Who?

 Through this season of Lent, this period of self-reflection and self-examination that began this past Wednesday Night, we are going to ask a series of six questions. Today be begin by asking "Who?". I want to tell you the story of a man whose wife is in a nursing home. This man continued to faithfully try to visit her, even in the midst of a pandemic. The man, in his 80s, had stopped into a medical clinic to get stitches removed from his thumb. He asked the nurse if the doctor could see him quickly, because he had an important appointment at 9 a.m. "What appointment is that?" the nurse wanted to know. "I need to go to the nursing home to visit at my wife through the window." "Is your wife ill?" asked the nurse. "Yes. She has Alzheimer's." "Would your wife mind if you were a bit late?" "Oh no," he said. "She hasn't recognized me for five years." "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?" The man only smiled. "She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is." Alzheimer's. In the twenty five years I have served as a pastor I have encountered this devastating diagnosis in so many people-church and family members alike. Many of you know that in the midst of this pandemic my mom's Alzheimer's grew to the point she had to go into a memory care facility. While she has battled for more than ten years against this disease, between November of 2019 and May of 2020, she went from knowing all of us, to in May thinking my sister and I were just help in the house and wondering who the man was sitting beside her, her husband of more than 50 years. This is a cruel disease. Most physical Illnesses, attack primarily the body, they may cause pain, they may rob a person of the lifestyle they were used to living, and they may even rob them of their lives. However, Alzheimer's eventually does all of those things, but begins by robbing its victims of their memories and their selves. I have watched as folks, some slowly, some rapidly, not only forget their past, forget things around them, forget family members, but worst of all, they forget exactly who they, themselves, are. One way folks with Alzheimer's forget who they are is forgetting what point in their lives they are currently living. Let me share with you a personal example. Anita's stepfather, Clint Chappell, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He battled it for more than nine years before dying. At one point in his battle with this thieving illness, soon after the diagnosis, and compounded by an emergency surgery to have a pacemaker installed, Clint forgot that he was well into his retirement years and thought he was still selling insurance. On several occasions, he wanted to go out and either collect on or sell policies as he did much earlier in his life. The disease had robbed him of all of the thirty years in-between-the years in which his children grew up, the years in which his children had married, the years in which his grandchildren had been born. He forgot that he was a happily retired grandfather. He had forgotten who he was. Why am I talking about this depressing disease? What does Alzheimer's have to do with our reading from Luke and the temptation of Christ? Well, my brothers and sisters, it is not because I enjoy talking about Alzheimer's. It is not because I want you to feel sorry for my mom or our family. The reason that I bring up Alzheimer's, my brothers and sisters, is because I think we all suffer from Spiritual Alzheimer's from time to time. We are often forgetting who we are, whose we are, and who we are called to be at this point in our lives. Satan sought to infect Jesus with Spiritual Alzheimer's. Satan said, "Jesus, if you are the Son of God, turn this stone into bread." Satan wanted Jesus to cave into his hunger after fasting for forty days. Satan wanted Jesus to forget that he had come to feed and care for the world; Satan wanted Jesus to use his powers to feed and care for himself. However, Jesus remembered who and whose he was, Jesus remembered that He was the Son of God and a member of God's Chosen people, the Israelites. He responded by quoting God's Word he would have learned as a child, "It is written, Man does not live on bread alone" (which is concluded "but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord").i Again, Satan tried to get Jesus to forget who he was. Satan took Jesus to the peak of the mountain and waved his hand showing Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Satan said to Jesus, "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. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Satan tempted Jesus to give up His power, to forget that He, Jesus, was the true Lord of the world, and to worship Satan in order to gain power. Satan wanted Jesus to forget that He was the Son of God and the One whom through everything had been created. Satan wanted Jesus to forget that he came to serve not tyrannically rule. Jesus, however, remembered who he was and to whom he belonged, by responding "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only."ii Finally Satan tempted Jesus a third time to forget who he was by tempting him to test God. Satan whisked Jesus from the wilderness and into Jerusalem, placing him on the top of the Temple. Satan tempted Jesus to throw himself down from their elevated location. Satan even sought to trick Jesus by quoting Scripture himself, reminding Jesus that God will protect his chosen one with a legion of angels.iii Jesus, though, counters, with "It is said: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test."iv Jesus had just been baptized in the Jordan River, had seen the skies open up, the Spirit descend upon Him, and had heard the voice of God say, "You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased."v Satan tempted Jesus to forget this affirmation and doubt whether He was God's Son. Jesus, though, fought back any Spiritual Alzheimer's and held on tightly to His identity as the Son of God. Satan gave up for the time being, but as our passage promises us, Satan went away until a more opportune time. I think sometimes we forget that Satan was waiting for another attempt at infecting Jesus. However, if we read God's Word carefully, we see that the Tempter comes once more. On the cross, Jesus is once again tempted to use His divine power to save himself. Satan spoke through all those who were deriding Jesus, "'He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!' The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, 'If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!' One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, 'Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!'"vi Each time Jesus was tempted to forget who He was and why He was here. Praise be to God, that Jesus did not forget who he was and that he defeated Satan once and for all. However, Satan has not given up. Satan tempts us to succumb to Spiritual Alzheimer's in much the same way he sought to tempt Jesus. Satan tempts us to forget that we are now called the children of God, sons and daughters of the King of kings and the Lord of lords; to forget our baptism and confession of Jesus as our Lord and Savior. He tries to get us to turn away from the Word of God and seek after the bread that comes in wealth, fame, and pleasure; he tempts us to cheat in business to get a larger profit; he tempts us to do things we shouldn't, just to make a name for ourselves; he tempts us to pursue illicit sexual relationships or drugs to make us feel good momentarily, satisfying for a moment only what Christ can satisfy within us forever. Satan will tempt us to forget that we are to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart and soul and strength. He will tempt us to set other idols above God. What idols? Satan tempts us with idolizing celebrities and politicians. He tempts us to worship our careers, our money, our calendars, our families, and even ourselves. Satan wants us to forget that God should take the first place in our lives and tries to convince us that it is okay for God to play second fiddle to whatever we want to have or do. Finally, Satan wants us to forget that we are to trust in God. When illness, disaster, or some other tragedy strikes, Satan tempts us to live in fear. When we are wronged, Satan tempts us to seek vengeance for ourselves. He wants us to forget that God has promised to put the words in our mouths, and rather than share the Gospel, we live in the fear that we might say the wrong words or upset somebody with God's truth. He tempts us to pile our money away in the bank worried about a rainy day or spend it all on what we deem we need and only give the leftovers for mission and ministry. The sad part, my brothers and sisters, is that often we find that we have given into this Spiritual Alzheimer's. Too many times we find ourselves back in the same condition we were in prior to understanding the Salvation that Christ offers and the life He calls us to. We forget who we are and who we are called to be. We forget that once we pass through those waters of baptism, whether sprinkled, poured, or immersed at any age, that we are no longer living lives for ourselves, but for God and neighbor first. Unlike the physical Alzheimer's that plagues so many, this Spiritual Alzheimer's has a cure. Like the husband who has not forgotten who is wife, even when we forget God, God remembers us. God continually calls us back into relationship with Himself and gives us the means to do it. He has given us Jesus. He provides us with Worship, Scripture, and Christian Conversations, among other things to remind us of who we are and who we are called to be. My brothers and sisters, Remember who you are. Remember that You are a beloved Child of God. Remember that God has called You and claimed You. Remember that you belong to Him, not to the world, not to Satan, not to fear, not to anything else. Remember, Remember, Remember! In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. i Deuteronomy 8:3 ii Deuteronomy 6:13 iii Psalm 91:11-12 iv Deuteronomy 6:16 v Luke 3:22 vi Luke 23:35-39 --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 2 Who? Luke 4:1-13