Facing Up to Temptation, Becoming Children of God

Introduction: Knowing Temptation
Years ago, in my former life in the construction industry, I was delivering a proposal for a major hospital expansion. The Director of Facilities was out of his office, but his assistant told me he’d be right back, to have a seat. There on his desk were the proposals from the other three companies. I walked over to the desk and out my hand on the first one to open it and see how our proposal matched up to theirs and adjust ours as needed. I was tempted to open it and look, but sat back down.

Driving down I-95 in Maryland a few months ago, I was going the speed limit, and then passed a series of state troopers, six of them, each giving out tickets or warnings to other drivers. The guy in the car next to me smiled and sped up as they drifted out of our sight,

I thought what he thought, that’s got to be all the troopers for miles. And like him I sped up, thinking I could get to my appointment early. When I looked at the odometer as it was pushing 75. I saw that the car next to me continued to accelerate, and was tempted to press on well past the safe speed, but I slowed down.

I was speaking recently with some parents, who had been planning a long weekend to get away from their busy lives, to take a healthy break from parenting some place warm and sunny, but they told me they decided not to go because they’d have to leave their teenage children home alone. They trusted their children in most things, but with the party scene and the stories they’d heard about what can take place when parents are out of town, they felt like they couldn’t place them under that kind of temptation, and stayed home.

Several years ago when the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition arrived at our house and went directly into the paper recycling bag, much to the dismay of some of the male members of our household interested solely in seeing what swimsuit styles might be in this summer. One of our sons asked me later, in private, if I was going to retrieve it from the recycling, “I don’t know, I’m tempted,” I said.

Most of us think that if there’s one thing we know about in this life, it’s temptation. If there’s one church word that doesn’t need to be rescued for our modern ears, that connects firmly and clearly to our everyday experience, temptation may be that one church word. We may not know about grace and mercy or a peace that passes understanding; we may need some explanation about trespassing and atonement; but temptation we know. We face temptations all the time, and in this season of Lent, when we’ve gone out of our way to give something up or to take something on to try to lead a more committed, Christian life, it almost feels like we’re tempting temptation itself.

St. Paul writes that he didn’t know about sin until he read the law. To put in our terms,
he didn’t know all the sinful things he could do until the scriptures told him they were
not allowed. Temptations can grow. We’re tempted to break our Lenten disciplines if we haven’t already — to break our diets, to cheat on our taxes, to gossip about a friend, to lie our way out of difficulties. We’re constantly being tempted to do what we shouldn’t do. Most of us don’t need any instruction about temptation, temptation we know. But do
we really?

Twenty years ago, Robert Fulghum, had a best seller book entitled, All I Reall Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, and in this very popular book, he argues that the deepest wisdom he knows came from the kindergarten classroom and the sandbox. Wisdom like sharing, playing fair, cleaning up your own mess, don’t hit people, hold hands and stick together. So, if Fulghum’s theory about wisdom is hold true, then maybe we should go back to Sunday School to learn what temptation is.

Truthfully, I don’t remember too many specifics about what I learned in Sunday School, beyond Jesus loves me. But I do remember most of the people who taught us, and one of these teachers said something that has always stuck in my mind. And that is that the best measure of a person is what they would do if no one else were around, is what they would do if there was no one there to reward or to punish them. It strikes me now that this is more conventional wisdom than Christian wisdom, but it’s pretty close, because we Christians believe that what we do in life as Christians comes not from a sense of reward or fear of punishment but out of who we understand ourselves to be and the kinds of persons we are becoming.

In that light, we probably have too shallow a view of temptation. In our minds we think temptation is the urge to do something. What we would really like to do, but shouldn’t do – one more piece of cake, one more juicy rumor, one more Sunday morning in bed. But the deepest level of temptation is not this urge to misbehave, but the temptation to be less than who we are called to be as God’s children. The temptation to not become who we are, but someone else.

Gospel: Jesus’ Temptations, Our Temptations
And that’s the issue at stake in this Gospel reading from Luke. The devil is not tempting Jesus to misbehave, he’s not tempting Jesus to break his fast or steal a piece of candy, or cheat on his taxes or pick a fight with his neighbor. It’s much deeper than that. The devil is tempting Jesus to deny who He is, tempting Jesus to forget His baptism, to set aside the truth that He is the child of His Father in heaven, who has been sent to restore humankind through the cross.

