3.9.25 "Forty Days" - Lent 1, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Psalm 91.1-6; Luke 4.1-13

LORD, you have been our dwelling place in all generations …

It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High …

The LORD is king, he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed, he is girded with strength. He has established the world, it shall never be moved.

O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD all the earth.

The LORD is king! Let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!

It’s the month of March.

Springtime and freshness, renewal and growth … a time to start over,  a time to begin again … take a deep breath, hitch up our jeans, step ahead to a new season … set the clock a full hour ahead … to get a jump on the day!

I googled “quotes about springtime” and found the following:

"In the springtime, the heart regrows hope" 

"The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day He created Spring" 

"With the coming of spring, I am calm again" 

Springtime doesn’t come easily - if you live in Michigan or Wisconsin … winter holds on fiercely … one day, it’s lovely, and everyone dons a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and then the next day, there’s snow on the ground … it’s a miserable time of the year …

Winter doesn’t let go easily … 

But the daffodils and the crocuses pop up through the snow, shoving it aside … springtime wins the day … 

To move into Lent, we rise up with hope … 

Real hope, hope forged in the rough and tumble world of daily life.

Real hope … forged in the wilderness with Christ.

Real hope … the possibility, but never easily gained … hope has a price tag on it …

The Spirit takes Jesus into the wilderness … alone … amidst the barren rocks and parched bramble, Jesus meets head-on the primal questions: 

Who am I? 

Where have I come from? 

Where am I going? 

What’s right, what’s wrong … 

How shall I live?

Jesus eats nothing … forty days, nothing … we might well ask if anyone can go so long without food … apparently it’s possible, but not recommended … when it’s over, he’s famished!

Why does Jesus choose this radical way of self-denial?

There’s no specific answer, and nowhere - is anyone commanded to such radical fasting, though over the centuries, many a soul has found fasting to be of value.

I tried it once for a week, with three other friends - juice, water, and vitamins … for me, it was totally unrewarding … I’ve never tried it since.

The point is this, I think: Jesus made himself seriously vulnerable  … Jesus leaves behind all the usual defense mechanisms - food, shelter, comfort, companionship … 

Jesus weakens himself in body and soul, to face the Tempter, the Tempter that comes to all of us, all the time, especially when we’re weak, when we’re vulnerable, when we’re tired and worn out.

The Tempter says, Make yourself some bread. No sense being hungry, and besides, you can feed the world.

The Tempter takes him up to view the whole wide world, and says, I’ll give it all to you. You won’t have to work for any of it. Just bend the knee a little bit to me.

The Tempter takes him to the pinnacle of the Temple, Throw yourself down from here - God will take care of you … go ahead, show off a little … have some fun. You’ll have the world at your feet.

Jesus. says. No!

But let’s not pretend it was easy for Jesus.

Never for a moment doubt the reality of the temptations … Jesus has to decide, Jesus has to choose, Jesus has to sort it out, figure it out … these are real temptations for the Son of God.

The Tempter offers the easy way out, the shortcut to success, a surefire deal … Jesus chooses the right way, the hard way, the long road of faith, a deal that requires the cross.

The simple fact of life: what’s easy is not always best for us … what’s hard often proves the greatest value.

Columnist David Brooks writes:

When faith finally tiptoed into my life it didn’t come through information or persuasion but, at least at first, through numinous experiences. These are the scattered moments of awe and wonder, he says, that wash over most of us unexpectedly from time to time.

I love how Brooks puts it: when faith finally tiptoed into my life … 

Most of the time, God is hidden … a kindness to us … 

The unfiltered glory of God short-circuits us … like a power surge.

To make it easier for us, God shows up in subdued ways … 

We pay attention … 

We for God in the shadows and the dark corners of life … God is there …

We list for God in the voice of our own conscience, in the sounds of God’s world … in the sounds of music … in the consoling words of a friend …

We look for the face of God in the faces of people all around us … the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker …   

God draws close to us … our soul is moved, tears may come, our voice is quieted … who can speak in the presence of The Divine?

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Let all the earth keep silent; the LORD is in his holy temple.

Places like this are designed to help us experience the presence of God … brick and mortar, stone and steel, yes, to the glory of God.

But it can be anywhere:

Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there, says Jesus.

Trees budding, birds singing … the rolling seas and the cry of a gull … for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear …

All nature sings, and round me rings

The music of the spheres.

This is my Father's world:

God meets us in places of great sacrifice … Gettysburg and Normandy … 

Places of human achievement and strength: the Eiffel Tower …

Monuments to the great dreams of good people, the Lincoln Memorial … 

In small things - the smile of a child, a scrapbook full of  memories, a glass of wine with a loved one … a piece of music, a piece of pie, the peace of Christ … 

So it is with springtime … so it is with Lent … the days lengthen … the chill of winter gives way to the warmth of spring … the world turns … 

something stirs, something holy comes this way, 

something tiptoes up behind us … like God in the burning bush, so sayeth the LORD to us: Take off your shoes; you are on holy ground.

Jesus in the wilderness says “No!” to the temptations … so that he might say “Yes!” to us!

In him, it is always Yes! For in him, everyone of God’s promises is a Yes!

Amen and Amen

3.2.25 "It's Your Call" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Luke 9.18-27; Luke 9.28-36

For our LORD, some quiet time … he prays …

Arms behind his back, pacing a bit? …  

does he kneel, his face to the ground? … 

does he sit on a large stone somewhere, his legs stretched out before him, his arms behind him, propping him up? … relaxed … looking out and about … 

are his eyes closed? … 

is he tense? … distressed? … calm?

