C 20 Lent 1
YEAR C: LENT 1
Luke 4: 1-13 (Sermon 1: “We are the
Experts’)
(Sermon
2: “Getting Back to Bedrock”)
Romans 10: 8b-13
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
PREPARATION
On this first Sunday in Lent,
the grace of Christ Jesus be with you all.
And also with you.
What is the chief goal of humanity?
The chief goal is to
glorify and enjoy God forever.
It is an awesome thing to fall into the hands of the living God;
But it is tragic thing
to fall out of them.
OR¾
On this first Sunday in lent,
I call you to put first things first:
Human beings shall not live by bread alone
You shall worship the
Lord, your God,
This God alone shall
you serve.
You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
you who remain in the shade of the Almighty,
will say:
You, Lord, are my
refuge and fortress,
my God is whom I
completely trust.
PRAYER OF APPROACH
God most beautiful, God most holy, God most loving, we ask for your blessing as we continue this journey through Lent.. Let us see through the triviality and deceptions which accumulate in our daily living, and rediscover our spiritual truth, that with integrity and vulnerability we may worship you with humble wonder and joy. Through Christ Jesus your true Son, and our Redeemer.
Amen!
CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE
Seek the Saviour while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.
For he will have mercy and abundantly pardon.
Let us pray.
Since even when we give our best and strongest love to your service, we still fall short of the glory you intended for us; Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Since even in our moments of sharpest clarity and wisdom we are yet creatures of profound ignorance and much foolishness; Christ have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Since you know how hard it is for us the see your truth clearly, to follow it fully, and to love you completely; Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Gracious God, the magnitude of our sins is far outreached by
the magnitude of your mercies. We your grateful people turn to you in trust,
asking through Christ Jesus that our sins may be forgiven and our folly
overruled by your abundant grace. Through this same Jesus Christ.
Amen!
ABSOLUTION
The Scripture says: “No one who believes in God shall be put
to shame. For every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, I assure all who
repent of their sins, that your guilt is annulled and your freedom is granted.
Thanks be to God!
PRAYER FOR
CHILDREN
Good and Bad People
Loving God.
you understand all people,
both the good and the bad.
Please sort us out;
make the bad people good
and the good people nice.
Through Jesus Christ
our brother and Saviour.
Amen!
From¾ “Prayers For Aussie Kids”
Ó B D Prewer & Open Book Publishers.
PSALM 91: 1-2 & 9-16
You who live with the highest Friend,
and rest in the shade
of pure Beauty,
shall say to the Holy One: “My Home,
my Triune God in whom
I trust.”
Because you have trusted the Holy One,
making the Highest
your own home,
no irredeemable evil shall happen to you,
no hopeless disaster
flatten your flimsy life..
God places you in the care of angels,
to look after you
wherever you go.
They will steady you with their hands
so that you shall not
trip over a stone.
You shall tread on beast and serpent,
you shall trample the
devil under your feet.
God shall save those who cling to him,
and lift up those who
call his name.
When we shout for help, You will answer us,
when under pressure,
You will be with us.
You will make us content us with a full life,
and display your
saving, healing love.
© B.D. Prewer 2000
THE LIAR
The Tempter
from the Dreamtime
is prince of lies;
he never tires
of spinning tales
“just for our gain.”
Sadly his wiles
are not in vain.
The Tempter
in the desert
plays his best role,
yet meets his match
in one pure Soul
who shares our cry
yet in the test
sees through the lie.
© B.D.
Prewer 2000
COLLECT
We thank you, loving God, that we have a Saviour who knows how hard it is to combat temptation and how easy it is to fall.
May we, in fellowship with his tenacious Spirit, face our testing times with humility and courage, neither expecting too little or too much of ourselves, and never underestimating the power of your love to rehabilitate us if we should fall.
Through the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
SERMON 1: WE ARE
THE EXPERTS
Luke 4:2
“For forty days he was
tempted by the devil.” Luke 4: 2.
Today the subject is one on which we are all experts: temptation. We will look at Jesus’ temptations and ours. Correction; not every one of “ours” because to do so might take until midnight?
I said, in matters of temptation, we are definitely the experts. Yet........yet....like many so-called “experts” in this world, we may not see things as clearly as we reckon. Maybe we don't see the wood for the trees?
So let’s look closely at temptations. Those of Jesus, and ours.
