Luke 4:1-13

These are our texts for this, the first Sunday in our Lenten journey.

From the Gospel of Saint Luke:  "When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.”

From the Gospel of Saint Matthew:  "Then the devil left him and suddenly, angels came and waited on him.”

Let us pray.
 

Before your cross, O Jesus, our lives are judged today.  The meaning of our eager strife is tested by your way.  Across our restless living the light streams from your cross, and by its clear, revealing beams we measure gain and loss. Gracious God, open now your Word to our hearts and our hearts to your Word.  In the Spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

A family was off on a vacation.  The children were in the back seat and as the miles rolled by they became more restless and impatient.  One of the children kept asking, "How much longer?  How much farther do we have to go?  When are we going to get there?"  Finally, the parents' patience was worn thin.  They both said: "No more.  Do not ask those questions again.  We do not want to hear it."  There was silence for five or ten miles.  Then a small voice from the back seat asked:  "How old will I be when we get to the beach?"

You and I will be just about six weeks older when we arrive at Easter morning and, I hope, a good bit wiser about how we, the children of God, can live our life to the very fullest.  Hence the title of this Lenten series of sermons:  A Faith to Grow on – a Faith to Go on.

One of the most powerful moments in the Christian story occurs as Jesus emerges from his baptism in the River Jordan.  The Holy Spirit descends and a voice from heaven is heard to say, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  At this point Jesus' ministry had not even begun, yet he was freely given the unconditional love and grace of God.  It was this reality that empowered Jesus' entire ministry, his faithful life, his sacrifice, his willingness to go all the way for God.

Was life easy for Jesus?  Immediately after the moment of great clarity about his identity he was led off into the wilderness for what the older translations of Scripture call a time of temptation, but might better be thought of as a time of testing.  Is life easy for us?  Well, if Jesus was susceptible to temptation/testing, then there is no way in the world that you and I will ever be able to avoid it.  So what can we learn from Jesus' time of testing which will sustain us in the hour of our testing?

The word “temptation” has become softened in our common usage.  :Now, how about some dessert?  Key lime pie or a nice piece of chocolate cake?”  “Oh no, we say, "don't tempt me.”  Again, the word “temptation” implies a choice between right and wrong, good and evil.  Jesus certainly knew the difference between the two, as most of us do.  The temptation of Jesus was much more subtle and sophisticated.  Jesus was tested to choose between two good choices and to choose the better over the best.  Hegel - the philosopher has said - genuine tragedy is a case not of right against wrong, but of right against right.

Jesus was tested, challenged, to turn a stone into bread.  The world then and today was and is filled with hungry people.  Why not feed them?  Jesus replied, "One does not live by bread alone."  Jesus was shown all the kingdoms of this world.  The devil said: "Fall down and worship me and I will give you all this glory and authority."  (As an aside, I wonder how the devil came to possess all the kingdoms of the world?  Notice Jesus does not question that the devil controls them all.  Ponder this when you're reading your daily newspaper.)  Why didn't Jesus say "OK?"  Do we not pray and long for the day when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of God, when God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven?  Jesus replies, "It is written, 'worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"

Then Jesus was taken to Jerusalem and placed on the pinnacle of the temple.  "If you are the Son of God throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'he will command his angels to protect you.'"  Jesus responds, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

Scholars generally agree that Jesus was tempted here to purify the temple cult, what a wonderful thing, yet declined in favor of a great good.  Choosing the better over the best.  First century people, upon hearing of Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, obviously thought immediately of the Israelites forty years in the desert wilderness.

Pay attention also to the words of the devil to Jesus:  “If you are the Son of God” – how clever and insidious.

Jesus at his baptism heard a voice: “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.”  The evil one tests Jesus to question this, to doubt it.  So, too, with you and I when our time of testing arrives often there is a voice of self-doubt – if you are a beloved child of God, if you really are a cherished daughter or son of God, if, if, if, if . . . when we question it, all is lost.

Jesus’ time of temptation/testing was not once and for all.  As Luke tells us, “When the devil had finished every test (notice even the text refers to them as tests) he departed from him until an opportune time.”  So, too, with you and I there always waits a time of testing a bit further down the road.  Time and again we are tested as Jesus was tested, not by a choice between good and evil, right and wrong, but by a choice between two goods, and a challenge to choose the best over the better.

As one example, I found myself mediating a family dispute between a grown son and his mother. As a result, after its resolution, his mother refused to speak to me.  I was no longer welcome into the home where I had been warmly welcomed so many times, and, of course, she no longer came to worship. Despite all my attempts, it was apparently the end of the story.  Months passed. Then one Sunday morning I looked down from the pulpit.  There she was -- back in her favorite pew, a spot near the rear of the sanctuary.  When I greeted her at the door after worship, she didn't say anything.  She was, did I say this, a woman of very few words. She gave me a little smile, reached up and kissed me on the cheek.  This was her way of saying it was going to be OK.  I thought then, and I think now as I share this story with you, how difficult, how hard it can be to choose between two goods, to choose the best over the better, even when it is one of your own children -- or then even the more difficult.

This is what faced Jesus in the wilderness this time of testing.  Can you identify with this, recall a time in your life when tested to choose the better over the best?  This is what you and I wrestle with time and again in our hour of testing.  It is part of our human experience as it was for Jesus, "When the devil had finished every test he departed from him until an opportune time."  It never ends -- as long as there is life there are times of testing.

Decisions and choices in times of testing which we face also in our common life as Christian citizens of this Commonwealth and nation -- especially in this pivotal election year.  Decisions about war and peace.  Decisions about all citizens having equal rights under the laws of this State, and about where the real threat to marriage lies in our day.  We will be talking about this in our after-Church Forum today.  Please stay and be part of the conversation.  It is so important!  Decisions about state and national budgets and the Biblical imperative for social justice. Decisions about the environment, drilling for oil in the arctic wilderness, cutting timber in the national forests.

Saint Matthew tells us that Jesus was not left alone in his ongoing times of testing:  "Angels came and waited on him; angels came and ministered to him.  We, too, are never left alone by God, abandoned to our own unaided strength and resources.  God in Christ is with us. There is nothing in either life or death which can ever separate us from the love of God made known in Jesus Christ.  There is a spiritual power moving in our lives and in the life of the world, if we are open to it, which seeks to strengthen and sustain, guide and direct us in days of decision and times of testing.

Mother Church gives us these forty days of Lent so we might grow in faith and in faithfulness and then be able to stand strong when we are tested.  We are invited to examine the pattern our days have been weaving, so we might repent, turn back, turn around, turn away.  Else, as in the Native American saying, “We end up where we are going.”  Scripture encourages each of us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.  One of my favorite hymns once known as “Lead On, O King Eternal” and now is entitled “Lead On, Eternal Sovereign,” was written as a graduation hymn for a seminarian class at Andover Newton Theological School:

“Through days of preparation thy grace has made us strong, and now, O King Eternal, we lift our battle song”

or. . .

“Through prayerful preparation your grace will make us strong, to carry on the struggle to triumph over wrong.”

Either version makes it clear that only through prayerful preparation, through worship, through the fellowship of the faith community, will we find the strength to stand strong and faithful in our of testing -- the courage to do what is right and just and fair!

The forty days of Lent now stand before us –forty opportunities to nurture a faith to grow on and a faith to go on.

"Then the devil left him and suddenly angels came and waited on him."

God grant that such an experience may be yours and mine these days of Lent.

Let us pray:

Take our hand, Lord Jesus, take our hand.
Take our hand, Lord Jesus, take our hand.
There's a race to be run
There's victory to be won
Every hour give us power to go on.

In the spirit of Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, Amen.

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