May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Lent 4 C
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 22, 1998
TEXT: Luke 15:11-32 - Parable of Two Lost Sons, Parable of the Loving Father, Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Son 1 - "But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and ptu his arms around him and kissed him."
Son 2 - "Son, you are always with me, and all tht is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found."
ISSUE: This parable is an outrageous expression of the enormous love of God for his children. It is salvation by grace revealed in a dramatic way. It also reveals the eccentricity of our own human nature. We are so very foolish in our own sinfulness and then so damningly terribly self-righteous as to be obnoxious. Yet the loving Father still receives and calls to us. It is a great parable of what it is like to enter into God's Domain.
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Here is truly one of the most beautiful of all of Jesus's parables. It's most common title has been The Parable of the Prodigal Son, with emphasis on the lost son being restored through his repentance. Still another more modern title for this parable is The Parable of the Two Lost Sons, which emphaiszes the fact that both sons were in need of repentance. However, the more appropriate title is The Parable of the Loving Father. It is the compassionate father in the story that reaches out in great love to both of his sons. In our time, however, I think that we might be careful with the title of The Loving Father because there is an inclination to sentimentalize the parable in such away that it loses its real authentic impact. The father in the story who is a symbol for God the Father is seen as a sort of pushover. God is reduced somewhat to a nice guy, and you might like to meet him sometime. God is sort of good to his restless kids who's sort of bad.
In the time that Jesus told this parable and modern Biblical scholars believe that this parable is very very close to being authentically a parable that Jesus would have told without too much editorializing by Luke and the early church. It is important for us to understand that the Parable was outrageous in its time. The meaning behind the parable for some of the people hearing it was just another cause behind the crucifixion of Jesus. It was a shocking parable at the time and we see it as a relatively harmless rendition of how sweet and sacchrine God is. We domesticate many of the parables of Jesus and remove from them their wild outrageousness.
Let's try to get to the root of what really lies behind this parable in terms of the period in which is was told. A father has two sons and the youngest comes to him in a fit of utter rebellion and dares to ask his father to give him his share of the inheritance. To put this another way, the son tells his father to "drop dead." He is dishonoring his father and his father's home. His inheritance was about a third of the estate, and once given he would never receive nor be entitled to anymore. The first shock and outlandish aspect of the parable is that the father gives him the money and dares to turn him loose.
The boy then leaves not only his father's home and country, but goes off to a foreign country. To be without family support and survive in this period was nearly impossible. People of this time were very dependent upon close family for their very existence: marriage, education, religion, status, and work. The boy is really an incorrigible child. What might be expected to happen happens. The boy loses it all, and ends up in the pig sty, eating non-nutricious food. Pigs for Jews were unclean animals, and the boy's only saving grace was that he didn't eat one of the pigs. Jews don't eat pork. It is ritually unclean.
Coming to his senses the boy decides to return home, remembering it wasn't all that bad there, but fact of the matter is that there is no place else to go. Maybe his father will make him a hired-hand. Hired hands were less than family slaves. At least when there are crops to be picked he'd have some food. So he decides to be repentant, at least act so, and dares to go home. That was a risky move.
As he comes down the road, the father sees him and runs to him, and before he can get any words of repentance out of his mouth or anything else, embraces him and kisses him. According to the law of Deuteronomy 21:18, this is what was supposed to have happened:
"Suppose a man has a son who is stubborn and rebellious, a son who will not obey his parents, even though they punish him. His parents are to take him before the leaders of the town where he lives and make him stand trial. They are to say to them, 'Our son is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey us; he wastes money and is a drunkard.' Then the men of the city are to stone him to death, and so you will get rid of this evil. Everyone in Israel will hear what has happened and be afraid."
The father runs out to protect the son from the possibility of being stoned to death by an irate judgmental community. If this one gets away with this kind of behavior, every kid in the village will want to do it too, so make them afraid.
Then the son tries to get out his rehearsed speech when the father starts putting his ritual robe for special occasions on him, giving him the family signet ring so he can conduct family business, and shoes on his feet signifying he is to be nohired-hand or slave. The fatted calf is ordered to be slaughtered for a feast, one hell of a party that's going to feed over a hundred guests. This behavior was outrageous behavior on the part of the father. If the father in the story is a symbol of God the Father the concept flies in the face of the very concept of God. Even if was not a symbol of God, it was outlandish behavior of a real father in this culture.
The older son who comes home from working in the fields and hears the music and the dancing, and who learns what is going on heightens the fact that his father's behavior is outrageous. He dishonors his father by refusing to go into the party and respecting his father's wishes. He refers to his brother as his father's son -this son of yours - and perpetuates the disowning of his brother. He condmens his brother and laments that his father has never given him so much as a kid to make merry with his friends. He maintains a stance of self-righteousness. We never know if he goes into the party or not. That's a question left the listener. What would you do?
Notice the impact of the reversal in the story that really got people's attention. It's an outrageous story that is counter cultural. The father does not behave like a father would react. The prodigal son does not behave like a dutiful son should. The dutiful son, the culturally correct son, stands in sharp contrast and we don't know what he's going to do. Suddenly he seems worlds apart from what's happening to his father and younger brother.
Some have argued that this parable is about how the early church was attempting to accept the Gentiles. The parable comes across for some as Jesus showing how the pagan Gentiles are acceptable to God, and how Judaism is all caught up in its own self-righteousness. Thus the church needs to reach out to the outcast and condemn legalism. This interpretation can be seen as anti-semitic. I don't think that it holds any water and surely misses the point. Make no mistake, both sons in the parable of Jewish sons, and a Jewish father reaches out to both of them calling them to reconciliation and relationship with him.
Robert Capon, The Parables of Grace, 1995, an Episcopal Biblical Scholar, makes an interesting point about the parable. Capon notes that this is another one of Jesus' Party Parables. Interestingly enough all of the major figures in the parable die, except for one. The father dies symbolically when he turns over the inheritance to the rebellious son. The rebellious son dies once he leaves home and finds his live in the garbage dump. When he finally returns home, the fatted calf dies as a symbol of the sacrifical lamb so there can be a party. It is only in dying to our selves that we can live and enter into the Party of God, or the Domain of God. Only the older son who refuses to die to his way of life and thinking is left out of the party so far as we know. The father dies for his son; the son dies in his sins, and the fatted calf is slain so that a new party can begin and their relationships restored. The self-righteous son stands outside refusing to go in to the party of new life and reconciliation.
