What kind of Church shall we be?

What kind of Church will we be? I am thankful that we have come through another year (2009) and that all of the annual meetings are completed. We are ready to go again. And so the question needs to be asked – what kind of Church will we be this year? In order to answer that question, we need to figure out where we are. The bad news, if you wish to think that as bad news, about our location is that we are out in the wilderness. We are beyond the usual paths and we are out in places where people don’t normally go. The good news is that we are with Jesus. We begin the observance of Lent in a lonely place and what we have with us is Jesus. Is that a bad place to be – I don’t think so. It might be a hard place to be but not a bad one. The wilderness is a place of testing or tempting. And Jesus is the one who needs to take the test. He is not taking to see whether he passes or fails but to discover what kind of Jesus he is going to be. Temptations are test to see what we know and who we are going to turn to when the going gets harder. And test doesn’t test what we don’t know or where we are weak. No, most often we are not tested where we are weak but where we are strong.


That’s why the devil doesn’t ask Jesus to go way out on a limb – that will come later. The old devil tests Jesus to see whom he will serve: others or himself. The devil recognizes Jesus for who he is and he is tempted to do something that is easily within his power to do – turning stones into bread. After all the one Jesus is looking at, looks like what he wants; a loaf of bread. It would be simple enough to think it or to snap his fingers and make it happen in his own strength to satisfy himself and his own needs. But he rejects that, choosing instead to depend on God to feed him and care for him.

Then the devil wants to know if Jesus will try and be impressive for the people, using the tricks he has up his sleeve. Will his ministry be shallow, giving the people what they want instead of offering them something that they really need? After all who wouldn’t be impressed by someone who survives a tumble like that? Will Jesus choose to be popular with the people and not so worry about what the Father asks of him? Jesus rejects the idea of testing the father and his love for him in that manner. He knows that the Father loves him and will defend him. Without that trust then the cross might not be possible. After all, isn’t the decent into the grave the great leap and fall of all?

Will Jesus bow to someone else other than the Father and the Father’s will? Would he prefer to put someone else in the place of his Father? Would he do that, knowing the place that the Father has in his heart and the place he has in the heart of his Father? What is the world worth to him? Wouldn’t it be easier, simpler just to transfer one’s allegiances and avoid the pain and suffering? It would be easier and simpler but not better and certainly not righteous of Jesus. And so Jesus rejects the devil again. Easy might draw people but it will not help them to stick and to stay. Cheap grace makes for weak Christians and that is not what Jesus is here for.

Temptation doesn’t raise just choices. Temptation raises questions. That’s why the Word and prayer are so important. How do you know what God wants of you and of us, if you and we together don’t ask him? And so the question comes to us: what kind of Church will we be? Will we take the risks to be like Jesus: serving ourselves before serving others; will we operate in a shallow manner so as to be popular; will we try to test the limits of God’s love and forgiveness that divine grace and mercy may more abound; will we allow others to replace the Father in our hearts or forget that we are beloved of our heavenly Father? We have to choose. It is time to decide. Tempted? Then, let us pray.