Today's Scripture Readings
Deuteronomy 26: 1-11(NRSV)
Psalm 91 (BCP., p.719)
Romans 10:8b-13 (NRSV)
Luke 4:1-13 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
If we are to understand the point to be made in the temptation of Jesus on this First Sunday in Lent, we must begin with understanding it's connection with the history of the People of Israel. The faith of Christ is the tradition of the Jewish Religion. It is not independent of the history of the Religion. It gains it's power and meaning as it connects us to salvation history.
The book of Deuteronomy contains the continuing story of the People of Israel wandering in the desert for 40 years before entering the promised land. The generations that would have left Egypt with Moses in Exodus by the time of Deuteronomy would have died. The generations now preparing to enter into the land God promised to their ancestors, are receiving the same Law, though updated and explained for them to take with them as they obtain God's promise. In this reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, God is instructing the people through Moses honor the God who delivered their ancestors from the slavery in Egypt by offering to him their first fruits. The God who is their Savior is not to be put on the back burner. God wants to receive the first, the best, the most important and the most precious. God is to be central to the worship of the Israelites.
How are we putting God first during this Season of Lent?
Are we giving God the first and best of ourselves, or are we giving God what is left over and broken only?
Can we know God as our Savior and Deliverer, so as to honor God with what comes first to us?
The reading from Paul and the Gospel are quite well connected. So, I will get right to it.
Lent is a time of great grace. It is a period of time by which we have the opportunity through prayer, fasting and alms giving to make more room for God. If we are to do that faithfully, we must be in touch with what it is that keeps us from giving God more room in our hearts and lives. What is it that I do, or do not do that not only injures my relationship with God, but also hurts the human community?
The first temptation of Jesus is that of materialism and consumerism. The idea that if I can have control over every thing in terms of what I eat, wear, and what I am able to do with the environment I live in. It's the attitude that I can have it all. Even at the expense of the poor, marginalized and those less fortunate than ourselves. In this kind of temptation Jesus is tempted as are we all, with the idea that if we can only have more, the biggest, the latest and the most exquisite, then we are really making it in life.
Jesus has been fasting for forty days. His hunger is legitimate. His need for nourishment and relief from bodily hunger is overwhelming. More important to Jesus, however, is his need to honor God first and foremost with what has been given to him. When Jesus responds with "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God," he is simply putting the bread he seeks and the devil tempting him to control everything around him, in it's place. In do doing, Jesus puts materials and the need to consume them in their proper context.
We do not have to have the best and greatest, right here, right now. What we need more than all of those things, is God. We need to seek God in our hunger for things. In our aching desire for what is basic, God is more basic than even those things. Everything that has been given to us to use, even our own lives, are a gift from God. We have a duty to be good stewards of what has been given to us. We have as much of an opportunity and a privilege to be able to take what God gives us for the nourishment of our bodies, as well as our general welfare. However, we also have the same opportunity and privilege to share them with others around us.
In Psalm 8: 3-9 in the Common English Bible, we pray with the Psalmist:
As God has honored us with the responsibility of caring for the world, so we have the responsibility to respect it and share it with others. Each time we pollute the air, destroy the rainforests, and work to dominate something from another tribe of people, we are abusing the goods that God has given us.
The issue of everything that is at stake in the first temptation, has everything to do with the second. The temptation to have all power at his disposal to do as he pleases. Satan tempts him with "I will give you all the kingdoms of the world if you will worship me." The opportunity to have everything work to his benefit. Jesus resists this temptation by saying that He is to worship God alone.
What might some thing like this have to say to us in a society where money is power, and power to control and manipulate is in the hands of those who have the most money? The corruption of our government since the dreaded Citizens United ruling of the Supreme Court cannot be over stated. The power of those who have millions to spend, and those who have next to nothing with everything to lose because of the wealthy, is beyond description. Corporate money now has our government at a stand still. Even with the overwhelming victory of the Democrats in November 2012. The influence of money as power to control the potential future for education, health care, care for the unemployed, the poor, the disabled and the retired is out of control. Politicians eager to hang on to their wealth and power, along with their influence is another way of worshiping power at the expense of God.
