The 1st Sunday of Lent - The Antagonist Slanders

         Today our gospel reading presents Jesus as a character in a brief story told by Luke as an ominscient narrator.  Jesus is the protagonist and the devil is the antagonist.  The conflict centers on Jesus, made weak and vulnerable by fasting, being tempted to short-circuit his mission as God's revelation of God's self.  To defeat the devil Jesus quotes God's revelation of God's self in the written words of  the Hebrew scriptures.  The denouement tells us the devil departed in apparent temporary defeat, but will return at an opportune time.  Game, set, match!  Jesus is tested; Jesus overcomes.  Seems simple, doesn't it?  Like a morality tale?  A story with a moral for us—resist when the devil tempts you and you will be fine.

         On the other hand, thoughtful Christians have struggled to interpret this story in greater depth.  On Ash Wednesday about 11:10 I went down to the room where the AA folks were just about cleaned up after their meeting to let them know at 11:30 the church would be in silence for the next hour and a half for prayer and the imposition of ashes.  A young woman still sitting in her chair asked me what Lent was all about.  As I begin to explain, I mentioned that the forty days of Lent were based on the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert fasting and being tempted by the devil.  She asked what the temptations were and how they relate to us today.  She wondered about what giving something up for Lent was all about.

         On the General Ordination Exams these sorts of questions are posed in a section seminarians call “coffee hour” questions.  You must answer briefly with clarity.  Your answers must reflect biblical and theological accuracy as well.  I hope the answers I gave that young woman met those standards!

         In any event, today I have the advantage of time to prepare to explain the meaning of Jesus' temptations in the wilderness.  The explanation I treasure most is by Henri Nouwen, the Roman Catholic theologian who left academia to live and work in the L'Arche community with cognitively challenged adults.  He describes the temptations as the dangers all Christians who have a leadership roles face (and in a small church almost everyone is a leader in some way):  the temptation to be relevant – turn those stones into bread so people do not need to go hungry any more; the temptation to be powerful – how much good you could do in the world if you possessed lots of power; and the temptation to be spectacular – let everyone one see how God miraculously takes care of God's holy ones.  These temptations place us at the center of things: our intentions rightly applied to the problems of life will make all the difference, so what is good will prevail.  If we succumb to the belief that our holiness and our good deeds will make the difference in bringing in God's reign, we will have yielded to the devil's challenges and lost our need to keep connected with God.

         For some reason as I prepared for today, I questioned what Greek word Luke used to identify the devil and if that could offer some depth in interpreting this account of Jesus' temptations as well.  Often we are too much influenced by pop cultural depictions of the devil from the red guy with horns, a tail and a pitch fork to the one who presides over the burning sulfur in some region below the earth.  Luke's word, translated as devil, is diabolou and means “slanderer” and is the root of the English word, “diabolical.”  Who is the antagonist slandering in this story?  God, of course.  This diabolical one, this slanderer sought to depict an easy way to achieve what we call “the age to come,” a time of abundance, a well-ordered, just society and victory over death—if only Jesus would agree to take the easy way.

         This easy way would involve the tyranny of imposing the “good” and taking back the gift of freedom God gave God's creation.  It is slander to say that God rules by anything but the power of love. From the chesed of God in the Hebrew scriptures—translated as God's “loving kindness”—to the declaration in the Gospel of John that “God so loved the world . . .” we see that tyranny will never be God's way.  And tyranny, even tyranny in the cause of what we believe is good should never be our way.  God offers us love in Jesus and hopes for our love in return.  God offers us love in Jesus and yearns for us to freely offer ourselves to God in love with humble obedience as Jesus did.  To love as Jesus loved means to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourself.

         Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian killed by the Nazis, wrote about the need to be grateful when God shatters the “wish-dream” of a perfect Christian community, because that forces us to relate to each other—despite our inadequacies and our sins—through Jesus Christ, to center our community in Christ.  In our freedom we have all fallen short in one way or another, but in our freedom we can look to Jesus' compassion and  relate to each other through his compassion.  That's the freedom that will allow us to accept God's love and forgiveness and share God's love and forgiveness with others.

