Faithfulness | Temptation
All right. please stand as you are able for the reading of the Gospel.
Our Gospel reading this morning comes from Luke Chapter 4 verses 1 through 13. "Jesus returned from the Jordan River full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the spirit into the Wilderness. There he was tempted for 40 days by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and afterward Jesus was starving. The devil said to him, "Since you are God's son, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus replied, "It is written, 'People won't live only by bread.'" Next, the devil led him to a high place and showed him in a single instant all the kingdoms of the world. The devil said, "I will give you this whole domain and the glory of all of these kingdoms. It's been entrusted to me and I can give it to anyone I want. Therefore, if you will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered, "It's written, 'You will worship the Lord your God and serve only him.'" The devil brought him into Jerusalem and stood him at the highest point of the temple. He said to him, "Since you are God's son, throw yourself down from here, for it's written, 'He will command his angels concerning you to protect you and they will take you up in their hand so that you won't hit your foot on a stone.'" Jesus answered, "It's been said, 'Don't test the Lord your God.'" After finishing every temptation, the devil departed from him until the next opportunity." This is the word of God for the people of God. [Thanks be to God.]
So, throughout the season of Lent, we will be having a Lent series, sermon series, on cultivating and letting go. And so today our focus is on letting go of temptation and cultivating faithfulness. And so it's very fitting that, you know, hey, we have this passage in which Jesus is in the wilderness and tempted by the devil. It's almost as if someone intended it that way on purpose.
Temptation
is a tricky thing.
Because very rarely will temptation present itself to us as something that is obviously not good.
More often than not, temptation
encourages us to do something that's good, but perhaps not the right thing. It's been said that good is the enemy of great.
One definition that I've heard of temptation is that it's a "plausible view of false alternatives."
A different way of accomplishing something. And so, in this passage, the devil - which we can also translate as the "slanderer" -
is having a conversation with Jesus. Very similar to the conversation which happened in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis chapter 3.
Satan, the devil, whatever you want to call him...
beckons us to do that which seems good.
In the first temptation, Satan tells Jesus, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." He's hungry. "You can feed yourself. You have that power. So why won't you?"
It's interesting how, how many times through the Gospels the only time that Jesus actually exercises his power is in the service of others. Not to glorify himself, but rather to accomplish something that God wants to accomplish.
When Jesus feeds the 5000 though, it's important for us to know that this group of people have come, they have been listening to Jesus already.
And they're hungry. If they brought food, they've run out of it." And Jesus feeds the crowd. Doesn't even need a stone to do it.
Sometimes the temptation can be to, to take care of someone in the short-term. To solve an immediate problem because when we look at the larger problem in the world, it is too overwhelming. We don't know where to begin. I don't know if you've ever known someone who doesn't have much money. They get into a spot of trouble. Maybe, maybe their car breaks down and then they lose their job because they can't get to work. How are you supposed to get a car if you don't have a job? How are you supposed to get a job if you don't have a car, If you don't have a form of reliable transportation? (I'm going to have to stay still today apparently.)
The system doesn't work in everyone's favor.
And when we really pay attention we can see that.
But we don't know how to go about changing.
All I can say is pay attention to what God is calling you to do. Pay attention to those, those spirit nudges. Continue to meet people's immediate needs, but to remember that we do have a larger calling, which is also to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Because the more we can share with others the love of Christ, the life that God calls us to. The more of us that there are living the life that God intends, the more fully God's kingdom is present.
The more hope people can have even when times seem dark and bleak.
The second temptation,
the devil said, "I will give you all of these kingdoms, all of this glory, this power, if you will worship me." It's funny. I've seen online. There was a Bible verse-a-day, inspirational verse a day, and they actually use that verse, "All this is yours if you will just worship me," and the joke is, you know, it's less inspirational if you know who said it. Satan.
Sometimes we can be tempted to rely on something else, anything else other than God.
We can be tempted to use the power of the government to enforce our beliefs upon others.
But I encourage you, when you look throughout history, and you see societies that have tried to do this, that have tried to force everyone to one way of thinking or believing or living.
There are many who suffer.
And, in this moment, Jesus could take that shortcut.
Jesus could claim that power for himself and use it to bring about the kingdom of God, but what's the problem with that?
It's that God never coerces us into a relationship, only invites.
We can believe so strongly in the faith that we have
that we want to make other people believe it too. But we can't make anyone believe.
The work of convicting someone, of helping them to turn to God, that belongs to the spirit, to the Holy Spirit.
But what we can do as a people of God, we can cultivate an environment in which maybe people will be more open to hearing the word of God once it is planted.
Our work is to cultivate the soil.
To create a community in which people feel welcomed and loved and invited.
To hear about the love of God in Christ Jesus.
But when we lose sight of the fact that we are intended only to invite,
when we begin to focus our efforts on policing who comes to the table,
we've lost the plot.
It seems as though it would be good to make sure that all those who are sitting at the table believe as we do. Because if we want to be the body of Christ in the world, then surely we need to be as sanctified as possible.
But don't forget who Jesus ate with.
Jesus ate with sinners.
Jesus even ate with the Pharisees, if they invited him.
Jesus seeks to bring us into relationship, through invitation, through the slow and patient work of helping us to see the truth, the truth that perhaps the world around us doesn't want us to see.
