Dealing with temptation

The intrepid salesman had finally got his chance to make the really big sale… the kind that makes careers and “legendary” reputations.   As he was ushered into the office of the executive buyer, an assistant brought in a can of soft drink, placed it on the desk, and left again. The atmosphere was cordial, and he knew he was giving his best presentation ever. Then the assistant tapped on the door, re-entered the office and spoke briefly with the executive.  She stood and said, "I apologize, but I have to tend to a matter.  I'll just be a minute or two." And she followed her assistant out of the room.

The sales representative saw her family pictures on her desk.  Then he noticed a contract on her desk.  She had evidently been studying a bid from a competitor.  Leaning forward, he could see the column of figures, but it was obscured by the diet soda can. He was tempted to move the can and see the bottom line of his competitor's bid.   After wrestling with himself a while, he finally decided to take a peek. As he lifted the soda can, he discovered that the can wasn't filled with soda at all.  Instead, the bottom of the can was not attached to the top and the can filled with thousands of little pellets that gushed out, and ran all over the desk cascading down onto the carpet.  His attempt to short cut the competition was exposed.  

We all face temptations every day. And perhaps from time to time we encounter a temptation that is very great and hard to pass up that we then find is very costly to us in some and often many ways. In those moments after we have been found out, we so desire to have a second chance, a “do over” because we know what to do the next time. Perhaps the sad thing is we have not yet done it. And that is where Jesus comes in. Jesus is portrayed as the second chance – the second Adam. It is the ultimate in the “do over” department. Jesus follows the leading of the Spirit and goes out into the wilderness where the nation was in times past to deal with their mistrust, their failings, to discover who God is and thus who they were because of whose they were.

This important because we need to recognize that Jesus has just had his identity confirmed in his baptism by the Father. He has been told who he is. Now he has to live it. Matthew’s Gospel portrays Jesus as the devout and pious person who goes out into the wilderness to, in a sense, confront his demons. The tempter does come with a series of tests which will push Jesus to assert his true identity or accept the identity the world wants to give him. When taken as a whole, the temptations assert Jesus’ true identity because the tempter repeatedly says to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God…” Secure in the knowledge that he knows not only whose he is, but even more from the knowledge that he is loved by his Father, Jesus responds with Scripture and with the lessons that the nation of Israel was taught in that wilderness. Israel remained in the wilderness for forty years learning these lessons and as a punishment for their mistrust of God in spite of the ways in which he had broken the power of the Pharaoh and brought the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. Both the Israelites and Jesus emerged from that experience to accept the role and the mission that God would have them fulfill, having strengthen and purified their relationships.

Taken separately, the temptations are tests to see whether Jesus might put his trust somewhere else – that was the failure of the first Adam. The serpent calls into question God’s trustworthiness and apparent unwillingness to be more forthcoming about revealing the master plan but he does not lie to Adam and Eve. The fist Adam seems to believe that there was more to life than God was telling and realized that it was possible to know more and so ate from the forbidden tree. Adam was tempted and chose to give in and to try and make a go of things himself instead of trusting God to be faithful and to provide. Adam through the eating of the forbidden fruit did become more like God knowing good and evil. And then humanity had to take the consequences of the mistrust allowed to grow in human hearts. Jesus is tested as to whether he will allow mistrust to grow within him. Will he make a display of his power? Will he put God to the test by endangering himself before his appointed time? Who will Jesus worship?   The tempter appeals to Jesus’ strengths not to his weaknesses to try and get him to mistrust God and to go it alone and do it himself.  

So where does this leave us? We too need to learn the lessons of the wilderness. We too need to learn the discipline of the wilderness so that we move to purify our relationships with God; that we might be stronger and bolder as witnesses to Jesus’ life death and resurrection. We are tempted to give in and to just be ourselves rather than the holy people God desires to make us. And like Jesus we can learn the lessons of the wilderness to remind each other of the necessity of placing our trust in God because we know whose we are and that we too are loved by God. And lets remind each other that we’re on the way back to that Garden where we will wait and watch as Jesus faces the temptation again only to hear the answer, “Not my will but yours be done”. 

Living Lent out loud!

