First Sunday in Lent

Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17,25-3:7
Romans 5:12-19, (20-21)
Matthew 4:1-11

How many of you have been in a tug of war?  It’s hard work isn’t it!  You have to dig your heels in, lean back as hard as you can and heave the thick rope you are hanging onto for dear life.  You get pulled back and forth as the other team puts all it’s might into gaining the momentum to get you off balance and pull you towards them until the little red handkerchief hanging on your side of the line crosses the line drawn in the sand.  I’ve seen grown men in a tug of war with sweat pouring down their faces as they hang onto the rope and pull with all their might heaving and groaning as they get pulled first this way then that, their leg muscles straining as they use all their weight to prevent themselves being pulled over by the other team.  The stories we read today, the first Sunday of Lent are all about the tug of war that goes on throughout our lives as we struggle with the decision about just who it is we are going to worship God or ourselves. 

 Adam and Eve encountered that struggle in the Garden of Eden.  God drew a line in the dirt and as Barbara Brown Taylor says, told Adam and Eve, “Human beings on this side, God on this side - tree of life on your side, tree of the knowledge of good and evil on my side.  Stay on your own side of the line if you know what’s good for you!” (From Remaining Human, a sermon printed in Christian Century)  And we all know the rest of the story.  Adam and Eve were unable to resist the temptation to cross the line that God had drawn.  They ate the forbidden fruit and consequently found themselves on the outside of the beautiful garden God had created for their existence. 

In the second story we read about Jesus and the devil in the wilderness.  The tug of war between Jesus and the devil was just as long and as powerful as the tug of war between Adam and Eve and the serpent.  It began right after he was baptized.  The moment God’s voice was heard from heaven declared Jesus to be God’s beloved Son, the Spirit of truth drove Jesus into the wilderness where Jesus must decide what it would mean for him to take up his ministry as God’s beloved son.  We are given a glimpse of the inner struggle that must have taken place in Jesus during that time, the decision that at some time or another has to be made by all human beings between using his gifts for the purposes of God or for the purposes of his own self-aggrandizement. 

 After forty days of fasting his hunger must have been intense.  Would Jesus use his miraculous powers to satiate his hunger or would he trust God to take care of his need for even the basic necessities of life and use the miraculous powers he had been given to provide for the well being of others?  The temptation to use the gifts we have been given for our own personal advancement is strong.  Yet Jesus chose to wait on his father trusting that God would take care of his needs and as we see later in his life, allowing God’s spirit to guide how and when he used his powers of feeding, healing and releasing broken souls.

 The devil then places Jesus upon the pinnacle of the temple and tells him to throw himself down so that God will prove his power by sending angels to break his fall.  But Jesus insists that his relationship with his father does not depend upon God protecting him from suffering or even death, (a temptation that will rear its ugly head once more as Jesus hangs on the cross).  “Do not put the Lord your God to the test”(Deuteronomy 6:16) is his response. Yet how many times do we find ourselves in the quiet of our rooms wondering how we can continue to believe in a God who can allow such terrible suffering to happen to innocent people we have loved?  I have certainly been in that place myself!  At the moment of crisis will we find the grace to continue to trust in God or will we allow ourselves to be pulled over the line in the sand?

And finally the devil strikes at the very heart of Jesus’ greatest desire and calling from God, the desire to see the God’s kingdom come into being in this world.  How easy it would be for God’s kingdom to become a reality if Jesus would use his power to influence kings and governors and people of wealth.  Surely Jesus confronting rulers of nations on their own terms would best serve God’s plans for the world.  He would need to get along with Herod and Pilate and Caiaphas if he wanted to succeed in changing the world.  But unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus will not be tricked by the devils cunning ways.  He will go with God even when it looks as if God’s ways are doomed to fail, a way that will not exclude the weak and the powerless, a way that will almost certainly lead through suffering and even death.  And finally from Jesus’ own lips we hear the statement that each one of us must take to heart if we are to win the very real struggle that is at stake, for our hearts and minds and souls.  “Away with you Satan!  For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”

The tug of war between our desire to follow God and our inability to trust him continues throughout our lives.  It is as simple as taking a little bite from an apple that is forbidden.  And there’s something we need to understand if we are going to come out on the winning team.  The temptation to worship something other than God comes in many different guises, and is different for every person.  The devil would probably not have been to tempt Jesus to turn pieces of stone into bread unless Jesus had been genuinely hungry.  The desire we all feel for food, friends, sexual intimacy are not in themselves evil, they are very real needs.  They become a temptation to sin when we feel that we need any of these things so much that we will do anything we can to get them for ourselves instead of trusting that God’s love for us is greater than our greatest desires, that God will provide whatever we need for a fruitful, joy filled life. 

The time of testing in the desert proved to be an opportunity for Jesus to affirm that he loved his Father God with all his heart and mind and soul, that he would worship God with every fiber of his being.  We too are given the opportunity to affirm our love for God during this Holy season of Lent.  We are asked to join Christ in the desert by placing some discipline upon our lives so that each year we may walk a little more closely with our Father God.  We are asked to give alms, to give an extra portion of the gifts we have received as a reminder that everything we have is a gift from God.  We are asked to fast, to willingly give up something we like to eat as a reminder that although there are many who suffer from hunger or homelessness in our world, in God’s kingdom there is enough for all because everything is shared.  Finally we are asked to pray and read scriptures in order that we might hear the word of God deep in our souls and hearing be changed into his likeness.  I know it seems a little old fashioned to consider taking on a Lenten discipline, but that is how Jesus began his ministry.  It seemed that he had to learn what he was not before he could enter fully live into his ministry as God’s beloved son. 

For many this season of Lent began with the placing of ashes on our foreheads with the words “from dust we come and to dust we will return” a poignant reminder that we are in the end all God’s creatures, created for the purpose of worshipping God with every fiber of our being.   We human beings have been created with the capacity to worship.  Whether or not we are able to admit it, we will spend our lives worshipping someone or something.  It’s part of our essential being to worship.  The question is who or what will we worship?  The line has been drawn in the sand.  The tug of war for our souls and beings will continue throughout our lives as we make choices large and small, every day about whom we will serve with our lives.  And just for this short period of time the church invites us to pay special attention to the choices we are making with our lives so that we may come to Easter day having connected ever more deeply with the God who created us for his love. 

In his name

Amen