Firstly, Jesus’ temptations were real ones. I need to emphasise that, because when we read them in the gospel stories, they seem very unlike from ours. All that stuff about camping in the wilderness without food, the devil actually taunting him about turning stones into bread, jumping from the temple tower, ruling all the world. Is that the stuff of your temptations? They are not of mine.
Therefore I underline it again: they were real for Jesus. The tempter knew that Jesus’ strengths could also be his weakness. So he targeted them. Jesus felt capable of doing those extraordinary things which the devil suggested. He was after all, the most gifted man ever to be tempted.
Jesus was tempted to misuse his strengths; and to do so in order to prove his identity as God’s chosen Son.
That is where his temptations meet up with ours.
Broadly speaking, there are two types of temptations: we can be tempted at the point of our weaknesses, or we can be tempted at the point of our strengths.
TEMPTED AT OUR WEAK POINTS
If I gave you five minutes to list your weaknesses, I reckon you could list many with two minutes to spare.
Most of our weaknesses are easy to spot. The seven deadly sins, with a few contemporary variations, are not difficult to identify. It is obvious that we can be tempted at the point of our known weaknesses. We see it coming and exclaim: “Ah Oh! Here we go again! Another arm wrestle with the old enemy!”
However, there is one particular brand of weakness which makes things easy for the tempter. This is the weakness we do not want to recognise, the one (or ones) we hide from ourselves. He who thinks he has no lust, is as they say, a sitting duck. She who thinks she has no pride, is, as the say, up sewer creek without a paddle. They who shout the loudest that their faith is strong and without any doubts, are the very ones likely to be teetering on the brink of collapse into faithlessness.
I will leave obvious weaknesses, and the ones some refuse to admit, there for now.
TEMPTED AT OUR STRONG POINTS
How about strengths?
Now, suppose I gave you five minutes to list your strengths, how would you go? I reckon you might ask for an extension of time; not because you have so many strengths to list, but because of your confounded modesty. Modesty? Yes, your modesty.
Not all of you, but most of you.
Like me, many of you have been socially conditioned not to think about your strengths lest you get a swollen head. All kinds of religious puritanism, both catholic and protestant, frowns heavily on thinking “too highly of yourself.”.
That kind of modesty, puts us at special risk in the hour of temptation. With false modesty, we are half way to losing before we start.
Recognised or not, they will become the focus of some of the most potent temptations.
For example,
* Beautiful women or a handsome men, are often tempted
to use their good looks to manipulate others.
* An outstanding sportsperson who is in a position of considerable influence can be tempted
to “fix” the outcomes.
* It is the extremely smart and trusted accountant who is most likely to be tempted
to “cook” the books.
* The brilliant computer nerd is the one who is usually most at risk of being tempted
into the world of computer crime.
* The lawyer who is deft and fluent with words can often be easily tempted
to camouflage or twist the truth.
* The humble woman can be tempted
to take pride in knowing that she is seen by others as being humble.
* The very wise man may sooner or later fall for the inevitable temptation
of admiring his
own wisdom.
* The popular child at school may be tempted
to misuse their school yard fame to isolate and hurt any who cross her/him.
* The extraordinary Jesus Christ, was tempted
to prove his status by putting on a spectacular display for the masses.,
using his special strengths for the wrong reason.
When we are tempted at the nerve point of our well recognised weaknesses, we usually see the danger coming. The red lights flash vigorously!
But when we are tempted at the point of strengths, we may be blithely oblivious to the danger. We too easily fool ourselves. It is only after we have fallen, that we realise what we have been “done like a dinner!” Tempted, overrun, fallen, corrupted, often without a struggle.
COUNTERING TEMPTATION
What to do about it?
First of all, we need to realise what is happening.
Here is a Lenten penance for you : Know yourself better. Challenge your self deceits. No longer permit yourself to “fudge” in the area of weaknesses and strengths.
The Gospel of Thomas has Jesus saying: Know yourself. For those who know themselves shall reign. They shall be in charge of themselves.
How?
* Really listen to yourself: Hear your softly spoken thoughts, drag into the light the ones that try to hide like silverfish. Feel your feelings, confess them to yourself, expose them to the gaze of Christ.
* Be ruthless with yourself. Deal with whatever “fudging” you hear yourself saying, face up to what the Spirit of Christ whispers to you. Ask: “Do I really want to withstand temptation? How much do I want to conquer with Christ? ”
* Listen to others. They see things we may not see. Often they try to warn us, usually so gently that we brush their concern aside. Trust the God who might be speaking through others.