In the Deuteronomy passage this morning, a lot of people will use this passage as a kind of, kind of a passage about stewardship. Give the first fruits of the harvest to God, which yes we should, but what I find more interesting is that, in this passage, when they go to give the first fruit of the harvest, they are to stand before the priest
and to tell their story.
"My father was an Aramean. My Father Abraham.
He was a man who God called him to leave his home, to leave that which he knew and to step out in faith. Not knowing whether the people that he would be a stranger among would welcome him or care for him." And there are many stories in which Abraham does kind of flinch a little bit, right? Like he tells his wife Sarah you're my sister, like pretend you're my sister because if you're my wife, I don't know what's going to happen. There are moments, plenty of them, in which Abraham kind of loses his, his focus on God. But what's important is not that he remains strong all the time, but that he turns back to God.
God doesn't expect us to always be perfect.
God knows us. God created us, of course God knows us.
It seems that it's much more God's Plan,
that we just remember, in those times when we have messed up, when we have fallen short, that God is still calling us to turn back. Because there's nothing you can do that is so bad that even if you turn back God won't take you back.
God desires us to love him and God desires us to love our neighbors,
to love those who are around us. Even if they are our enemy.
Even if it's someone who stands for everything we don't believe in.
Just as America was designed as a nation of freedom in which people have freedom of speech, provided that you know, it doesn't start to, to hurt others.
What that means is that we have to allow the voice of someone that we don't agree with to speak
if we want to speak ourselves.
We live in a culture that seem to have forgotten that.
A culture in which everyone wants to talk and no one wants to listen. Or even if we are listening, really we're, we're just coming up with a response in our head.
When the people go to give the first fruit, they tell their story.
Because maybe, just maybe, it's not about the the rules and the regulations. It's not about the requirement. It's about knowing who we are because we know whose we are.
I had a Christian ethics professor who, who said that, you know, you can tell someone what the rules are,
but the most effective way for people to do the right thing is to know
their story. More importantly, to know where their story fits in within God's story.
Too often we approach church on Sunday morning or, or listening to the sermon, and we ask ourselves the question of "Okay, how does this apply to my life?" Which yes, that is an important question to ask, but it's not as important as asking "Where does my life fit within God's story? What is the piece of God's story that I am called to be?"
All I can say, is when I remember that, that we are just a part of the story, it takes a lot of pressure off of me because I'm not expected to do it alone.
It's collectively, all together, each of us in striving to live out the kingdom of God that we can show to others just, just a small part of who God is.
We need to know our story. And the better we know our story, the better we can resist temptation. The more easily we can be faithful.
In knowing our story,
we can resist Satan.
In the last temptation, it's especially interesting to me that Satan quotes scripture.
Even Satan can quote scripture.
We can quote scripture to fit our argument all day long, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the right use of scripture.
So what's important is that, in this moment, Jesus knows how to discern between appropriate and inappropriate uses of scripture.
Because it's not enough to just pluck a verse out. And to say, "Look, that's what it says! The Bible says it, I believe it, that's it."
Even in scripture we see a tradition of reinterpreting scripture. For instance, just earlier this week at Ephesians Bible study, we talked about Ephesians chapter 4 and there's a verse in there where Paul is quoting a line from a psalm that talks about Moses, when Moses went up to the heights of Mount Sinai and came back down to give the gift of the law. But in this passage Paul is reinterpreting this verse to apply to Jesus.
Because Paul sees in this, in his surroundings, in the story that he's a part of, he sees a new way of understanding this verse.
We shouldn't be afraid of allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us in our reading and interpretation of scripture.
Because the idea that we can have an objective reading of scripture, it's not true.
The idea that we can be certain of what scripture means is a false alternative. It's a temptation.
I say this very intentionally. It is possible to make an idol of scripture
if we are not reading it
in the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
I could go on. Y'all know that. I can keep talking but we got like 10 minutes. So, you know, I got to wrap it up.
So I just wrap it up by just saying real quickly.
We shouldn't just say that none of scripture matters. Of course, scripture matters. Of course, scripture is a place in which we can encounter God. But it's important for us to realize that yes, we are going to be biased about this. And to look at the overall story because when we look at the overall story, when we look at the trajectory of of the narrative, we can see very clearly what is most important to God.
And so for me... I encourage you to develop your own standards of, you know, being able to measure whether or not something is of God. But, for me, I ask a series of questions.
In scripture, or in the world around me, what is happening to people's free will?
Is there anyone whose free will is being oppressed?
In scripture, or in the world around me, what is the fruit
that comes about as a result? Because I take Jesus very seriously when he says a good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree bad fruit.
I ask myself what.... Is this understanding of scripture inviting us into a deeper relationship with God or does it kind of just let us keep things at a surface level?
And, finally, I also ask who has the power in this situation and how are they using it? Are they using their power to try to control, to coerce people into their way of life?
Or are they capable of holding their power loosely so that they can invite others into the kingdom of God?
So I encourage you to come up with, with your standard. Look at the narrative. Know where your story fits in with God's story. And, above all,
listen to God.
Listen to the stirrings of the Spirit within your heart, but also test the spirits. Because there is a way to take a shortcut.
And it's so easy to say that the ends justify the means. But how we do something matters too.