So last time I spoke here we were celebrating the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. A quirk or perhaps a feature of the calendar we find ourselves backing up this first week of lent. Something the people like to describe as mercury in retro-grade. There are so many definitions of the Lenten season all of which are pretty accurate. One image I would like to start with is just the word lent.
It is the past and past participle of lend. If you know anything about the past participle this is the form typically ending in -ed. Lent is not a typical word. It reminds us that everything is on lend from the creator. Our life. Our love. Our longings. Our possessions. Our possibilities. Our next breath. Are Lent.
On the surface we seem a helpful people. But to a certain percentage of us we think apparent motion is relevant because we think we are in the middle. All of the precepts of horoscopes and astrology were created in a world where the majority of people believed they were the center. Now people almost joke about it more than anything, but mercury does not go in retro-grade.
We have a story today of wilderness and inherently wildness. The possibilities of creation and what it could all be to be a man. How do you test a man? Well God had a plan for his son. We read this story from Mathew today who was writing to new Christians who understood the Jewish context. They all had plans for their sons as well.
It comes to me this idea that Jesus was up against impossible odds. If he came today he might find a few people who agree with him; he found no one then. The first sent surely did go, but they had as many questions as answers much like us. I think of the last sent, if you will, Paul and his clear difficulty with women.
I have spoke before that he had a vison to go to Macedonia of a man who needed help and the first person he really helped when he got there was a woman. God uses people where they are and that I will just tell you as you already know is harder to do in human form. I think it was almost too hard for Jesus. That is really where you want to be I think. If you are going to score the goal you are almost offsides if you are doing it right. Almost doesn't go is some sort of sweet spot with people.
Here we are in quite a different church then I grew up in, looking through some meeting notes from the early eighties I read the fear in them. What I saw was a list of some of the most important people in the history of Nottingham. This was 40 years ago. It was almost too hard for them. I saw some notes from the first meeting we had to pay hospitalization for the pastor. It was $275 for the year. They duly recorded the conference had always done this but would no longer be able.
Lot of ups and downs. Too many people gone and dreaming of Nottingham. That first $275 more than anything else responsible for where we are now. Do we recover? Are we in retrograde?
Well I wasn't quite done with our friend Paul and the difficulties of Jesus.
In Genesis 3:6 from the Amplified Bible we read:
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise and insightful, she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.
Then Paul writes in Roman 5:12
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all people [no one being able to stop it or escape its power], because they all sinned.
You might say I am picking on Paul, but that is not my intent. I often get accused of living in the past, but it is where my faith comes from. What I am trying to show is how hard it was gonna be for Jesus. No one was gonna really get him and he knew this before he started. Think of that. If no one was gonna get him during his earthly life that was just what he was gonna be: the great example. So that eventually some people would understand the bounty of creation.
He was dealing with people who just threw away the value of women. This is why we call Joseph his father also because he was the man. And perhaps the only one who would have supported Mary. He was a in small minority for the next two millennia. Actions are in the end what matter,
So we are between here. Between the begging of the public ministry of Jesus and after his baptism. It was gonna be so hard he did something impossible first. We call it the temptation of Christ but it really is a miracle. Even today people try and repeat this feat. There was someone in the news this year who had died trying to fast for 40 days like Jesus did. I don't see anything really of an invitation here. I see a girding of loins. I see doing something impossible to get ready to do something impossible.
We read Matthew 4:1-11 from the amplified bible.
4 Then Jesus was led by the [Holy] Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Because we are in Mathew this makes me think of Job and the interplay in that book. This opportunity in the end was also lent to this devil. We know who holds tomorrow also holds today, but Jesus seems to need this after his baptism. Before he does anything else. We often speak of the relationship between Jesus and God because God more or less uses words. Here Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit who is not big on details. So I ask this spirit and the word that come to me is: preparation.
2 After He had gone without food for forty days and forty nights, He became hungry.
So the devil it seems waited till our savior was hungry. Could he not tempt Jesus before? Would he not temp Jesus before? It was only a human weakness that the devil thought he might exploit. God had not been wrong so far. But there really hadn't been a test. Perhaps it had been too easy. Radical empathy is also lent from our creator. How would you be a God?
3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But Jesus replied, “It is written and forever remains written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’”
Stones to bread before a feast. The devil and the astrologer miss the bounty.
5 Then the devil took Him into the holy city [Jerusalem] and placed Him on the pinnacle (highest point) of the temple. 6 And he said [mockingly] to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,
‘He will command His angels concerning You [to serve, care for, protect and watch over You]’;
and
‘They will lift you up on their hands,
So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written and forever remains written, ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’”
Well there is an invitation, but not to the temptation. That is what I meant. There is no invitation to not eat or drink for forty days. God helps those who help themselves maybe, well not in so many words: ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’ - why? I think it is the bounty. If your asking for something and your not getting it, maybe it is because you are missing the bounty God already gave you.
Some people say pray and pray and pray and you will get. I say pray and pray and pray and you have. Oh Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz is a song, not a prayer. You need to dig into what you have. What do you suppose Jesus did for forty days before he got hungry?
8 Again, the devil took Him up on a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory [splendor, magnificence, and excellence] of them; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written and forever remains written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” 11 Then the devil left Him; and angels came and ministered to Him [bringing Him food and serving Him].
…showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory [splendor, magnificence, and excellence] of them; a moment of bounty is only possible in context. Jesus was that context. The devil was out of his league. It would almost be too hard. But it would take a savior. And it would take some angels on stand by with food in the grand scheme of things. ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’
I have wrestled this week with these forty days in the wilderness. John had been in the wilderness. Jesus was going to come into the city to proclaim his public ministry. Did he leave something there in the wilderness or gain something? We have entered the section of the sermon for speculation.
Did the wolves leave us their dogs? I wonder if we are really the top species. I would argue that the wilderness is even more remote to us than those people Jesus first worked to save. There was something there in the wilderness essential to Jesus. Can it be any less essential to us.
I think of these wolves and imagine they represent this wilderness that we are now stranger to. They had these dogs that had no business in the wilderness and they left them with us to care. They took better care of their marginalized than we have in the final equations of life. We care for them still. You might not agree, but I have come to see dogs as special needs wolves. It is us that allow the wolves to be in balance in their environment perhaps we have some positive impact on the environment. Well our pollution has created the most beautiful sunsets.
We like the dogs separated from the wilderness are also special needs at this point. We are not going to make our own way. We don't have the discipline. We don't even have the desire of a dog to please. That in the end is mostly what they are. One gene re-coded and they care if we are happy. At times more than we are able,
But we come again to this bounty and this savior that is pass key to all realms. The wilderness. The wildness. The retrograde idea that it was one person responsible for the fall.
So in an end we look where we often do: Isaiah 65:24-25 again from the Amplified Bible
24 “It shall also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox [there will no longer be predator and prey]; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain (Zion),” says the Lord.
Let Us Pray
Creator of All
Help us to see the bounty
Help us to now join your public ministry
Help us to Zion
Thank you for everything we are lent
As we remember everything you did and will do
Thank you for letting us know your love
Thank you for some clues to your suffering
Make us worthy of suffering in your name
Make us worthy of the bounty your family brought us
Amen
Benediction
Walk out into the wonder
Head for Zion
See the bounty you are
See the bounty we have
Share the bounty of our lord.
Nottingham UMC 2/26/2023
