“Tempting Times Matthew 4:1-11

We are most certainly living in “Tempting Times.”    (Congregation interaction)

          There is truth in all of that, is there not?  And we could go on and on here to list even more of the temptations that abound for us.

          But I suspect that just listing out temptations is not what you came here for today.   

          No, if you came here today for any reason it was likely to try to figure out what to do about the temptations that are all too prevalent in life!

As we enter the season of Lent, we turn to the scriptures, and particularly to the account of Jesus temptation hoping perhaps that we glean a thing or two from Jesus about how to deal with temptation and to silence the devil.

          Well, if that’s what you were hoping for, I will sadly have to disappoint you.

          The temptation of Jesus doesn’t really help us if you are looking for tools for dealing with your own temptation.

          Just take a look here at what it is that Jesus employs in dealing with the tempter.

          Jesus is hungry, and the temptation is to provide for oneself, to turn stones into bread.

Jesus retorts, “It is written, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ 

          Which is all very good for Jesus to say… but you afterward… he’s still hungry!

This first temptation, we know well.   This is the temptation to take care of our own needs first.

“If you are the Son of God….”   Embedded in Satan’s temptation right away is an appeal to or an assumption of Jesus having privilege because of who Jesus is.    

It’s not that Satan questions whether or not Jesus is the Son of God.

No, rather the temptation offered is rooted in precisely what you deserve as a matter of being who you are – namely God’s Son.

You deserve a little special treatment!   

You deserve to have your needs met! 

Why worry about anything else until you’ve taken care of yourself first?  

          We know this temptation well.  We live it over and over again, and see it around us, in grumblings like empty stomachs.  

          A thousand different challenges present themselves in the society around us, and as opportunities to make a difference with a gift are presented, the rumbling in the gut of our own hunger pushes back against the need of others, and our own assumptions of privilege slowly creep in.

          Pay taxes to provide for the common good?  “Hey, that is MY money!”

          Oh, we are well acquainted with the first temptation, the “me first” and then I’ll see to others” temptation.

          Jesus recognizes it and rejects it by quoting scripture.  

          But we are not Jesus.  

We, (more often than not,) will succumb to this temptation. 

          So, if you think by becoming more acquainted with the bible that will help give you a tool to defeat temptation, think again!  

We will more often just look for the right bible verse to quote that will fits our own self-interest, and justification for what we are doing, and call that good.

          Jesus can quote scripture to push back against temptation, but not so for us. 

Why? 

Because as it turns out, the devil can quote scripture too!

 “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.’ “

We recognize this temptation as well, but it comes at us in just a little different way.   

For Jesus, the temptation was one of his own personal safety.  

“Go ahead, throw yourself down, God won’t let anything bad happen to you.”  — it is again an appeal to privilege, special status.  “You deserve a little extra protection.”

Which is fine for Jesus, as Son of God.   But what about us?   What can we look to for protection and personal safety?

Ah, here is how the Tempter gets at us, and it is again and appeal to the matter of privilege!   

This temptation is the builder of walls and the procurer of weapons! 

It is an appeal to the privilege of being “safe” and “untouchable” and not having to worry about what the rest of the world worries about.

The temptation to desire personal safety, (or some guarantee of it,) is powerful indeed!

Consider what such pursuit of personal safety has done to us. 

This temptation for personal safety has made us see suspicion in every stranger.

The desire for personal safety sets neighborhood against neighborhood, it produces gated communities and secure buildings and “members only” access.   

It proliferates “ADT” signs in front yards instead of front porches upon which we might meet our neighbor and pledge to care for one another.

The desire for personal safety sees a potential enemy in everyone who is “different” in any way, and it ironically ends up producing the very paranoia of the outsider that such “safety” is supposed to allay!

Jesus recognized that quotation of scripture by Satan was a perversion of God’s promise.

“Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”  He says.

Do not take things out of the context of God’s overarching theme in scripture, and don’t try to force God into doing something that is not the intent of the relationship that has been revealed.

And the third temptation?  What is that about?  

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 

This is the temptation to power, and it is the great seducer of all, for it is always the case that we think power is something that we will be able to handle.

There is always some allure in pinning your hopes on a strong leader who can address the ills of this world,

We look back longingly, nostalgically to the leaders of old, and proclaim “if only we had a leader like…”

For Israel, it was “if only we had a King like David, a Prophet like Elijah, leader like Moses….”