* Listen carefully to the words of the Bible. The Scriptures remain a potent resource for self assessment and guidance. Their accumulated insight stills shines through like a beam of sunshine into the smog and illusion of this self deceived culture in which we are immersed over our heads.
* Don’t be discouraged when you have sincerely tried yet fallen. Failure is not a lack of faith, but it is a lack for faith to wear your guilt like a hair shirt. Let Christ pick you up, dust you off and sent you on your way once more. Hopefully much wiser.
CHRIST UNDERSTANDS
Your Christ understands. I am tempted, you are tempted, Jesus was tempted.
Jesus was tempted, tested to the human limit, not just in the wilderness but throughout his travels in the regions of Galilee, Samaria and Judaea. With a humble majesty of Spirit, he came through uncompromised, and has become the only person fit to be named our hope and salvation.
Here again is your penance for Lent: Know yourself
better, and do not be afraid of uncovering both unpalatable weaknesses and
unaffirmed strengths.
And pray. Pray often.
Lord Jesus, true brother, true Saviour, please lure us on
by the beauty of your Spirit.
Let us have a zest for what we might yet become,
a zeal which outweighs our tiredness from past bruising or defeat.
Give us buoyant spirits, born of a confidence
in your resourceful grace.
Amen.
SERMON 2: GETTING BACK TO THE BEDROCK.
Luke 4: 1-13
Jesus answered the
devil:” It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall
you serve.” Luke 4: 8
Are we good or bad people?
In Gene Wolfe’s fecund and insightful novel, “Return to the Whorl”,
the hero named Horn, a truly admirable person, is on a journey by horse back, travelling with companions. Then this statement:
“We met other travellers today, four merchants
with their servants and pack animals. We were glad to see them; but they, I
believe, were even more glad to see us, because they had quarrelled and were
eager to air their grievances. I listened as long as I could bear it and
longer, reminding myself of the foolish quarrels in which I myself have been
involved, often as the instigator.
It is educational, as
well as humiliating, to listen to others voicing complaints like our own. They
were all thoroughly bad people of the type to which I belong—that is to say,
bad people who are pleased to think themselves good.”
Ah! Bull’s eye!
They were all
thoroughly bad people of the type to which I belong—that is to say, bad people
who are pleased to think themselves good.”
That hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks!
They were all
thoroughly bad people of the type to which I belong—that is to say, bad people
who are pleased to think themselves good.”
That comment seems to me an apposite, though discomforting, word with which to commence the penitential season of Lent.
Coming out of the blue in a novel, the truth bypassed my usual religious defences and cut deeply. Am I numbered among those thoroughly bad people who are pleased to think themselves good?
JUST LISTEN TO OURSELVES
I reckon that I might often be in that category.
And most of my friends are.
And most members of the church with whom I deal.
I should really listen to myself and others talking.
Then it would become painfully clear that we spend much of the time, comparing ourselves favourably with others. We act as if we are better and wiser than most. We bemoan the conniving foolishness of politicians of the “other party,” we criticise the greedy and the ruthless in our society, we “damn with faint praise” our colleagues who taste a little success, we seize on half-truths about other congregations or denominations that appear to be doing better than we are, we feel sorry (in a patronising way) for the sinners whose names make it into the newspapers and on TV.
“They were all thoroughly bad people of the
type to which I belong—that is to say, bad people
who are pleased to think themselves good.”
?????
THE MORE SUBTLE TEMPTATIONS
That brings me to temptation.
Temptation is the usual theme for this first Sunday in lent.
When we think of temptation, what kind of things come to mind? I would make an educated guess that it would be temptations like sexual lust, greed, dishonesty, hurtfulness, jealousy, gluttony, gossip, violence, and in some cases the lure of alcohol or gambling.
These tend to be the easily recognised evils.
Churches who are big on temptation, sin and guilt and the wiles of the devil, like to loudly denounce these obvious evils. A few go further into racism, sexism, and social injustice.
What about the more subtle ones?
Now I ask you this: How often, when the word temptation comes to mind, do we think about the temptation to consider ourselves “nice” people. To see ourselves as the nice people whom God must surely like, rather than the horde of cruel, greedy, ruthless reprobates around us in the world?
Maybe, the Tempter has got away with a big, though subtle, one?
Maybe we have gently yielded, day after day, to the
temptation of self-righteousness? Maybe we should recognise ourselves in the
character Horn in Gene Wolfe’s story: “They were all thoroughly bad people of the
type to which I belong—that is to say, bad people who are pleased to think
themselves good.”