Racism, sexism, heterosexism, the prejudice towards Jewish people, Muslims, women and many more to number is another example of power being worshiped and God being put lower on the priority list. Many of these issues being promoted and manipulated at the hands and mouths of people using erroneous interpretations of the Bible and the misuse of the Christian Religion places power ahead of God. It is more important to use the greatness of the Christian Faith to scare, control and stigmatize than to bring the justice, equality and hope Jesus brought when He showed us the very face of God.
When Jesus answered Satan, he referred all of the powers at his disposal into the hands of God. It is God we worship, and it is God who directs us. It is for God we make use of what we do or do not do with the graces God gives us.
The final temptation to write about is individualism at the expense of community. If only I can do something amazing, something potentially destructive to myself, I might gain everything that no one else has. This kind of thinking has a sort of self-absorption to it. What is lacking is the freedom to be who oneself is, and the opportunity to allow others to be who they are. To accept one's limits, and to know one's boundaries so as to respect one self and others. In resisting this temptation there is a deep sense of humility of recognizing that God is God and I am not. Even though Jesus was God in the flesh, He knew that the worst thing he could do is seek all of God's power only for himself. Here, Jesus is completely unselfish and totally non-narcissistic. His ultimate concern is for the good of God and others.
As we have seen the effects of the misuse of public funds by Wall Street to crash the economy on bad mortgages and financial transactions, we have to ask ourselves, who really is our priority? Do we try to live in solidarity with others, or are we completely absorbed by ourselves to the point where no one else really matters?
Sometimes as a gay man this one really strikes me at the core of who I am. We have been given this incredible gift by God to love other men physically and romantically. Yet, when I use this gift for only my own self-gratification to the point of exploiting others for my own personal use, I am not being faithful to God or others. Is the gift of my sexuality to love and share with my partner really about love, tenderness and seeking to honor God in him? Or am I only interested in what he can do for me?
These questions are not just for me. These and other questions I could ask are directed to any person, gay, straight, bisexual, etc who seeks to use another person's body and/or emotions for our own use. We do ourselves, others and the human community a terrible disservice when we fail to honor another individual person as someone to be loved, cherished and cared for. When people are reduced to mere objects of desire only, they are nothing more than a human sex doll. God creates people with bodies, hearts and minds so that God can be loved in them, and they love God through them.
I am sure all of my readers have noticed that I have all of these in their wrong order with regards to the actual reading from Luke. When Luke finishes with his version of the temptation of Christ, he notes that this is not the last time, but one of many times that He will face Satan in His public ministry. Therefore, regardless of what order each fits in to, the important thing here is to understand that as long as we are on this earth, temptation will be part of our lives too. As God was with Christ through all that he was tempted with, so God is with us. The Holy Spirit that guided Jesus, also guides us as we face those things that can take us further away from God.
The final piece of good news on this First Sunday of Lent, is that whether we are successful in resisting temptations or not, God will forever love us and seek us out. God is always on the look out for us, and is walking with us in Christ, to redeem us and help us. If we are over come by our temptations, we have the grace of the Cross that we have been forgiven and renewed in the Holy Spirit to get up and try again. We all have the opportunity to reach out for God and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us as we struggle with those things that are so difficult for us.
How are we reaching out to God during this Lent?
What are the temptations God is challenging us to deal with his Lent?
What ever our issues or answers are, God in Christ is with us and will be there with us on Easter Day to receive us as God's Beloved with whom God is well-pleased.
Amen.
Prayers
Deuteronomy 26: 1-11(NRSV)
When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us." When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me." You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God. Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.
Psalm 91 (BCP., p.719)
Romans 10:8b-13 (NRSV)
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
- "The word is near you,
- on your lips and in your heart"
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"
Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written,
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,
- 'Worship the Lord your God,
- and serve only him.'"
and
- 'He will command his angels concerning you,
- to protect you,'
Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
- 'On their hands they will bear you up,
- so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
Blog Reflection
If we are to understand the point to be made in the temptation of Jesus on this First Sunday in Lent, we must begin with understanding it's connection with the history of the People of Israel. The faith of Christ is the tradition of the Jewish Religion. It is not independent of the history of the Religion. It gains it's power and meaning as it connects us to salvation history.