For us it might be hearkening back to a Founding Father or President.  

We idolize the past as some “golden age.”

Truth be told though, all of those characters were flawed and they all fell into the abuse of power in one way or another.  

We remember the good.  We forget the opposition they faced, the mistakes they made, or the people who surrounded them and made them better than they were on their own.

Jesus recognizes the danger in this, and so he rejects it out of hand.  “Away with you, Satan.”

It will not by amassing personal power that the world will be saved or the Realm of God brought it.

No, if you want to lean about how to deal with temptation, you don’t look at what Jesus does in the wilderness.

You instead look at what Jesus does after this encounter in the wilderness.  You look at what happened after all of those temptations to care for himself first, to give in to privilege, and to become an authoritarian leader.

What Jesus did then was gather disciples.

What Jesus did was to begin to teach that if you would deal with the temptations of this world, you must focus on your relationships.   

Focus on your relationship with Jesus, instead of your own needs.  

Focus on your relationship with God, instead of looking to others to save you.

Focus on your relationship with one another in community, strengthened by bread and wine and Jesus’ own promised continued presence.

Jesus teaches that God will deal with temptation by trusting in the dispersal of power, the establishment of community, the celebration of different abilities, talents and interdependence.   

Twelve will be appointed, all of whom will individually fail utterly and mightily on their own.

Each will have their own temptations against which they will have to struggle, but they will preach, proclaim the Kingdom, and found new communities. 

The good news will spread across the known world.

Oh, the tempter will find, or poke or prod, until he finds the weak spot in every individual, no matter how resolute or strong.

But in that distribution of power and shared responsibility for the Kingdom, there is mutual accountability that the devil can’t subvert.   The ability to trust and lean upon one another allows the realm to break in, albeit imperfectly, but little by little.

If Jesus could not handle the prospect of power and rejected it out of hand for something else, why do we keep going back to it?

 “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’   Jesus says.

How do you beat temptation?

You don’t.  

That is ultimately the take away from the temptation story.   You and I, we won’t do that on our own.

We’re not Jesus, after all.

And this temptation thing, this is not a “once and done” kind of event for Jesus or for us.  Notice how often the temptations come back in the story… in the hunger of the crowds, in the questions of authority, in the attempts to tie Jesus to political messianic hopes and dreams, make him into a “King like David.”

This is what the temptation story tells us.  This is how life is. 

Life is a succession of these three temptations – to care for oneself, to engage in privileged thinking, and the temptation to take control of things on our own — coming back to us over and over again.

We are not Jesus! 

We will not be able to take this tempter on – not on our own!

So instead, Jesus gives us each other.  

The tool that Jesus gives to us to deal with temptation is community, which he establishes and keeps, calling it together again and again with the Spirit and the Bread and Wine.

How do you deal with temptation?   

Not on your own.   We do this together, by attending to one another as Jesus has shown us so to do. 

“Only A Glimpse” Transfiguration 2023 Matthew 17:1-9

The season of Epiphany in the church is book-marked by two stories, each and every year.

          The season begins with the story of the Baptism of Jesus.  In that story, God’s booming voice proclaims, “This is my Son…”  

          The Season of Epiphany always ends with this story, of Jesus Transfigured on the Mountain, and the second iteration of God’s proclamation, “This is my Son…” 

          In between the Baptism and the Transfiguration, the ministry of Jesus begins and the stories we hear bring into sharper focus what can be expected of him, and what will be required of the one whom God claims as God’s own.

          The Transfiguration event is quite often a head scratcher.   We’re not quite sure what to do with it.  

          We join with Peter, James and John in fumbling and stumbling over what to make of it all, and just what to say or do in the moment.  

Shall we “live” in this moment?  

Do we build a shrine or a shelter to commemorate it?   Do we try to remain upon the mountain for a time and avoid what Jesus has predicted will lie ahead in choosing to go to Jerusalem, to go the way of the Cross?

          It can be a quite a conundrum for us.   What do we make of this strange vision on the mountain?

          Perhaps, “Vision” is precisely the word and experience we are to take from this story.

It is a vision.  A moment between the baptism and what will lie ahead in which we get only a glimpse of something.

          If that is the case, then I would submit that the Transfiguration is not so foreign to us after all.   

          We do know this moment!

          We have had this kind of moment.

