An Opportune Time

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Lent 1C

Jerusalem Baptist Church (Emmerton), Warsaw VA

Luke 4:1-13

¹”Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, ²where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. ³The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” ⁴Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” ⁵Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. ⁷If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” ⁸Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” ⁹Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, ¹⁰for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ ¹¹and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” ¹²Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ¹³When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.”

I couldn’t begin to tell you how many lessons, Bible studies, and messages I’ve heard on the temptation of Christ.  They all run together.  That is not so much a criticism of the folks who either taught the lesson or Bible Study or the person who preached the sermon as much as it is a confession as to my frame of mind while hearing them.   

Basically, the lesson from the temptation story falls into one of two categories:  the one that focuses on the fact that the temptations Jesus endured are the same – on one level or another – to ANY temptation WE might undergo today, if you boil each of them down to their essential components; or the other, which focuses on the WAY in which Jesus overcame those temptations – his strategy, if you will – usually ending up summarized as this:  He trusted God. 

If you’ll pardon the pun, the temptation in approaching the message today, especially after such a long hiatus, thanks to the Men of Jerusalem, the WMU of Jerusalem, and to the weather these last few weeks, was to fall back on those two interpretations, summarize their points and arguments, and be done with it.  It would at least serve to get back into the swing of things, back to the routine. 

I’m not going to stray too far from that, in case you’re wondering, because I happen to believe that those two ways of looking at this text are absolutely valid, and helpful, and worthwhile.  I believe we CAN draw parallels between the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness and any given temptation we could name today if we took each of them and peeled away all the outer layers, the contexts of time, society, values, opportunities and struggles and got right down to the heart of them, we would find a direct correspondence between turning stones into bread, putting something ELSE in the place of God as the object of ultimate importance in our lives, and testing God in order to confirm that God is there when WE need him. 

There are, of course, variations on the theme. Thanks to my friend Mera Cossey Corlett from Louisville: From a Pastoral Care perspective:

“[Jesus] didn't go it alone.  He surrounded himself with encouragers and supporters who (though they did not fully understand His call) traveled with him, praying and ministering to him.  He relied on scripture. He knew it "by heart" so that it could be an ever-present, dynamic force in his own life.  He knew his "trigger" points – in addiction terminology, those are those events or combination of circumstances that, when they are present, allow the subconscious mind to take over the conscious one, and leads to addictive behavior – to giving in to a temptation.  Satan – the Tempter – knew those points as well – but Jesus fixed His sights [on God –] a Higher Power not unlike folk who wrestle with the temptations of addictions.  And he always "saw the big picture." Rather than getting caught up in individual failings or glories, he continued to weave it all together in grace recognizing that it all made for the Kingdom of God."    

Another friend – from my high school – Greg Frey – put it this way:

“It’s not rocket science, just the HUMAN CONDITION … All our temptations, limitations and failings, individual and collective, point to the fact that without a fully integrated relationship with YHWH, we are helpless [screwed was the original term]. So all our trials are really a blessing (like...poor in spirit maybe?) as they point to our need to awaken to our spiritual selves (or be born of spirit) and put that FIRST in our lives. Thank you CHRIST for making that message very clear. Now, if we could carry that simple, beautiful message without all the hoopla [and BS] that gets attached to it, people may actually consider it. Even intelligent people."

Mera has worked as a Chaplain in a Psychiatric Hospital in Louisville, for a little over 20 years.  Greg owns and runs an art Gallery inside the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, and has been doing that for about the last 10 years or so.

My conversation with Greg stretched out over a couple of hours, and Mera’s lasted nearly that long.  I appreciated the perspective that they provided.  Though they are both people of faith and profound spirituality, the phrasing they use departs from what we are accustomed to hearing in church, and just to hear a familiar story interpreted with different language gives us a chance to explore it, to engage it from a slightly different angle.

How ready are we to share our temptation struggles with our community?  Would we be willing to identify – or maybe acknowledge might be a more appropriate word – our “trigger” points – those things that set us off – that cause us to give in to that temptation to strike out, verbally or physically, to give in to that selfish desire and draw back, to separate ourselves from the community, to put our own interests and desires ahead of the common good? 

Are we able to think in terms of a “fully integrated relationship with YHWH,” like Greg said?  “Fully integrated” means “completely a part of” – Do we live our relationship with God and with Jesus through every aspect of our lives, or do we compartmentalize our faith and allow God to be present in only a select few areas, those we deem ‘presentable’, and the rest we keep hidden away, in the darker recesses of our personalities? 

Can we view struggles and hardships – and temptations – as markers, pointers that remind us of the fact that we DO need to be born of the Spirit and put that relationship in it’s rightful place – FIRST – in our lives in order to be able to hold everything else in proper perspective? 

The temptation story mirrors our every day.  I feel confident in saying that each of us, at some point in each of our days, is confronted with a choice to make in the face of some temptation.  Sometimes we are aware of it, and other times we are completely oblivious.  That is the subtle skill of the Adversary, to lull us into a sense of complacency with who we are, allowing us to assume that that dark aspect of our being is ‘not that big a deal’, or ‘not harming anyone’, or even ‘my cross to bear’, when in fact, it is being used to successfully keep us from being the person God created us to be. 

Our call this morning, and over the next few weeks as we journey through Lent, is to study, to examine, to uncover and to give up those things in our beings that are not of God, that are not of the Spirit, that hinder us from fully giving ourselves to God’s PULL on our lives. 

If that means telling our trigger points to a friend or two, to be that vulnerable and open with each other, so be it.  If that means coming to a clearer understanding of what it means to be fully integrated – in our relationship with YHWH, completely GIVEN to the Lordship of Christ, then that is what needs to happen.

Your choice, your response, is what both God and the adversary are waiting for.    

Let’s pray.