Perhaps you remember the movie “Chocolat”? It is about a woman who blows into a French village to open up a chocolate and candy store. The village into which the woman enters is a much stayed, totally religious, and above all very traditional community. Everyone knows what is expected of them and no one challenges things or steps out of line. In some sense it might be considered by the religious as a bit of a utopia. But as the movie I think reminds us, being alive and being alive to God can be a bit of a messy business!

Perhaps that is why I have been feeling of late that this upcoming Lenten season needs to be different in some ways from at least some of the other Lents we have been through. I have yet to hear of any talk about what people are giving up (or taking on for that matter) for Lent. It is an old and worthwhile discipline. Perhaps you might have noticed that the people who are really living are dressed in brightly coloured clothes while a good many in the village remain in the grey and drab. It helps us to see who is living and who is seeking and who needs to. Now it is not always that easy so we need to stop, to look, to ask and to listen before we can move forward. We need to see things the way that other people see things. It is what we should both as individuals and as a community be doing so that there is fuel for prayer. The colours and the chocolate are used to help us see what passion is all about and who we might use it in our relationships around us: with our spouses, with our children, with our friends and neighbours, with those in authority around us. But how does this help us live out loud in this Lent?

First, we need to remind ourselves that like the growing light of the day, the kingdom of heaven is also grow in power and influence in the world. The kingdom grows because the Word of God is living and active in the world, some time quiet and almost imperceptible and at other times bold and brashly striding forward, knocking, seeking and finding.

Second, we need to be more aware of how we are living out our lives and the impact that we are having (or not having as the case may be) on the people around us. We need to recognize that not all the world is a stage. There are moments when we need to draw aside and pray quietly in our rooms. There are moments when we need to deny ourselves certain things to be good stewards and to creation new passions as well as demonstrating some self control. Have you ever asked yourself why you take up again a thing you stopped and did without during Lent. Shouldn’t this season be about letting things go and about taking new and good things up for good and for ever?

Lastly, shouldn’t we work at making sure that we pray with simplicity, live like life is worship denying ourselves taking up our crosses and recognize that everything that we do is an act of worship where God is concerned? These are some of the things I want you to come and explore with me in this Lenten season. Come and let us live out loud for Christ and his kingdom!       

Rise up, go preach - life is back down the mountain!

We end the season of Epiphany as we began: with considering who Jesus is and is for us in the light of God’s revelation of himself. We could marvel at the wondrous things the shepherds and the Magi said and did; coming from far and near to see this thing that had happened and to witness to God’s active presence in this world. Perhaps now we need to pay attention to how Matthew’s Gospel sets up this particular mountainside encounter.  The Gospel writer notes that six days after the pivotal events in and around Caesarea Philippi when Peter had made his great confession of Jesus as the Christ, (Mt. 16.16) Peter along with James and John accompany Jesus on a side trip up a “high mountain”. The disciples knew that something was up because they knew through Scripture that important people in the faith met God on mountains – their curiosity and excitement was palpable as they quietly trudged along.

As they hiked up the trail of this mountain, they noticed that Jesus began to changed, not all at once mind you but discernibly nonetheless. His face was glowing brighter and brighter as they moved along. Jesus’ clothes became so white that the garments gleamed like a lightning strike. High up the mountain, the quartet came to a small flat place where they found Moses and Elijah waiting for them. The appearances of these other men was similar to Jesus own appearance. The three sojourners looked at one another in fear and wonder but whispered nothing. Luke’s Gospel tells au about the discussion between these men: that they were considering the choices Jesus has made and about the coming departure, which included Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension (Lk. 9.31).

Then we have what I like to think of as a classic “Peter” moment when peter decides to act and opens his mouth, interrupting the discussion, “ Lord is it good for us to be here. If you wish I can do something useful like building tents…” And as Peter is speaking they’re all suddenly aware of the cloud that has enveloped them and there is a booming voice that shakes the mountainside, “This is my Son, whom I love; with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” In one fell swoop the Father has silenced Peter and the disciples fall to the ground now in abject fear and trembling. And as fast as it had all happened, the cloud, the voice and the holy men were gone and the disciples were there alone with Jesus with his appearance returned to normal.