          If this is a vision granted, it is not so much something for us to “figure out” or to explain as it is simply a “moment to be remembered.”  A moment that will be looked back upon as one that provided something — a measure of hope, some insight, clarity or prefiguring of what was to come.

          We all experience such “transfigurations,” in some way or another, do we not?

          You have had a moment like this, or you will.

          Transfigurations, this story tells us, are comprised of three distinct parts.  

          You see something that you have never seen until this moment.

          You recognize something of the past in this moment that you realize will have implications for the future.

          You feela moment of fear that a word eventually addresses or dispels.

          So, when is it that you have had a “Transfiguration” event happen to you? 

          If you are a parent or a grandparent, I’ll bet it’s there tucked inside your memory, a Transfiguration of a child.   

          Probably several.

          Maybe it was the moment when for the first time, on their own, they toddled into the bathroom and used the toilet without being prompted, coaxed, bribed or scolded.

          You see them as something they had never been before, and something that you have longed for them to be, independent!

          You recognize something of the past fading away.  The day of no more diapers becomes a real possibility!

          But, in that same realization you feel also an emotional response. 

Maybe pride. 

Maybe fear. 

Maybe sadness, or relief.

They are growing up!    Something has changed for you, and for them.

          I think there is a transfiguration moment when a parent sees their daughter or son come down the stairs dressed up for that special event.

          Maybe it is the prom dress, or the wedding gown, or the uniform.

You see that she is not your little girl anymore.   He is not just a little boy.

          You recognizein her poise, in his pose, in their appearance a bit of someone else. 

Her mother perhaps?

Or you see your own father mirrored in the way he stands.

Or maybe someone else from the family memory? 

At any rate, their appearance is quite unlike anything you have ever seen in your own child before.   

There she is, transfigured before you.  She has become a young woman.

There he is, tall and dapper, no longer the child of playing with Legos or in the backyard, but a young man.

There they are, their own person, with all the unique qualities they possess and the qualities that they have inherited.

You feel the weight and joy of that.  

And then they go and  say something that snaps you back to the moment, something so like the little child again.  A word that breaks the spell and dispels your momentary fear of them slipping away from you.

Transfiguration moments abound!

They appear in the donning of the cap and gown of graduation, in the tossing of the car keys when the teenager gets their license, in the first time your child reaches for the check at the restaurant when you are out together for a meal.

Oh, we know this moment of Transfiguration! 

It signals a change to come, and change can be delightful, and fearful, and hard all at once, because it marks also a sense of loss.

Why is it the disciples want to build booths when they see the change in Jesus?  Is it not for the same reason we fight over the check at the restaurant?   

Grow up, but not quite so fast!

Can’t we stay as we are… just a little longer?

It is good that we are here, and good to see this moment, and can it last just a little bit longer?   

But no, down the mountain we must go.  There are tasks to be accomplished, work to be done, lives to be lived and destinies to be fulfilled. 

We cannot hold on to the Transfiguration moment. 

It is a vision, only a moment.

But, such visions can be remembered, recalled, and employed again.

They can be brought back to mind, (and will be,) to make sense of the future as it unfolds.

Maybe the reason Jesus gives the disciples this vision is so that they can recall it after the horrific events of trial, crucifixion, the ecstasy of resurrection and ascension. 

That seems to be the direction given.  “Tell no one until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Maybe even after 3 years of following in Jesus’ footsteps, even after the resurrection, the bringing in of the Realm of God  becomes a bit of a blur, something hard to sustain.  

When the days get long, and the work gets hard, and you begin to wonder if all this living as a follower of Jesus is worthwhile, what is it that will sustain you?

Is it not those moments of transfiguration?  Those times when you saw, recognized, and felt a little glimpse of what could be, and of how Jesus was mysteriously present?

Maybe we aren’t supposed to figure out what the Transfiguration means exactly, but rather recall it as a vision bestowed.

Peter, James and John believed this was significant.  They spoke of it after the resurrection.  It got recorded.

“We got to see a glimpse….”

And maybe, that’s all we will ever get to see at any given time.   

Just a glimpse of the Realm of God in our midst, a foretaste for a hoped for future.  

Martin Luther would often speak of how the “true church” was always hidden. 

How could the Church of Rome with all its corruption, abuses, and shortcomings be considered a church at all?   

Where was Jesus in this mess of competing interests, the sale of indulgences and forgiveness, and the building of grand structures, the arrogance of Popes and Priests, the indifference of Kings and Princes while the poor suffered?

