Temptation's Bane

  

Text: Matthew 4:1-11

Focus: Temptation

Function: to help people see the sin in consumerism

4:¹Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. ²He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. ³The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴But he answered, “It is written,

‘One does not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
    and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

⁷Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, ⁹and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,

‘Worship the Lord your God,
    and serve only him.’ ”

¹¹Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Good morning to the beloved children of God. May we always be reminded that God describes God’s own self as Love and everyone of us who loves and walks in love walks in God. That is where the Spirit of God dwells inside of us and empowers us to live the love that Jesus gives us for others.

I grew up with a lot of sermons on this passage of scripture and I have preached it several times.

Most of the time, the text has been used to remind us of how important it is to know the scriptures so that when we fall into temptation we have a moral base for us to combat temptation.

I heard that lack of knowledge can cause me to perish. Sadly, there was a lot of fear of failure in those messages and they didn’t take into account the faithfulness of God and the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us.

That is why along with the command to love, I emphasize our relationship to God through the Holy Spirit on a regular basis. I believe that awareness of the Spirit in our lives draws us closer to God and enables us to live as Christ’s brothers and sisters in this world.

And the idea was that every time the Devil twisted scripture to get Jesus to sin, Jesus was armed with the scripture in a spiritual battle.

I want to emphasize again that the success of our Christian journey is held in the faithful hands of the loving God and God’s covenant with us will not fail.

So the idea to know the scripture had some merit, but the fear was not from God. And that missed the real point of the temptation and the passage.

The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was about Jesus’ obedience to the leading of the Spirit in his life. He was lead by the Spirit into the wilderness.

And God knew that the devil was going to tempt him there and God allowed Jesus to go through the test when he was at his lowest because he had been fasting for 40 days and he was very hungry.

God was demonstrating to Jesus that Christ’s life was bound up by faith in God and we live by faith in God instead of the circumstances around us.

Abraham, the father of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religion lived by faith and trusted God when circumstances appeared otherwise.

God wants us to rest in God’s provision for us instead of our own pride and power. Because if we succeed, it is by the love and the power of God and we should not boast, or hoard God’s blessing to us.

I think this passage might be best understood in light of 1 John 2:16 when he describes three categories of sin, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Biblical scholars see the correlation between Jesus being tempted with the bread, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life when he tempted him to throw himself off the temple and the lust of the eyes when he tempted him with all the kingdoms of the world.

God gives us the power of overcome temptation.

Lenten season is a time of preparation and fasting so that we are more aligned with Christ than the world around us.

So, let me read 1 John 2:15-17 in the Message translation:

^15-17 Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

I love the way he says that whoever does what God wants us set for eternity.

That again is not the threat of hell but the promise of reward when we lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven.

The main point is that we are called to be different from the greed and selfishness that permeates our culture and share the blessings that God has given to us with others.

The way God’s Spirit kept him during the temptation and the way he kept his purpose singular show us as an example that we do not need to live in fear that we will not have enough. We can be generous.

Generosity will be a great hallmark of our faith.

Not just with money, but with mercy and grace.

One of the things I love about working with the incarcerated is the way that God’s spirit shows mercy to these men who sometimes do not believe they are worthy of mercy.

God is full of mercy.

Even when we are tempted and fail, God is full of mercy. I mentioned Abraham and how he lived by faith and by faith became an alien in a foreign land, but twice he threw his wife under the bus and lied about her to protect his own skin. Three times he didn’t have faith in the promise of God and suffered the consequences, but God was faithful and delivered him.

God is full of mercy, especially during suffering. The point of Lent, like Jesus’ temptation, is to remind ourselves of Jesus’ fast and victory after the fast.

Remember, Jesus was victorious by the power of the Spirit and the promise of God. Temptation’s bane is the faithfulness of God.

Seeing the Light

  

Text: 2 Peter 1:16-21

Focus: conversion

Function: To see the Spirit moving in our lives

¹⁶For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” ¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. ²⁰First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, ²¹because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Good morning to God’s beloved Children, part of God’s family that is worshiping God across the planet today. It is great to be back together and in community with all the believers everywhere.

I titled the sermon “Seeing the light” because today we celebrate the time when three of the apostles saw the light. They were with Jesus on the mountain when suddenly, Jesus was changed and began to glow like the sun and from heaven, Moses and Elijah came down and met with him.

