Sermon for Lent 1

Some years ago, I crossed this country by train. The green landscape soon

gave way to ‘the sunburnt country’ that Dorothy McKellar described. It

looked dry and parched, even from the train – and it tasted just like that

when we stopped mid-way across the Nullarbor. For kilometers, on every

turn, we saw nothing, bar a few camels and tussocks of dry looking weeds.

It was a desolate space – a place to behold yet a place to be feared.

In the isolating terror of a similarly parched desert, Jesus prepared himself

spiritually for what he was soon to endure upon his arrival in Jerusalem.

The temptations of Jesus, recounted in this morning’s Gospel, invite us to

move deeply into that isolation and solitude. We are invited to wrestle with

our own demons and confront the relentless temptations that are unique to

each one of us.

We remain, often, tantalized and captive to the institutions and systems

that carry us along, the forces that drive the spirit of our age - promising life

but leading to death. These forces are the great resistant forces, largely

uncontrollable, that hold each of us hostage.

These powers seek to render us powerless they are the powers that say,

"No one really wants war, but the bodies keep piling up."

They say, "No one really wants homelessness, but we can't seem to do

anything about it."

They say, "No child needs to die of hunger anywhere, but especially in one

of the wealthiest nations on earth, and yet they do."

These are the powers that say, "I am not really living, but simply being

driven along by forces beyond my control."

You and I know that the powers of this world are characterized by

domination and violence, relentlessly seeking to have their own way. These

same powers that Jesus was called on to resist in the wilderness are the

same powers that will ultimately crucify him.

In the first temptation, Jesus says no to the use of power for his own

survival. Jesus is famished. Hungry.

And the devil invites Jesus to use his power to turn stone into bread. He

turns to the Scriptures and reminds the devil that one cannot live by bread

alone.

You and I can clearly see this truth in our own self-indulgent,

consumer-driven, environmentally reckless society. If Jesus yields to this

temptation, he secures his own survival, but there would be no need for the

cross.

In the second temptation, the devil invites Jesus to tempt God: "Throw

yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple so that God's angels can

save you before the eyes of all who are watching and then they will know

for sure that you are who you say you are, then all will know that you are

the Son of God."

If God is for us who can be against us! This is the powers of this world at

their best: getting their own political ends met, their own way of seeing the

world, their own way of controlling a political or economic space never

really questioning whether it is God's way or not.

Jesus again says no. Had Jesus said yes, there would have been no need

for the cross.

Next - Jesus is requested to use his power to establish a political regime

based upon the ways of the world. Jesus can have it all--all the worldly

power and domination there is--if he will just "yield” "Take charge of it all,"

the devil says to Jesus, "all the power in the world can belong to you: all

you have to do is to claim it by worshiping me, by yielding to domination

and violence."

Jesus refuses to take the world by domination and violence. The only

weapon He uses against the powers of this world is the Word: the only

sword Jesus ever draws is the sword of the Spirit which Martin Luther

described in his great Reformation hymn:

“The prince of darkness grim, We tremble not for him; His rage we can

endure, For lo! his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him.”

Jesus says no to violence and power. Had He not said no, had Jesus

assumed the powers of this world, there would have been no need for the

cross.

Today's gospel is important to us because in it we see the resistance of

Jesus to the powers of this world, the resistance that begins right after his

baptism and leads eventually to his crucifixion. The powers must crucify

Jesus because of the "no" he speaks to their ways, to their ideologies, to

the false securities they promise.

These powers can only deliver death and destruction. Only Jesus can

deliver life! Intent on their survival at all costs, the powers of this world must

always crucify the one who threatens their authority. Committed to

domination by the sword, the powers must put to death the one who

threatens their values.

The gospel story of the temptations of Jesus is foundational for all that lies

ahead. In it we see the conflict between the ways of this world and the

ways of God, between the way of death and the way of life, between the

way of darkness and the way of light. And at the center of this conflict

stands the cross of Jesus.

In these days of Lent, you and I live between temptation and crucifixion.

Jesus resists every temptation that the devil throws at him. And Jesus

resists because he sees what is coming. Jesus can see that these

temptations are stumbling blocks on the path to Jerusalem. Jesus knows

that with the resistance of each temptation he is taking a step towards the

cross.

All of us struggle with the powers of this world. All of us know, as Jesus

knew, that it is often easier to choose power, violence, and domination

instead of the reconciling ways of the reign of God. All of us know, as Jesus

knew, that it is easier to pick up lifeless stones and hurl them toward one

another, instead of passing the bread that sustains life… What is this

bread?

Our challenge here in this place is to discern between the bread and the

stone. Are our homeless just physically empty – without a roof - without

clothing- without work? It would appear that each of them walks the dreary

walk in the desolate streets of our cities searching for ‘food that lasts’ – but

our streets, more often than not, are hostile places, much like the

wilderness of that described in our Gospel for today.

Holy friends, as we walk these great forty days from temptation to

crucifixion, I bid you to walk gently and with your heart wide open. Listen for

Jesus. He calls out to each one of us as he makes his way from temptation

to crucifixion. He calls out to us from the cross. And in the midst of death,

domination, and violence, you and I will hear his voice: "Choose life," he

will say. "Choose life!"

Choosing life is choosing the bread that lasts – the bread that truly

satisfies. It is much more than choosing it for ourselves – and it is more

than dreaming or hoping it for others –

It is being offended when the homeless and the hungry are presented with

cold and heartless stones – when they’re rejected because they don’t look

right or smell OK; when we choose not to open our ears and our hearts to

the brokenness of their lives -depression, anxiety, fear, loneliness,

addiction, powerlessness.

It is opening ourselves up to the stories that shock us, confront us – to

those moments when we feel overwhelmingly helpless with no words and

our sometime meek response.

Bread not stones! Bread that builds - that feeds, that heals and nurtures.

Choose this as our Lenten journey -to be the bread that lasts, the yeast that

transforms – make this our transforming prayer for lent 2020 and beyond.

Let us pray-

Let us pray for those who hunger in this land and especially those in this city whose only

kitchen is a soup kitchen, whose only food is what others don’t want, whose diet

depends on luck, not planning. (Silence)

Lord, feed your people, using our skills and conscience and eradicate from our politics

and private lives the apathy to hunger that comes from overeating.

Let us pray for the hungry in other lands, where economies burdened by debt cannot

respond to human need, or where fields are farmed, for our benefit, by low-waged

workers courted by starvation. (Silence)

Lord, feed your people, even if rulers must cancel debt and shareholders lose profit, or

diners restrict their choice in order that all may be nourished.

Let us pray for the hungry -justice for those who document inequalities, who

demonstrate against tyranny, distinguish between need and greed, and are sometimes

misrepresented or persecuted in the process. (Silence)

May their labour not be in vain and may we be counted in their number. Let us pray for

the hungry and the fed. Remind us always to offer the bread that lasts. Amen