Gospel: Luke 4:1-14
May the words of my mouth
and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our rock
and our redeemer. Amen.
Last Sunday was Super
Bowl Sunday. Like many people all over
the country I watched it. Perhaps many
of you did as well. I even paid
attention to the actual game this year.
Most years, I watch the big game so I can judge the commercials. The consensus among friends and family this
year was this crop of commercials was not as good as past years. Some were strange, some were stupid, and many
were just plain dull. There are very few
commercials I can even remember just one week later. And yet, advertisers spend millions of
dollars to try and get you to buy what they have to sell.
After the game there
wasn’t enough drama, I guess…so some people decided they would create
drama. The drama came in insulting the
losing team’s quarterback, Cam Newton, for not wanting to speak about the
disappointment of defeat. He had carried
the hopes of his team, his town, his state, and his fans on his shoulders, and
disappointed them all, and no one wanted to give him a little time for personal
grief. After all, why should a public
person be given space for personal grief?
The other created drama
came in the form of the look on Eli Manning’s face when his brother Payton made
what seemed to be the game-ending play despite the remaining time on the
clock. It became a joke and a cause for
concern. Was Eli jealous of his
brother? Was he angry? Why on earth did he show no emotion at this
pivotal moment in his brother’s life?
Everybody seemed to have a theory and everybody seemed to think they had
a right to judge. Somehow many of us
think that we can look at someone’s face and tell what is going on in their
minds and hearts. Sure, a face can
reveal a lot. But some things, we keep
to ourselves. If you are famous, do you
suddenly lose the right to keep anything to yourself? Are all your actions and inactions suddenly
open for public ridicule?
There is a lot of
temptation going on. Temptation to think
this person or that person has it so much better than we do. Temptation to think that we can buy something
that will make us whole. Temptation to
believe everything we are told is important really matters. Temptation to forget what actually matters.
How can we resist?
It is Lent and we are
calling on God to restore our hearts, to make us whole again. And, as I said, that whole hearted nature
means we are more than the words we speak.
We live out our words in our actions.
As children of God we trust the promise that God has made that we will
always have God’s love and salvation. We
are called to live out the promise by so trusting in it that we help God to
bring it to all people, to share the blessing.
Paul reminds us again
that we cannot confess only with our lips but also our hearts. Our hearts are our actions. We must walk the talk. Words should never be just words.
Words are story, and
promise, and lifeline, words are resistance.
Resistance against the
temptations of the world.
Because words are
grounded in something more. For us of
faith, words are from the Word, from the Bible and from Christ himself.
See, hear…
Jesus responds to testing
and temptation with the words of his faith.
They are not just words, they are living, transformational truths.
“It is written…”
“It is written…”
“It is said…”
Jesus isn’t just quoting
scripture. He is incorporating his faith
into his life: A truth; like the skin on his body, the breath in his lungs, the
heart in his chest. Yes, the temptations
offered by the devil are real, they must be real because Jesus is living a real
life as a real human being. And if the
temptation is real so too must be his resistance. It must be grounded in his whole self, his
history, and his future.
Not just words, truth
from God.
The devil seeks to take
away that trust and take away that truth.
The devil is a thief looking to steal us from ourselves and our truth
that we are God’s children; that we are loved; that we are enough.
David Lose talks about
the daily assault of advertisers on our psyches to tell us we must have what
they are selling to be worthy of this world and the people around us. Time and again we are told that this or that
product can fulfill us and make us whole.
We are told how we ought to look, and what we ought to think, and who we
ought to be in this world. Politicians
on both sides of the aisle make promises they can’t keep and try to cash in on
your fears, frustrations, and all of your uncertainties.
What will you use to
resist? Can you take the certainty of
God’s love for you, the truth of it and let it be the guardian against the
devil and his empty promises? Can you
cling to the Word that you are a beloved child of God? Can you remember that even if your candidate
loses, even if you never get that new car, or that bigger plot of land, or
acceptance from those people, that you are always loved and you are always
enough?
I will say it to you
forever, or at least as long as I can…but you need to hear other voices
speaking this same truth…
Please stand up if you
can, maybe even move around, you might make the sign of the cross on one
another’s foreheads. Please tell your
neighbors and let them tell you, “You are a beloved child of God and you are
enough.”
…
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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