Read it in Matthew 17:1-9

17^1-3Six days later, three of them saw that glory. Jesus took Peter and the brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face. His clothes were filled with light. Then they realized that Moses and Elijah were also there in deep conversation with him.

⁴Peter broke in, “Master, this is a great moment! What would you think if I built three memorials here on the mountain—one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah?”

⁵While he was going on like this, babbling, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them, and sounding from deep in the cloud a voice: “This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of my delight. Listen to him.”

^6-8When the disciples heard it, they fell flat on their faces, scared to death. But Jesus came over and touched them. “Don’t be afraid.” When they opened their eyes and looked around all they saw was Jesus, only Jesus.

⁹Coming down the mountain, Jesus swore them to secrecy. “Don’t breathe a word of what you’ve seen. After the Son of Man is raised from the dead, you are free to talk.”

Three of the apostles were chosen to witness this event, Peter, James and John. They were told to keep it a secret, even from the other disciples until Jesus rose from the dead.

We don’t know why it was a secret and we don’t know why it was given to only three of the the apostles.

But it had a profound affect on them. Immediately, Peter wanted to erect three monuments, presumably because there were three apparitions, to record the event, just like Jacob did when he saw the ladder descending from heaven and he build a pillar of stones. Peter knew something spectacular had happened.

But instead of erecting monuments to the occasion, Jesus told them to keep it a secret.

During the event, we read that God interrupted the meeting and declared to the observers, Peter, John and James to listen to Jesus because he is the beloved son of God.

They saw the light of God and were commanded to listen to Christ.

I suppose that is pretty good for us as well.

See the light in Christ and follow him.

What does it mean for us to see the light?

Well, the text points us to the prophecy of scripture.

To prophesy does not mean only to predict the future. As a matter of fact, predicting the future was something that the prophets rarely did but we emphasize them because they give us some sort of hope or promise for the future.

But a prophecy is literally a quickened word. To prophesy, we listen to, and are led by the Holy Spirit to share something important from God that God wants us all to hear. That is what Paul is telling us in this passage when he talks of the Spirit leading the writers of the OT.

It is a word that is inspired by the Holy Spirit and that is what God has given us in the scripture.

I love reading the scripture because when I do, sometimes I sense the leading of the Holy Spirit helping me to see something that God wants me to see.

So Peter writes this passage about how he is being led by the Holy Spirit and he seems to know it is true because it illuminates his life. Apparently like the transfiguration of Jesus did to him as well when he was enveloped in God’s light.

The scriptures show us the God who loves us and help us find the will of God for us in our lives.

We have to be careful with the scriptures. They are inspired and they sometimes fill us with a connection to God when we are studying them. The Holy Spirit makes a difficult passage clear to us or we see something we have never seen before. God’s Spirit lights our way.

But I say we need to be careful because knowledge of scripture can make us proud of what we know compared to others.

We study not to master the scripture but we study them so that we can be mastered by God.

But God is revealed in more than scripture. As we saw today, Peter saw the majesty of God. He was excited when he saw the transfiguration. He let his spirit see the light.

I find that God connects with us through the Spirit in prayer and contemplation.

The connection to light in the story reminds me of creation and how on the first day, before creating the sun on the 4^th, God created light.

We see the light. Light is the presence of the goodness of God. It is the opposite of evil and it is something for which we can be aware to look for.

And Jesus is the light of the world and he enlightens us through his Spirit. He said that if he leaves us he will come back in the form of the Holy Spirit and we will have the same light inside of us. We get to dig deep and bring it out.

Let us look for the light. We do that here in worship, but I encourage you to do it all week long.

I love our God moments at the beginning of worship and our Higher Power during the service. Both of them remind me to listen to God and to look for God in everything.

It is that looking for God, the connection to the divine, the seeing the light and the good in things that keeps us humble and connected to our faith in the love of God.

The Kingdom is Near

Text: Matthew 4:12-23

Focus: Calling

Function: To help people see the urgency of the times.

¹²Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

¹⁵“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
    on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the gentiles—
¹⁶the people who sat in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
    light has dawned.”