         So what I believe Luke's account of Jesus' temptation teaches us is to reject the slander that there is an easy way to establish God's reign if God in Jesus would only “step up.”  Love can never be the easy way, because there are costs, particularly the risk of rejection. But God chose love from the beginning of creation.  God chose love in sending God's self to become human in Jesus.  And Jesus chose love, not tyranny, which led in the end to the sacrifice of his life at the hands of human sin and evil.  Yes, God in Jesus chose love to overcome death and lead us to into salvation and eternal life. To say that God should have chosen an easier way and fixed it all through power—that is indeed slander.  Luke's portrait of a vulnerable, yet steadfast, Jesus, choosing God's way of love should be our guide.

Ash Wednesday - To Be "Eastered"???

A cartoon in a recent New Yorker shows an elderly woman using two canes to keep herself balanced exiting the front door of her church.  A much younger (40ish) clergyman stands by the open front door to greet her—and possibly assist her down the six steps to the walkway.  She smiles and thanks him with these words, “Thank you, Reverend, your sermon has me super-excited about croaking.”

            As we begin keeping a holy Lent by attending this Ash Wednesday service, we are encouraged to think about—to use the elderly woman’s word—“croaking.”  When I smear an ashen cross on your forehead, I will say the words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  Theologians dress up this concept with the word “finitude,” which means, of course, each us will come to the end of our earthly life.

            A lot of anxiety may crop up in our minds when we are forced to face our own mortality.  How? When? Will it be painful?  We usually turn away from considering such difficult thoughts.  We fill our lives with busy-ness or try to escape with alcohol or drugs or something else to distract ourselves.

            The words we hear and speak on Ash Wednesday tell us there is no escaping our finitude, no other way in the end but “croaking.”  But as Christians, we believe that though we die, because of Jesus Christ, yet shall we live.  Or as the preacher Tony Campolo says, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming.” 

            On this day we might echo Tony Campolo and say, “It’s Ash Wednesday, but Easter’s coming.”  This day we honor the fact that our lives on this earth will end by offering all that we are RIGHT NOW—including our fears and our sins—to the Holy One who created us and who loves us.  With this offering of ourselves we are acting out of faith, not fear—faith that God’s reign, which began with Jesus, will finally triumph over all evil and all death.  For in the age to come there will be no more finitude, but life everlasting!

            The theologian, Walter Brueggemann, wrote a poem entitled, “Marked by Ashes,” that depicts the relationship between today and the Day of Resurrection.  In it he uses the word “Easter” in a most interesting way—as a verb—“to Easter.”  Let’s listen to his thoughts, as we ponder what this day means and how we can keep a holy Lent.

Marked by Ashes

Ruler of the Night, Guarantor of the day . . .

This day—a gift from you.

This day—like none other you have ever given, or we have ever received.

This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.

            halfway back to committees and memos,

halfway back to calls and appointments,

halfway on to next Sunday,

halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant, half,

turned toward you, half rather not.

This Wednesday is a long way from Ash Wednesday,

                         [of course, I am reading this on Ash Wednesday]

   but all our Wednesdays are marked by ashes—

      we begin this day with that taste of ash in our mouth: 

        of failed hope and broken promises,

        of forgotten children and frightened women, 

  we ourselves are ashes to ashes, dust to dust; 

  we can taste our morality as we roll the ash around on our tongues.

We are able to ponder our ashness

with some confidence, only because our every Wednesday of ashes
anticipates your Easter victory over that dry, flaky, taste of death.

On this Wednesday, we submit our ashesn way to you—

    You Easter parade of newness.

     Before the sun sets, take our Wednesday and Easter us,

          Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom;

          Easter us that we may be fearless for your truth.

     Come here and Easter our Wednesday with

          mercy and just and peace and generosity.

