At the start of the season of Lent the lectionary always flashes back to the event that
follows "immediately after the baptism," and it sets the tone for the forty day journey we are about
to embark on. While it may be symbolic, a metaphor or an actual account of the facts as they unfolded---facing
temptation is common to the human experience and never is there a greater temptation than doubting the affirmation
one hears at their baptism "You are a child of God."
Most of us will struggle with that conferred understanding for the rest of our lives. "How can you be a child
of God and do what you do?" "If you were God's child why would God allow this to be happening to you
now?" "I can understand why you might think that person is a child of God, but what have you done to
deserve that?" If we don't find ourselves asking those questions we can be sure that someone else will ask
them about us.
This is not about a one time questioning followed by a lifetime of assurance without challenges, anymore than it
was for Jesus. It's easy to misread this portion of the gospel and think that Jesus was fasting in the wilderness
for forty days and at the end the Devil appeared to tempt him in his weakened condition, that he then overcame
temptation in an instant and it never bothered him again. That would be nice…but that's not what the story says.
What it does say is that Jesus was in the wilderness…that place just outside the settled limits of the town, that
place just outside the comfort zone, just beyond where everything is within our control, going the way we think
it should go. And there, for forty days he was tempted…yet through the undergirding of his faith he survived by
calling on a faith tradition he had no doubt learned from his youth. And even then, after all that, the Devil departed
for a more opportune time.
Just when you think you have it all together, just when it begins to get back on track and you start to breathe
easier…it happens again.
All four lections address what it means to call on God, from Israel's escape from bondage in Egypt followed by
deliverance to the Promised Land, to Jesus and his deliverance in the wilderness. Both the psalm and the reading
from Romans say "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." And everyone will have ample
reasons to call!
Lent is a time to face the truth about the alternative ways we may have dealt with the situation, patchwork solutions
to a problem that won't easily go away. It's always harder to really hear God's suggestions and so we often opt
for what appears to be the easier way out.
In truth Jesus eventually did all the things the Devil tempted him to do. They were never really intrinsically
bad things to do, but he was wise enough to know he had to do them in God's time and in God's way.
He would respond to the challenge of making bread from stones by feeding the five thousand despite the hardened
hearts of his listeners.
He would receive the glory and authority of the crowd waving palm branches and lining the way with their coats
as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.
And he would prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that angels would rescue him from danger when his bloodied and
battered body was raised whole from the dead.
Luke would have us believe that he was wise enough to know the importance of divine timing, and was sustained throughout
the time of waiting by means of scriptures learned in childhood for use in the wilderness that comes to us all.
We however are so busy trying to keep ourselves in the right place that we face the danger of missing the right
directions when they are being given. Busy with trying to locate ourselves well, we must not forget that which
first locates itself in us. Paul reminds us today, quoting Deuteronomy, the word is "near you, on your lips,
and in your heart." Despite our best efforts to do for ourselves, we must not forget "For one believes
with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved."
In all of the temptations, to Jesus and to us Satan was really asking "Who are you?" It's always such
a subtle question asked every time we are put in a situation that allows us to respond in the transformed, elevated
way of the Christ or as we normally would have given the pressure of the moment.
Jesus' replies grounded him in the Jewish scriptures and traditions of his own faith and clearly articulated his
own deep connection with his beliefs through obedience to God's redemptive plan for humankind. He understood that
he was part of an ongoing story and through his compliance to it showed that he was firmly entrenched in it.
In Henri Nouwen's book "In the Name of Jesus," he says that Jesus' first temptation was simply to be
relevant: to do something as practical and as necessary as turning stones into bread. Jesus was actually being
asked to "fix just one of the major problems of the world."
What is so wrong with that?
It's one thing to think that you've been too busy to stop and eat so you pray for a meal to drop from heaven…that
would clearly be a selfish thing to do! But---if you were walking through the slums on the outskirts of any third
world location where children die from malnutrition and contaminated water, could you reject the magical gift of
making the dusty stone-covered streets into places where people could pick up any of the thousands of rocks and
discover that they had become nourishing food,---or where they fill their cupped hands with stale, polluted water
from open cisterns could you resist wanting to give them the joy of realizing that what they were drinking was
delicious and fortifying milk?
Isn't that who we are? Isn't that what we are called to be? Are we not called to be a generation of priests and
ministers --called to help people, to feed the hungry, and to save those who are starving? Are we not called to
do something that makes people realize that we do make a difference in their lives?
Jesus was faced with these same questions, but when he was asked to prove his power as the Son of God by such "relevant"
behavior he chose instead to rely on his trust in God's Word. "Human beings live not by bread alone, but by
every word that comes from the mouth of God."
Nouwen goes on to discuss the problem of Christian leadership which yields to the "temptation to be relevant"
or productive according to worldly understandings of what that means.
Each of the temptations has a far easier and more practical solution-but that does not make it God's. The temptation
to be an individualistic superstar, walking the tightrope alone; the temptation to control rather than to do the
harder work of trying to simply love.