You see, it’s significant that Jesus is tempted, immediately after his baptism, Right after the skies opened and the dove descends and the voice proclaims, “You are my beloved Son, the one with whom I am well pleased.” You are the one I am sending down to reveal my heart of love, of grace, of forgiveness. You’re the One who will restore people to faith and to life with me. You’re the One who will walk the long, painful road to Jerusalem. You are the one who must endure the cross to save the world. It is here, then, right after His baptism, when Jesus’ vocation and identity are most clear that He comes to this time of tempting in the wilderness. And it’s Jesus’ identity that the devil seeks to destroy. That’s what temptation is really about.

The three temptations—to turn stones into bread, use all the powers this world to shortcut God’s plan; to throw himself down from the temple as some kind of circus trick — are not temptations to do bad things necessarily; Any of these actions provide an opportunity for people to know about Jesus; And perhaps even speed the process of gaining followers.

They are, at their very core, the temptation to be somebody else. The temptation to live some life other than the life of the beloved Son of God, to deny who He has been called to be and to be someone else. But Jesus remembers and knows who He is. And He chooses to be the person He is called to be and follow God’s plan, the plan that will require Him to accept the cross. With every temptation of the devil, Jesus chooses God’s way and remains who He is, the beloved Son of God. Because Jesus resists the temptation to be someone else, you and I have been freed from our sins and know for all time that God loves us.


Tempted to Be Less than Children of God
Now, because we belong to Jesus by nature of our baptisms, because we have been called to be the children of God in the world in our own day, we, too, have been given a life to live, a role to play, an important part in God’s plan of salvation. We who have been marked as Christ’s own forever, marked as the children of God Have been called to bring peace where there is strife, called to offer love in the presence of hatred, called to stir hope where there is despair, and to embrace faith where there is fear.
And because we have been called to this way of life, we are also tempted; Tempted to live out another story, a different plan; tempted to be someone other than who we have been called to be.

There’s a moment in Tolkien’s Lord of the Ring series when one of the Elf Queens is offered the ring of power. The temptation is that she would wield the ring well and for good. She is tempted, but after considering all the possibilities, she lets the temptation pass and decides to be who she is instead. You see, to give in to temptation is far more serious than misbehaving. To give in to temptation is to say, I am not a child of God, I will not take my part in God’s plan of salvation, I will not seek to know Christ and to make Christ known; I will be someone other than who I am.

And so in this season of Lent, when many of us are paying closer attention to our spiritual lives and giving up those habits that push God away, taking on habits that open the way for God to enter in, I invite you to remember who you are and to remember whose you are, to remember that you are the beloved children of God, that you belong to God.

Success or failure in a spiritual or physical habit is not the end goal we worship a God who forgives, even when we break our promise to live a certain way. No, these attempts on our part to change our habits are for a change of heart, a change of heart so that we can remember who we are and get about becoming the persons God created us to be. That’s what the season of Lent is all about.

And when the tempter whispers in your ear to be someone else, invite the power and presence of Christ to work in you all the more. Say no thanks and become who you really are, God’s child.

Amen.

First Things

I pray that you are well and want to encourage you to keep a holy Lent. I want for you the peace and hope that come from setting aside (that’s what holy means) these next forty days as a time to get your priorities straight. I pray for God to move in your life and mine so that we will live in such a way that there will be an opening for God and God’s peace to fill our hearts like never before.

Now getting our priorities straight is no small task for most of us. Too often in life we are presented with different priorities that compete for our attention and our resources. Like standing in front of the ice cream counter on a warm summer evening, we often have some very good choices in front of us. Or when the alarm rings and we have to choose between catching an extra forty minutes of sleep or getting up for some exercise. Both choices have their benefits for living a healthy life.

We are constantly being pulled in good directions by different priorities. It’s not always clear cut that one priority is good and one is bad. On our better days choosing among a good and a bad choice makes for an easy decision and we usually make the right choice.

The problem arises when we have two or more good choices in front of us and how we choose matters.

Well on this one, God is clear. The first thing, the first priority we are called to choose is God. That’s what the first of the Ten Commandments establishes as the priority. God wants to come first in our lives. God wants our relationship with Him and living our lives with an eye toward God’s purposes for us and for our world to be our first priority. God comes first, before all other “gods” or priorities.

And what sounds harsh in some ways is actually the path toward fearlessness and a deep peace about how we are living our lives. Jesus puts it another way, “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be given to you as well.”   When we make God our first priority in our hearts, in our minds, with our time, with our wallets, then we get our priorities straight and the secondary priorities will take their rightful place as secondary.

Check it out this Lent as you make room for God and seek the first thing. Make the decision to put God first in your life. Ask God to show you how you can make God your first priority. For when we do, we will be filled with a peace that passes understanding and a life that’s really life.