Jesus prays … 

in the morning as the sun rises? … 

in the evening, as the day draws to a close? … 

or just a quick moment in an otherwise busy day? … 

like we all have now and then, when a meeting is cancelled, and we actually have a genuinely free moment?

Jesus prays … and, then … something occurs to him … he asks the disciples, What’s the scuttlebutt? … what are folks saying about me?

An intimate moment in Luke’s Gospel … this man of ability and love … this sweet man who gives of himself tirelessly … he’s curious … what’s being said about me?

Some folks say you’re John the Baptist come back from the dead, say the disciples … others say you’re Elijah … or one of the ancient prophets … 

Jesus nods … with a wry smile on his face? … maybe a wink? … Ahhh, so that’s what folks think of me? Someone from the past. A hero returned from the dead.

Jesus pauses, I think … takes a deep breath … and asks, Who do you say that I am?

Who is Jesus? 

Google that question, and you’ll be busy for a long, long, time … entire libraries exist on this question … books, books, and more books; authors, agents, publishers … podcasts, Substack, and blogs. 

In our Presbyterian tradition, we have John Calvin and the Calvinists … 

The Lutherans have Luther …

Roman Catholics have the Pope …

The Orthodox have their Archbishops …

Fundamentalists, pentecostals, and liberals … 

megachurch pastors, and storefront preachers … 

Mormon boys on their bicycles, 

and street preachers with a placard,

and folks like me.

All of it helpful … some of it confusing, some of it good, and some of it not.

Somewhere along the road comes the question, What about you? Who do you say I am?

Peter replies, You’re the Messiah, the Anointed One of God … Peter’s not far off the path, but Jesus shuts down the conversation … 

Jesus sternly orders and commands them not to tell anyone!

Why?

The word “messiah” is a dangerous word … many thought of the Messiah as a king, like David of old, a powerful leader, soldiers and chariots, shields and swords … restore the monarchy, rebuild the city, set the people free from Roman domination, make Judah great again.

The quest for power, dreams of glory …

Christianity has more often than not failed the test.

The Inquisition, colonialism, eradication of indigenous peoples, the Salem Witch Hunts, the oppression of women, countless wars … and slavery … all in the name of Christ.

The light of history reveals faith gone wrong all too often … when linked with empire and weapons … it’s not a pretty picture … it’s no wonder some Christians would rather bury the truth rather than tell the truth.

But there’s a flip side to the story - faith rises up and does what’s right … 

faith takes up the cross of Christ, not the sword of Satan … 

faith emancipates the slave, gives women the vote … ends the cruelty of child labor; proclaims the gospel in joy and hope … works for peace, the environment, civil rights … saving souls, and healing bodies … with liberty and justice for all.

When all is said and done, when the books are closed, and the preacher says Amen! … still the question comes to each of us: Who do you say that I am?

Recently, I read a fine biography of Abraham Lincoln.

Again and again, Lincoln turns to the words of Jesus, when tells the story of a house divided against itself.

On the question of slavery … 

Lincoln holds his Bible in one hand, and the Constitution in the other … Lincoln and his wife, Mary, attend New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.

On the other side of the question:

The president of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis and his wife, Varina, attend St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA, a church ofter referred to as the “Cathedral of the Confederacy.”

Lincoln declares slavery to be an abomination … Davis believes slavery to be a good arrangement.

A house divided.

In a personal note, Lincoln writes:

God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.

In Lincoln's Second Inaugural address, he says:

Both [sides] read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes [God’s] aid against the other. …. The prayers of both could not be answered.

A house divided.

The divide remains, I fear … do women have the right to chose for themselves, or does a woman’s body belong to the government when she’s pregnant? … 

Can gay and lesbian persons marry? - or does their right to marry destroy our nation’s morality? 

Those who stormed the Capital on January 6 - are they criminals or patriots?

Are trans-people evil? Are they and their families a threat to America?

I am deeply concerned - about the present moment … a spiritual misalignment of certain forms of Christianity that I believe to be contrary to the cross of Christ, linked with political views I find antithetical to the spirit of our Constitution … all of it underwritten with enormous amounts of money! dark money, well-hidden from view … when this kind of money sets the pace, something is wrong … life cannot be bought and sold, faith cannot be purchased and traded upon … truth is not found on the New York Stock Exchange, or in the commodities market.

Who is Jesus?

You’re the Messiah! … says Peter.

Yes! Jesus IS the Messiah, but of a different order than what Peter expected …  

Peace, not power … salvation, not a sword … truth, not a throne … welcome, not exclusion … forgiveness, not condemnation … generosity, not greed … trust, not fear … the Messiah of God crosses borders and does not create them … the Messiah of God: God’s mercy, God’s goodness, God’s peace … for God so loves the world.

Jesus speaks of suffering …  the powerful reject him …  they crown him with a crown of thorns … they kill him … 

Jesus speaks of self-denial - the bombshell of all ethics … no wonder the powerful despise him …  

Jesus speaks of the cross … the cross for anyone who wants to be a part of a better world … a heavy cross, it is … the weight of the world upon his shoulders, and our shoulders, too.

Jesus speaks of spiritual things - lest we get lost in material things … Jesus draws a firm line in the sand on wealth and spiritual disciplines … where your treasure is, that’s where we find your heart! 

Jesus says pointedly: If you’re ashamed of my kind of love, if you have little interest in my words, my actions, my values … if you reject the cross, and shape the gospel to suit your own interests, you cut yourself off from God.

When all is said and done … when the books are closed, and the preacher says, Amen! … still the question comes to each of us: morning, noon, and night: Who do you say that I am?

Eight days later, the mount of Transfiguration, Elijah and Moses are there … a cloud of glory, bright and beautiful … a voice proclaims, This is my son, my chosen; listen to him.

Amen and Amen!