Don't Tempt Me
Luke 4:1-13 and Psalm 91: 1-15
Just last week I sat in my favorite chair looking out our living room window at the frozen scene outside. When the first snow fell, I thought it was pretty. Then the second snow came and it was still pretty. And then the entire state dropped into the deep freeze and the snow kept coming. So last week I Iooked out the window and declared that I am over it. It’s not pretty. I am sick of snow, especially dirty, partially melted and refrozen snow. I am sick of cold. I want spring!
It’s hard to live here and not focus on the weather. We Minnesotans like to talk about the weather. So my Minnesota brothers and sisters, I had an epiphany this week; a light bulb moment.
God must be from Minnesota. It’s the only explanation.
Just when we need a serious distraction from the fact that the spring thaw is still weeks away-----Here comes Lent! There are few guarantees in life but when Lent arrives, we can be absolutely certain we’ve only got 40 days left until Easter.
Another reason I think God is from Minnesota is that everybody here knows how to get into Lent. The restaurant group that owns Longfellow Grill has just launched their advertising campaign. People, I spent 25 years in marketing and advertising AND I went to a Lutheran Seminary. NEVER have I seen a marketing headline that read “For all your Lenten Needs!” And I sure as heck didn’t know that O’Douls Amber was the official drink of Lent. Three dollars and fifty cents, now that’s a heckuva deal.
Even Kare11 (NBC TV) has been teasing a story all week. They’re prepared to tell us where all the best fish frys are around the metro. I’m telling ya. God IS from Minnesota! I think a real good church fundraiser would be selling our own translation of the bible- one just for Minnesotans. Genesis chapter 24: verse 25 would end "And God saw that it was real good, real good.” That’d be a heckuva deal too!
The truth is our spirits are sagging just a little. Lent can renew our spirits and connect us to our history. Lent expresses our continuity with Christians across the ages. Historically Lent was the forty days of preparation before baptisms that were always performed at Easter. It was a time when those awaiting baptism could reflect on the covenants they were about to make. It was a time of holy introspection.
For the people who had fallen away from the church Lent was a time of reconciliation. It was often marked by voluntary giving to the poor. This was called almsgiving. Lent was also a time of self-denial which is why some of us still believe Lent is about giving up candy.
Today Lent isn’t about what we give up; it’s about what we take on and what we let go of. We are asked to let go of what no longer serves us on our journeys. We commit to forty days of mindful reflection where we open ourselves to God, trusting God with that journey wherever it goes.
Said differently for the "techies" among us, lent is a re-boot, and a de-frag. Lent can “clear our history” and get rid of our “cookies.” It can help us delete unnecessary files, archiving only those things that are good for you.
So how do we do that? It’s simple really. We surrender. We open ourselves to the spirit, open ourselves to listen for God’s voice and our own. We open ourselves further by revisiting some of the timeless stories of Jesus’ ministry. Today we look at the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert.
In the spirit of Lenten insight, let’s step way back so we can see the deeper beauty, those shapes and contours we can’t see if we’re right on top of it-if we’re too literal.
First:
Let’s not get hung up on Jesus being stalked by a devil. It’s mythology, not history. We progressive Christians drop the “d” off the devil word, leaving us with evil. Within the progressive church a conversation is emerging about the nature of God’s work in the world. In MCC we refer to it as a movement, the movement of the love of God. Where there is a movement of God’s love, there is also a counter movement that is anti-God. Evil is anything that is anti-God or anti-good.
As our example Jesus came to be the embodiment of resisting and speaking truth to evil. He wasn’t in the desert by accident. He was exactly where God wanted him to be, surrounded by a wilderness blank slate of opportunity, engaged in the Creator’s movement of love. There, in the wilderness, he came face to face with opposition in the form of evil.
This is a story about illusions of power and about identity. Jesus was being asked to do something very Lenten. He was being asked to reflect on WHO he would be in his life. By responding to temptation, he was being asked to make choices.
The three temptations that Jesus faces include: Turning a stone into bread; a miraculous rescue if Jesus would throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple; and Jesus enticed to pursue glory and authority through political power.
These are not unlike the things you and I also face, though on a different scale. It’s curious that when temptation comes to Jesus, it takes the form of self doubt. Provoking our self doubt is an effective way to knock our knees out from under us. The evil one goes right for the jugular by attacking Jesus’ identity, appealing to his ego and then for a one two punch, questioning the stamina of his flesh.
Nora Gallagher tells us that “What was asked of Jesus is what is asked of us, that we give up illusion, its false promises and its addicting inertia, and come to our senses, come to living bread. In the ultimate irony, Jesus will accomplish each one of these “temptations,” but by taking a different course.
He will change stones into bread: a few loaves of bread and five fish will feed five thousand plus women and children. He will "hurl himself from a tower" and be “caught by angels,” by voluntarily giving up his life on the cross. He will be worshipped, by humbling himself as a servant and showing each of us how to live an incarnational life.
What should be OUR response? If, instead of waiting for stones to be changed to bread, we share the food we have; if, rather than waiting for the fantasy job or lover, we engage the people and work of our lives; if, rather than waiting for rescue, we lay down our lives for our friends, then we depart the world of deadly illusion for a living reality in which as Anais Nin said, “every day the real caress replaces the ghostly lover.”
To be sure, it’s not easy to face our own darkness, our own ashes. We are all going to come up short. As one woman said when she wanted to take a day off from work: “I’m just going to call in ugly.”
We’re all going to have to call in ugly during Lent, that’s why we’re doing this together.
Throughout Lent, think of God as the ultimate compassionate listener. Bring all of your ugly junk, chaos and drama to God. Lent is set aside to do just that: bring it all to consciousness and trust God on the journey.
We are all surrounded by a wilderness blank slate of opportunity. May we let go of anything and any one that no longer serves our journey. Trust God. And no matter what serpent we trample under our foot, the angels will protect us.
Amen.