Wandering in the Wilderness to Find our Best Selves

A Sermon by Rev. Debra McKnight
Preached at the Urban Abbey
March 6, 2017

Scripture: Matthew 4: 1-10 

This scripture about TEMPTATION is the start of Lent every year in the lectionary (a shared reading system that helps church communities read the bible in three years). Matthew, Mark and Luke share this story of Jesus in the wilderness. Mark offers the shortest account of 40 days in the wilderness, but that is kind of his style. Luke and Matthew share this more expansive version that personifies the tempter as Satan or the Devil and gives the tantalizing details of three temptations. This kind of personification of evil may be a little beyond how I tend to understand my faith, but that doesn’t mean I can’t understand the struggle this story invites us into. This wilderness of temptation has some historic resonance that echoes back further than Jesus in the wilderness. When Matthew, Mark and Luke share the story of 40 days in the wilderness, their readers and listeners hear an echo of the Hebrew people wandering in the wilderness. Those 40 years were years of temptation and uncertainty. They were unsure about food and manna rained down from heaven. They were unsure about their God, built idols and received the Ten Commandments. They were unsure about their journey out of slavery in Egypt and even considered turning around for the Devil they knew rather than the uncertainty of freedom. They were tempted to return to the social and political systems they knew, even if it meant slavery in a powerful empire. After 40 years in the wilderness they emerge into a new promised land, having overcome the temptations to turn back or shrink away.

Jesus emerges from his 40 days in the wildness more clear about his call as well. The gospels place this wilderness time as one that immediately follows his baptism. The spirit fills him, surrounds him, is upon him and he is driven to the wilderness for a season of fasting and prayer. It is there that things get a little wild. Jesus is tempted by the Devil, this agent of brokenness tempts him and in sort of a mind-blowing twist, the Devil keeps quoting the Bible (a fact we should probably keep in mind next time we encounter someone quoting the Bible at us). The Devil asks Jesus to prove himself and fill his belly by turning stones into bread. The Devil asks Jesus to prove God by throwing himself off a cliff and requiring God to save him. And last but not least the Devil takes Jesus up high to see all the kingdoms and glittering things of this world. He offers the deal, it can all belong to Jesus if he just accepts it. With each temptation the Devil pushes a little further, quoting scripture. And the thing that links these temptations is that they are all about misuse of power. Misuse of natural world, changing a stone into something it is not. Misuse of faith, testing God and making yourself vulnerable for the wrong reasons. Misuse of power in the world. Jesus can be all powerful by the world’s standards, he can be on top of the system that is…except he says no. Jesus emerges from these 40 days more surely himself. More clear about how he will live and work in the world. He will not abuse the natural world, the religious authority he holds, or conform to the political structures as they are; he is about the work of God’s kingdom and the work of making all things new. Forty days in the wilderness, like the 40 years long past, make Jesus more clear about his work. He sets out immediately to invite other people into this ministry.

 Lent invites us on a 40 day journey. Of course, there is some old church magic math that doesn’t count Sundays, but still the period of lent invites us into our own wilderness with our own temptations. It makes sense that Lent begins with this moment of Jesus facing the hard spaces of being human, the spaces of real temptation to misuse or abuse. Of course, when we compare Jesus facing down the Devil and giving up being an empire, abstaining from Chocolate or coffee or soda or something like that seems a little…well…small. So maybe this Lent we can think about what is really holding us back from understanding ourselves, being ourselves and moving boldly. Maybe we can dive into our own wilderness. That wilderness that is really wild and really inside. Perhaps there are some things to give up or let go or leave behind. And maybe that is even chocolate for you, but I bet there might be something tougher to give up and even more powerful - should you choose it. The other question I would raise as we start Lent is this, “What have you given up already…without even thinking about it?” We give up things all the time: relationships with old friends or working out when we start getting busy, and then we stay busy and we are still busy so we just never pick it back up. We might have given up making a family meal or spending time reading or learning or studying or praying or probably Church - although that is clearly no one here. We give up things all the time that really mean something and make us our best selves. So maybe as we dive into this wilderness, the wilderness of our lives this lent, and ask we should ask what practices we might try, or what might we give up or take up again that will help us emerge our best selves? What would help us emerge ready to be our best selves and confident in offering our best to the world?

We have 40 days. We can imagine Jesus, baptized and spirit-filled, facing the questions of his head and heart, the temptations to conform rather than transform, the temptations to choose the easy path or the safe path - or at least the one that doesn’t get you killed on Good Friday. We can imagine that time in the wilderness where Jesus committed to the life that was important to him and the practices of his faith that would make him the leader he needed to be. We have 40 days. Let’s go to our own wilderness. Let’s be brave together.

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QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

What is your experience of Lent?

What would you consider giving up? Are they things you should give up anyway? What would it mean to you?

What have you given up without considering it or without intention? What would it mean to reclaim or renew some practice or relationship?