The book of Deuteronomy contains the continuing story of the People of Israel wandering in the desert for 40 years before entering the promised land. The generations that would have left Egypt with Moses in Exodus by the time of Deuteronomy would have died. The generations now preparing to enter into the land God promised to their ancestors, are receiving the same Law, though updated and explained for them to take with them as they obtain God's promise. In this reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, God is instructing the people through Moses honor the God who delivered their ancestors from the slavery in Egypt by offering to him their first fruits. The God who is their Savior is not to be put on the back burner. God wants to receive the first, the best, the most important and the most precious. God is to be central to the worship of the Israelites.
How are we putting God first during this Season of Lent?
Are we giving God the first and best of ourselves, or are we giving God what is left over and broken only?
Can we know God as our Savior and Deliverer, so as to honor God with what comes first to us?
The reading from Paul and the Gospel are quite well connected. So, I will get right to it.
The first temptation of Jesus is that of materialism and consumerism. The idea that if I can have control over every thing in terms of what I eat, wear, and what I am able to do with the environment I live in. It's the attitude that I can have it all. Even at the expense of the poor, marginalized and those less fortunate than ourselves. In this kind of temptation Jesus is tempted as are we all, with the idea that if we can only have more, the biggest, the latest and the most exquisite, then we are really making it in life.
Jesus has been fasting for forty days. His hunger is legitimate. His need for nourishment and relief from bodily hunger is overwhelming. More important to Jesus, however, is his need to honor God first and foremost with what has been given to him. When Jesus responds with "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God," he is simply putting the bread he seeks and the devil tempting him to control everything around him, in it's place. In do doing, Jesus puts materials and the need to consume them in their proper context.
We do not have to have the best and greatest, right here, right now. What we need more than all of those things, is God. We need to seek God in our hunger for things. In our aching desire for what is basic, God is more basic than even those things. Everything that has been given to us to use, even our own lives, are a gift from God. We have a duty to be good stewards of what has been given to us. We have as much of an opportunity and a privilege to be able to take what God gives us for the nourishment of our bodies, as well as our general welfare. However, we also have the same opportunity and privilege to share them with others around us.
In Psalm 8: 3-9 in the Common English Bible, we pray with the Psalmist:
When I look up at your skies, at what your fingers made--the moon and the stars that you set firmly in place--what are human beings that you think about them; what are human beings that you pay attention to them? You've made them only slightly less than divine, crowning them with glory and granduer. You've let them rule over your handiwork, putting everything under their feet--all sheep and all cattle, the wild animals too, the birds in the sky, the fish of the ocean, everything that travels the pathways of the sea. LORD, our Lord; how majestic is yoru name through out the earth!.
As God has honored us with the responsibility of caring for the world, so we have the responsibility to respect it and share it with others. Each time we pollute the air, destroy the rainforests, and work to dominate something from another tribe of people, we are abusing the goods that God has given us.
The issue of everything that is at stake in the first temptation, has everything to do with the second. The temptation to have all power at his disposal to do as he pleases. Satan tempts him with "I will give you all the kingdoms of the world if you will worship me." The opportunity to have everything work to his benefit. Jesus resists this temptation by saying that He is to worship God alone.
What might some thing like this have to say to us in a society where money is power, and power to control and manipulate is in the hands of those who have the most money? The corruption of our government since the dreaded Citizens United ruling of the Supreme Court cannot be over stated. The power of those who have millions to spend, and those who have next to nothing with everything to lose because of the wealthy, is beyond description. Corporate money now has our government at a stand still. Even with the overwhelming victory of the Democrats in November 2012. The influence of money as power to control the potential future for education, health care, care for the unemployed, the poor, the disabled and the retired is out of control. Politicians eager to hang on to their wealth and power, along with their influence is another way of worshiping power at the expense of God.