We pray as we wait for the Risen One who comes soon.

         So as we enter this holy season of Lent, we remember the traditional practices of the season: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  Yes, we do these things at other times, but during Lent we try to do them with special intention.  We do them to show repentance, but we should not do them in fear of damnation.  Let us ask God “to Easter” what we do to keep this Lent, so we do not do them in fear, but in the hope of Resurrection and Eternal Life.  May God bless your keeping of a Holy Lent.

“Marked by Ashes” by Walter Brueggemann from Prayers for a Privileged People (Nashville: Abingdon, 2008) p. 27-8.

Last Sunday of the Epiphany Season - Transfiguration and a Holy Lent

         Something pretty spectacular happened, but only Peter, James and John experienced it—and they kept silent about it—at least they did for awhile.  In a document scholars call Peter's testament, we hear the only witness to speak about his experience.  Most likely writing to the church in Rome, Peter 's experience became an essential part of his argument for the Christian hope of Christ's return, judgment, and a renewal of the world as a just and righteousness society.   

        Here's what Peter had to say:  (2 Peter 1) 

“ For 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. For 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.’ We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

         “So 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. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

         Something pretty spectacular happened.  This passage and the gospel accounts of the Transfiguration (in Matthew, Mark and Luke) according to scholars were all written several decades after Jesus' resurrection and ascension.

         Today we use the phrase “mountain-top” experience to describe something spectacular that has a continuing influence on our lives.  We have learned, though, that the intensity of a “mountain-top” dissipates as life goes on.

         Let's look more closely at this mountain-top experience, as Luke tells it, to see what it say about our “religious” experiences.  First there is withdrawal to a place away from daily life in order to pray.  No words of prayer were reported, but suddenly there was a vision of God's glory and figures from the Jewish religious tradition.  There appeared to be some purpose for the figures of Jesus, Moses and Elijah to be together. Just when it seemed over and Peter wanted to memorialize it, something else happened.  The vision changed into the terrifying darkness of a cloud which enveloped them and a voice spoke.  Peter heard it as the voice of God claiming Jesus as God's son.  The gospel writers included an additional statement by the voice of God telling Peter, James and John to listen to Jesus.  It ends as suddenly as it began, and the very next day the needy world intrudes.

         So what have we learned?  Prayer, probably silent contemplative prayer, can be used by God for revelation of God's self.  Light and darkness, perhaps real, perhaps spiritual, are both means through which God reveals God's self.  God initiates this act of revelation.  We cannot control revelation through some sort of “perfect” prayer life convincing God to reveal God's self.  But we have to say yes to being open to the experience of God.  Peter, James and John agreed to go up the mountain with Jesus and chose to stay awake. And when it was all over, they entered again into the active ministry to which Jesus had called them.

         We are about to enter the season of Lent when we are encouraged by church tradition to take on three disciplines: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  Most of us do some of these things some of the time.  Even when we promise ourselves and God to be more intentional about our prayer—even when we try for a season to give up something important to us—even when look for new ways to help those less fortunate than ourselves—we may find ourselves not so much on the mountain top, but more on a treadmill, struggling with the daily-ness of our work and our obligations. Would we have to respond, “So sorry, Jesus,” if he said to us what he said in exasperation to his disciples, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you?”  So, sorry, Jesus, I really was trying to focus on what's important . . . please forgive me.

         As Jesus agreed to heal the boy suffering from convulsions, so he will agree to heal us of our infirmity of forgetting what is most important:  to love God with all your heart, mind and strength, and to love others as we love ourselves.  So let us pray the Prayer of Confession today with all our heart.  

         Then as Lent begins on Wednesday, we need to find some time to each day to direct our thoughts to God, and then in silence wait for God.  Teresa of Avila, a Christian mystic of the 16^th century, said that God may come to us in the silence or God may not, but we always should make time for God in Jesus, who is our friend.