(It is also interesting that Jesus himself is one who left his family and went into the world to suffer significantly. He left home. He had little to live on. He associated with woman, the poor, the disenfranchised. He died, but led the way to the Father. Through his dying, he was give an extaordinary life of reconciliation.)
Whenever I read and explore the meaning of this parable and try to appreciate it for our time, I cannot help but see the two sons in all of us. People can take good lives and screw them up royally. People can be cruel, unkind, stupid, immoral, vicious. They can be manipulative, stubborn, underhanded sneaky and all the rest. Lives can be ruined and empty.
On the other hand people can be judgmental, self-righteous, condeming, all in the name of being moral, upright, honorable, dutiful, self-made, right. Yet at the same time they can be lacking in mercy, understanding, and compassion. Their lives can be a spiritually empty as the worst of sinners.
The parable tells us that all of us stand in the need of God's saving grace. All of us have to die to who we are and receive what The Father has to give. We need to renew our relationship with the God the Father of Love. Like the father in the story, Jesus calls his people and us out of the world into a radically new realm, the realm of God, the Kingdom of God, Heaven, into God's Domain to that wonderfully grand party where things are radically different and God's saving and undeserved grace abounds to the utter shock of the world. God in Christ is not merely the sweet God in heaven who sits back and loves, but who gives freedom and who himself dies that all may live and be reconciled one to another as brothers and sisters.
Sunday, March 22, 1998
Sunday, March 15, 1998
LENT 3
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: LENT 3
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 15,1998
TEXT: Luke 13:1-9 - The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree
"No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."
ISSUE: This passage is rich in its meaning. It is an instance where there is an effort to trick Jesus into taking political sides. He is more concerned with focusing on our need to recognize our own inner need for change, repentance. The Parable of the Fig Tree focuses attention upon our need to bear fruit, and while we are under judgment, there is still the loving grace of God to which we may respond. In Lent we do need to examine our lives and realize there is a limit to God's dealing with us, but so far his grace prevails.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The gospel reading this morning is another one of those rich passages of Scripture that is pregnant with meaning. It tells of the awesome impending judgment of God suspended with the hope of and in favor of God's grace.
The scene is one in which Jesus is confronted by some anxious folk that are putting to him another one of those trick questions. Remember when scribes brought Jesus the coin and asked him if it were appropriate to pay tax to Caesar. And Jesus simply replied that they should give to Caesar what was Caesars, and to God what belonged to God. If he had said that tax paying was okay, the people would have rejected him. If he said that paying tax was inappropriate then the Roman authorities would have punished him. The scene today is similar. Jesus is put in an awkward position. This time they tell him that people worshipping in the Temple have been murdered by Pilate and their blood mixed with the Temple sacrifices. It is as if they want Jesus to condemn Pilate along with all the Romans. If Jesus does this he is considered an enemy of the Roman state. If he does not condemn the Romans then he is seen as insensitive to his Jewish brothers and sisters, and to the cause of the rebbles of his time who participated in guerilla warfare against the Romans.
In order to avoid getting caught in this dilemma, Jesus shifts the issue. The people of Israel are condemning the Roman Goverment and ways without looking at their own. "No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will perish just as they did," Jesus says. Jesus is saying in effect that his own people must change; they themselves must be repentant, and examine their own behaviors and who they are as the people of God. This issue is relevant for us today. We often see the problems of the world as the fault of someone else. In out time there is often great criticism and condemnation of the gay community by the heterosexual community, without the heterosexual community wrestling with its own problems of promiscuity and unfaithfulness in marriage. While the Romans may be seen as cruel, pagan, and inhumane, Jesus says that the leadership of Israel has not been bearing much in the way of good fruit either. He tells them the parable of the barren fig tree.
Let me pause with a little information on fig trees and how they got planted in Jesus' time. It's a little mid-eastern cultural lesson. Wealthy landowners lived in the larger towns and cities. In this case the landowner planted a fig tree in his vineyard so he could have some figs along with his grapes. Fig trees take three years to mature. After they mature, according to the O.T. book of Leviticus 19:24, you were not allowed to eat the figs the first year the tree blossomed. These figs belonged to the Lord in thankful gratitude. While the tree is growing in the farm, the hired hands, or vinedressers, or gardeners tended the trees and vines, cultivating them.
Now the wealthy landowner in the parable continued checking on his tree for that three years and there's no fruit. He waited three years for it to mature; then, another three years and still no fruit. So he tells the hired hand to cut it down. It's worthless. No fruit! Get rid of it. You see, this is an act of awesome judgment on the part of the landowner. But the hiredhand intervenes saying let me clutivate some more and put more manure (shit - poop) on it, and just maybe next years we'll start getting some figs. "If it bears fruit next year well and good; but if not you can cut it down."
Some scholars believe that the parable is an example of insulting humor that would have had the local peasants rolling on the ground in laughter. (Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus Cycle C, 55f) If the fig tree is a metaphor for Israel's unfruitful and poor spiritual leadership over the centuries, it is laughable to think that one more year of manure (shit) is going to accomplish anything. You can see why Jesus ultimately gets crucified.
In the parable, God, the landowner has been waiting for an inordinary long period of time for his people Israel to be a light to the nations of the world. They have failed and become an exclusive club often condemning, excommunicating the poor, and blocking the way of understanding the God of love and forgiveness. The parable seems to be saying that Israel herself is under the judgement of God, and stands in need of salavation. Their salvation is their own renewed awareness of the truth of God as redeemer, lover, and compassionate, as well as being a judge of cruelty and injustice. Yet Israel seems hopeless, and God is ready to cut her down. Where will her salvation come from?
In the parable the tentative saving grace comes from the hiredhand. Let me cultivate and manure it some more and maybe given a little more time, it wil bear fruit. For the early Christian community, as for Luke, it is likely that Jesus is seen as God's hiredhand who is the intercessor, the savior of the barren tree, the empty spirituality of the world. What's being said? The world of God is judged by God and is being called to repentance. It is being called to be the light to the nations of the world. It is called to reveal love, seek justice, to be forgiving, and hold out hope to the hopeless. But, the messengers have lost their way. Hopeless human can only be saved by the grace of God whose hiredhand Jesus Christ intervenes revealing the compassion of God calling a lost world back to its senses.