We should also notice some remarkable things are noted at the end of lesson.  First Jesus went over and touched these three mice, saying to them, “rise up, don’t be afraid.” In Matthew, the touch of Jesus is for healing and restoration. The path has been made clear and the argument about what is going to happen is over – even if the disciples aren’t clear as to why just yet. Second, The frightened men looked and realized that the moment was over and they were being called to live again, having been raised up by the Master. The way in which the Gospel writer puts it, these three have been raised from death and have been forever changed by this encounter. They will not see things the ways in which they used to see them or Jesus because of this mountain top moment.  

  

So what might this have to do with us? We too need too need to be raised up. We too need to stop being afraid because we have been in the presence of the Almighty. We too need to pick ourselves up and move back down the mountain with Jesus. Life goes on back down the mountain. People need to hear that God is amongst us, that God is reaching out to touch us. People need to know that we have not been abandoned and that God’s plan and grace are at work in us. And if we need any affirmation of just that from the world around us, consider the Monty Python video I include with this week’s blog.

Pax Dominum! Rise up and don’t be afraid! Rise up and go preach the message! 

Don't worry - be blessed!

Perhaps this makes me a bit of a hack, but every time I come to this passage (Matthew 6:24-34) I cannot help but think of the Bobby McFerrin 1980's hit, "Don't worry, be happy". I like the song: it’s simple and it is catchy, especially the whistling bits. But As I re-listened to it now some twenty five years later, something struck me. There is nothing behind the reason for people not to worry. As another song of my youth might say, "we're here for a good time not a long time, so have a good time; the sun doesn't shine every day." So long as we can have a good time, so long as we are having fun we are okay. Don’t let life get you down, don't get bummed out.

Early in ministry, I would talk to friends who were commissioned and ordained at about the same time as I was and we would essentially say the same thing… if we could only have as easy as doing beach ministry. There would be lots of fun and sun with lots of time in the water and in the sand. Then life and ministry would be good. Instead we get to worry about who we are going to get to Vestry meetings, and how we are going to fix the hot water tank at the Rectory and how are we going to stay on budget and… well let’s agree that the list is long. There are lots to take care of and lots that can be worried about without putting too much effort in the find of issues.

Even in the Church we have our concerns about how to be salt and light in the world, how we are going to fulfill the Law, how we are going to handle our anger and deal with reconciliation when we have messed up. We are going to have to consider how we deal with our adulterous hearts. We are going to have to have to hope that the strength comes to us to be able to withstand persecutions so that we can expose unjust authority. We are going to have to learn to love those who don’t love us, and that we don’t want anything to do with. We are going to have to figure out where our allegiances are and decided what paths we are going to take. There is so much to take in some times.

In this very moment Jesus calls us, his body, his Church to something more, something deeper than a life of beach ministry or a ministry through a life of worry and potential misery:

    

″If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds. ″Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them".                                 - Matthew 6:25-29 The Message (MSG) Copyright © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Coming into the life of the kingdom is not like trying to make your way in the world. The world wants to compete with God for the desires and affections of the human heart. This is probably the single biggest challenge the Church faces. People aren’t so much looking to for something deep spiritually, something that might fill the void they feel and try to fill. Often people seem to be looking for a good time that reaffirms what goes on in the rest of life. In fact I can remember a parishioner some time back telling me, “Preach what you want, but don’t talk about cabins. I love my cabin and I need my cabin. Don’t tell me I cannot have my cabin.”So I asked, “Who has your heart then, God or your cabin?” All of us faces these battles for our affections, it is not unique to just one our two of us.

This is why are challenged to seek and search for God and make God first. When we seek God and make God our first priority, we find that what we need (not what we greed for) comes into focus and into play. When we ask according to the will of God, God has promised to provide. When we seek out God we will find him because he is right near us. And when we are ready to walking through those doors all we need to do is knock because God can open every door that is closed to us otherwise.  

God calls us to trust him because he knows what our needs are – he knows that we need our daily bread and God is willing to give it that we would be nourished and sustained. And if we know that God is going to sustain us then how should we face the day ahead? We still have those things to face but at the very least we can recognize that we do not face them alone. We may never be responsibility and worry free, but we can trust God to be there with us, to guide us and protect us. God will certainly be there to empower, embolden and to bless us in the risks that we need to take so that our hope increases and our faith is encouraged and livened up. Most of all remember that we are not asked to do the impossible. We are asked to do what God has asked us to do and leave the rest to God. As the Late Mother Teresa once said, “If you cannot feed a hundred then just feed one.” So don’t just worry: take courage and be blessed!  

