THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT—C
February 17, 2013
THE PSALTER
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
1. If you sit in the secret place of the Almighty,
you will abide in the shadow of the Most High.
2. Call the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”…
10. Evil will not approach you. The stroke will not come close to your tent!
11. For he will command his angel about you to keep you in all your ways.
12. He will carry you in his hands so that you don’t stump your toe on a rock.
13. You will tread on scorpion and serpent. You will stomp on lions and dragons!
14. He relies on me and I will deliver him. I will shield him, for he knows my name.
15. He will call me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble.
I will save him and I will glorify him.
16. I will fill him up with long life, and I will show him my salvation.
THE OLD TESTAMENT
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
1When you come to the land which the Lordyour God is giving you for an inheritance, and you possess it and live in it, 2you will take from the first of all the fruit of the ground which you will bring from your land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you will place it in a basket and go to the place which the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling place for his name. 3You will come to the priest who will be in those days, and you will say to him, “I confess today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land which the Lordswore to our ancestors to give to us.” 4The priest will take the basket from your hand and wave it before the altar of the Lord your God, 5and you will answer and say before the Lord your God, “My ancestor was a lost Aramaean who came down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a great, strong, numerous nation. 6The Egyptians treated us evilly and afflicted us and placed hard labor on us. 7We cried to the Lord the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voices and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression. 8The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and a raised arm, with great fearful things and signs and wonders. 9He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10Now, look, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground which the Lordgave me.” You will rest it before the Lord your God, and you will confess before the Lord your God. 11You will rejoice over all the good which the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you and the Levite and the migrant who is in your town.
THE EPISTLE
Romans 10:8b-13
8…this is the word of faith which we preach: 9that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For in the heart is belief unto righteousness, and in the mouth is confession unto salvation. 11For the scripture says everyone “who believes on him will not be ashamed.” 12For there is no difference between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on him. 13For“everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
THE GOSPEL
Luke 4:1-13
1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led in the spirit in the wilderness 240 days tempted by the devil, and he ate nothing in those days, and when they were finished he was hungry. 3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘People will not live on bread alone.’”
5He took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6and the devil said to him, “I will give you authority over all these and their glory, because it is mine and I may give it to whomever I wish; 7so you, if you will bow down before me, all will be yours.”
8Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘You will bow down to the Lord your God, and him alone will you serve.”
9He led him into Jerusalem and stood him on the highest point of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; 10for it is written ‘He will command his angels about you to save you,’ 11and‘On their hands they will carry you so that you will not stump your toe on a rock.’”
12Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You will not tempt the Lord your God.’”
13When the devil had finished tempting him, he left him alone for a time.
On Sunday, October 13, 1974, sitting in the choir balconey at Jefferson First United Methodist Church, it seemed as if the heavens opened up and filled my heart with light and joy. I was born again, and I knew immediately that God wanted me to change my major (I was a first-quarter freshman at The University of Georgia) to music education.
There were few people who ever had the gall to apply to the Department of Music with less preparation than me. I had two years in a small high school band, no piano, no music theory, no music history, no music literature. I spent the rest of that year taking all the music courses they would let me take without admitting me to the program, before somebody messed up and let me in. I spent the next four years battling the worst uphill battle of my life up to that date. Every quarter one faculty member or the other would comment that I was unwise to consider continuing in music. And they were right! I was awful! At first. And for a long time.
Every quarter, I watched students more talented than me drop out. Out of the 20 who started with me, two of us graduated. And it wasn't talent. It was cussed, mule-headed stubbornness. I knew that God wanted me to earn that degree. Therefore I knew that I would.
What if you knew you couldn't fail? What would you dare to try?
In my private devotional reading, I'm in the Acts of the Apostles. Here's Paul, swinging into town, preaching converting a few, then there's a riot and he has to run for his life. The next town, he converts a few, then the disciples find out they're planning to kill Paul and they make him leave. The next town, he converts a few before they drag him out of town and try to stone him to death! Now, I know that Paul wasn't going from riot to riot in the serene saint-like confidence that all of this was planned by God from the beginning. I know he had to be saying, at least in a small measure, "Maybe I could have done that better. Maybe I should have been a little less firm in that point, or a little more firm in that one." He wasn't omniscient. He didn't know how it was going to come out!