All of us who have been baptized have been chosen to participate in the way of Christ Jesus. We are to put our faith and trust in him. We are to live as the people of God, the blossoms of love, the revealers of healthy sweet digestible nourishment. It's not so much that we do great and good works but that we reveal a loveliness of trust and godliness. Maybe like the lights on a Christmas tree. They don't do anything necessarily but they enlighten, the create an atmosphere of warmth and joy and hope in the darkness. We are invited into the body of Christ by virtue of our baptism to be a shared leadership with him that brings to the world a profound spiritual sense that God is with us and among us. There are times in our lives when we can't do a thing in certain situations but be there in love as a channel for God's grace to flow. Can you sense with me that while there are always things we need to do, should do, could do, that the world also needs a spiritual sense of the presence of God in a crude vacumn of godlessness expressed in hate, violence, emptiness, loneliness, greed and mistrust? Instead of laying blame, or complaining about how awful the world is, we ask ourselves am I a part of the problem, or am I (we) being the fruit of hope on the tree that stands in the center of the garden, of the world?
As members of the church, members of the Vestry, the Volunteer Fire Department, a teacher in Sunday School, the choir, at work, school - wherever we may be - there are good things to do and to get done. But at the heart of what we do, is it our agenda that we are pushing, or is it God's agenda of patient long suffering love that we serve and witness to? We all know well that we are in need of repentance, change, that enables us to put our spiritual lives, our relationship with God first and foremost. We all are busy, but our doing, our busyness can be frustrating, pushy, manipulative, self-serving, self-gratification, maybe even empty and meaningless without a life rooted in a relationship with God though prayer and knowledge of Scripture which reveals God. Don't you remember a teacher in school who may have taught English or math, but while you don't remember a word that he or she may have said, they just evoked a loving presence. Moses in today's O.T. Lesson learns the name of God: the name is I AM WHO I AM. God IS, God is PRESENCE. God is BEING THERE with Moses and his people.
People come to Jesus in the lesson today worried about the people that died in the Temple and when the Tower of Siloam fell. Were they worse sinners than others? No, says Jesus, we are all sinners, and we are all going to die. Jesus himself is going to die. We need to repent and stop worrying about whose going to die, and where to place the blame. We are all under the judgment of God. Stop, change from, worrying about all that. But first and foremost accept the grace, the loving power of God, to live and to be the fruit of God's presence in the world. Jesus Christ is the savior, who retards the judgment and restores us as the servants of God. Embrace the grace.
SEASON: LENT 3
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 15,1998
TEXT: Luke 13:1-9 - The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree
"No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."
ISSUE: This passage is rich in its meaning. It is an instance where there is an effort to trick Jesus into taking political sides. He is more concerned with focusing on our need to recognize our own inner need for change, repentance. The Parable of the Fig Tree focuses attention upon our need to bear fruit, and while we are under judgment, there is still the loving grace of God to which we may respond. In Lent we do need to examine our lives and realize there is a limit to God's dealing with us, but so far his grace prevails.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The gospel reading this morning is another one of those rich passages of Scripture that is pregnant with meaning. It tells of the awesome impending judgment of God suspended with the hope of and in favor of God's grace.
The scene is one in which Jesus is confronted by some anxious folk that are putting to him another one of those trick questions. Remember when scribes brought Jesus the coin and asked him if it were appropriate to pay tax to Caesar. And Jesus simply replied that they should give to Caesar what was Caesars, and to God what belonged to God. If he had said that tax paying was okay, the people would have rejected him. If he said that paying tax was inappropriate then the Roman authorities would have punished him. The scene today is similar. Jesus is put in an awkward position. This time they tell him that people worshipping in the Temple have been murdered by Pilate and their blood mixed with the Temple sacrifices. It is as if they want Jesus to condemn Pilate along with all the Romans. If Jesus does this he is considered an enemy of the Roman state. If he does not condemn the Romans then he is seen as insensitive to his Jewish brothers and sisters, and to the cause of the rebbles of his time who participated in guerilla warfare against the Romans.
In order to avoid getting caught in this dilemma, Jesus shifts the issue. The people of Israel are condemning the Roman Goverment and ways without looking at their own. "No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will perish just as they did," Jesus says. Jesus is saying in effect that his own people must change; they themselves must be repentant, and examine their own behaviors and who they are as the people of God. This issue is relevant for us today. We often see the problems of the world as the fault of someone else. In out time there is often great criticism and condemnation of the gay community by the heterosexual community, without the heterosexual community wrestling with its own problems of promiscuity and unfaithfulness in marriage. While the Romans may be seen as cruel, pagan, and inhumane, Jesus says that the leadership of Israel has not been bearing much in the way of good fruit either. He tells them the parable of the barren fig tree.
Let me pause with a little information on fig trees and how they got planted in Jesus' time. It's a little mid-eastern cultural lesson. Wealthy landowners lived in the larger towns and cities. In this case the landowner planted a fig tree in his vineyard so he could have some figs along with his grapes. Fig trees take three years to mature. After they mature, according to the O.T. book of Leviticus 19:24, you were not allowed to eat the figs the first year the tree blossomed. These figs belonged to the Lord in thankful gratitude. While the tree is growing in the farm, the hired hands, or vinedressers, or gardeners tended the trees and vines, cultivating them.
Now the wealthy landowner in the parable continued checking on his tree for that three years and there's no fruit. He waited three years for it to mature; then, another three years and still no fruit. So he tells the hired hand to cut it down. It's worthless. No fruit! Get rid of it. You see, this is an act of awesome judgment on the part of the landowner. But the hiredhand intervenes saying let me clutivate some more and put more manure (shit - poop) on it, and just maybe next years we'll start getting some figs. "If it bears fruit next year well and good; but if not you can cut it down."
Some scholars believe that the parable is an example of insulting humor that would have had the local peasants rolling on the ground in laughter. (Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus Cycle C, 55f) If the fig tree is a metaphor for Israel's unfruitful and poor spiritual leadership over the centuries, it is laughable to think that one more year of manure (shit) is going to accomplish anything. You can see why Jesus ultimately gets crucified.
