A Testing Time
This sermon can be listened to here
Gate Pa – 1st Sunday in Lent - Year A - 2020
Readings:
Psalm
- Psalm: 32
First
Reading - Genesis 2: 15-17, 3: 1-7
Second
Reading- Romans 5: 12-19
Gospel
- Matthew 4: 1-11
What I want to
say:
Jesus
time in the wilderness was less about being tempted to act in certain ways, and
more about being tested in his sense of who he was and how he might live that
out. Lent too is about who we are as beloved children of God, how we forget that,
and how we might live that out.
I
want to suggest that our collective issue might be “climate change”
What I want to happen:
People
to reflect on what their Lenten disciplines might be considering that, and what
“our” Lenten discipline might be.
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
A small man was standing alone in his local
pub with a full glass of beer in front of him when a six-foot-tall stranger
picked up the glass, swallowed the contents, and said, “What are you going to
do about it”.
With that the man burst into tears and in
response the shocked stranger, said “That’s not the reaction I was expecting, what
is your problem?”
“It has not been a good day” sobbed the man”.
This morning I arrived late at work for the second time in five years and my
boss fired me. Then when I went to drive home, I discovered someone had stolen
my car from the carpark. I couldn’t get a bus or taxi because I had left my
wallet in the car so had no money and had to walk home.
That took me over two hours and when I did get
there, I found my wife in bed with my best friend. When I verbally abused her
my so-called friend punched me, then her dog chased me out of the house biting
me on the bum and now I can’t sit down, so I have decided that life is not
worth living any longer, and came here to end it all.
I was just waiting for a Rat Poison Tablet to
dissolve in what would be my last beer, and now you have deprived me of what
was to be my final positive act on this earth. That is why I am crying.
The moral of the story might be – don’t be
tempted this lent
“However, that’s enough about me. So, how is
your final day going?”.
2. Temptation and Lent
Is that really what lent is about – not being
tempted to do bad things
What is Lent about?
Talk to neighbours
3. Jesus in the Desert
So here is another version of what we just
heard
In Matthew
The story of Jesus’ ministry begins with John
by the Jordan river
Proclaiming “repent”
And baptising those who came
in the river
While pointing ahead to the one
who was to come
Then Jesus comes to be baptised
And John reluctantly agrees
As Jesus comes up out of the water
the heavens are opened
And Jesus sees the Spirit of God descending
“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am
well pleased!”
With those words ringing in his ears
The Spirit takes Jesus
Out into the wilderness
A harsh place with nowhere to hide
A thin place
A place to spend time
reflecting on what it means to be
The Beloved Son of God Most Holy
The God of Abraham and Sarah
The God of all the ancestors
Of all the people of Israel
The God of justice and mercy
Compassion and generosity.
To be the Beloved Son
Of this God.
For 40 days and nights
He fasted and waited
40
·
The number of
days of the flood
·
The number of
years in the exodus
·
The number of days
and nights Moses fasted while he chiselled the 10 words
·
The years that
both David and Solomon each reigned
·
The days and
nights Elijah fasted and waited for a refreshed call
40
A sacred number
Denoting important events
And after 40 days and nights
The tester comes
The Satan
To ask and test
Who is this Jesus the Beloved Son?
He begins
“So …
you are the Son of God
The Beloved Son
And yet you look so famished
How can that be?
What kind of God lets that happen?
If you truly are the beloved son
Surely God would want you to have all that you
need
To never be hungry
To have more than enough
Whenever you desire it
Surely the beloved son would not be so poor
So hungry
So wanting
No god would want that for their beloved son
Turn all these stones into bread
You could have enough to eat
and more
so much more
No beloved son of God should ever go hungry
Feed yourself!”
But Jesus isn’t fooled
“Remember when Moses stood with the people of God
Looking across the Jordan
To the land they had spent 40 years preparing
for.
In his final instructions he told them
“Keep and live out the entire commandment that
I’m commanding you today so that you’ll live and prosper and enter and own the
land that God promised to your ancestors.
Remember every road that God led you on for
those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so
that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his
commandments or not.
He put you through hard times.
He made you go hungry.
Then he fed you with manna, something neither
you nor your parents knew anything about,
so you would learn that men and women don’t
live by bread only;
we live by every word that comes from God’s
mouth.
You learned deep in your heart that you can
always trust God.”
The Tester is no finished.
Taking him to the highest point in the temple
he says
“If you trust God so completely
Jump off
Leap
David says in the Psalms about you
“He has placed you in the care of angels.
They will
catch you so that you won't so much as stub your toe on a stone."
Think of how
impressive that would be
Think of all
the followers you would get!”
Again Jesus in not impressed
“Don’t treat God’s words of life with such
simplistic contempt
That is not what David was talking about
at all
And you know it.
Instead,
remember what Moses said on the bank of the
Jordan
As he reminded them how to live in this new
land
As he reminded them of who God is
The God of justice and mercy
God’s compassion and generosity
"Don't you dare test the Lord your
God."
Still the Tester was not satisfied
He took Jesus to a high peak to show him all
the world
All the kingdoms and empires
With all their supposed wealth, power and
glory
“Bow down and worship me, and all this will be
yours
All that your heart desires and more.”
Jesus has had enough
His refusal was curt:
“None of this is yours.
None of it
And you know it
This is God’s creation
These are God’s people
We live in God’s world
What you offer is a lie
It is not life
Not what this is about at all.
So beat it, Satan!"
And He backed his rebuke with a third
quotation from Moses’ farewell speech
"Worship the Lord your God, and only him.
Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.
That is life."
The Test was over.
The Devil left.
And in his place, angels!
Angels came and took care of Jesus' needs.
Invite you to reflect on
·
What did you hear
·
What stood out
·
What questions do
you have
·
What questions
are asked of you
4. Lent and us
In a sense
Lent provides us a time each year
To join Jesus in the wilderness
And to reflect on
Who is God for us?
What images and understandings of God do I need
to let go of?
Or What images of God am I being invited to
hold more deeply?
How might these images help me answer the
question that Jesus wrestled with
Who am I
Who are we
As beloved sons and daughters of God?
And like Jesus
Like Eve and Adam
Who in their desire to be like God
forgot they were made in the image of God
How are we tested/tempted to forget who we are?
Tested/tempted to not live as beloved sons and
daughters
To not trust God
Like Eve and Adam
How are we tested/tempted to place ourselves
in the centre of our lives
5. Climate Change
I wonder this Lent
If we need to look at this world
To see again God in the centre of God’s
creation,
Rather than ourselves and our needs
I wonder if we might pray for the courage and
wisdom to change our priorities
To live in such a way that this planet
Is not just a resource for our use
But God’s gift to us
That we are invited to live on
In such a way that it
and all who live on it
Might thrive and flourish.
May we have the will to live
Into and out of the beatitudes
-
Which we have
been reflecting on for the last few weeks
Persistently resisting as Jesus did in the
desert
The values of this world
Living persistently
Into the way held in God
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