February 17, 2002
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Into Temptation: The Feet of Christ Prayer: God who sustains our very lives, be with us through all of our trials and temptations, bear us up through this season of self-examination, that we might feed on the bread of your word, open ourselves to your presence without demanding proof and signs, and let go of all the idols that surround us to worship and serve you with joy and delight, with true hearts, and fulfilled spirits, through Jesus Christ, Amen. This past Wednesday, Ash Wednesday began the forty - day Lenten journey from the desert wilderness to the passion of Christ. This season of the church year is an intensely personal time as it calls us to go deep into our selves, to examine closely just what our faith means to us, and to reflect on what the life, ministry, death and promised resurrection of Jesus Christ means to us. It is a time to explore our personal relationship with Christ. Is he a long ago historical figure, a teacher, friend, or source of eternal salvation. I commend this season as a time to think seriously about who Jesus is for you. Lent is the season of the church year when we have a special opportunity to say what our faith is about. It is not always easy. It is one thing to follow Jesus as he travels to towns and villages, teaching, healing, encouraging, welcoming, challenging, praying, and eating with people. But we are now on the road that leads to a cross and a tomb; this season ends in death. It is at this time of year when Easter baskets and Easter bunnies so quickly replaced valentine’s cards, that people who do not know much about the church accuse us of being obsessed with death, because all they can see is the cross. Now is our opportunity to say that the cross is not the last chapter of the story. It is a time for us to say if you can be with Jesus in all of the events that lead to the cross, then you will know the total sheer joy of the resurrection that follows. The Lenten season is not just a personal season for you and me. As we hear the gospel lesson in the next few weeks, we will hear some extremely personal stories of encounters with Christ. We will hear the story of Nicodemus’ night visit to Jesus, and the conversation of Jesus with the Woman at the Well. We will hear again the story of the man born blind and we will be present when Jesus comforts his friends Mary and Martha as he calls their brother Lazarus from death back to life. We will begin and end with stories of Jesus personal relationship with God. Today we have heard the Temptation story, on Palm Sunday we will hear the story of the passion from the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to his death and burial outside the city’s limits. There is a visceral response to what we experience personally. We feel it in our bodies. This season we will focus these personal stories around the theme, The Body of Christ, as we find our selves responding personally to these stories and as we try to put ourselves in center of the stories we will hear. We begin with the feet of Christ as Jesus is led into temptation. Understand, that we are not always led into temptation by God. Sometimes, we walk into it willingly. There is always some radio station somewhere that tempts us with tickets to the best concert of the year, if we will just sing off key on the air or run around the block in freezing weather, in a bathing suit. We pray weekly here, “lead us not into temptation”, or in some versions of the Lord’s Prayer, “save us from the time of trial.” Those petitions to God speak to our anxious spirits and to our awareness that when we are anxious we may more easily be tempted that we would otherwise like to admit. The normal thing to do when we are feeling anxious is to seek relief. Sometimes we find relief in healthy places, and sometimes not. Unhealthy relief comes in the form of overindulgence in food, in drugs, in alcohol, in harmful relationships, and in work that helps us hide from what makes us fearful and anxious. Healthy anxiety relief comes in the form of prayer, support groups, exercise, work that gives positive meaning to our lives and facing our anxiety and having a sustaining faith in the God whose love never ends. So many of us have felt the kind of worry that weighs on the soul. We look at all that we have to do and find that there is not enough money, time, or sleep. If the lack of those things cause us worry, we are also made anxious by having too much of some things. For instance, there is too much pressure, to do too many things, in too many places. We feel the pressure at home, at work, with families, with friends, and every now and then at church. We worry about our health, our families, our church; about whether our lives will outlast our resources. These are all legitimate concerns. And they carry with the them the great temptation to quit, to sit, or just to slow down a little bit. But the message in scripture and in song, urges us not to yield to the temptations we face. How can we not when it feels as if we are certainly being led into temptation? According to Matthew, Jesus is led into the wilderness just after his baptism. The same spirit of God that announced that Jesus was God’s beloved son, has sent him into the wilderness for forty days to help him come face to face with hunger, loneliness, and fatigue. Maybe the man and the woman in the garden, we know them as Adam and Eve, were tired. Maybe that is why they could not resist their tempter. We know the story of Adam and Eve as the story of the Fall. But it is really more than that. It is about them becoming full and flawed human beings. Tempted by knowledge and power, they acted against the woman’s better judgment and against the purpose and presence of God. They learn that there are consequences, and that there is a difference between the created and the creator. They ate and became ashamed, they felt exposed literally, and unprotected. They knew more than they could handle. Jesus can handle everything he knows. I