See you in Church on Saturday at 5 pm or throughout the day Sunday.

Grace and Peace,

WFA

A Reconciling Love

I pray that you are well. I am looking forward to entering into the holy season of Lent with you, beginning on Ash Wednesday next week. I say I am looking forward to entering this season with you, not because I particularly enjoy fasting or giving up habits I apparently love. I am looking forward to the season because it is a time when each of us can be a little more reflective about the quality of our lives and the health of our souls. And, even though this is not always the lightest work we can take on, it is the path that leads to light and joy and the power of God’s forgiveness.

For most of us, confession is a difficult moment. Most of us prefer not to face our failings or the ways we fall short. Better to keep a blind eye to our foibles and failures and just move along, trying to forget what we’ve done. The problem, of course, is that at some level we are not able to forget fully and we need to choose a different way of dealing with our sin.

Left to our own devices, we rarely ask another person to forgive us. And if you’re like me, you simply read along with the Confession of Sin without a whole lot of self-reflection or honesty, when said during Sunday worship. But if we confess, as St. John writes in his first letter, then we will be forgiven. We know this truth in our close relationships with others, as confession followed by forgiveness reconciles or reunites us to the other person. It may be a partially broken reconciliation because all our deeds have consequences, but in almost every case, the confession and forgiveness actually deepens the love and bond we have with the other person.

And so it is with God. When we confess, God forgives us and we are drawn closer to God’s heart, and God is drawn closer to ours. And when I say confess, I’m not talking about the comedian George Carlin’s caricature of his confessions. I’m speaking of being honest with God and speaking the truth about your life and, once spoken, receiving God’s forgiveness so that you may set your fears aside and know only God’s love for you. That’s the power of confession when we freely submit our lives to God.

This Lent, inspired by The Rev. Hillary Raining’s doctoral work on reconciliation and the class she will be teaching on Tuesdays in Lent, St. David’s will be offering the Rite of Reconciliation (personal confession) on Friday afternoons and Friday evenings. It is not a requirement for any of us. It will not be everyone’s “cup of tea.” But for those of us who would like to see whether this might be a gift for us from God to lead us closer to God, come and see. For when we confess and receive forgiveness from one another or from God, then our fears will grow small and our faith and confidence in the life before us can only grow.

Grace and Peace,
WFA

Christ to Liberate is Our Mission, Too

Introduction: Inaugural Addresses, the Beginning

Last week’s inaugural address reminded me of a conversation I had with a history buff who told me that every single Inaugural Address From George Washington to Barack Obama has been preserved in written and now recorded forms. And in every one of these speeches, most of which were over an hour in length, Presidents have laid out the dreams and goals and aspirations of their presidencies—they have set forth their mission for the next four years, words they intend to live by, words they intend to lead by, words to measure the effectiveness of their presidency.

George Washington spoke of the power of that Almighty Being who rules over the universe that would guide his hand and advance the character of an independent nation, and expressed his goal for a nation independent, but under God.

Abraham Lincoln, in a more difficult time in the history of our country, challenged those who would destroy the nation through secession saying “You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.”

And so he did, even to the point of conducting a war to preserve the Union.

Franklin Roosevelt, addressing the crisis of a nation and a world in the throes of a deep economic depression, promised to endure and work to revive the nation reminding us that the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.

And, notably, as America reached the status of the world’s great power, John Kennedy invited us to take on the role of leadership in defending freedom, challenging us to ask not what your country can do for us, but what we can do for our country. And to the world, ask not what America can do for you but what together we can do for the freedom of mankind.

At every turn in the progress of this democratic republic presidents have sought to lay out a mission in their inaugural addresses so that we may have some idea where we may be going and what is expected of us.

The Book of Proverbs states that “without a vision, the people will perish," so having some kind of vision is important for leading a good and effective life. Presidents and people, businesses and social groups, families and churches need words to live by, an inaugural address to set forth their goals and to measure their work along the path to meeting those goals in a hope-filled, persistent manner.

We have something like an inaugural address in this morning’s Gospel. No, Jesus hasn’t been elected president of Israel, but the people gathered in Nazareth are expecting something from Jesus. They know that something different has been happening in the lives of the surrounding communities and there was a buzz about who Jesus was and whether He might be the Messiah. Reports about Jesus had spread throughout the region of the Galilee. Reports about His baptism and the voice from heaven; reports about his teaching in other synagogues and other towns; perhaps reports about the wedding feast in Cana just down the road from Nazareth. Could Jesus be the Messiah that they had been expecting for so long? Could Jesus be God’s chosen now that he was all grown up, the one who would free them?

