Seventh (penultimate) Sermon at St. Paul's K Street

Year C, First Sunday of Lent
Luke 4:1-13
If you are familiar with the story of the Israelites then today’s Gospel will probably evoke the story of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness before coming into the land that was promised to them through their ancestor Abraham. Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days, the Israelites wandered the wilderness for forty years. The Israelites made their way into the wilderness after God saved them bringing them through the Red Sea, Jesus was led into the wilderness after his Baptism by John in the Jordan. The similarities between the two stories are clear, and so are the differences. And the difference between the two experiences of wilderness is very important, the different experiences show two very different ways of approaching the wilderness.
As we heard in today’s Gospel Jesus is tempted by the devil in three different ways. First, the devil tempted Jesus by playing off of his primal needs, Jesus had been without food for forty days, he must have been pretty hungry. Then the devil moved onto to tempting Jesus with things beyond his primal needs, he tempted him with power, power over all the people and kingdoms of the world, and then with power over death. In all of these temptations, Jesus resisted, Jesus remained faithful to God.
The Israelites on the other hand, while they wandered the wilderness they may not have been tempted explicitly by the devil, but regardless they grumbled against God, they questioned God, they did not remain faithful to God. In the book of Numbers we hear that at one point in their wanderings the Israelites began to complain because they had no meat, God had been providing them with manna, bread from heaven, but that was not enough, they wanted more. This is just one story of the Israelites grumbling against God in the wilderness, there are plenty more. The Israelites could not be content with what God gave them, and so they wandered the wilderness being kept from the land promised to them through Abraham.
The difference between these two experiences of the wilderness is faithfulness to God. In the story of Jesus’ temptation Jesus remains faithful to God in the face of all temptations. Jesus remembers that we need the nourishment of the word of God, that God, and only God, is to be served and that we are not to test our God. The wandering Israelites forget these things, and thus had a completely different experience of the wilderness than Jesus did.
The time that the Israelites spent in the wilderness served as a punishment, keeping the generation that grumbled against God from seeing the Promised Land. For Jesus however, the time in the wilderness served to strengthen and empower his ministry. The verse after what we heard in today’s Gospel reads, “Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country”. Jesus did not grumble, Jesus did not question, Jesus did not lose faith. Jesus resisted temptation and being ‘filled with the power of the Spirit’ was able to go on and complete his ministry.
Nowadays we are less likely to find ourselves in actual wildernesses but we certainly find ourselves in situations and times that can be understood as a type of wilderness. Times in our lives when we feel lost or out of control. Times in our lives when we feel like we are doing nothing but wandering around with no idea of where we are headed. Times in our lives when we are confronted by temptation after temptation after temptation. We may not be able to relate to the experience of Jesus in the wilderness or to the experience of the Israelites in the wilderness on a literal level, but I’d be surprised if there were many of us here who could not relate on a metaphorical level. These forays into the wilderness of uncertainty, of fear, of temptation, of doubt are a common part of the human experience.
These two different experiences, that of Jesus and that of the Israelites, have a lot to say to us when we find ourselves in our own wildernesses. We can enter these wildernesses faithful that God will see us through, or we can enter these wildernesses and grumble against God. Grumbling against God in these situations, losing faith, giving in to temptation, will lead to us feeling punished, and while we may come out of this wilderness we will come out bitter and separated from God. If, however, we remain faithful, if we go through these wildernesses aware of God’s loving presence with us, if we keep God before us in these times we can come through stronger and closer to God and more able to witness to the love of God.
One of the things that I love about St. Paul’s, one of the things I have appreciated over the past year and a half I have been here with you, is the importance of the sacraments in the life of this parish. Every day you can come here and receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. No matter what is going on outside of those doors, you can come here experience God’s loving presence. The other week there was more snow on the ground then there has been in I do not how long, and before Sunday on the news there was a long list of cancellations, mainly secular institutions but there were a fair number of churches on that list as well. That did not stop St. Paul’s parish though, I admit I did not make it in that morning, but I heard that a hundred people were here. No matter what is going on outside St. Paul’s parish and your commitment to sacramental worship are a constant reminder that God is with us.
This commitment to sacramental worship is great way to enter the wilderness of our lives in the knowledge and love of God. By coming to this altar, by receiving the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ regardless of whatever may be happening around us, we are maintaining our faithfulness to God while we wander the wilderness of our lives. Another way that we do this is as we enter this season of lent many of us take on different disciplines and practices. These disciplines serve to bring us closer to God and in doing so they prepare us to enter any wilderness faithful to God.
As we deepen our relationship with God, whether it be through sacramental worship, personal disciplines or any other way we are more able to face the trials and temptations that the world has for us and we are more likely to come through them stronger and as a living witness to the power and awesomeness of our God. As we come closer to God we are able to enter the wilderness not like the Israelites, grumbling and feeling punished by God, missing out on what God can do for us, but as Jesus entered the wilderness, aware of the priority of God in our lives and resolved to come through the wilderness and show forth the love of God.