         What is it that distracts you most from your prayer?  It may not be chocolate. Have you seen the cartoon of the girl in front of the mirror saying, “I think I will be closer to God if I give up M&M's.  Were it that easy to draw close to God—to allow the space for God to draw close to us!  What is it that distracts us most from prayer?  During this Lent let us try going without that distraction.

         And finally let us ask God for new eyes to see those who need our compassion and our help.   We may find a new way to give to those in need.  For some of us who cannot get out and about the way we used to, it may be praying in intercession for those whose needs we have begun to notice. 

         Yes, to keep a Holy Lent let us pray, fast and give alms, not to earn salvation—because we can never live that perfectly—but let us pray, fast and give alms in order to clear a space in our lives for God to appear.  Perhaps God will come as a bright moment or as a dark shadow or as neither, but God in Jesus will see us as a friend waiting for God and loving God.  And that will be enough!

The 3rd Sunday After the Epiphany - No Day Like Today

        “There's only now/There's only here/No other path/No other way/No day but today/No day but today.”  These words are sung in a musical called Rent at the end by the young people who have been coping with not having enough money to pay the rent and having a friend who is dying of AIDS.  They discover, of course, that what matters most are the supportive relationships they have created to get them through the hard times.

 

         Luke reports the message Jesus proclaims in the synagogue has a time-sensitive quality.  The key word is “today.” “Today” the passage from the prophet Isaiah, which describes the mission of the Messiah, finds its fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth. True, the arc of prophetic fulfillment is long, for the the scripture Jesus cites was written over 500 years before the day he read it.  And in 2,013 years since  the liberating and healing work of the Holy Spirit continues, for the reign of God characterized by peace, wholeness and justice has not arrived fully.

         But “today—now” comprises one tiny segment of that arc.  The worshippers in the synagogue lived on their segment of the arc, as do we. We have been given “now” and we have been given “here”—not Nazareth, but Newark or Elkton or Wilmington or Hockessin.

         “There's only now/There's only here . . .”

         That day Jesus told his listeners in the synagogue who he is and announced his mission to them.  In that moment—the “now” and the “here”—he gave them an image designed to evoke awe and, perhaps, cause some of them to follow him.  Does Jesus come to us in the same way—perhaps when we pray or read scripture or worship?  Listen to me right now.  Follow me right here in Newark or Elkton or Wilmington or Hockessin.

         “No other path/no other way . . .”

         The “other path” or the “other way,” implied in this song from Rent, could be called the path of thinking about something tomorrow or later—or of putting off some action until tomorrow or later—the path of procrastination favored by so many of us.  Jesus told his listeners what was happening in their presence, not something that would come later.  They were confronted with Jesus' proclamation of his Messiah-ship now. In the verses that came after those we heard today Luke reported that Jesus' listeners first responded with amazement at his words.  But their next response was to wonder whether perhaps Jesus was not the Messiah—there might be another path, another way:  “They said, 'Is this not Joseph's son?”

         When we experience Jesus as we pray or read scripture or worship in Newark or in Elkton or in Wilmington or in Hockessin, we may realize there is no other path or other way, but the path of responding to our experience of Jesus.  Jesus said he came to heal and to liberate, to tell of God's love and longing for humanity, to declare a time of forgiveness and release of one's burdens.

         “No day, but today . . .”

         Because the people in the synagogue questioned Jesus' Messiah-ship and in the end drove him away, they lost the moment when they could have responded to God great gift of grace through Jesus.  Although Luke doesn't talk about a second chance for these folks in Nazareth, our understanding of God's way provides for another chance.  Each day becomes: “No day, but today . . .”

         Our prayerbook offers such a prayer for the start of the day on page 100. It's called A Collect for Grace: “Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us to the beginning of this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

         “No day, but today. . .”