Going to hear the Rev.!

I came across this during sermon prep this week and thought that it might be interesting to consider, especially since I have done a lot of itinerant preaching in my early years o ministry. I give thanks for my current parish whom I have know for some time know and for the ways in which we have conversed over the years. It is helping me to perfect my craft as a preacher. 

One of the main things we do as a Christian community, is gather for worship. Ideally, the one who is pastor to the community should also be the preacher.Of course, pastors need Sundays off for a variety of reasons and so around this neck of the woods, I often get invited to preach.I call it “preaching around” which sounds vaguely promiscuous.” That’s because it is. I've always understood preaching as an intimate act between pastor and the gathered community. Preaching at its best happens when the preaching springs out of the life, the hurting, the joy, the passion of the community. It’s almost in the category of pillow talk.I don’t feel good about preaching except in my own home congregation. In other congregations, I go in, have my say and leave. That’s it. I don’t know who they are. They don’t know who I am. And I’m not there afterwards to pick up the pieces.Do I enjoy it? Of course I do. And the feedback I get from the congregations where I preach is that they like it too. I can whomp out a pretty good speech.

But when they discreetly hand me an envelope with a cheque in it, I wonder if there’s a bit of a gigolo in me. I get my jollies. They get their strokes. I take my money and leave. Wham! Bam! Thank you Ma’am.

Of course that’s overstating the case. But every theology of preaching I’ve ever read says that preaching is not entertainment and it’s not education. Preaching is not a sacrament, but it is sacramental in that through it the Word may happen. When a sermon is faithfully preached and faithfully heard, there is the Gospel. I’m not convinced that happens when I go into a strange church and do my thing. I've wondered about that when I find myself worshipping in another congregation. When I’m traveling, I visit lots of different churches and I've heard sermons that were mostly entertainment, or mostly education.

Some are almost caricatures. High profile preacher. Lots of pizzazz. Lots of jokes. Lively, entertaining sermon. “You gotta come and hear our Rev,” the folks are saying. “Really good!” So people come and “hear the Rev.” The best two-buck show in town. Those churches are full on Sundays. But the people in the pews are an audience, not a congregation. The other extreme. Sermons are well-researched, reflecting the latest relevant social concerns. Every point is tightly argued. A few in the congregations find this very helpful. Most shut off their minds. The sermon dies on the steps of the chancel. It’s all good, worthwhile stuff but it gets nowhere.

On the other hand, I have worshiped in congregations where I felt like a guest in someone else’s home. That’s exactly as it should be. There were in-jokes and references and history and relationships I didn’t understand. The sermon was not designed to impress me. I was welcome to listen but the preacher was in conversation with the community. The sermon sprang out of a deep and caring relationship. On many of the faces I could see deep participation. I recognize this and warm to it. I know it from my home congregation. A community confronting the Gospel together.

From “Sermon Seasonings,” Wood Lake Books, 1997

The Generous Life

"Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, gift wrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.”

What does a life that is lived generously look like? Jesus seems to now change his tone and begins to examine the things that have been done out of the law as a way of making justice and keeping order within society. “You have heard it said, “An eye for an eye” but then Jesus takes that standard and turns it inside out, “but I say to you, love your enemies and do good to those who persecute you.” It is generous of a Christian person to become a supposed door mat for someone who is going to treat them badly? What is it with this whole “offer the other check also” stuff?

In ancient times, the way to keep someone in line was to make sure that any harm that was inflicted was met with an equal among of harm. So if you caused another person’s eye to go blind, then it was the injured party’s right to take one of your eyes. If you injure someone’s arm and they cannot use it anymore then they have the right to injure you in the same fashion. In this way judgment is passed and justice was seen to be done. It is called lex talions or the Law of retaliation. For justice to have been done, the punishment must befit the crime committed.