¹⁷From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

¹⁸As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishers. ¹⁹And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

²³Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Good morning to the beloved Children of God. May Christ’s peace fill your hearts and minds today and always!

I titled this sermon: “The Kingdom of Near” because of verse 17 whereby Jesus starts his ministry with the message that the Kingdom of God has come.

I want to warn you that this sermon is on the politics of love that Jesus taught and I repeat to you as often as I can because loving others is the greatest commandment.

When I say it is the politics of love, I am saying that it is neither left nor right, but instead it is going to focus on the teachings of Jesus.

I don’t want to offend the right, because I don’t want to lose my audience, but at the same time, I believe that these are desperate times and desperate actions need to be taken.

So let us look at the calling of the disciples.

I never noticed that Jesus began his ministry by himself and then called the disciples to his side.

Jesus was the Messiah which means the Anointed one from God who comes to set thing back to the right where they have gone wrong and where people are not being loved by others as Jesus commands.

Because he was anointed he was the one who began the change in human society that was so significant we started year zero to honor him.

And it is important to understand that his anointing came when he was baptized and the Spirit of God descended on him with a physical manifestation that looked like a dove.

The same Spirit that dwelt in Jesus dwells in us.

We have the same power to love others that Jesus had.

Jesus proclaims that the kingdom of God is at hand.

And again, his first sermon was on how his mission was to fulfill the promise of God from Isaiah 61 to set people free from the people who oppress them.

When he said the Kingdom of God is near, he was telling them God was bringing the change that come by the power of the Holy Spirit to transforming people from selfishness to being loving, kind, generous and full of mercy and living in the beloved community.

So, here is Jesus, on the scene beginning to preach a very radical message. Charles Krabybill one of our theologians calls it the upside down kingdom.

It is upside down because it reversed the social order and took a stand against the way people were being treated by those in power.

Jesus was a revolutionary.

We don’t know how long Jesus carried on his mission single-handedly before this passage and the calling of the apostles. Apparently, it was long enough for him to establish his identity in Capernaum after moving from Nazareth and in those days, that took some time.

And at that time he decides to call his disciples. Now, they were aware of Jesus and we see that from other accounts in the gospels. Some of them had previously followed John who was just murdered when this story takes place.

A cording to the text, it appears that John’s murder influences Jesus deeply.

It is at this point, perhaps realizing he won’t be here forever, that he decides to share the ministry with us and he calls the disciples.

And the thing that is awesome to me is the way they responded immediately.

They gave up their livelihood and decided to follow Christ. They chose to live by faith in God’s provision for them.

And when after Jesus died and rose again and those same people who left everything to follow Christ started the Church by the power of the Spirit of God they asked the same of the new believers.

When people joined the early church, they had a similar economic experience as the apostles who left everything to follow Christ as they then gave up their possessions to share them so that no one lacked.

They worked, they kept their jobs, they kept at their lives, but instead of hoarding as if they were afraid to trust Christ, they shared generously.

It was the Spirit of generosity that Jesus had taught them and they put it to practical use so that no one would lack.

The politics of love changed society and they began to share.

I don’t know what you call it except it was an ancient type of commune which they called “The Way” but the point was that it was completely and radically different from the economic structure of their day, and ours. The politics of love demanded that they share with those who had less.

And the apostles courage to leave everything behind and follow Christ is an example for us. They saw the right thing to do and they did it. And by obeying, when we read through the book of Acts, they were able by the power of the Spirit to do incredible acts because of their courage.

I mentioned at the start of the sermon that we are living in desperate times that contradict the politics of love.

We have Haitian brothers and sisters in the faith who live close enough for us to be involved who are likely facing deportation in an inhumane and that contradict the kingdom of God and the politics of love.

Perhaps God wants us to pray about how God to be involved.

Springfield, Ohio was a city in great decline until 15,000 Haitians, most of them brothers and sisters in Christ came and sparked life into the community. Philip tells me his Haitian workers at F&P are some of his best workers. They have that positive can do attitude.

So, I wonder what I, or even we, can do? I know that we are limited in our physical ability but Jesus told us to deny ourselves and pattern our lives after his model. God is always calling us to take part in Their radical love for the world.

I hope to find a way to be a blessing and a source of light and hope in this midst of this darkness through the politics of love instead of the world’s politics of division.