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The Good News Written

Lent 1

From the wisdom of Charles Fillmore:

Prayer does not change God — it changes us. Sincere desire is a form of prayer. Deep desire is essential for spiritual growth. It is desire — earnest, intense desire — that draws the whole being up out of mortality and its transient joys into the power to appreciate and receive real spiritual blessings. This is a demonstration, the proving of a Truth principle in one’s body and affairs. It is the manifestation of an ideal when its accomplishment has been brought about by one’s conformity in thought, word, and act, to the creative principle of God.

Luke 4.1-13 (NCV)

¹Jesus, filled with the holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. The Spirit led Jesus into the desert ²where the [accuser] tempted Jesus for forty days. Jesus ate nothing during that time, and when those days were ended, he was very hungry.

³The [temper] said to Jesus, “If you are the son of God, tell this rock to become bread.”
⁴Jesus answered, “It is written in the Scriptures: ‘A person does not live on bread alone.’”

⁵Then the [tempter] took Jesus and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in an instant.⁶The [evil one] said to Jesus, “I will give you all these kingdoms and all their power and glory. It has all been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I wish. ⁷If you worship me, then it will all be yours.”
⁸Jesus answered, “It is written in the Scriptures: ‘You must worship… your God only.’”

⁹Then the devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and put him on a high place of the Temple. He said to Jesus, “If you are the son of God, jump down. ¹⁰It is written in the Scriptures:
‘[God] has put… angels in charge of you to watch over you.’
¹¹It is also written:
‘They will catch you in their hands
so that you will not hit your foot on a rock.’ “

¹²Jesus answered, “But it also says in the Scriptures: ‘Do not test the Lord your God.’”

¹³After the [accuser] had tempted Jesus in every way, he left him to wait until a better time.

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, February 21, 2010.

We pray every Sunday during the Lord’s Prayer (which we reflected on extensively during our Ash Wednesday service), “Lead us not into temptation.”
But today, we see Jesus being led into the wilderness where he does in fact face temptations. But whereas the spirit leads Jesus out of the place that is comfortable, familiar, out of what he has always known (and that feels like a wilderness experience), it isn’t God’s spirit that is offering the temptations. The spirit has led Jesus into the new and unknown; it is something else entirely that tempts Jesus to take short cuts along the way. Luke shows us today how Jesus overcame these temptations, and how we might as well.

1st Temptation — Turn these rocks into bread.
Jesus responds (Deut. 8.3), “One does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from God.” Luckily, Jesus knew scripture well enough that he could use to help himself, rather than allow others use it to keep him down.

2nd Temptation — I will give you power and wealth if you worship me.
Jesus responds (Deut. 6.13), “Revere and serve God only.”

3rd Temptation — Try to hurt yourself, for the scriptures say, “God will order angels to protect you” and “They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone” (Psalm 91.11-12).
Jesus responds (Deut. 6.16), “Do not test your God…”

Jesus is tempted to find fulfillment in physical pleasure (eating), in avarice (trying to have wealth and power over others), and in thrill-seeking (do something dangerous and see if God protects you). It sounds an awful lot like the much older story of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes looked for fulfillment in wealth, in the party life, in hard work, in education, even in traditional religion… and none of those avenues offered him the peace and fulfillment for which he longed. He learns that everything is good in its time and place, but no one thing is the magic solution. In the final chapter of Ecclesiastes the writer says, “Eat your food with gladness, and drink your beverage with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. Dress as best you can and enjoy your life with your friends and family. This is your lot in life: Whatever is yours to do, do it as best you can.”

Ecclesiastes is tempted to find easy answers to the complexities of life, and he finally learns there are no easy answers. The “meaning of life” is simply to live it. Be your best, do your best, love as much as you can, don’t let your joy depend on the changing circumstances of life, and at the end you can look back and say, “I lived well.”

Like Jesus being tempted to medicate his anxieties with bread, we sometimes have the temptation to fill the emptiness or medicate the pain of grief, loneliness, or uncertainty with things outside ourselves. Like Ecclesiastes or like Jesus in today’s gospel, we are tempted to look outside ourselves for fulfillment , rather than realizing the divine presence is omnipresent… God is always right where we are, so even what feels empty is actually full of grace and possibilities. But we can overcome the temptation with the understanding, “One does not live by bread alone, by parties alone, by shopping alone, by trying to please our parents or by clinging to the places that never accepted or wanted us. We live by the power and presence of divine life, always with and within us.”

We may have the temptation to boil down divinity to an image… a lover, wealth, a career, a particular theology, nationalism, etc. We may be tempted to forget that God is always more… more than OUR citizenship, more than OUR religious past, more that OUR preferences, desires, comfort levels, opinions, experiences. God is more. We may be tempted to pursue power and venerate that power as a position, a title, prestige, security… but those idols never satisfy. And in our finest moments we know that we are to serve the God that is Love… unconditional, all-inclusive Love… Love that empowers all people, not used as power by some over others.

