| Luke 4:1-15 "Center of the Universe" |
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| Written by Rev. Don Lee | |
| Saturday, 18 February 2006 | |
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Some of you don’t want to be here, do you?! Your parents, your mate, your conscience drug you here, in some cases screaming and kicking! For some of us that’s particularly true during Lent. · Confession of sin? · acts of personal denial? · Guilt? · Grief? · Repentance…? Sign me up! The brutal truth? Most of us would rather have our body waxed then deal with our own brokeness and sin. The Gospel reminds us that the empty tomb comes only by way of the cross. Despite it’s inward nature, Lent is a journey we take together. C.S. Lewis referred to the world as we know it as the Shadowlands because it is only a shadow of what is to come. The psalmist writes, “Yea though I walk through the valley of shadows…” Welcome to the Shadowlands! Despite the human soul being one of the most universal beliefs most of life is concerned only with what happens between birth and death. I might even be tempted to buy into a “Go for the gusto” life as a beer commercial philosophy except that something inside says this is not the best life lived. Life is more than just an accumulation of things and experiences. The older I’ve gotten, the more I realize just how unimportant some of things I thought I needed really are and that the things I’ve been chasing do not guarantee happiness or truly make life meaningful. Like the greyhound who finally catches the mechanical rabbit only to realize that she has spent her entire life chasing after something that wasn’t real! I resonate with writer Ann Lamott when she says, “And now as a parent I struggle between my hopes for my own children to love and be loved, to find peace and laugh and find meaningful work but also that ingrained cultural mindset, to get ahead, sock some money away, and chase the bunny for a while.” So before you and I set off on another wild goose chase, we have the opportunity to say, “Enough!” And in stead, think and reflect and live as spiritual people. What I want to do for the next several weeks leading up to Easter is explore the soul and its journey toward its “final destination” in God. This morning I want to talk about temptation. “Everything is made from dreams,” croons a soulful Diana Krall in her song “Temptation.” Temptation’s mantra says, “If only….” Our Scripture reading is from Luke 4:1-15. Following his baptism, the Holy Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness. It’s in the wilderness that he meets the nemesis as humanity. Some might suggest that the devil referred to in the gospels is simply a personification of temptation or D–EVIL within us. For our purposes here it doesn’t matter. What we do know is that Jesus is being asked to do things he believes are wrong. And that seems like as good a place as any to begin our journey. Please stand for the reading of the Gospel. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2where 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. 3The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ 4Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.” ’ 5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And 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. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ 8Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” ’ 9 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, 10for it is written,“He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, 11and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’ 12Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’ 13When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. 14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. Isn’t it odd that Luke connects Jesus’ baptism to the Spirit driving Jesus into the wilderness? It seems there’s something about the beauty and sacredness of baptism that Luke wants to join to the very genuine human experience of temptation. What happens to Jesus following his baptism should give us a clue as to what we can expect to happen to us following our own baptism. Wilderness is symbolic in the Bible. It came to represent Israel’s 40 years of wilderness wanderings. A time of testing for Israel; a chance to prove the nation’s mettle. Jesus will accomplish the feat in just 40 days. He faces three specific temptations. The 1st “Wilderness Temptation” Jesus faces is PRIDE. Verse 3, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ Temptation echoes the words spoken by God at Jesus’ baptism, “You are my son…” If you truly are the Son of God, then prove yourself! One might even expect Jesus to feel some obligation to defend God’s claims… “Of course I am God’s son…How dare you question God’s integrity. Here… look, see! Satisfied now?” As one writer put it, “The person who could turn stone to bread could do a lot of good for poor, suffering humanity, and would be canonized quicker then Mother Teresa. Jesus says “no.” p.37-39 Sinning Like a Christian Instead of giving in to pride, Jesus defers to God in humility. “One does not live on bread alone…” Matthew 4:4 adds, “But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Are you happy? Are you content and at peace? Are you satisfied with what you have? Temptation says, “Don’t be!” Prosperity, instead of being a tangible sign of our faithfulness or God’s blessings, is often evidence of our submission to our appetites, the temptation to seek (in the words of Isaiah 55:2, “for that which does not satisfy.” It’s been my experience that temptation tells you what you will gain, it rarely tells you what you might lose! The kingdom of God is more than bread! So Jesus says “No” to the temptation of pride. The 2nd Wilderness Temptation Jesus faces is IDOLATRY. Vs. 6 and 7, ‘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. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ I will give you all “this” to govern, to do the greatest amount of good through politics. Surely if anyone could “do justice” to politics, it would be Jesus. Jesus’ response, taken from Exodus 20, verse 3, slams the door on this temptation. “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” No matter how seemingly “innocuous” or “grand and glorious” the payoff, what we worship will be god to us. Morning News columnist, Jacquielynn Flood recently wrote about the CEO who lied on his job resume and then resigned in disgrace. Citing statistics that a significant percentage of resumes contain inaccuracies, she comments, “It makes me wonder whether a lot of people just don’t view this as-well, as lying. Not real lying, anyway. Not anything that other people don’t do in life’s big getting-ahead marathon. They think everybody else is doing it.” -P. 2B, 2/23/06 Here’s what I think. That CEO could just have easily been anyone here this morning. He probably went to church, attended Sunday School, gave financially and maybe even help with a service project or two. At what point did he decide the end justified the means? Here’s a good diagnostic question to ask yourself: "Am I more given to having what I want or wanting what I have? And what role does God play in this?" We may like to think that the end justifies the means, but the Bible calls this idolatry. “And when it comes to politics,” comments theologian William Willimon, “there does seem to be an obvious linkage with worship of the devil.” AMEN? Jesus says “No” to the temptation of IDOLATRY. The 3rd temptation Jesus faces is the DENIAL OF HIS IDENTITY. Verses 9 –11, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, 11and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’ The devil cites Psalm 91:11-12 to tempt Jesus to prove himself. To call upon God to deliver him from death in Jerusalem, the very same temptation Jesus will face at Gethsemane! “Throw yourself down,” says the devil. Jesus is tempted to not only deny the redemptive nature of his messianic identity but to use his gifts for purely self-serving ends. When my prayers are mostly about “what I want” instead of “what God wants,” I deny my God-created identity. We abuse our God given gifts when we use them for purely self-serving ends. To feed our pride by upgrading our lifestyle. Oh sure we give our 10% to charity, or maybe more accurately, our 2-5%, but the vast majority of our resources are used for purely personal ends. Jesus’ response is a quote from Deuteronomy 6:16, “Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah.” In a thought provoking article about the struggles of dealing with her mother’s onset of Alzheimer’s, Jan Shoemaker writes, “I thought about how brittle I was feeling inside-like seasoned cordwood, when what I wanted was wetness, fluidity. And I felt keenly that I did want very much to serve something beyond myself. I only needed the capacity to do what comes, and can only come from love-which is buoyant and sloppy and perilous and life-sustaining. Inside my kindling self I felt the beginning of a damning conflagration, and I understood hell for the first time. And I recognized sin, finally, as the condition of self that draws a border around its own body and its private appetites, its desires for time, money, power-insert your private hoard here-and excludes the other. “ p.8 Zion Herald Vol. 180 Issue 1 Sin undermines our ability to love. Something else: Sin almost always has broad social implications. We may say our hearts, minds, and doors are open, but our “isms” snitch us out. To seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God is a life of radical inconvenience! Honestly, if someone offered us a free trip to…say Maui wouldn’t we find a way to go? So when I tell you there’s an Adult Mission Trip to New Orleans coming up in April, will you find a way to go? IT’S A QUESTION OF APPETITES! What do you hunger and thirst for, righteousness, or something else? In C.S. Lewis’s classic story, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a boy named Edmund travels through a magical wardrobe into Narnia and is captured by the White Witch. He initially doesn’t trust her but then ignores his instincts when she caters to his appetite for Turkish Delight. So consumed by desire for this “enchanted” confection that he tells the White Witch everything she wants to know, and can think of nothing else save the now empty box looking back at him. The “Empty box syndrome” is that insatiable desire in us for more, even at the cost of jeopardizing that which we hold most dear and noble. Our appetites are destroying the environment. They are consuming the poor who are not paid livable wages despite their hard work. Our appetities can cheapen human life. Yes, our consumption drives the economy but at what cost? The national savings rate is actually negative! That hasn’t happened since the Great Depression! What’s that tell you about what’s going on here? Then he said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them 1) deny themselves and 2) take up their cross daily and 3) follow me. Luke 9:23 Folks, one out of three is not going to cut it! As one writer puts it, “Baptism is not some silver bullet. Instead, baptism is a way to live life in covenant with God. To live an authentic life is to become vulnerable to the authentic trials and temptations that life throws at us. Ironically, many times we assume that baptism protects us from evil and temptation. However, upon closer scrutiny this text reminds us that it is baptism that often does what the Spirit does to Jesus. “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness,” and surely Mark reminds us that this eventuality is in our future as well. It is in the wilderness of life where the Spirit takes us after baptism that we make connections between Lent and the Christians’ wilderness journey in sin toward God’s liberating grace. P.25 Circuit Rider Jan/Feb 06 In the wilderness, God’s Spirit gives us power to live our God created identities. Jesus embraces his identity. As we continue this journey through the Shadowlands we will face temptation again and again and again. The Good News is, that Jesus not only goes with us on this journey, he shows us the way. Jesus invites us to say “no.” · “No” to pride and to idolatry and · “Yes” to our God-created identity. Verses14&15, Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. REMEMBER YOUR BAPTISM! You are a precious child of God. Every good decision makes you stronger. For the decisions you can’t seem to make, get help. And when all else fails….pray! We come to this table broken, disconnected, obsessed with the “want” to the point of distraction. And at this table we find grace. God’s dream is that we become participants in the ongoing drama of God’s redemptive love. This is a good dream. |
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