Well, Christ was indeed there, but Christ was not found in the grand decrees of Popes, Princes or in the dazzling architecture.  

No, the “true church” is revealed only in glimpses.

The true church is revealed where the Gospel is rightly preached and the sacraments are rightly administered.

Church is an event, not a place.

Church is a people and a moment, not an institution.

“Church” happens when Christ reveals in that moment what the individual is to do, is to say, or is to be in order to be Christ to their neighbor. 

Church is in the act of hospitality,

Church is in the care for one another.

Church is in the word that must be spoken, the deed that must be done, the community that comes together.

“Church” is found in the doing of what you are gifted and able to do in this world for the sake of the neighbor in the name of Christ.

For Luther, the matter of church was a kind of “cat and mouse” game with Satan, lest the work of the Kingdom be too exposed and Satan get his hands on it.  

 We know the truth of that. 

More often than not in doing the “business” of the church we are prone to lose sight of in whose name we are doing what it is we are called and empowered to do.  

Maybe all we are to get are “glimpses” of how God is at work in and through us in this world.

Maybe all we are meant to receive are hints at how the Kingdom comes of its own accord through, with, and sometimes in spite of our own actions!

Between Baptism and the Mountaintop, that’s where we live our lives.  

So maybe all we are meant to hope for is just a glimpse of God at work in our own actions now and again. 

A moment that makes us smile and say, “I see something I’ve never seen before.”   

And when the vision is dim?   Well, then we pray that the voice comes from somewhere with the booming reminder.    “This is my son…listen to him!”

“Called to Season This World” Matthew 5:13-20

Many a proud parent have hungered to watch their little one “become.”   

That is what you hope and dream for from their beginning. 

The child is born, and you look into their soft, innocent face and you begin to wonder just what it is that this one will grow up to be, what they will become, and what they will do. 

We baptize that little lump of flesh as a unique individual upon whom we pronounce this very blessing from the gospel of Matthew.  

“Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

“’Be’ — little one!”  we say with that blessing. 

“Be like salt and light, you are elemental in your nature, and you will “be” what you will “be” – chosen and beloved by God and by me.”   

You will “become” what God desires you to be.

You are endowed with unique gifts, talents, thoughts and abilities that God has given to you to employ in this world.

And this, of course, is where the difficulty begins.

The journey from “being” to “becoming” is a movement into action and that movement is always fraught with danger.  

The “become” portion unfolds as the little one begins to assert who and what God has made them to be.

We delight in their “being” at first.  

The lump of flesh moves from laying, to rolling, to crawling to walking and then on to running and eventually borrowing the car keys and moving out on their own as they “become” an individual.

Oh, how we delight in each new phase, but with each new phase we are terrified as well!

“Oh look, she’s rolling over!”    

Which, of course, is all good and fine until she rolls over and off of the changing table, landing abruptly with a smack upon the floor!

The scream of surprise and pain comes, or maybe the catching of the child just in the nick of time.   

Then the parent exclaims their objection to all this “being and becoming” stuff.

“Why didn’t you just lay still?!?”

It was of course not in the child’s nature to lay still!  That is NOT what they are meant to be or to do!   They are becoming more active, becoming more independent, each stretch of a limb and twist of the body is helping them “become” — grown up and develop coordination.

The initiative that you at first admired with such pride is also fraught with potential dangers and pitfalls, and you fear for them!

But, how can they be other than what they are to meant to become?

Herein lies the problem with this Salt and Light thing.  

As we move from simply “being” children of God to “becoming disciples of Jesus,” we begin to have a sense of what we are to do in this world.

Following Jesus shows us how we are to live and act and move in this world, how we are to season it with our presence.

That quite often pushes us up against the boundaries of this world, and pushing boundaries is where the element of fear enters into the picture!

We are still in the Beatitudes here in Matthew, and this is only the beginning of how Jesus is going to press boundaries. 

He is going to encourage his followers to press those boundaries as well.

The Pharisees were righteous, no doubt about that and no arguing that they weren’t, even from Jesus. 

They had developed the 613 laws that surrounded the ten commandments as a way to understand just what was required of them.   See how well those laws set the boundaries that protect!

How does one properly keep the commandment to “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy?”  

