|
February 25, 2007 - St.
Christopher’s Episcopal Church The Fear of Lent My stupid dog knows better! She normally heels back to the truck at the end of a day in the field with the hawk, but sometimes she gets a little nutty. And of all the days to have it happen! I had snuck time out to run the dogs and fly the hawk before a meeting and now I would be late. Secondly, I had a friend with me. He had been impressed with the hawk and the dogs, but now any bragging rights were out with that stupid dog was! Yes, I was furious, but what was I really feeling? I was feeling embarrassed in front of my friend, I was feeling irresponsible for risking being late, but most of all I was feeling scared: Scared that my dog was not OK, that I had blown the meeting, and that I had blown it with my friend. Anger hides our real feelings. The biggest thing that anger hides is fear. In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus is tempted by the devil, and every one of the temptations hinges on a fear that is often hidden by anger. Those fears are that God will not prove powerful, true or worthy. “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” One weekend as a kid a friend and I decided to take a survival trip to the mountains. We equipment but virtually no victuals. By Sunday afternoon we were both depressed and mean. Jesus was hungry, and He had the power to change the stone into bread, but what the Devil was tempting Jesus with is the attitude reflected in Psalm 78: 18 They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved. 19 They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert? 20 When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?" In Genesis, did not Eve think God was withholding something good by denying her the forbidden fruit? Can God meet our needs? Who hasn’t been angry with God because we expected something and didn’t get it? But deep inside it’s not anger, it’s fear: My needs are not evil, will my needs consume me while God looks on powerless to help? Jesus answers with a passage from Deuteronomy 8: “2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years…He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna…to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” At the proper time Jesus would turn Stone into Bread: Jesus refers to Himself in Matthew 21:42, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: 'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?” And then as He institutes the Lord’s Supper, “26While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’” Jesus promised, “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.” The answer to hunger is not necessarily to eat. Lent is a time for fasting. Let your hunger drive you to the Stone made Bread for your soul, and all the things you need will be added to you as well. We have been talking a lot about what God has promised to do at St. Christopher’s in 2007, and many of you have shared with me your excitement. I share it, too, it makes me hungry to see it happen. But is God able to come through? Will it really happen, or will we be disappointed? Do not be angry, do not fear, seek the Bread of Life, and the Body of Christ will be filled to overflowing in every way. “To you I will give all this …authority and their glory…if you…will worship me….” Numbers 22 tells the tale of two kingdoms. Balaam was a prophet of God living in Moab when the People of Israel came through on their way to the Promised Land. Balak, king of Moab, sent messengers to summon Balaam. Balak said: “A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land…Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me….For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed." Balaam goes to curse them and the Lord doesn’t let him. Balak doesn’t understand. He promises Balaam greater rewards, as if to buy the magic, but it just doesn’t work. Balak is thinking like the serpent in the Garden: “Has God said, ‘you shall not eat of the fruit’?” It is a ploy, tempting us, like Jesus, to sell out to the world of earthly ends as if it were another eternal reality of his own creation. So why does God let the false reality exist? Hebrews 2:8 says, “In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him [that is, Christ.] Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.” Sometimes it seems God abandoned us, leaving a vacuum filled with other dominions. Who has not been angry with God for mismanagement of the planet, or wondered at His apparent absence? But is it anger or fear? Every one of us has wondered in our heart of hearts in the quiet of the night that perhaps when all is said and done the kingdoms of this world will prove to be the only kingdoms that matter. Are we not afraid that our hope in Christ is misplaced, that placing our hope in God will prove false, that God’s promise for St. Christopher’s will prove untrue? Jesus answers “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.” (cf. Deut. 6:13) The key words are “worship” and “serve.” Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other….” You could replace “or” with “then,” indicating a flip-flopping of allegiance, a person always choosing between the two as most serves him, setting himself above them both. He pretends to make a god of his own purposes, which is precisely the trap of our enemy, in the end his very triumph is his downfall. To finish the quote from Hebrews, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor….” His name (Phil. 2) is now above every name “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” The answer to our doubts that make us blame God for our world is not to reassert authority, but to bow in worship and service. Our hope is solid, God is true, He WILL bless St. Christopher’s, the kingdoms of this world WILL become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. “If you are the Son of God throw yourself down from here, for it is written….” She sat in my office and wept, it seemed her life was just too much to handle. Three young children and a problem husband, working a peanuts job, her life a constant set of impossible problems. God has promised provision enough for an honorable life, but it just seemed He wasn’t coming through. The devil even quotes one of God’s promises to Jesus: “He will give His angels charge over you to guard you,” and, “on their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” How many of us have raged at God for unanswered prayer? But under the anger, is there not a fear that God doesn’t really love you, that He is malicious, or at least capricious, out to just mess people’s lives up? Jesus’ answer is a quote from Deuteronomy 6:16. “Do not test the Lord your God, as you did at Massah.” At Massah the people quarreled with Moses saying, “Did the Lord bring us up out of Egypt just to kill us with thirst?” “Is the Lord among us or not?” It’s the same question, is God really in our court or not? Can He be negotiated with, can He be managed? Finally, is He useful to us or not? But Jesus’ words cut to the core: “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” At first we come to God for what God can do for us and God accepts us. But we must mature to the place where there is a flip-flop. We must cease being the center-point of our relationship with God and let Him take that place. We have received a tremendous promise of God about St. Christopher’s this year, and we must work diligently to do our part, but the purpose is not our glory, but those people in our community who need to find God here. St. Christopher’s is not our idea that God blesses, it is God’s idea that He shares with us. “And when the devil had ended every temptation?” Wait? How about chocolate and TV and beer and the cute girl at work who wears the short skirts? No, those temptations are surface manifestations of the three great fears: Is God powerful? Is God true? Is God worthy? Jesus’ answers show us that it is in a life lived in humble relationship with Him that our fears are confronted, our anger answered, and our temptations overcome. The decision to follow Christ humbly is not dependent on anyone else. As a parish that relationship does not hinge on anyone else, each parish is called to live in humble relationship with God. For you, Christian, it does not hinge on anyone else, each of us is called to live in humble relationship with God. To choose this is to choose a holy Lent. Fr. Paul Moore+
|
|||
|
|
|||