In the parable, God, the landowner has been waiting for an inordinary long period of time for his people Israel to be a light to the nations of the world. They have failed and become an exclusive club often condemning, excommunicating the poor, and blocking the way of understanding the God of love and forgiveness. The parable seems to be saying that Israel herself is under the judgement of God, and stands in need of salavation. Their salvation is their own renewed awareness of the truth of God as redeemer, lover, and compassionate, as well as being a judge of cruelty and injustice. Yet Israel seems hopeless, and God is ready to cut her down. Where will her salvation come from?
In the parable the tentative saving grace comes from the hiredhand. Let me cultivate and manure it some more and maybe given a little more time, it wil bear fruit. For the early Christian community, as for Luke, it is likely that Jesus is seen as God's hiredhand who is the intercessor, the savior of the barren tree, the empty spirituality of the world. What's being said? The world of God is judged by God and is being called to repentance. It is being called to be the light to the nations of the world. It is called to reveal love, seek justice, to be forgiving, and hold out hope to the hopeless. But, the messengers have lost their way. Hopeless human can only be saved by the grace of God whose hiredhand Jesus Christ intervenes revealing the compassion of God calling a lost world back to its senses.
All of us who have been baptized have been chosen to participate in the way of Christ Jesus. We are to put our faith and trust in him. We are to live as the people of God, the blossoms of love, the revealers of healthy sweet digestible nourishment. It's not so much that we do great and good works but that we reveal a loveliness of trust and godliness. Maybe like the lights on a Christmas tree. They don't do anything necessarily but they enlighten, the create an atmosphere of warmth and joy and hope in the darkness. We are invited into the body of Christ by virtue of our baptism to be a shared leadership with him that brings to the world a profound spiritual sense that God is with us and among us. There are times in our lives when we can't do a thing in certain situations but be there in love as a channel for God's grace to flow. Can you sense with me that while there are always things we need to do, should do, could do, that the world also needs a spiritual sense of the presence of God in a crude vacumn of godlessness expressed in hate, violence, emptiness, loneliness, greed and mistrust? Instead of laying blame, or complaining about how awful the world is, we ask ourselves am I a part of the problem, or am I (we) being the fruit of hope on the tree that stands in the center of the garden, of the world?
As members of the church, members of the Vestry, the Volunteer Fire Department, a teacher in Sunday School, the choir, at work, school - wherever we may be - there are good things to do and to get done. But at the heart of what we do, is it our agenda that we are pushing, or is it God's agenda of patient long suffering love that we serve and witness to? We all know well that we are in need of repentance, change, that enables us to put our spiritual lives, our relationship with God first and foremost. We all are busy, but our doing, our busyness can be frustrating, pushy, manipulative, self-serving, self-gratification, maybe even empty and meaningless without a life rooted in a relationship with God though prayer and knowledge of Scripture which reveals God. Don't you remember a teacher in school who may have taught English or math, but while you don't remember a word that he or she may have said, they just evoked a loving presence. Moses in today's O.T. Lesson learns the name of God: the name is I AM WHO I AM. God IS, God is PRESENCE. God is BEING THERE with Moses and his people.
People come to Jesus in the lesson today worried about the people that died in the Temple and when the Tower of Siloam fell. Were they worse sinners than others? No, says Jesus, we are all sinners, and we are all going to die. Jesus himself is going to die. We need to repent and stop worrying about whose going to die, and where to place the blame. We are all under the judgment of God. Stop, change from, worrying about all that. But first and foremost accept the grace, the loving power of God, to live and to be the fruit of God's presence in the world. Jesus Christ is the savior, who retards the judgment and restores us as the servants of God. Embrace the grace.
Sunday, March 1, 1998
Lent 1- 1
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Lent 1
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 1, 1998
TEXT: Luke 4:1-13 - The Temptation of Jesus -
"Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him."
ISSUE: After Jesus' forty day ordeal in the desert wilderness, he is tempted to begin a self-serving ministry. He is also tempted to be distracted from being The Son of God in the most meaningful sense of that word. He remains faithful as God's son and suffering servant. It is a story of great grace: Jesus does what we fail to do or cannot do. He refuses to be a fallen angel jumping from the pinnacle of the temple, or even a figure of great success. He serves God only, and is our hope and our salvation, truly the new Adam.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In today's Gospel account from Luke, we are told of Jesus' forty days in the desert wilderness and his temptation by the Devil. Luke wants us to know and his readers to know that Jesus is not unlike the great figures of Moses and Elijah, Israel's heroes. In the process of receiving the Commandments of God, Moses had spent forty fasting days on Mt. Sinai. (Dt. 9:9) Elijah the prophet also spends forty days fasting on Mt. Sinai and hears the still small voice of God directing him. (I Kings 19:8) Luke would have us know again that Jesus is among the great leaders of Israel.
Jesus' forty days fasting in the wilderness immediately follows his baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Recall that having been baptized, Jesus emerges from the water and receives the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Spirit of God, he and the spirits hear the voice of God: "You are my own dear Son, I am pleased with you." Jesus is given God’s highest honor. The implication here is that if Jesus is truly God's Son then he must be tried and tested. His worthiness of his calling is to be tested. The forty days fast is his preparation for the high calling to which he has been ordained. Can he pass the test?
At the end of the ordeal, Jesus is confronted by the Devil. It was believed in this period that many spirits dwelled in the desert wilderness region. God has not shielded Jesus from the realities of life. The testing is symbolic of Jesus' wrestling with the spirits, his own darker side as a human being, as he tries to grasp what it means to be the Son of God. He is tempted to serve the Devil, that is, to serve his own self-serving concerns. The Devil's first challenged is to have him turn stones into bread to meet the need of his own appetite. Jesus meets the challenge quoting Hebrew Scripture: "One does not live by bread alone." (Dt.8:3), which is a passage from Deuteronomy when Moses informed his complaining disciples that they do not live by bread alone. He refuses to meet his own personal need.
Passing the first test, Jesus is then offered all the world's kingdoms and full authority over them, if he will be bow down to worship the Devil, under the assumption that the world belongs to the Devil, and it is his to give away. But the Devil is a liar, and Jesus knows this fact. The world belongs to God, not to the Devil. The Devil can give him nothing of the sort, and so again Jesus responds out of his knowledge of the Hebrew Scripture: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him." (Dt.6:13), which statement is given by Moses in the wilderness journey with his fellow Hebrews. Jesus refuses to accept the phoney undependable security that world offers. Neither does he choose to be a powerful authoritative dictator like leader. He turns away from worldly power. He is totally dependent upon God’s power and authority, and chooses to serve only Him.