THE BEDROCK
Get back to bedrock.
Jesus answered the
devil:” It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall
you serve.” Luke 4: 8
In his temptations, Jesus turned back each time to God:
“It is written”. God was the ground of his confidence and his constant theme as he repudiated Satan.
For this Lent I invite you to consider our core disease.
Not so much particular temptations, but the fact that without God we all diseased without hope. Let us take the opportunity to re-ground ourselves in the basic Bible insight that each one of us is a gravely flawed soul who cannot afford to boast about anything except the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus our Redeemer.
I am not asking you to fall backwards into the grim, fearful, religious stuff.
Not self hate. Not those hair-shirted, guilt ridden, body flagellating, attitudes. That is not the way of Christ. Please; not that way! Don’t allow some sad, self-hating preacher push you down into that
miry pit.
Nor am I suggesting you ignore particular temptations.
Christ had to deal with them. So must we. We must go on combating those specific assaults on our Christian integrity, including the self righteousness of which I have warned. Each day is a contest between light and darkness. So “fight the good fight with all your might.”
But more fundamental is the bedrock of God’s grace.
God’s self-sacrificial love for creatures who are chronically infected by self interest. We need to reclaim that bedrock of God’s grace, and rest our souls there. Not comparing ourselves favourably with others, but gratefully accepting God’s acceptance of us, and praying for his help to more adequately glorify him in all we say, and do— or refuse to do.
Jesus answered the
devil:” It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall
you serve.” Luke 4: 8
God first. Have faith in your God. Not our good efforts or failures, but God. God’s saving grace first.
Perhaps among the most terrible of temptations are those
that seek to dislodge us from this Divine Bedrock.
THANKSGIVING
Above all earthly power and authority
reigns your almighty meekness,
O generous Creator.
Give thanks to God, whose goodness endures fore ever.
Beneath all human pity and tenderness
runs your everlasting mercy,
O generous Saviour.
Give thanks to God, whose goodness endures fore ever.
Through all laugher and all tears
flows your eternal intimacy,
O generous Counsellor.
Give thanks to God, whose goodness endures fore ever.
Earth and heaven are filled with your glory
and we are the recipients of grace upon grace,
O generous God of our salvation!
Give thanks to God, whose goodness endures fore ever.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen!
( Adapted from “Brief Prayers” Vol 1.)
INTERCESSIONS
God of infinite resourcefulness, give us the will so to pray for others that we may come to love them, and having loved them, watch out for those specific occasions when you would have us serve them.
For those whom we find repugnant: the abusers and exploiters, the rapists and murderers, the sadistic and the apathetic; for them we pray:
May the grace which nurtures us, work in them for your glory.
For the victims of inhumanity; the oppressed and the despairing, those sexually corrupted and then thrown aside, the abused child, battered spouse, neglected grandparent, and the tortured prisoner; for them we pray:
May the grace which
nurtures us, work in them for your glory.
For the foolish folk who are easily swayed to do evil; in school or home, at work or in the pub, in sporting club or politics, police force or trade union, in the ordained ministry or in the medical professions; for them we pray:
May the grace which
nurtures us, work in them for your glory
For the church wherever it has yielded to popularity and material prosperity, arrogance and exclusiveness, introversion and other worldliness, self righteousness and sectarian stridency; for these we pray:
May the grace which nurtures us, work in them for your glory.
For the members of this congregation: if we have succumbed to the immoralities of our era, the self-serving habits of those around us, or allowed our faith to be diluted by cynicism or let our love for Christ grow cold; for these we pray;
May the grace which
nurtures us, work in them for your glory.
God of Jesus and our God, do not let us go blindly into temptation, but open our eyes and deliver us from evil;
For yours is the
gracious kingdom, the power and the glory of costly love, forever and ever. Amen!
SENDING OUT
It was never promised
that you will not be tempted,
not thrown into turmoil,
not stumble or fall ,
but that by grace you will be saved, through trusting God.
Let it be, dear Lord,
let it be
.
Grace is a free gift of God. Gift. Just ongoing gift. For me. For you.
Let it be, dear lord. Let it be.
You have a destiny to inherit, over which the angels in heaven marvel.
The quiet strength of Christ,
the humble power of God,
and the pervasive light of the Spirit,
is yours
today and always.
Thanks be to God.