This
past week, many of us were able to gather for a festive meal on Tuesday night. Then on Wednesday, we gathered to be reminded
who were are and who we are not. Wednesday
marked, for much of the church, the beginning of Lent. Other Christian traditions start Lent on
other days of the week and other times of the year. Not everyone celebrates Easter on the first
Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. Well at least not using
the same calendar. Some of you history
buffs can explain after the service the difference between the Gregorian
calendar used by the Western Church and the Julian
calendar used by the Orthodox Church. Regardless of when we celebrate the
Resurrection of Our Lord, Christians throughout the world celebrate that life
giving event.
One
of my first questions about Lent was why 40 days. The earliest terms used for this time in the
life of the Church—in Latin Quadragesima—originally tied
back to the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert, struggling with his call and the
temptations he faced. In modern times, we use the word "Lent" that
derives from words for "long" in various languages. As we passed the Spring Equinox, the days
were beginning to become longer; so Lent was a celebration during the long days. While the
names that tie to the 40 days did not survive, the 40-day tradition did.
Over
the centuries, Lent was a time to prepare
for baptisms and confirmations on Easter Sunday. During Lent, those preparing for Easter
studied the faith they would soon publically proclaim or reclaim. This year
during Lent, we plan to use Bishop William Willimon's book "This We Believe"
to help us prepare for Easter Sunday. Together, we will review the essentials
of the faith and renew our ownership of these ancient principles.
To
introduce our first topic, let us turn to Mathew's Gospel and (look at/read
together what) happened at the end of those 40 days in the desert.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights,
and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these
stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not
live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the
temple, saying to him, “If you are the
Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so
that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil
took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world
and their splendor; and he said to him, “All
these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to
him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is
written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil
left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him. (Matthew 4: 1-11—emphasis
added)
This
passage is so full that we could go on for hours and dig at least 16 sermons
from this encounter. Thankfully, Pastor Jessica
and Bishop Willimon
have given me a central focus for today.
In the face of temptation, Jesus was anchored by his belief in God. Yes, I know this sounds self-evident, but
that simple truth was the foundation of Jesus' life; Jesus believed in God. When
the tempter wanted to focus on the physical need in front of him, Jesus focused
on his intimate relationship with God.
Bread is not enough, we all live by the Word of God. When the tempter
wanted to focus on signs and wonders, Jesus focused on the confidence he had in
his relationship with God. I know God loves me; I do not need to push that love
to the edge with games and tricks. When
the tempter wanted Jesus to turn his focus and put his faith and hope and trust
in other than God, Jesus stood firm. I
will place my faith and hope and trust in God and God alone. I will do all that
God calls me to do, even to my last breath. Jesus believed in God.
As
United Methodist Christians, we cling to this same truth. Here is how we find that belief in the articles
of religion in our Book of Discipline.
Article I -
Of Faith in the Holy Trinity: There is but one living and true God,
everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and good; the
maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of
this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity—the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. (BOD-MC)
Article
I—God: We believe in the one true, holy and living God, Eternal Spirit, who is
Creator, Sovereign and Preserver of all things visible and invisible. He is
infinite in power, wisdom, justice, goodness and love, and rules with gracious
regard for the well-being and salvation of men, to the glory of his name. We
believe the one God reveals himself as the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, distinct but inseparable, eternally one in essence and power. (BOD-EUB)
When
we state that we believe in God, we as Christians proclaim that we believe in
God in the form of the Trinity. I will
go out on a limb and say that anyone who claims to fully understand the Trinity
either does not fully understand or has a hidden agenda; watch out. Yes, I have heard about the egg.
It has a shell, a white, and a yolk—one egg, three parts. I have heard about water, liquid,
steam and ice—one substance, three forms.
I have even heard the person explanation. For example, I am a son, a
father, and a husband—one person three roles. While these may help, they all
fall short. Sometimes, you just have to
embrace the mystery.
In
his book, Willimon describes how our understanding of God is shaped by the
Incarnation. Up until the time that the
Christ emptied himself into human form and walked among us as one of us, we
could always say we knew what God was like.
God was the one we understood from the Law and the Prophets, from the
stories in the Hebrew Scriptures. The picture of God many take from the Law and
the Prophets is a God of power. This
picture presents God who is not only in charge, but is not hesitant to say
so. The glorious picture of God in the
first chapter of Genesis is
the God of Power. God only needs to speak, and the universe explodes from
nothing to billions of light years across in a moment. The way God delivers his
Chosen people from the land of Egypt shows us the God of Power. The one who
equips King David and his multiple successors to be the dominant military power in their part of the world is the
God of Power.
Another
image many pull from the Hebrew Scriptures is the God of Justice. The God of Justice could not stand by and
watch the newly created humans eat that first apple. They needed consequences. The God of
Justice could not stand by and watch as civilization strayed, walked and then
ran away from the Kingdom God had planned.
The God of Justice hit the reset button and gave only Noah and his
family a chance to do it right. The God of Justice swept his Chosen from the
land and sent them into exile for
their manifold mistakes.
One
more image from the Hebrew Scriptures about God is the eternal One and right
along with that, the untouchable, unapproachable One. The God who is before the
beginning of space-time is incomprehensible.