Finally, the Devil in the story, takes Jesus up to the pinnacle of the Jerusalem Temple. Everybody knew that there was quite a drop off the pinnacle, a shear drop of 450 feet. In this instance, it is the Devil who quotes Hebrew Scripture: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written (in Psalm 91:11-12), 'For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you in their hands, lest you ash your foot against a stone.'" But Jesus responds himself with another passage: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." (Dt.6:16), again a quotation from Israel’s wandering in the desert, when they complained that there was not enough water at Massah. Jesus is not concerned with his own salvation. He is not concerned with his own best interests and salvation. He will endure the pain and suffering of humanity as he is directed by God. Going to the cross will not be for his own salvation, but for the salvation of God's people. He will not come down from the cross to save himself.
Remember too that in Christian mythology the Devil is seen as a fallen angel. The implication here is that if Jesus jumps off the pinnacle at the challenge of the Devil, then he too will be a fallen angel. That does not happen, because Jesus' purpose and his ministry is clear. He shall serve God and his Sonship is validated by his rejection of the call of the Devil and the popular notions of the world. He shall embrace his humanity as the new Adam that does not fall and maintain he is the Son of God. He does not snatch at being God, but takes the role of the Son, the suffering servant of God. (Phil.2:5-9)
As human beings all of us too are tempted. There are the temptations to do things that are stupid, even evil sometimes. We are all often tempted to bad and inappropriate behavior. We often succumb. In our thinking today, it is not so much a devil or evil spirit that tempts us, but rather our own darker side. God does not tempt us in this way. In this area we are our own worst enemies and we like to say humorously, like the comedian, Flip Wilson, "The devil made me do it." Yes, sure, he did. Essentially we are responsible for our own actions and deeds. It may be comfortable to attribute badness to others and undefineable spirits, but we may just be trying to fool our selves. The temptation or the testing that comes from God is whether or not we are faithful. Are we in fact the sons and the daughters of God, trusting in God, or is our allegiance elsewhere?
There is always the temptation today to merely serve and save ourselves. Caring for ourselves and those who are closest too us, trying to turn our own stones into bread. American obsession with individualism and our need to be self-made men and women plays a big part in our thinking and in our actions, which give us a somewhat inflated picture of our own self worth and importance. Many people are success driven. Some find themselves in positions of successfulness, but with it comes even greater vulnerability. How many successful superstars, athletes, politicians, and even clergy fall from grace because of the temptations that come from their own sense of power or self-accomplishment that makes them feel larger than the humans. Many such people succumb to drug addiction, alcoholism, depression, and sexual acting out and scandal. Enveloped in their own success and false sense of power and control over their own lives they fall from grace. We try to save ourselves, but we cannot. The best efforts of every generation are met with continued various forms of human vulnerability and sinfulness, pestilence, plague, and war. We are intent on thinking that we can feed and manage ourselves when in fact everything we have and possess comes from beyond ourselves. If truly alone, no one of us could survive. We need one another in community. We need God.
While in our culture we are not very taken with evil spirits for the most part. We do become enamored with power and possessions. This is the land of the Big Whopper and the Big Mac. This is the land where more is always better. Homes in a time of small families are the size of castles. We cherish our possessions, and the control over our own individualism, and the need to often be controlling and powerful, if not manipulative. American needs are often in contrast to the simplicity, humility, and servanthood of the Gospel of Christ. We might all want to look at that in our personal lives, and reflect on just how consumptive we have become, and personally satisfied with our lives in the midst of a world we great human need. Maybe we may need to take more seriously the words in the Lord’s prayer, “Lead us not into temptation,” the temptation to be so self absorbed in our own needs that we miss or calling to serve others, and to be rich in our love of Jesus Christ.
Our salvation, which is truly the message of this passage today, comes from the one who did pass the test. Jesus Christ embraced his humanness, and did not seek to be more than human. His life was one of a servant and an obedience and trusting love in God the Father. This way of life is how he saw his sonship. He placed his trust in the Father. He carries on a ministry, which incorporated a community of people who dared to follow him as best they could. He provided a teaching of the genuine love of God for his people. He respected the dignity and worth of all people. He saw value in all the disenfranchised poor, the afflicted and did what he could to restore and heal. Out of his devotion to God, people saw in him healing and hope. When faced with opposition he remained faithful to his ministry and calling. Salvation is found in his doing what we have difficulty in doing. He is the way that helps us find God, which is the Good News of today's Gospel reading. Jesus Christ is the new Adam, the one who did not fall. Embracing him with faith and love, we find our opportunity to be lifted up. In his humanity, he resisted temptation, and fulfilled the words of John the Baptist, “There is one coming who is greater and more powerful than I.
SEASON: Lent 1
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 1, 1998
TEXT: Luke 4:1-13 - The Temptation of Jesus -
"Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him."
ISSUE: After Jesus' forty day ordeal in the desert wilderness, he is tempted to begin a self-serving ministry. He is also tempted to be distracted from being The Son of God in the most meaningful sense of that word. He remains faithful as God's son and suffering servant. It is a story of great grace: Jesus does what we fail to do or cannot do. He refuses to be a fallen angel jumping from the pinnacle of the temple, or even a figure of great success. He serves God only, and is our hope and our salvation, truly the new Adam.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In today's Gospel account from Luke, we are told of Jesus' forty days in the desert wilderness and his temptation by the Devil. Luke wants us to know and his readers to know that Jesus is not unlike the great figures of Moses and Elijah, Israel's heroes. In the process of receiving the Commandments of God, Moses had spent forty fasting days on Mt. Sinai. (Dt. 9:9) Elijah the prophet also spends forty days fasting on Mt. Sinai and hears the still small voice of God directing him. (I Kings 19:8) Luke would have us know again that Jesus is among the great leaders of Israel.
Jesus' forty days fasting in the wilderness immediately follows his baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Recall that having been baptized, Jesus emerges from the water and receives the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Spirit of God, he and the spirits hear the voice of God: "You are my own dear Son, I am pleased with you." Jesus is given God’s highest honor. The implication here is that if Jesus is truly God's Son then he must be tried and tested. His worthiness of his calling is to be tested. The forty days fast is his preparation for the high calling to which he has been ordained. Can he pass the test?