There is often the temptation to allow religion of the past define us, control us… but we can claim our own authority, our own sacred value. The voice of evil in the third temptation actually quotes scripture at Jesus… and the truly nefarious part of that is that evil quotes it accurately, verbatim! If Jesus had given into the temptation to let his tradition be his god, or even to confuse his sacred texts with God, he might have said, “Oh, Yeah, Psalm 91 says exactly what someone who is against me says it says. I guess that’s it.” But Jesus knows that what we euphemistically call the word of God is not God. Even when it is quoted correctly, if it is quoted to hurt, manipulate, exclude, or demean someone, it is being misused! And so Jesus says, “You’ve got a verse to make me go against my self interest, but I have a verse that actually affirms me and helps me find hope and joy. I’m going with the one I choose for me, not the one YOU choose for me.” Jesus, after all, is the one who told the religious zealots of his day that [Religion] was made for us; we weren’t made for it (Mark 2.27). Religion is our helper; we aren’t meant to be its prisoner!

Jesus is tempted to allow scripture to be used in ways that will hurt or limit him; but he resists that temptation and uses his own self-awareness to then use scripture for empowerment and healing. He doesn’t use scripture as an excuse to feel bad about himself or to condemn or exclude others; he uses his self awareness as permission to use scripture in service of his own empowerment and fulfillment. And then, by doing so, he is encouraging others to do the same!

“The word of God is living and active…” (Hebrews 4.12). Scripture has been used to keep women out of the pulpit, and to keep same-gender loving people in the closet. It’s been used to abuse children and protect the privilege of kings, emperors and popes. It’s been used to justify slavery and segregation and anti-Semitism and war. Scripture has been used, while not even being misquoted, to do terrible things to people… to cause pain and injustice and inequality. But the word of God is living and active… it can be liberated from such oppressive usages, and when we are tempted to fall back into those old and hurtful ways of using scripture or tradition, we can overcome the temptation and say, “No! The word of God is living and must be life-giving; if it’s used to deny life and liberty and joy its being misused and I’ll have none of it!”

We are tempted to resurrect old prejudices, old problematic theologies which were the same theologies that told us WE were no good… we sometimes want to default to those ancient ideologies as an excuse to condemn or exclude others or even to beat ourselves up, but that only demonstrates that we haven’t really learned to love ourselves yet.

Jesus didn’t threaten the status quo by perpetuating it!
He wasn’t killed for abiding by the traditions.
He knew the scriptures, but he felt free to look at them in new ways; when they had been used in oppressive ways, he turned them on their side and used them in liberating ways.
He was tempted to do less… but he overcame those temptations; and as followers of his example we aren’t merely meant to enshrine him… we are meant to do what he did, take the risk, dare to be something new, and move forward to give hope and healing to those who still don’t trust THEIR sacred value.

We want to advocate for peace in the world.
We want to advocate for marriage equality.
We want to speak out for policies that will provide education and opportunities and health care to all people.
We want to show compassion to people in Haiti.
We want to stand up to homophobic violence in Jamaica and Uganda and Nigeria.
We want to support people battling their addictions.
We want to confront racism in our society, and in our community, and in our hearts.
We want to overcome misogyny.
We want there to be an end to child abuse and elder neglect and hunger.
But we can’t give what we don’t have!

We can’t heal the “isms” out there, until we have honestly addressed the “isms” in here… and my beautiful sisters and brothers, believe me when I tell you WE HAVE MORE WORK TO DO.

It is true that God prepares a table for us, anoints us, and wants our cup to overflow… (Psalm 23.5) but we give from what is flowing out of that full cup. We can’t share empowerment until we’ve been empowered. We can’t offer healing until we’ve begun to experience it. We can’t offer hope until we’ve embraced it. We can’t share the light until we believe we are the light! Jesus said, “YOU are the light of the world” (Matthew 5.14). But we are tempted to doubt that. Until we overcome that temptation, we won’t let our light shine, and the light that doesn’t shine is no light at all.

You want to save the world? Then let’s live into our own healing, our own potential, our own brilliance. Let’s take OUR seat at the table God has prepared for us. Let’s acknowledge our own anointing. Let’s allow our cup to overflow… and all that overflow is what we then have to share with the world. We can’t satisfy anyone with an empty cup.

So this Lent, let’s pray and study and reflect. Let’s worship weekly. Let’s return in the evenings for worship. Let’s take Light University classes and pray daily with Spirit & Truth. Let’s give generously and show kindness and give up some of our fears and prejudices. Let’s overcome the temptation to say the past was good enough. Let’s overcome the temptation to believe that we are less than God has created us to be. Let’s spend this Lent filling our spiritual cup to overflowing, and then we’ll have that overflow to share with the world come Easter. This is the good news. Amen.

The Good News Affirmed

God is my source. God is my life.

God is enough. I am made in God’s image…

And I am also enough. Amen.

The Good News Repeated

“It ain’t what they call you; it’s what you answer to.” W. C. Fields

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100221_1.mp3)