February 29, 2004

First Sunday of Lent

Luke 4:1-13

Can’t See the Woods for the Trees?

     You can tell Lent is here by the chocolate reference on the bulletin cover.  Yes, I gave up chocolate for Lent again this year.  Why-oh-why do I pick chocolate when there are so many better choices like olives or asparagus?  I know, I know, it’s supposed to be about sacrifice.  But I’m worried…I think I’m going through withdrawals: Kay was making tea the other day and I swear it smelled like hot chocolate!  I mean, this is getting serious!

     We set aside forty days for Lent because that’s the number of days Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted by the Devil.  Yes…temptation.  Now I think I know why they call it “Devil’s Food” cake.

     Giving up something for Lent…not exactly a Congregational tradition, is it?  Maybe my Lutheran roots are showing.  Anyway, the idea is to make some personal sacrifice to remind oneself of Christ’s sacrifice.  Giving up chocolate is a pretty serious sacrifice as far as I’m concerned, but considering what Jesus did, it’s pretty silly by comparison.  Still, every year I feel I have to give something up.  It just wouldn’t seem right if I didn’t.

     For some reason, there’s something satisfying about this practice, but I know that if this is all there is to my Lenten observance, a silly little token sacrifice isn’t going to make much of a difference in my life.  If that’s all there is, if it starts and ends with this, what’s the point?  Like seeing the trees and missing the forest, a focus on some small part, even some well-intentioned part, can obscure the broader view.  Hopefully, personal sacrifices, even small and silly ones, can open us to some greater truth.

     The wilderness experience Jesus had was all about gaining a broader view, about letting go of small things as a way of ultimately giving in to the greater truth, giving in to God’s will.

     This story illustrates the personal struggle Jesus had.  Luke says Jesus was tempted by the Devil, but some believe this figure is a personification of personal struggles with unmet wants and needs (I’ve always said I don’t need a devil’s help to get myself in trouble!).  Either way and by whatever name, for all people of conscience, the struggle is very real.

     Jesus wrestled with the same kinds of temptations we all wrestle with – temptations of selfishness and greed, a hunger for power and control.  Should he seize power by turning stones into bread, by striving to rule kingdoms or by commanding angels to carry him down from steeples?  Should he give into that same temptation that plagues us all in so many ways, small and large...should he give in to the desire to play God?

     I know they say that money is the root of all evil, but isn’t it really our desire to take God’s place?  Money represents power in one of its most portable forms, so that’s probably why it gets blamed so often, but the misuse of it is really our problem.  Faced with immediate temptations, forgetting about any greater truth or purpose, seizing upon the apparent opportunity before us, we can forget about the consequences and “just do it”, as the commercial says.  We can feed the selfish need, go with immediate gratification and ignore God, ignore God’s greater purpose for our lives.  Luke would say that’s Satan at work.  Certainly, there is something terribly wrong with this.

     When Matt and I were in Haiti several years ago, we heard the seeds of discontent that have now led to the nation-wide revolt that is racking the country with violence.  People spoke of great injustices, of secret deals between the Haitian government and businesses in Cuba, of a small number of extremely rich people depriving the masses of even their most basic rights.  We saw the wealthy enclave of Petionville with it’s high walls keeping undesirables out, perched above Port Au Prince with nothing but squalor as far as the eye could see below.  There were the privileged few satisfying their own needs without a thought to greater consequences for the rest of Haiti. 

     Sadly, we see this same scenario played out all over the world.  Selfishness, greed, a hunger for power and control, the desire to play God and determine the fate of everyone else – this is what keeps the world at war.  This is what keeps our families and communities at war, too.

     I think it helps to know that Jesus understands this.  He knows what this temptation feels like.  And I think it helps to know he overcame it.  He conquered it.  He was victorious over sin and ultimately over death (this victory is where Lent leads us).  So we put our trust in him because we can’t always trust ourselves.  And we ask for his forgiveness and strength and the guidance of his Holy Spirit.

     This is the walk of faith – struggling with the reality of temptation every single day, but trusting that Christ will see us through.  We trust that he forgives us.  We trust the encouragement of his Spirit so that we might have that broader view of God’s greater truth…so that we might make the right choices in our lives. 

     Martin Luther (here’s some more Lutheran stuff) used to say that every day he died to sin and every day he rose from death through the victory of Jesus Christ.  Another way to put it is that when we stumble, the unconditional love of God we know in Jesus helps us get up again, over and over again.

     This means that even as we live in an imperfect world and deal with the imperfections we find in ourselves (and Lord knows, in the people we live with!), we are saved.  We are saved from the violence, hatred, prejudice, injustice and even the death, saved from all of it…not from experiencing it…but from these things having the last word in our lives.  By faith we are saved from losing to evil, from bowing down to the devil of self and are opened to the greater truth of God. 

    The unconditional love of Christ is our salvation, our liberation and thus we are free…free at last!  We may trudge through the mud day after day, but we are not without hope, for our eyes are on God, the One who gives us grace for living fully here and now and living fully in the life to come.  We know that our Redeemer lives, as the old hymn goes, and walk with confidence in what he has done for us and what he continues to do in our world through those who trust him.

     Now that’s the big picture.  In the end, the good guys win.  Joy to the world!

He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove

the glories of his righteousness, and wonders of his love.