March 9, 2014 - 1st Sunday in Lent
Matthew 4:1-11
Matthew 4:1-11
1Then Jesus was led up
by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.2He
fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.3The
tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones
to become loaves of bread.”4But he answered,
“It is written,
‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth
of God.’”
5Then the devil took him
to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6saying
to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear
you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
7Jesus
said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9and he said to him, “All
these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10Jesus
said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your
God, and serve only him.’” 11Then the devil left him, and suddenly
angels came and waited on him.
Sermon: The Landscape of Lent: Wilderness
I have many names: Lucifer, the Tempter, the Devil, Satan…I tried to get
He Who Shall Not Be Named to catch on, but it didn’t. Whatever you call me, I know you’ve heard of me. I’m
infamous like that. Let me set the
record straight on a few things: I have certainly “gone down to Georgia” from
time to time, but never have I had a fiddle war for someone’s soul. Though, I should say, I’m one hell of a fiddler.
I’m not sure I’m always “in the details” as you say…I’m more in the
distractions. And I don’t really have a
“devil-may-care” attitude, because the truth is, I don’t much care about
anyone. But my wonderful self, of
course. And what about this phrase where
someone says they’ll play “my advocate?”
This perplexes me. People are
never talking about the glory of gluttony or splendor of sin when they do
this. They’re usually just giving their
opinion and sticking my name on it. That
doesn’t seem very fair.
Not that I care much about fairness, either. You’ve heard of Job, right? Oooh, that was fun. A little bargain with God to test just how
faithful that fella really was. I got to
inflict all sorts of harm on him, but in the end, he returned to God. That’s what I call a snooze of an
ending.
But I got an even greater opportunity to play the Tempter later on, with
the Son of God himself! (Yes, I do
recognize he is the Son of God – I might be evil, but I’m no fool.) After he was dunked in some water (what do
you people call it? Baptism, I think?),
he was led into the wilderness. My very
favorite place.
I do a lot of my work in the wilderness.
Now, I’m not just talking tumbleweeds and deserts, here. I mean the wilderness of worry, the
wilderness of busyness, the wilderness of competition, the wilderness of
anger. I do my best work there. But this time, it was a literal wilderness,
complete with rocks and dust and everything.
Jesus was sent – by God’s Spirit no less – to meet with me for a
Western-style wilderness duel. I
couldn’t even contain my excitement. I
brought my best temptation arsenal with me: instant gratification, ego and
power.
The first sounds simple: I watched that Son of God grow skinnier and
skinnier, and waited. When he could
barely stand from hunger, I knew it was time to make my move. Practicing my most enticing smile, I said,
“Hey JC, you’re looking a bit famished, there.
Why not just command this stone here to become a loaf of bread? Are you the Son of God or not?” (Instant gratification, you see?)
He was surprisingly quick-witted for a starving guy. “It’s written, “One does not live by bread
alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Oh, I saw how this would go down. He was gonna throw some Deuteronomy at
me? Please! Two can play that game…
The second temptation was bigger than the first: ego. I took him to the top of the temple and
taunted him with Psalm 91, “Cast yourself down from here, for it’s written God
will command his angels concerning you, so that you will not dash your foot
against a stone. Are you the Son of God
or not??” Jesus just quietly said, “It
is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” OH GOODY.
More Deuteronomy.
It’s okay, I saved the greatest temptation for last: power. I showed him all the kingdoms of the world
and said that if he’d just bow down and worship me (hey, I think I’m pretty
great), it would all be his. At this
point, he got really angry. “Leave me
alone!” he shouted, quite loudly for a starving guy. Again with the Deuteronomy, he finished with,
“Worship and serve only God.”
Before I knew it, angels were swooping in to tend to him, which was my
exit cue. Talk about a let down! My temptations didn’t work in the wilderness
with Jesus. Hmm…but they might work on
you, especially if you’re in a wilderness place.
In the wilderness of an overstuffed schedule, I’m going to tempt you to
add more and more to it, and rest and be still less and less. Oh yes, that’s a good one.
In the wilderness of loneliness and depression, I’m going to tempt you to
think you’re all alone and make you think that telling people how you feel
would be a burden to them.
In the wilderness of questioning your faith, I’m going to tempt you to
believe you can question God out of loving you, or that you can’t help anybody
else until you know everything you believe.
In the wilderness of being too rigid in your faith, I’m going to tempt
you by making you think that you are constantly under attack – especially from
non-Christians – so that you see them as a threat and not a neighbor.
In the wilderness of illness, I’m going to tempt you to think you can’t
ask anyone for help and that things will always be the same and never get
better.
Oh yes, Tempter might be my favorite name of all. I have such fun with it. The best part is, I don’t even have to do
much. You do it to yourselves, all of
those temptations I just mentioned. I
just have to sow a few seeds of self-doubt and fear and that’s all it takes for
you to forget God and each other.
Just do me a favor, will you? Make
this little game of mine more fun by ignoring scripture. Don’t read it regularly, don’t see it as a
tool to give you strength. Also, please
isolate yourself from people you disagree with – the more fractured you are,
the more fun I have. And please, stop
talking to God. Don’t even bother
praying, especially don’t pray for your enemies. Don’t admit when you’re wrong or have hurt
people and ask for their forgiveness, but instead just hold onto anger and
frustration as long as possible.
Let me have my fun, will ya?
Otherwise, this Lent is going to be very boring for me. It will be just like that wilderness with
Jesus, when I couldn’t even begin to shake the foundations of his faith, even
when he was famished and exhausted. I
just hate that. When people draw deeply
upon the promises God makes them to take care of them and practice patience
instead of instant gratification. I hate
when people put others before themselves and abandon their ego to serve someone
else. I have when power is rejected in
order to worship God above all. I have a devil of a time tempting people
then.
Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say to you today. Now, what’s that word you use at the end of
these things? Finite? Ta-da?
The End? Oh, right, I’ve
remembered it: “Amen.”
No comments:
Post a Comment