At the end of the ordeal, Jesus is confronted by the Devil. It was believed in this period that many spirits dwelled in the desert wilderness region. God has not shielded Jesus from the realities of life. The testing is symbolic of Jesus' wrestling with the spirits, his own darker side as a human being, as he tries to grasp what it means to be the Son of God. He is tempted to serve the Devil, that is, to serve his own self-serving concerns. The Devil's first challenged is to have him turn stones into bread to meet the need of his own appetite. Jesus meets the challenge quoting Hebrew Scripture: "One does not live by bread alone." (Dt.8:3), which is a passage from Deuteronomy when Moses informed his complaining disciples that they do not live by bread alone. He refuses to meet his own personal need.
Passing the first test, Jesus is then offered all the world's kingdoms and full authority over them, if he will be bow down to worship the Devil, under the assumption that the world belongs to the Devil, and it is his to give away. But the Devil is a liar, and Jesus knows this fact. The world belongs to God, not to the Devil. The Devil can give him nothing of the sort, and so again Jesus responds out of his knowledge of the Hebrew Scripture: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him." (Dt.6:13), which statement is given by Moses in the wilderness journey with his fellow Hebrews. Jesus refuses to accept the phoney undependable security that world offers. Neither does he choose to be a powerful authoritative dictator like leader. He turns away from worldly power. He is totally dependent upon God’s power and authority, and chooses to serve only Him.
Finally, the Devil in the story, takes Jesus up to the pinnacle of the Jerusalem Temple. Everybody knew that there was quite a drop off the pinnacle, a shear drop of 450 feet. In this instance, it is the Devil who quotes Hebrew Scripture: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written (in Psalm 91:11-12), 'For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you in their hands, lest you ash your foot against a stone.'" But Jesus responds himself with another passage: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." (Dt.6:16), again a quotation from Israel’s wandering in the desert, when they complained that there was not enough water at Massah. Jesus is not concerned with his own salvation. He is not concerned with his own best interests and salvation. He will endure the pain and suffering of humanity as he is directed by God. Going to the cross will not be for his own salvation, but for the salvation of God's people. He will not come down from the cross to save himself.
Remember too that in Christian mythology the Devil is seen as a fallen angel. The implication here is that if Jesus jumps off the pinnacle at the challenge of the Devil, then he too will be a fallen angel. That does not happen, because Jesus' purpose and his ministry is clear. He shall serve God and his Sonship is validated by his rejection of the call of the Devil and the popular notions of the world. He shall embrace his humanity as the new Adam that does not fall and maintain he is the Son of God. He does not snatch at being God, but takes the role of the Son, the suffering servant of God. (Phil.2:5-9)
As human beings all of us too are tempted. There are the temptations to do things that are stupid, even evil sometimes. We are all often tempted to bad and inappropriate behavior. We often succumb. In our thinking today, it is not so much a devil or evil spirit that tempts us, but rather our own darker side. God does not tempt us in this way. In this area we are our own worst enemies and we like to say humorously, like the comedian, Flip Wilson, "The devil made me do it." Yes, sure, he did. Essentially we are responsible for our own actions and deeds. It may be comfortable to attribute badness to others and undefineable spirits, but we may just be trying to fool our selves. The temptation or the testing that comes from God is whether or not we are faithful. Are we in fact the sons and the daughters of God, trusting in God, or is our allegiance elsewhere?
There is always the temptation today to merely serve and save ourselves. Caring for ourselves and those who are closest too us, trying to turn our own stones into bread. American obsession with individualism and our need to be self-made men and women plays a big part in our thinking and in our actions, which give us a somewhat inflated picture of our own self worth and importance. Many people are success driven. Some find themselves in positions of successfulness, but with it comes even greater vulnerability. How many successful superstars, athletes, politicians, and even clergy fall from grace because of the temptations that come from their own sense of power or self-accomplishment that makes them feel larger than the humans. Many such people succumb to drug addiction, alcoholism, depression, and sexual acting out and scandal. Enveloped in their own success and false sense of power and control over their own lives they fall from grace. We try to save ourselves, but we cannot. The best efforts of every generation are met with continued various forms of human vulnerability and sinfulness, pestilence, plague, and war. We are intent on thinking that we can feed and manage ourselves when in fact everything we have and possess comes from beyond ourselves. If truly alone, no one of us could survive. We need one another in community. We need God.
While in our culture we are not very taken with evil spirits for the most part. We do become enamored with power and possessions. This is the land of the Big Whopper and the Big Mac. This is the land where more is always better. Homes in a time of small families are the size of castles. We cherish our possessions, and the control over our own individualism, and the need to often be controlling and powerful, if not manipulative. American needs are often in contrast to the simplicity, humility, and servanthood of the Gospel of Christ. We might all want to look at that in our personal lives, and reflect on just how consumptive we have become, and personally satisfied with our lives in the midst of a world we great human need. Maybe we may need to take more seriously the words in the Lord’s prayer, “Lead us not into temptation,” the temptation to be so self absorbed in our own needs that we miss or calling to serve others, and to be rich in our love of Jesus Christ.
Our salvation, which is truly the message of this passage today, comes from the one who did pass the test. Jesus Christ embraced his humanness, and did not seek to be more than human. His life was one of a servant and an obedience and trusting love in God the Father. This way of life is how he saw his sonship. He placed his trust in the Father. He carries on a ministry, which incorporated a community of people who dared to follow him as best they could. He provided a teaching of the genuine love of God for his people. He respected the dignity and worth of all people. He saw value in all the disenfranchised poor, the afflicted and did what he could to restore and heal. Out of his devotion to God, people saw in him healing and hope. When faced with opposition he remained faithful to his ministry and calling. Salvation is found in his doing what we have difficulty in doing. He is the way that helps us find God, which is the Good News of today's Gospel reading. Jesus Christ is the new Adam, the one who did not fall. Embracing him with faith and love, we find our opportunity to be lifted up. In his humanity, he resisted temptation, and fulfilled the words of John the Baptist, “There is one coming who is greater and more powerful than I.
Lent 1 - 2
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Lent 1
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 1, 1998
TEXT: Luke 4:1-13 - The Temptation of Jesus -
"Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him."