The Pharisees had an answer for that, and it involved the setting of boundaries.  Work is to cease at sundown on Friday and is not to resume until sundown on Saturday. 

One kept the Sabbath by not engaging in any kind of action that would be considered “work” during that time period. 

So, do not heal. 

If you have to walk somewhere, go no more than a prescribed distance, lest it be construed as “work.”  

They had a “boundary” set for everything.

Keep these laws, and you will keep the big law of the Commandment and in doing so you will “satisfy all righteousness.” 

But Jesus comes along and while he says that the law will not be abolished, but rather fulfilled, he also states that playing by the rules of boundaries will not ultimately be enough.

“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees….”

“Let your light so shine….”

Press, test, and push the boundaries of love, of action, and of righteousness to see just how far your light can shine!

“Be—my disciples!”

This is what will get Jesus into trouble with the Pharisees.  We will watch this unfold in the next few weeks in Matthew.

 In rapid succession we’ll watch as Jesus rolls out the soon to be familiar phrase.  “You have heard it said of old, but I say to you….”

“Love your enemy and pray for your persecutor…”

“If someone asks you to go one mile with them, go with them two…”

“If they ask for your shirt, give them your cloak as well…”

“Give to everyone who begs from you…”

Jesus goes on in this relentless fashion pushing the boundaries.  He becomes like a toddler newly set loose in an unfamiliar environment, seeing just how far he can take this “being and becoming” thing.

Not only does Jesus push the boundaries, but he also sends his disciples to do the same.  He envisions a community that pushes boundaries and limits and re-orders the world in its wake, bringing in a new realm, a new way of living.

We are invited to join in such exploration of how far our light can shine, and more than that, we are pressed into it.

How can we be anything other than what God has made to us to be?  

Well, fear can intervene!   It can work to keep us from being what we are made and meant to be!

How can salt lose its saltiness?  

It can’t really, but choices can be made as to how far boundaries should be pushed, or how boundaries will define actions. 

Communities filled with beings that are meant to season this world can begin to appear and seem less “distinctive” because of such fears.

They fear what others will think.

They fear what might happen.

They fear what they might lose, or who they might offend, or what such actions might mean for them as consequences.

And so, a community chooses a “measured” response instead of a “seasoned” response.

Who puts a light under a basket?  

Well, no one of course, unless it is done so to obscure things. 

Light is hidden only if there are things we simply do not want to look at, do not want to see.  

Sometimes we put baskets over our light because we recognize that to see would be to be moved to action, and to be moved into action would be to invite conflict, and we fear conflict most of all!

It is simply easier to not be, and not to do. 

Safer to live within the boundaries.

But making that choice leaches away little by little at the essence of who we are and who we are meant to be in this world, until perhaps we are no longer of any value.   

This is the unnerving invitation of God in Christ Jesus to us in being Salt and Light. 

The call to “be” and to “become” always also carries with it the call to action, and action is risky.  You might fall off the changing table!

But, you might also learn to catch yourself, and to grow, and to become stronger and more coordinated!

The prospect of being and becoming a follower of Jesus excites us.

It terrifies as well, and sometimes it scares this world.

Who knows, it might just be that it also terrifies God a bit, who knows well how easy it is for us to fall, to falter, to make mistakes and to skin our knees as God’s children in this world!

Still, God wouldn’t have it any other way.. “Be, my child…”

Yes, this matter of “being” Salt and Light in this world will involve us doing scary things, but it is from the scary things that we learn and grow.

Who knows what God will end up calling us to do in this world once we sense who we are and what we are called to be? 

Who knows what dangers might lurk for a people who are called by God’s name as they begin to seek to become who they are called to be, “children of God” who are meant to give glory to their Father in heaven? 

Who knows what glory it gives to God, who delights in creation and in seeing the creature become what God always believed they could become!

Like toddlers stretching on the changing table, every imperfect motion is filled with potential for growth, and potential for danger, and God know this!

Still God delights in watching us be what we are meant to be, and in watching us become!

How can we do other than stretch into this Kingdom that God longs to see, explore

this world into which God has brought us.

“Be—my disciple.”  Jesus says.

You are salt.

You are light.

You are called into this world just as surely as Jesus was sent into it. 

You are following where Jesus has so lead the way and yes it will be fraught with both wonder and danger.

How could it be any other way for those who are called to season this world with the love that we have first received from God?

A God who looks upon us in love, and who says to us —“Be — my child!”