The Landscape of Lent: Wilderness

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March 9, 2014 - 1st Sunday in Lent
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.”