You see the Hebrews had been expecting a Savior for as long as they’d been a people they longed for God to save them and restore them and Nazareth was a community, according to scholars, where there was a special emphasis paid to waiting, praying for the Messiah to come. And there seemed to be two forms of this expectation; One, would be that the Messiah would be a great king who would throw out the foreign powers, in this case Rome, who would restore the fortunes of Israel; and would establish justice and peace throughout a physical kingdom. The other expectation was that the Messiah would restore the people to God, would live life in direct contact with God, sinless, in God’s will at all times,

and would show the people the ways of God and the way to God, whether there was a physical kingdom or not. Jesus has the power to become either one of these Messiahs and it’s in today’s Gospel, that He reveals what kind of Messiah He has grown up to be, what we might expect from His Lordship in our lives, and the kinds of lives He may be calling us to live.

In some sense, Jesus gives an inaugural address in the synagogue at Nazareth, outlining His platform

and telling the people what they can expect from His administration. Jesus stands and takes the Isaiah scroll and reads,  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; sent me to proclaim release to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus will not be the great king who wields a sword to establish a kingdom on earth, but will be the one who uses the knowledge of God’s love for Him and all the power in the universe in order to liberate all who are in physical and spiritual bondage. He will be the one who shows the way of God and the way to God. Jesus will be a liberator

and all the miracles He performs to heal and restore and bring people back from the dead, all the teachings and stories provide a pathway for people to wake up to our lives and to God’s presence, as well as to be free so that we may become the persons God made us to be.

Jesus is a liberator and at the end of his earthly ministry, as He hangs on the cross Jesus liberates us from our sins and the power they hold over us by taking them on Himself.  And when He rises again on Easter morning, He frees us from the bonds and the fear of death so that we are free indeed, to grow up to become who God made us to be.

Unlike so many of our presidents and other leaders over the course of time, Jesus’ inaugural address is one that He actually fulfills by the way He lived, by the life He gives, and His purposes change lives like ours and call us to take up His purposes in our own day.

Taking Up Jesus’ Goals

Some time ago, I had a conversation with a friend about the fact that for all that Mother Teresa did and worked for all her life, when she died, there were still poor people and sick people, still people without hope in Calcutta and around the world. And that it was the same when Jesus ascended into heaven.

For all the good news Jesus brought to the poor snd all the captives that He released snd all the healings of the blind and the lame and the sick snd all the prisoners who were freed there was much more to do, there was much more to be done.

It doesn’t mean that Jesus’ life and ministry or the Mother Teresa’s life and ministry were failures in any sense; they were world changing, but it does mean that there’s more to be done. And that’s where you and I come in.  For we are called today to take up Jesus’ ministry inaugurated in Nazareth, the work he began that day and renews in you and me this day. For we, too, are loved by God and we, too, have been anointed through our Baptisms with the Holy Spirit and in that love and with that power we can be and do anything. But what God calls you and I to do and to be, what God calls us to become as we grow up, are Jesus’ hands and heart and feet, so that the work He inaugurated in Nazareth will continue today and people will be freed from their captivity.

Accept the liberation Christ offers you and each one of us. Receive the forgiveness, the healing, and the freedom from being less than God made us to be and then look around your life to find a way to use the love and the power of God working in you to free people in your own family, in our community, and in the world from the spiritual and physical struggles they face. Each of us can make a difference in Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit and that is who we can become when we are willing to grow up in the love and in the power of God and follow our Lord and His purposes.  

                             

WFA

Finding Rest and Peace

I pray that you are well and are finding ways to enjoy this “brisk” winter weather, and I ask your prayers and support for those who are struggling in these winter months, both physically and emotionally.

This Sunday past, I preached a sermon about the sovereignty of God as it relates to our prayer life and our prayers – about how God is not our “errand boy” when it comes to asking for what we want and how God is calling us to conform to God’s will, so we pray, “thy will be done” in the Lord’s Prayer. It’s important and enlivening to try to pray with God and see that the way God answers prayers gives us better clues about what God’s will may actually be in our lives and in the lives of the world around us.

I thought it was a pretty straightforward message and might prove helpful. After the service, a long-time and faithful parishioner came up to me to talk. They stated that they really enjoyed the message and appreciated the teaching and sentiments expressed (I liked the sound of that.) Then their tone of voice turned more serious and quiet as they asked, “How do you pray like that? I mean you have a seminary education and all, so it must be easy for you. I have never known how. Can you teach us so that we can pray with God?”