The real temptation is always to prove who we are by some alternative standard,---that we are worthy, that we are
somebody. In reality God has already given us an identity and we don't have to keep proving it.
In reality there is only one temptation: self-definition vs. God's-definition. We share in Jesus' temptation to
the extent that it is always possible to leave God and serve one's own end.
That should be so easy to understand in a world where identity theft is becoming one of the top issues. There are
people who do not mind stealing and using your identity, even to the point of bankrupting you. So why do we have
such a hard time seeing the same thing happening here?
Life is a spiritual testing ground, and there is a battle going on for the human heart, the human core, the human
identity.
Every Ash Wednesday there is always a little child. Someone with sparkling eyes and all the promise of life ahead
of them. Someone's child or grandchild with a smile that could melt stone, full of life and potential. And you
always remember as you reach down and put your and on that child's forehead saying "Remember that you are
dust and to dust you will return," the reality of our common mortality and the grief such knowledge brings.
At numerous funerals, I've been the voice of the family and community gathered in grief speaking those most solemn
lines at the end of the rite: "we commit their body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to
dust."
If that person was loved by us, truly loved…those words fall on our ears like lead as we sit in silence, emptiness,
even disbelief at what we are bearing witness to. But witness we do for in those moments we know for certain there
is no alternative way, and knowing too that none of us or those we love will escape that moment is briefly sobering.
In such moments we do witness and acknowledge death, and dare to grasp at that higher truth that in the midst of
death and in the face of death, we are also called to witness and proclaim life!
It's a death defying act to wear the sign and mark of death in a way that boldly proclaims life.
Lent calls us to our mortality just as surely as Lent calls us to Christ's life. "We proclaim Christ crucified."
We acknowledge death, but we defy death in the resurrected life that we are called to live here and now. No other
people, community or organization can do this. Only the Church has this to take to the world. And that is through
you!
It's not that we don't all know this to be true…but it's hard to face, and the ultimate temptation is to try not
to focus on it…the end result? We lose sight of what a wonderful gift life is, how precious and fleeting. We forget
the intrinsic value of every person's magical moments upon this earth and act as if we can afford to ignore or
disparage them as we choose.
Temptation is a part of the human condition - indeed it is so much a part of our humanity - that when we are most
connected to God then we are most tempted. So those who belong to God risk even more--for their alternative choices
are all the more deadly.
Then, being tempted is just accepting what comes naturally - food when hungry - water when thirsty - sex when lonely
- power when challenged by an authority - condescension when working with inferiors - impatience when dealing with
the slow, the old or the feeble - rudeness when dealing with those who are paid to serve - intolerance when dealing
with those who don't fish or cut bait - hatefulness when dealing with those who contradict you - smugness when
considering one's own performance... pride when thinking of ones' own humility, one's own generosity, one's own
political astuteness, social grace, tolerance, or faithfulness.
All these things are natural - all these things are easy - and - as you know - all these things are so very, very
common.
At the end of our days God will not ask us if we did wrong - nor will God ask us if we have been tempted - but
God will ask us if we have learned along the way to walk the road that Christ Himself was on and in the direction
that Christ Himself walked it.
And if we have - and in doing so we happened to stumble and fall once in a while - God will bandage the wounds
and wipe the tears from our eyes - and give us a hug - for we will have done all that was expected of those of
us who bore his name.
There is no other position in life that you will not be tempted to try to explain, justify, or authenticate yourself
or your claims, from your abilities on the job, to the depth of your love for your spouse or children,…but no one
can ever rightfully ask you to authenticate or justify your claim to be a child of God. That was a gift of grace
given long ago in Christ…it is yours,---pre-paid and forever.
Part of the current debate within the church, and in society as a whole, is around the tension between diversity
and unity, between tolerance and the need for core beliefs and values which give us a sense of common purpose.
There is always a danger that inclusiveness will lead to indifference and selfish individualism. There is an equal
danger that insistence on uniformity will lead to fear, and the exclusion and the demonizing of those who are "different".
Community is always built on a careful balance between the individual and the common. As individuals, we need to
know who we are if we are to function with confidence and make our contribution to the life of the whole. As communities,
we need to have a sense of what holds us together if we are to create a society that nurtures healthy individuals.
The temptation, for communities as well as individuals, is to take our identity for granted, and so to lose it.
But it can also be to create doubts about who we are, and become fearful, pretentious and self-absorbed.
Lent is a wilderness time whose deprivations force us to confront who we really are. It is a time to wrestle with
the question of "Who am I? Who are we?" Jesus could not begin his public ministry without wrestling with
the temptation to use his power selfishly, to let the devil do his work for him, or to call on God to save him
from foolish grandstanding. But underlying them all was the temptation to doubt himself as Son of God.
You and I are also called to wrestle with our demons, to reaffirm our trust in God, to accept our own call to witness
to the Kingdom of God which is greater than all the principalities and powers of this world. We are called, as
Jesus was, to renounce self-importance in favor of being servants of the Most High. We are called to claim our
God-given power and to use it well -- to BE what we have been made by baptism, the children of God whose faithful
witness can transform the world.
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