February 10th 2008 Sermon By B Wright

Homily February 9 -10, 2008 Led by the Spirit Today’s lessons present a rich menu of things to talk about for Lent. In the Old Testament lesson, we have the story of the fall – the serpent, Eve, Adam and God’s single commandment. It seems amazing that we humans could not avoid temptation when all we had to obey was God’s single commandment – you can eat of every tree in the garden except one. Seems like a pretty simple commandment, especially when there was a wide variety of things to eat. But along comes the wily serpent who helps us convince ourselves that God really did not mean what he said … and we have kept on doing just that, convincing ourselves we know best not God, ever since. We prayed Psalm 51 with its beautiful pleas to God to cleanse us of our sins and wash us through and through. While we usually refer to God as Father, the image this Psalm invokes for me is God as Mother taking in humanity in our dirty, soiled and sinful condition, washing us with Her grace until we are clean and fresh and then turning us out again into the world to again become dirty, soiled and sinful but willing to repeat the process over and over because She loves us and hopes that we will grow up and turn to love instead of sin. Then there was Paul’s epistle to the Romans with its comparisons of two men, Adam and Jesus – one begetting us to sin and death and the other redeeming us from the same. And finally Matthew’s gospel story of the temptation of Christ and His first recorded encounter with Satan. There were so many powerful items to research and meditate upon that it was almost mind-numbing as to where to start for today’s homily. But I kept coming back to the opening sentence of today’s gospel … Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Here is the Son of God, the perfect man, being led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil … This is the same man who would teach us to pray to our Father to be spared from the time of time of trail and to be delivered from evil … who is actually led by the Spirit to be tempted! Before we look a little deeper into today’s gospel, let’s take a minute and remember what we are charged to do during this season of Lent. On Wednesday we heard these words: Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. With that, this 40 day penitential season we know as Lent began. What I want you to remember is we have been asked to test ourselves through:
self-examination and repentance;
prayer, fasting and self-denial; and
reading and meditating on God’s holy Word The gospel for this first Sunday in Lent takes place immediately after Jesus’ baptism in the river Jordan and he is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. This is the same Spirit that descended upon him gently like a dove at the time of his baptism and now forcibly leads him (yes, Mark tells us it drove him) into temptation … or does it? Most of our bibles translate the original Greek as tempted but it can also mean tested. There is a significant difference in English between these two words. Tempted means to be enticed or allured into doing something regarded as unwise or wrong, whereas tested means to undergo a trial or to be tried out. Let’s view today’s Gospel as a series of tests and see whether that sheds any more light on why Jesus was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness. We are told that Jesus was in the wilderness and fasted for forty days. There are many theories as to why the period of 40 days, some believe it reflects on Moses time on Mt. Sinai. Others note how many times 40 days appears in the Old Testament (at least 20 times) and still others observe that a person going 40 days without food is considered to be in a state of starvation and at the edge of death. Regardless of the reason for choosing 40 days, one thing is certain. The man Jesus would be extremely weak when he first meets with his tempter, who says to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." Three things spring out of this passage: first Satan is called the tempter; second, Satan was watching at the baptism for he uses the term Son of God and third, Satan has patiently waited for 40 days and nights to test Jesus with a test that clearly plays to his state of hunger … turn these stones into bread. Jesus responds with, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God,' not only passing the first test but also reminding us that we need continual nourishment from the scriptures. Reflecting back on our Lenten instructions, we are told that we should read and meditate on God’s holy Word and fast and deny ourselves during these forty days. Our Anglican tradition recognizes only two fast days for the year. The first is Ash Wednesday, which happened last week and the second is Good Friday, which will take place on Friday, March 21.
Two days to observe a fast and remind ourselves of the abundance God gives us for our daily bread, two days to remember what Jesus did for 40 days,
Two days to reflect on our own conspicuous consumption, and
Two days to remember that someone dies every 3.6 seconds in this world due to hunger.1 To save you doing the math, that equates to 24,000 people dying every day of every year due to hunger.

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If you are healthy and have never experienced a full day fast I invite you to consider it for Good Friday. Begin the fast by foregoing food for the evening meal on Maundy Thursday and maintain the fast through breakfast and lunch on Good Friday, breaking it for the evening meal on Good Friday. Going to bed hungry, waking hungry and going through a full day without solid food is a sobering experience that can also be spiritually rewarding. But do not attempt this unless your health will permit it. After all we want you here for the great vigil of Easter! With regard to self-denial, many of us choose something that we particularly like (perhaps love) to forego for the season of Lent, like sweets, a certain beverage, meat, movies, etc. This is a personal choice and not something we should advertise. Self denial is meant to be a stimulus for us such that when the thought - gee I wish I could you fill in the blank - comes into our mind, we stop and reflect on the season and what will happen at the end of Holy Week. Our desire for what we have denied ourselves can also become a stimulus for us to open the Book of Common Prayer to Morning or Evening Prayer and go through those beautiful services, reading the lectionary lessons assigned for each day. If you do not already have this as a daily practice, try doing this as part of your spiritual discipline for the remainder of Lent and see if you don’t experience some spiritual rejuvenation as a result. Back to our Gospel and Jesus’ second test, “Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying 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.’” Notice that the gospel now refers to the tester as ‘the devil’ and the tester has taken Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, which was approximately 15 stories above the ground. Again the tester taunts Jesus by saying, “If you are the Son of God” and then he quotes scripture and invites him to commit suicide … remember that after fasting for 40 days a human’s cognitive processes are considered to be compromised. In other words, we don’t have the capacity to think straight. But Jesus replies, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Jesus’ response is very clear. He will not challenge his Father by risking suicide, even though he is the Son of God. Jesus knows who he is. Do we know who we are? Our invitation to Lent invites us to examine ourselves and seek repentance. We need to reflect on who we are: God’s children, created good…yet fallen, redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ …yet in need of continual transformation as a member of His Body, challenged to grow in God’s love and to show it to others. Spend some quiet time each of these remaining 36 days of Lent, perhaps during Morning or Evening prayer, reflecting on who you are and what separates you from the full love of God. Then seek repentance through our prayer of confession. Remember as you do this that millions of Anglicans around the world are doing the same thing in a similar manner and take comfort in the fact that you are fulfilling your Lenten discipline of reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. Jesus has been tested twice and has successfully answered the tester. Now the final exam … Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.” At this point the tester, the devil, is really getting anxious and he would appear to offer Jesus the world but Jesus says to him, “Away with

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you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” For me this seems to be the strangest one of the three tests. To offer the Son of God, the creator of the universe and the giver of life, the kingdoms of the world in exchange for him worshiping you just plain seems bizarre. And maybe that is the point! Jesus clearly knows who he is and who the devil is and answers the test by sending the tester away. While this seems like a strange test for the Son of God, it is certainly not a strange test for those of us who are of the world. Power, Lust and Greed are strong attractors, some would actually call them gods for many people. Those who follow them shun God’s and Jesus’ commandments to love God and your neighbor. In so doing, they honor and worship Satan even if they don’t think they are. So this is the result of the Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness to be tested and is why Jesus tells us to pray to our Father to spare us from the time of trial and the evil one. During this Lent, I pray that each of us be led by the Spirit into our own “wilderness,” not to be tempted but rather to be tested through self-examination and repentance; through prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. Let us pray. Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tested in the wilderness, come quickly to help us who are assaulted by the temptations of this world, power, lust and greed. And lead us by the Spirit during this holy Lent to examine ourselves through prayer, fasting and self-denial and by reading and meditating on your holy Word help us to return to you. AMEN 1

http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm

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