ISSUE: After Jesus' forty day ordeal in the desert wilderness, he is tempted to begin a self-serving ministry. He is also tempted to be distracted from being The Son of God in the most meaningful sense of that word. He remains faithful as God's son and suffering servant. It is a story of great grace: Jesus does what we fail to do or cannot do. He refuses to be a fallen angel jumping from the pinnacle of the temple, or even a figure of great success. He serves God only, and is our hope and our salvation, the new Adam.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In today's Gospel account from Luke, we are told of Jesus' forty days in the desert wilderness and his temptation by the Devil. Luke wants us to know and his readers to know that Jesus is not unlike the great figures of Moses and Elijah, Isarael's heroes. In the process of receiving the Commandments of God, Moses had spent forty fasting days on Mt. Sinai. (Dt. 9:9) Elijah the pophet also spends forty days fasting on Mt. Sinai and hears the still small voice of God directing him. (Ikings 19:8) Luke would have us know again that Jesus is among the great leaders of Israel.
Jesus' forty days fasting in the wilderness immediately follows his baptism in the Jordon River by John the Baptist. Recall that having been baptized, Jesus emerges from the water and receives the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Spirit of God, he hears the voice of God: "You are my own dear Son, I am pleased with you." The implication here is that if Jesus is truly God's Son then he must be tried and tested. His worthiness of his calling is to be tested. The forty day fast is his preparation for the high calling to which he has been ordained. Can he pass the test?
At the end of the ordeal, Jesus is confronted by the Devil. It was believed in this period that many spirits dwelled in the desert wilderness region. God has not sheilded him from the realities of life. The testing is symbolic of Jesus' wrestling with the spirits, his own darker side as a human being, as he tries to grasp what it means to be the Son of God. He is tempted to serve the Devil, that is, to serve his own self-serving concerns. The Devil's first challenged is to have him turn stones into bread to meet the need of his own appetite. Jesus meets the challenge quoting Hebrew Scripture: "One does not live by bread alone." (Dt.8:3) He refuses to meet his own personal need.
Passing the first test, Jesus is then offered all the world's kingdoms and full authority over them, if he will be bow down to worship the Devil, under the assumption that the world belongs to the Devil, and it is his to give away. But the Devil is a liar, and Jesus knows this fact. The world belongs to God, not to the Devil. The Devil can give him nothing of the sort, and so again Jesus responds out of his knowledge of the Hebrew Scripture: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him." (Dt.6:13) Jesus refuses to accept the phoney undependable security that world offers. He is totally dependent upon what God can give.
Finally, the Devil in the story, takes Jesus up to the pinnacle of the Jerusalem Temple. Everybody knew that there was quite a drop off the pinnacle, a shear drop of 450 feet. In this instance, it is the Devil who quotes Hebrew Scripture: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written (in Psalm 91:11-12), 'For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you in their hands, lest you ash your foot against a stone.'" But Jesus responds himself with another passage: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." (Dt.6:16) Jesus is not concerned with his own salvation. He is not concerned with his own best interests and salvation. He will endure the pain and suffering of humanity as he is directed by God. Going to the cross will not be for his own salvation, but for the salvation of God's people. He will not come down from the cross to save himself.
Remember too that in Christian mythology the Devil is seen as a fallen angel. The implication here is that if Jesus jumps off the pinnacle at the challenge of the Devil, then he too will be a fallen angel. That does not happen, because Jesus' purpose and his ministry is clear. He shall serve God and his Sonship is validated by his rejection of the call of the Devil and the popular notions of the world. He shall embrace his humanity as the new Adam that does not fall and maintain he is the Son of God. He does not snatch at being God, but takes the role of the Son, the suffering servant of God. (Phil.2:5-9)
As human beings all of us too are tempted. There are the temptations to do things that are stupid, even evil sometimes. We are all often tempted to bad and inappropriate behavior. We often succumb. In our thinking today, it is not so much a devil or evil spirit that tempts us, but rather our own darker side. God does not tempt us in this way. In this area we are our own worst enemies and we like to say "the devil made me do it." Yes, sure, he did. Essentially we are responisble for our own actions and deeds. It may be comfortable to attribute badness to others and undefinable spirits, but we may just be trying to fool ourselves. The temptation or the testing that comes from God is whether or not we are faithful. Are we in fact the sons and the daughters of God, trusting in God, or is our allegiance elsewhere?
There is always the temptation today to merely serve and save ourselves. Caring for ourselves and those who are closest too us, trying to turn our own stones into bread. American obsession with individualism and our need to be self-made men and women plays a big part in our thinking and in our actions, which give us a somewhat inflated picture of our own self worth and importance. Machoism dies hard. Many people are success driven. Some find themselves in positions of successfulness, but with it comes even greater vulnerability. How many successful superstars, athletes, politicians, and even clergy fall from grace because of the temptations that come from their own sense of power or self-accomplishment that makes them feel larger than the humans. Many such people succumb to drug addiction, alcoholism, depression, and sexual acting out and scandal. Enveloped in their own success and false sense of power and control over their own lives they fall from grace. We try to save ourselves, but we cannot. The best efforts of every generation are met with continued various forms of human vulnerability and sinfulness, pestilence, plague, and war. We are intent on thinking that we can feed and manage ourselves when in fact everything we have and possess comes from beyond ourselves. If truly alone, no one of us could survive. We need one another in community. We need God.
Our salvation, which is truly the message of this passage today, comes from the one who did pass the test. Jesus Christ embraced his humaness, and did not seek to be more than human. His life was one of servanthood and an obedient trusting love of the Father. This way of life is how he saw his sonship. He placed his trust in the Father. He carries on a ministry which incorporated a community of people who dared to follow him as best they could. He provided a teaching of the genuine love of God for his people. He respected the dignity and worth of all people. He saw value in all the disenfranchised poor, the afflicted and did what he could to restore and heal. Out of his devotion to God, people saw in him healing and hope. When faced with opposition he remained faithful to his ministry and calling. Salvation is found in his doing what we have difficulty in doing. He is the way that helps us find God, which is the Good News of today's Gospel reading. Jesus Christ is the new Adam, the one who did not fall. Embracing him with faith and love, we find our opportunity to be lifted up.