God who set the sun, moon, and stars in their places and calls them all
by name
is more than we can understand. When the
Children of Israel gathered around the mountain, they told Moses
he should go for them. They were terrified to be in the very presence of
God. When Solomon dedicated the temple,
the Glory of the Lord filled the temple and no one could enter
because they were in such awe. In a way, the people living in the time of the
Scripture felt they needed someone else to handle all that God-stuff. The priests and the teachers of the Law did
all the God-stuff, so the people did not need to live in fear of the Presence
of God. They had all this God-stuff figured out. It was all wrapped up and written down. God was in a nice neat box.
The
problem is that God is so much more than the image we created. God reached out in love and forgiveness all
through the Law and the Prophets. God
reached out with grace to attempt to restore the human race back into
relationship. About 2000 years ago, God changed all the rules and stepped into
time and space. When God in Christ came to us, we could no longer hide behind
the old rules. The great almighty, all
powerful God of creation was one of us.
From Jesus first breath, he was one of us. From Jesus first breath, he
was confined to a single place and time. From Jesus first breath, his death was
inevitable, only the method and date was in question.
Think
about how our picture of God was challenged.
Jesus said of himself, he who has seen
me has seen the Father. Paul writes
about Jesus saying in whom the fullness
of God dwelled. In John’s Gospel, Jesus
states that he and the Father are one.
To top that off, he says that he will live in us and that the Father
would live in us as well. So what does
that do to the God of Power? What does that do to the God of Justice? What does
that do to the Eternal, Untouchable God?
When
Jesus walked this earth, he did perform miracles. When the tempter tried to get Jesus to make
bread from stones, the tempter was focused on Jesus immediate, personal
needs. When faced with crowds who had
not eaten, Jesus met their needs when he took bread
and blessed it. He then proceeded to
create bread from bread. You could say he turned the crumbs into loaves. When
Jesus's friends felt they were in danger from the storm, Jesus commanded the
wind and the waves. He did not call fire down from heaven. He did not use the
wind or the waves as a weapon to punish them for their lack of faith. He
brought calm in the midst of chaos. Jesus had some close friends named Mary and
Martha. When their brother Lazarus died,
Jesus demonstrated that he had power over life and death. He brought Lazarus back from the dead. I will call it resuscitation rather than a
resurrection because Lazarus would eventually die as we all do. So I guess you
can still say that God, as mirrored in Jesus, is the God of Power, power to
create, power to restore, and power to inspire.
Justice
was an attribute we saw all over the Law and the Prophets. If fact Jesus
proclaimed he did not come to wipe out the Law.
He did remind us, however, that the Law does not save. To those who trusted in the Law, he called
out their hypocrisy. You Pharisees strain
the gnat but swallow the camel. You
tithe from even your herbs and spices, but you do not feed the hungry or clothe
the naked. You worship in the Temple and
call it holy, but you have turned the outer courts into a marketplace instead
of the place of prayer for the nations. To those condemned by the law, he gave
grace and hope. For the woman caught in
an act of unfaithfulness, he offered forgiveness and hope. To the woman who for
twelve years suffered in a way to make her continually unclean in the eyes of
the Law, he gave healing and restoration into the community. To those who betrayed him, from Judas to
Peter to the crowds at the cross, he offered forgiveness and salvation. Jesus
knew the importance of the Law, but he knew with equal importance the power of
grace.
Let’s
look at one more image. God is eternal! Jesus is fully human and fully God. How
can these two statements both be true? The very nature of being human is that
we all die. The very nature of being
human is that we are born and begin our lives when we draw that first breath.
The very nature of being human is that we live in community, touching and being
touched by those around us. In fact, the
nature of being human is to start out helpless, unable to feed, protect, or
provide for ourselves in any way. This does not look like God.
Paul
gives us some insight into the mystery in his letter to the church at Phillpi.
From chapter 2 starting at verse 5 reading through verse 8.
In your relationships with one another, have the same
mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider
equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made
himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to death—even death on a cross!
Somehow, beyond human comprehension, the
Eternal Christ, the Eternal Anointed One emptied himself into human form. Scandalously, God broke all the rules to
express the depth of divine love. When we proclaim "We believe in
God," we believe in a mystery we can never fully grasp. We believe God in
Christ came to show us the intimate face of God. We believe Jesus showed us all
we needed to know of power, justice, and approachability.
As we continue through this time of Lent
we will take a deeper look into more of our core beliefs about our relationship
to the Eternal God as understood in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Belief
itself is wonderful. Belief is the foundation for a life lived for the sake of
the Gospel. Unless that belief leads us
to action though, that belief is empty. Unless
that belief drives us to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and visit the sick
and imprisoned, that belief is dead according to James in his letter to the
church. Jesus’ belief in God drove him to meet the very real needs of the
throngs who followed him. Jesus belief
in God drove him to continue to embrace the mission to communicate God's love,
even in the face of Roman power and injustice.
God affirmed that belief. Listen to end of the hymn Paul quoted in his
letter to the Philippians:
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him
the name that is above every name,
that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven
and on earth and under the earth,
and every
tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory
of God the Father.
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