beloved children of
God. A time to remember that we are
loved by God so much that God came to earth in human form to show a better way. The reality is that we are tempted to give up
that identity – or at least question it on a regular basis.
The
advertising industry is always trying to get us to give up that identity. To give it up because we are obviously
lacking. Lacking that one thing that
will spark joy in our lives. If we would
only fork over more cash to buy some “thing”, or go on some vacation, or live
in some gated community, then we would be fulfilled. We would be safe. The message is we are not fulfilled because
we do not have “it” – whatever it is.
Politicians
try to steal our identity too. They try
to sell us a vision that we are not safe under the current political regime – or
that we won’t be safe if the other side comes into power. We are told that the other – those who do not
look like the dominate power structure, which is mostly wealthy white males,
are somehow out to steal whatever we value.
We are told that if we vote for them, we will somehow be safer. That we will somehow be better. Political campaigns these days are about
gaining power and instilling fear. Fear
that somehow our power will be taken from us.
Politics in many places have devolved into identity politics that equate
safety and power as sitting only with those who look like those in power. And those that don’t are demonized.
All of
this pulls us away from our true identity.
Our identity as beloved children of God.
Loved no matter the color of our skin, no matter our national origin, no
matter our sexual identity, no matter our wealth – or lack of wealth. Loved because God made us and values us and
desires nothing more than we spread that love to all corners of God’s beloved
creation.
Lent
is a time to prepare. And one way to
prepare is to look for the temptations that turn us away from the Love of
God. What are the temptations that steal
your identity as God’s beloved child?
For Jesus the devil was sure that the temptation that would separate
Jesus were all based on power – power to change from a message of healing into
the evil message of domination.
We are
walking in a wilderness time. There are
so many messages out there that question our validity, that question our place,
that question our worth. Wilderness can
be a scary place – but it can also be a place where the Holy Spirit shows up to
help us find our identity. Even in this
time of wilderness where society tells me that the un-homed are unworthy I find
God In surprising places and people.
On Wednesday I participated in Ashes to Go at
St. Paul’s. Starting at 7:30 – while the rain was
blowing sideways – I opened the J street doors to offer a prayer for a holy
lent and a reminder that God loves God’s beloved creation while administering
ashes. During this time I also opened up
the doors of the church so that our un-homed parishioners could come out of the
cold and the rain and find a place of warmth.
One of our long term un-homed folk came in for a couple of hours and
then left. When he returned, he brought
me a breakfast from the nearby 7-11 and said “here – Eat” How did he know
that I had not eaten breakfast before leaving the house clutching my coffee
cup? In that action I saw God’s work in
the world. In that action I saw him not
as an un-homed person but as a beloved Child of God helping to bring about God’s
dream of love to our world.
The
church invites us this lent to find what steals our identity as beloved
children of God. To identify the
temptations that turn us away from the path of light and love to a path of
darkness and doubt. Perhaps that means
giving up chocolate. Perhaps that means
giving up alcohol. But only if those
things are temptations that turn us away from Gods love. Only if they are things that separate us from
the ability to see God’s creation as good.
Only if they prevent us from journeying with Jesus to Calvary. Only if they prevent us form seeing the empty
cross and empty tomb on Easter.
Lent
is a gift. A gift that invites us to
find time to once again see that the Love that came to us on Christmas is in us
and cannot be killed. The love that came
down on Christmas cannot be killed - not even on the cross. And that love desires nothing more than that
we claim out identity as beloved children of God. We are invited to spend this lent exploring
the ways that separate us from our identity and to turn away from them and turn
to God and embrace our true identities.
Amen.
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