But he also knew that Jesus was going to build his church, that it would catch on sooner or later. And it really didn't catch on until after he died! But he kept on. He believed.
That believing is not any kind of emotion. It's not any serenity. It's not an unquestioned assurance. You will feel doubt. But you keep going as if it were true. It's cussed, mule-headed stubbornness! The other word for that is faith.
The Children of Israel had been living in tents and wandering the desert for 40 years, and Moses told them, "WHEN you come into the land..." Can't you hear the wandering Israelites scoff? "WHEN? Don't you mean IF?" "...and WHEN you bring in a harvest..." (Insert sound of Israelites scoffing).
Moses couldn't see it. And he wouldn't live to see it. But stubbornly, mule-headedly, cussedly, he insisted. That, My Christian Family, is called faith. It's not easy. It's hard. It takes determination. It takes stubbornness. It takes strength. God makes it as easy as he possibly can so we can make it. And he makes it as hard as it has to be so we can grow strong.
The man Jesus stumbles through the baking Judean wilderness, hungry, thirsty, hot, tired, dizzy, his vision blurred, in pain, in doubt. Yes, Jesus felt doubt. He was "tempted in all ways we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). That means he felt the same doubts, he just didn't succumb to them as we do. And he felt doubt. He felt pain. And he felt the presence of the Evil One. He can turn stones into bread and feed the hungry. He can make a great showy spash in Jerusalem. He can have royal power over the whole world and MAKE them do what they should! Nobody will have to be betrayed, nobody will have to be crucified! It would be so easy. Imagine being so painfully uncomfortable, and being shown an open door to instant ease. What agony to say no! The pain itself is less torturous than accepting its continuance. And the man Jesus couldn't see the end any more than Moses could, any more than Paul could, any more than we can! But he was as assured of success as Paul, as Moses, and as we are.
Jesus had the same assurance from God that we do. And he took the chance. He took the painful risk of doing the right thing, even in the face of certain pain, and, in his case, literally, certain death. And he would never see the fruit of his work before he died either.
As long as we follow Jesus, we cannot fail. We will hurt, we will mess up, we will try things that don't work, we will lose.
But we will win. We will prevail.
Courage is not never feeling fear. Courage is feeling fear and doing the right thing anyway.
Faith is not perfect confidence. It is the cussed, mule-headed stubbornness to keep doing what you know you should.
And it always works.
The Children of Israel had been living in tents and wandering the desert for 40 years, and Moses told them, "WHEN you come into the land..." Can't you hear the wandering Israelites scoff? "WHEN? Don't you mean IF?" "...and WHEN you bring in a harvest..." (Insert sound of Israelites scoffing).
Moses couldn't see it. And he wouldn't live to see it. But stubbornly, mule-headedly, cussedly, he insisted. That, My Christian Family, is called faith. It's not easy. It's hard. It takes determination. It takes stubbornness. It takes strength. God makes it as easy as he possibly can so we can make it. And he makes it as hard as it has to be so we can grow strong.
The man Jesus stumbles through the baking Judean wilderness, hungry, thirsty, hot, tired, dizzy, his vision blurred, in pain, in doubt. Yes, Jesus felt doubt. He was "tempted in all ways we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). That means he felt the same doubts, he just didn't succumb to them as we do. And he felt doubt. He felt pain. And he felt the presence of the Evil One. He can turn stones into bread and feed the hungry. He can make a great showy spash in Jerusalem. He can have royal power over the whole world and MAKE them do what they should! Nobody will have to be betrayed, nobody will have to be crucified! It would be so easy. Imagine being so painfully uncomfortable, and being shown an open door to instant ease. What agony to say no! The pain itself is less torturous than accepting its continuance. And the man Jesus couldn't see the end any more than Moses could, any more than Paul could, any more than we can! But he was as assured of success as Paul, as Moses, and as we are.
Jesus had the same assurance from God that we do. And he took the chance. He took the painful risk of doing the right thing, even in the face of certain pain, and, in his case, literally, certain death. And he would never see the fruit of his work before he died either.
As long as we follow Jesus, we cannot fail. We will hurt, we will mess up, we will try things that don't work, we will lose.
But we will win. We will prevail.
Courage is not never feeling fear. Courage is feeling fear and doing the right thing anyway.
Faith is not perfect confidence. It is the cussed, mule-headed stubbornness to keep doing what you know you should.
And it always works.