Jesus turns this standard inside out not just upside down. Jesus tells his people, his Church that if they want to be holy, if they want to be like God, then they must choose to love and have mercy on the people whom they do not like and whom they would count as their enemy. As followers of Jesus, we are not taught to overcome evil with a greater evil nor are we to repay evil with evil. We are expected to overcome evil with good and with love. We are called and expected to be holy people. And lets remember that holiness is not solely about personal piety alone; it is primarily shown in the relationships that we keep with God and with others. We are to mirror in our own daily lives the holiness that we have in being in relationship with the Lord Jesus, reflecting it for the world to see. We need to be reminded daily of this simple thing: in the kingdom of heaven, mercy triumphs over judgment. We need to show how God’s love, active in and through the Church overcomes the troubles and hatreds of this sinful and separated world. We are challenged to overcome evil by doing good; overcome hatred with love; overcome violence with mercy; overcome strife with peace.

The demand that we be perfect like God is an acknowledgement that we are on the way to the kingdom, into eternity, and into the deeper presence of the Almighty. It is not that we will be perfect in this life, but that we strive towards that goal. We are responsible for living a life that is generous both in love and in mercy. God will make us what we ought to be in his way and in his time. We will be, as St. Paul points out, brought to our perfection and completion on the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:6). The call to holiness and to perfection is a demand for consistency on our lives through consistently loving those we must love. This is what it means to live life as a follower, as a disciple of the One who lights the way to the kingdom. A generous life then is one that is willing to give what is necessary to help others see who God truly is and to offer what has been given that those around us will see, will know and will respond to the grace love and mercy that we ourselves have been afforded by God. After all, as the soldiers crucified the Saviour, didn’t Jesus ask the Father, “Forgive them; they do not know what they do”? Is that not the generous life?

Beyond the "gooder" life

Over the past few weeks we have been hearing at least two things (and there could be many more) from the Gospel of Matthew: (1) there is a great danger, even for the Church, if faith is reduced to a formula and (2) that the Church is in great danger if it tries to avoid offering itself fully to both God and to neighbour. This is why Jesus tells his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount that he has not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. The purpose of shinning light on how we live is to get us to live God’s way and not our own.

Jesus’ coming to us was not to make things easier or even better. The purpose of the Jesus coming and of shedding light on our way of living is so that we can live life differently – in an altered and transformed way. We are not just to go through the motions so that we obey the rules, we are called to live because we are being drawn into the kingdom of heaven, into God’s presence, and thus into eternal life.

The Gospel this week reminds us that we need to be aware of what is going on in our own lives. It is not enough to say that we have not done certain things like commit murder or adultery. We have to examine ourselves concerning the thoughts, feelings and attitudes we hold in our hearts. It is not enough by kingdom standards, to say that we have obey and not physically harmed someone, when we have held anger, hate, mistrust, slander, false humility, lack of generosity and hospitality, arrogance, lust and impiety. It’s not just a matter of what we do and don’t do on a day by day basis as important as such things might be. Our emotions and attitudes come into play as well. And if this all this a bit much to take in, we need to remember how this sermon started a few weeks back. Blessedness is not just happiness and it is more than just a simple blessing. We are not blessed because we are always right or that we are even doing this particularly well. We are a blessed people precisely because of where our hearts and lives are going and who it is that go with us. New life in Christ is more than daily rule keeping; it is a life that is dedicated to service and offered in loving sacrifice. Our life is empowered by such living and such living enlivens and raises the level of prayer and of worship precisely because it is a life that is coming towards the kingdom and to eternity.

Living a life that interprets the Law the way that Jesus does causes us to move beyond the demand to make our lives the service and the sacrifice that honours both God and neighbour.  Reframing our faith and relationships in the way that Jesus calls us to causes us to confront some of the easy truces we make with ourselves. We commend ourselves for not doing things we shouldn’t do, like committing murder or adultery but then do something else that causes injury like slandering a neighbour behind the back.  We pat ourselves on the back for not going outside the martial relationship to satisfy sexual desire but then build relationships with other people, with television, with work, with sports, with the computer and internet that exclude the one we promised to love above everyone else Such actions render us unable to offer our gifts to God or to anyone else until such a thing is dealt with. We are called to live such a high standard.

The work of this holy season of Epiphany calls us to see Jesus for who he really is and to recognize we are not called to a “gooder” life. We are called to transformation, beginning with ourselves. Lets live out life this week in his strength and in Christ grace and peace.