SEASON: Lent 1
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 1, 1998
TEXT: Luke 4:1-13 - The Temptation of Jesus -
"Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him."
ISSUE: After Jesus' forty day ordeal in the desert wilderness, he is tempted to begin a self-serving ministry. He is also tempted to be distracted from being The Son of God in the most meaningful sense of that word. He remains faithful as God's son and suffering servant. It is a story of great grace: Jesus does what we fail to do or cannot do. He refuses to be a fallen angel jumping from the pinnacle of the temple, or even a figure of great success. He serves God only, and is our hope and our salvation, the new Adam.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In today's Gospel account from Luke, we are told of Jesus' forty days in the desert wilderness and his temptation by the Devil. Luke wants us to know and his readers to know that Jesus is not unlike the great figures of Moses and Elijah, Isarael's heroes. In the process of receiving the Commandments of God, Moses had spent forty fasting days on Mt. Sinai. (Dt. 9:9) Elijah the pophet also spends forty days fasting on Mt. Sinai and hears the still small voice of God directing him. (Ikings 19:8) Luke would have us know again that Jesus is among the great leaders of Israel.
Jesus' forty days fasting in the wilderness immediately follows his baptism in the Jordon River by John the Baptist. Recall that having been baptized, Jesus emerges from the water and receives the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Spirit of God, he hears the voice of God: "You are my own dear Son, I am pleased with you." The implication here is that if Jesus is truly God's Son then he must be tried and tested. His worthiness of his calling is to be tested. The forty day fast is his preparation for the high calling to which he has been ordained. Can he pass the test?
At the end of the ordeal, Jesus is confronted by the Devil. It was believed in this period that many spirits dwelled in the desert wilderness region. God has not sheilded him from the realities of life. The testing is symbolic of Jesus' wrestling with the spirits, his own darker side as a human being, as he tries to grasp what it means to be the Son of God. He is tempted to serve the Devil, that is, to serve his own self-serving concerns. The Devil's first challenged is to have him turn stones into bread to meet the need of his own appetite. Jesus meets the challenge quoting Hebrew Scripture: "One does not live by bread alone." (Dt.8:3) He refuses to meet his own personal need.
Passing the first test, Jesus is then offered all the world's kingdoms and full authority over them, if he will be bow down to worship the Devil, under the assumption that the world belongs to the Devil, and it is his to give away. But the Devil is a liar, and Jesus knows this fact. The world belongs to God, not to the Devil. The Devil can give him nothing of the sort, and so again Jesus responds out of his knowledge of the Hebrew Scripture: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him." (Dt.6:13) Jesus refuses to accept the phoney undependable security that world offers. He is totally dependent upon what God can give.
Finally, the Devil in the story, takes Jesus up to the pinnacle of the Jerusalem Temple. Everybody knew that there was quite a drop off the pinnacle, a shear drop of 450 feet. In this instance, it is the Devil who quotes Hebrew Scripture: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written (in Psalm 91:11-12), 'For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you in their hands, lest you ash your foot against a stone.'" But Jesus responds himself with another passage: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." (Dt.6:16) Jesus is not concerned with his own salvation. He is not concerned with his own best interests and salvation. He will endure the pain and suffering of humanity as he is directed by God. Going to the cross will not be for his own salvation, but for the salvation of God's people. He will not come down from the cross to save himself.
Remember too that in Christian mythology the Devil is seen as a fallen angel. The implication here is that if Jesus jumps off the pinnacle at the challenge of the Devil, then he too will be a fallen angel. That does not happen, because Jesus' purpose and his ministry is clear. He shall serve God and his Sonship is validated by his rejection of the call of the Devil and the popular notions of the world. He shall embrace his humanity as the new Adam that does not fall and maintain he is the Son of God. He does not snatch at being God, but takes the role of the Son, the suffering servant of God. (Phil.2:5-9)
As human beings all of us too are tempted. There are the temptations to do things that are stupid, even evil sometimes. We are all often tempted to bad and inappropriate behavior. We often succumb. In our thinking today, it is not so much a devil or evil spirit that tempts us, but rather our own darker side. God does not tempt us in this way. In this area we are our own worst enemies and we like to say "the devil made me do it." Yes, sure, he did. Essentially we are responisble for our own actions and deeds. It may be comfortable to attribute badness to others and undefinable spirits, but we may just be trying to fool ourselves. The temptation or the testing that comes from God is whether or not we are faithful. Are we in fact the sons and the daughters of God, trusting in God, or is our allegiance elsewhere?
There is always the temptation today to merely serve and save ourselves. Caring for ourselves and those who are closest too us, trying to turn our own stones into bread. American obsession with individualism and our need to be self-made men and women plays a big part in our thinking and in our actions, which give us a somewhat inflated picture of our own self worth and importance. Machoism dies hard. Many people are success driven. Some find themselves in positions of successfulness, but with it comes even greater vulnerability. How many successful superstars, athletes, politicians, and even clergy fall from grace because of the temptations that come from their own sense of power or self-accomplishment that makes them feel larger than the humans. Many such people succumb to drug addiction, alcoholism, depression, and sexual acting out and scandal. Enveloped in their own success and false sense of power and control over their own lives they fall from grace. We try to save ourselves, but we cannot. The best efforts of every generation are met with continued various forms of human vulnerability and sinfulness, pestilence, plague, and war. We are intent on thinking that we can feed and manage ourselves when in fact everything we have and possess comes from beyond ourselves. If truly alone, no one of us could survive. We need one another in community. We need God.
Our salvation, which is truly the message of this passage today, comes from the one who did pass the test. Jesus Christ embraced his humaness, and did not seek to be more than human. His life was one of servanthood and an obedient trusting love of the Father. This way of life is how he saw his sonship. He placed his trust in the Father. He carries on a ministry which incorporated a community of people who dared to follow him as best they could. He provided a teaching of the genuine love of God for his people. He respected the dignity and worth of all people. He saw value in all the disenfranchised poor, the afflicted and did what he could to restore and heal. Out of his devotion to God, people saw in him healing and hope. When faced with opposition he remained faithful to his ministry and calling. Salvation is found in his doing what we have difficulty in doing. He is the way that helps us find God, which is the Good News of today's Gospel reading. Jesus Christ is the new Adam, the one who did not fall. Embracing him with faith and love, we find our opportunity to be lifted up.
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