         St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth about fulfilling God purpose in their lives.  God's purpose for each of them was to exercise the skills and talents, or the gifts, with which they had been blessed.  And not only to exercise their gifts, but to respect and honor the gifts of the others members of the body of Christ—even when some gifts were viewed as lesser than some others.  St. Paul spoke of striving for greater gifts and of a “still more excellent way” as a lead-in to his famous passage on self-giving love (I Corinthians 13).

         “No day, but today . . .” to listen and respond to Jesus.  “No day, but today . . .” to acknowledge and use the gifts you have been given, while honoring the gifts of others.

         Twelve-step programs teach that we must take one day at a time.  Jesus taught that the reign of God begins in Christian's lives on the day when we recognize Jesus as the Messiah of God and find our place in the community where we use our God-given gifts—in the community where we try to practice “the more excellent way” of self-giving love—in the community that St. Paul called (and we call) the Body of Christ.  Thus, I believe we will do well to remember that “There's only now/There's only here/No other path/No other way/No day but today/No day but today.”

Compline for the Feast of the Presentation

Compline

228^th Convention of the Diocese of Delaware

February 1, 2013 - Feast of the Presentation

Leader

The Spirit of God be our guide,

   granting us a peaceful night and a perfect end.  Amen.

Leader        Our help is in the name of the eternal God,

 People       who is making the heavens and the earth.

Leader        O Holy One, flow through our being and open our hearts;

People        so we may proclaim your praise.

Psalm 121            (Read responsively verse by verse)

I lift up my eyes to the hills;

  from where is my help to come?

My help comes from God,

  the maker of heaven and earth.

God will not let your foot be moved;

  the One who watches over you will not fall asleep.

Behold, the One who keeps watch over Israel

  shall neither slumber nor sleep;

The Holy One watches over you

  and is your shade at your right hand,

So that the sun shall not strike you by day,

  nor the moon by night.

God shall preserve you from all evil,

  and is the One who shall keep you safe.

God shall watch over your going out and your coming in,

  from this time for the for evermore.

All     Glory to the undivided Trinity, One God;

         as it was in the beginning is now and will be forever.

Scripture Reading – Matthew 11: 28-30

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

People        Thanks be to God.

Closing Prayers

Leader        Into your merciful hands we commend ourselves;

People        For you have redeemed us, O God of truth and love.

Leader        Keep us, loving God, as the apple of your eye,

People        Hide us under the shadow of your wings.

Leader        Let us pray

All

Beloved, Holy One,

Your name be hallowed;

Your reign spread among us;

Your will be done

At all times, in all places

In heaven and on earth.

Give us the bread we need for today.

Forgive us our sins

   as we forgive those who sin against us.

Let us not fail in our time of testing.

Spare us from trials too sharp to endure.

Free us from the grip of all evil powers.

For yours is the reign,

The power and the glory,

The victory of love,

Now and for eternity

World without end.

So be it.  Amen.

Leader        We give you thanks, O God, for revealing your Son Jesus Christ to us by the light of his resurrection:  As we praise your glory at the close of this day, grant that our joy may abound once more in the morning; through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.

                  O God, your unfailing providence sustains the world we live in and the life we live; watch over those, both night and day, who work while others sleep, and grant that we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other’s toil; through Jesus, our Redeemer.  Amen.

Leader        Guide us waking, O Lord,

All              and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ,

                  and asleep we may rest in peace.

(Read responsively)

I will lie down and take my rest,

for it is in God alone that I dwell unafraid.

Let us bless the Life-Giver, the Pain-Bearer, the Love-Maker;

let us praise and exalt God above all forever.

May God’s name be praised beyond the furthest star,

glorified and exalted above all forever.

All              Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping;

                  that awake we may watch with Christ,

                  and asleep we may rest in peace.

Blessing  

Leader

Blessing, light and glory surround us and scatter the darkness of the long and lonely night.  May the divine Spirit dwell with us always.

All     Thanks be to God.

Sources used: 

Book of Common Prayer 1979

Prayer at Night’s Approaching by Jim Cotter – Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 1997

The Saint Helena Breviary – New York: Church Publishing, Inc., 2006