My heart went out to this pillar of our community and I drew them aside and told them this secret, “It’s not up to us. It’s up to God." All we have to do and all we can do is try to come to God. He will take care of the rest. Whether you read the Bible as a way to come to God or sit quietly and seek God’s presence; whether you read prayers or say prayers out loud or sing your prayers; God will come and make Himself known to you.

In other words, if you want to be in a relationship with God and find real rest and peace and fearlessness, seek God. Come to God. Be quiet with God. Sing to God. There are any number of ways, but the critical truth is that you and I have to come to God for God to be with us. God has this “thing” about not overpowering our free wills, that’s true, but if we will seek Him in some place in our lives, He will do the rest.

So, if you’re feeling a little fearful about your life or you’d like to have a living relationship with God or if you want to deepen that relationship, come to Him. He may not make Himself known immediately, but He will draw you close and you will know Him in your life.

Grace and Peace and good Praying.

WFA

Tie the Cat

"Be still, then, and know that I am God."
Psalm 46:11


I pray that you are well and are finding time in this new year to spend time with God. So many of us want to live the Christian life, to be connected with God, and feed our faith instead of our fears, but often, other people and activities compete for time with God. The result of not spending time with God is that our lives are less than they could be. We miss out on noticing how connected God is in our lives, and our fears grow. So this week, I invite you to "tie the cat." Here's what I mean.


A certain woman decided that she wanted to have a spiritual life. She began by setting aside fifteen minutes at the very start of the day to read the Bible and to pray. This particular woman shared her life with a very affectionate cat, who, during this time of prayer, rubbed against her and too often distracted her from her time with God. So she began her prayer time by tying the cat's collar to her bedpost so she wouldn't be distracted from her time with God.


Her son, watched his mother grow in faith, peace and understanding, and swore that when he became an adult, he too, would set aside time with God to grow in the faith. His life was a little busier than his mother's life and he could only spend ten minutes with God each morning. He began his prayer time by tying up his cat, then opening the Bible and praying. His life changed dramatically from the time he spent with God and the son grew as a Christian.


The granddaughter grew up with a faithful, praying grandmother and father and vowed that, she too, would be a person of faith. Her life, though, was so distracted and busy that she had even less time for God then her father. So, early each morning she would rise, tie up her cat, and jump in the shower to get ready for her day.


Like all relationships of value, spending time with the person or persons you love is crucial. And it's not always the quality of time we spend. More often, deep relationships form with the quantity of time we spend with the beloved. A good amount of time spent with a partner, a child, a friend, and especially with God, almost always yields a deeper love and understanding, as well as a greater sense of peace and purpose.


So, tie the cat in your life and go into your room alone to spend time with the Lord. Walk away from one of your distractions and activities that overfill your time and be still in the presence of God. Your fears will fall away and that peace that passed understanding will fill your soul and bring you closer to a life that's really life.

Grace and Peace,
WFA

Heart Healers

"Everyone will know you are my followers, if you love one another." John 13:35


I pray that you are well want to invite you to a renewed sense of who we are and what we are about as followers of Jesus.

Everyone, including you and me, is walking around with a hole in their heart that can be filled by only one thing. Some of the holes are little. We're feeling a little lonely or left out. Something in our life didn't quite go the way we wanted it to go and we're disappointed. We're under the weather or aren't quite sure what's coming next in our lives and have a heightened sense of anxiety as opposed to peace.

Some of the holes are large. We have big holes in our hearts when we are grieving over the death of someone we love. We have large holes in our hearts when we there are troubles in our lives or in the lives of those we love. Our holes grow large when we're unemployed or underemployed or when the road ahead seems difficult and God seems somehow absent.

All of us have holes in our hearts and everyone you and I meet has some hole that is waiting to be filled with love and compassion from God and from God's followers - you and me. That's what Jesus claims to be the mark of discipleship, our love for one another.

And you know that makes a lot of sense with all of us walking around with holes in our hearts. We have an opportunity to help God fill other people's holes and hurts by showing them love and allowing God to fill the hole in our hearts by receiving love from others.

So the next time you see someone acting out or being rude or looking sullen, remember that that's the expression of the hole in their heart and find some way to offer love to them. And the next time you come to St. David's to worship or to participate in some activity or fellowship event, look for some way to love another person to help fill up their heart hole. If we will, then we will be known as Jesus' disciples and we will become heart healers and open ourselves to God healing our hearts at the same time.

Grace and Peace,
WFA