Racism, sexism, heterosexism, the prejudice towards Jewish people, Muslims, women and many more to number is another example of power being worshiped and God being put lower on the priority list. Many of these issues being promoted and manipulated at the hands and mouths of people using erroneous interpretations of the Bible and the misuse of the Christian Religion places power ahead of God. It is more important to use the greatness of the Christian Faith to scare, control and stigmatize than to bring the justice, equality and hope Jesus brought when He showed us the very face of God.
When Jesus answered Satan, he referred all of the powers at his disposal into the hands of God. It is God we worship, and it is God who directs us. It is for God we make use of what we do or do not do with the graces God gives us.
The final temptation to write about is individualism at the expense of community. If only I can do something amazing, something potentially destructive to myself, I might gain everything that no one else has. This kind of thinking has a sort of self-absorption to it. What is lacking is the freedom to be who oneself is, and the opportunity to allow others to be who they are. To accept one's limits, and to know one's boundaries so as to respect one self and others. In resisting this temptation there is a deep sense of humility of recognizing that God is God and I am not. Even though Jesus was God in the flesh, He knew that the worst thing he could do is seek all of God's power only for himself. Here, Jesus is completely unselfish and totally non-narcissistic. His ultimate concern is for the good of God and others.
As we have seen the effects of the misuse of public funds by Wall Street to crash the economy on bad mortgages and financial transactions, we have to ask ourselves, who really is our priority? Do we try to live in solidarity with others, or are we completely absorbed by ourselves to the point where no one else really matters?
Sometimes as a gay man this one really strikes me at the core of who I am. We have been given this incredible gift by God to love other men physically and romantically. Yet, when I use this gift for only my own self-gratification to the point of exploiting others for my own personal use, I am not being faithful to God or others. Is the gift of my sexuality to love and share with my partner really about love, tenderness and seeking to honor God in him? Or am I only interested in what he can do for me?
These questions are not just for me. These and other questions I could ask are directed to any person, gay, straight, bisexual, etc who seeks to use another person's body and/or emotions for our own use. We do ourselves, others and the human community a terrible disservice when we fail to honor another individual person as someone to be loved, cherished and cared for. When people are reduced to mere objects of desire only, they are nothing more than a human sex doll. God creates people with bodies, hearts and minds so that God can be loved in them, and they love God through them.
I am sure all of my readers have noticed that I have all of these in their wrong order with regards to the actual reading from Luke. When Luke finishes with his version of the temptation of Christ, he notes that this is not the last time, but one of many times that He will face Satan in His public ministry. Therefore, regardless of what order each fits in to, the important thing here is to understand that as long as we are on this earth, temptation will be part of our lives too. As God was with Christ through all that he was tempted with, so God is with us. The Holy Spirit that guided Jesus, also guides us as we face those things that can take us further away from God.
The final piece of good news on this First Sunday of Lent, is that whether we are successful in resisting temptations or not, God will forever love us and seek us out. God is always on the look out for us, and is walking with us in Christ, to redeem us and help us. If we are over come by our temptations, we have the grace of the Cross that we have been forgiven and renewed in the Holy Spirit to get up and try again. We all have the opportunity to reach out for God and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us as we struggle with those things that are so difficult for us.
How are we reaching out to God during this Lent?
What are the temptations God is challenging us to deal with his Lent?
What ever our issues or answers are, God in Christ is with us and will be there with us on Easter Day to receive us as God's Beloved with whom God is well-pleased.
Amen.
Prayers
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be
tempted by Satan; Come quickly to help us who are assaulted
by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of
each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through
Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the First Sunday of Lent, Book of Common Prayer, p. 218).
Almighty and everlasting God, you made the universe with
all its marvelous order, its atoms, worlds, and galaxies, and
the infinite complexity of living creatures: Grant that, as we
probe the mysteries of your creation, we may come to know
you more truly, and more surely fulfill our role in your
eternal purpose; in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (Prayer for Knowledge of God's Creation, Book of Common Prayer, p. 827).
O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and
light riseth up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all
our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what thou
wouldest have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save
us from all false choices, and that in thy light we may see
light, and in thy straight path may not stumble; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Guidance, Book of Common Prayer, p.832).
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