think we can relate to Jesus and his encounter with his tempter. His are temptations we have faced. You heard the challenges: food, security, and power. They go to the heart of what we need to live and often to who we are. That is why these temptations are preceded by challenges to Jesus’ identity and to ours. “If you really are the beloved Son of God, if you are who God says you are, if you are the teacher, the healer, the preacher, the friend, prove it. Do some things for me. Turn stones into bread, jump off the highest point of the temple, worship me.” “If you really are one who has given your life to Jesus Christ, or if you are thinking about doing so, if you have found part of your identity as part of the community of God’s people, it will be OK. Just do it.” Jesus, is who God says he is, he is who we say he is, and he steps back and then steps up to respond to the tempter, and shows us how in the process. Hear him as he says...” “Look, as important as bread is, life is more than what we eat, even when we are hungry. We also live by what comes from the mouth of God including words of love, hope, comfort, and peace.” “Well then, Jesus”, the Tempter says, “Your own scripture says that angels will hold you up, here we are at the highest point of the great temple. Go ahead, jump.” “I’m not testing God like that.” “OK, then, Jesus, let me show you one more thing, here is the whole world. I have the power to give you the world. Just worship me.” All Jesus has to say is ”I don’t think so. Worship the Lord your God and serve God only.” It may be true that we are not likely to be whipped from place to place like Jesus was, and in fact the temptation to sacrifice who we are for the things that make us feel good and safe may come to us in other ways. It also true that in times of uncertainty, our lives sure can nevertheless feel out of control, and when that happens, the urge to do what is ultimately not good for us make their way into our thoughts. I understand that various 12 step movements use an acronym to help people know what to do when they are on the edge of falling into some temptations. The acronym is HALT. We are more likely to be led into trouble if we are Hungry, Angry, Tired, or Lonely. Any one of those feelings can leave us feeling grumpy, can dull our judgment, and cause us to make less than ideal decisions. When we feel those things, it would be good if we could step back and begin to think through what is going on with us. It is a good time to eat something, count to ten, or twenty, or fifty, or a hundred, find a friend and others who will stand with you and give you support. Take a nap. But these temptations are tenacious, they do not always go away so easily. That is why we need strong spiritual resources to face the temptations that plague us. Of course we need food, I know very few people who do not enjoy a good meal. But there are other things that give our lives energy and focus. God has told us to offer to each other the food of the spirit: love, accountability, grace, service, trust, knowledge that we are in God’s hands, and that we are upheld by God’s spirit. Do not sell your body for a mess of physical satisfaction that leaves your soul starving. Find the things that feed the soul and feast on them. There is no need for me or anyone who believes in God to hurl ourselves down from a building in order to test God. God does not need a gravity test from us. If you feel the need to prove the reality of God’s existence and protection, do this. Remember how blessed you are to be alive. Let God’s love and care for you show through your love and care for others. Live as if you believe it is true, that in the worship of the one living, loving God we find our food for the spirit. It is in the love of God, and in the worship of God that we are brought face to face with what is means to know God and to serve and love God with our heart, mind, soul, and strength. The Serpent in Genesis, and Satan in Matthew are the voices in us that look at all of the promises of God - to love us unconditionally, to protect and keep us, to show us what is good and say “yes, but. Yes, but life is hard some times. Things do not always go as we like, our lives can be messy and we can feel as if God is far away from us, and the temptations are laid in our path. But our model and companion on this faith journey is Jesus who walked into the temptations and who walked away from them, and who tells us that hard times come, but we are never left to go by them all by ourselves. We say simply yes, come and walk with me to the one who teaches us that in his understanding of himself, his trust in God’s grace, his refusal to yield to temptation, his undivided commitment to God, all become characteristics of faithful discipleship for us to follow. (Texts for Preaching, p.190) At the beginning, the serpent and the tempter think they are in charge, and that they will have the last word. but God will make an appearance in the garden, and while it will not be without pain, things will be put right. God who ordered the garden, and who led Jesus into the wilderness was always present, and is always with us. In the final scene of this story, Satan, the tempter, unable to entice Jesus to do any bidding but God’s goes away, and the lesson for Jesus is the same for us. “In the end it is not Satan who has power over Jesus, but Jesus who issues commands that Satan obeys. To be sure, Satan will return, but the secret in keeping the tempter at bay is out: it is in being faithful to one’s vocation to be God’s child, clinging tenaciously to the divine calling.” (Texts for Preaching, 191) Come and discover your gift, your calling, your vocation, your strength, your faith as we share these personal stories on the way to Jerusalem. The who faced down the tempter has promised to will journey with us every step of the way. And the promises of God, through Jesus Christ, can be trusted, absolutely. To God be the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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