First Sunday in Lent
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one at the center of the story. Amen
 
The season of Lent is a time of storytelling.
During this 40 day period
we tell the stories of Jesus’ last days
 leading up to the greatest story of Easter morning.
 
We tell these stories every year during this season,
 we tell them because they are important to us,
we tell them so that new people might hear them,
we tell them to remember who we are and whose we are
because stories form our identities.
 
We start with our reading from Deuteronomy,
 I love this passage because it combines the power of storytelling with worship.
 
In this passage
Moses is instructing the Israelites
 before they enter the promised land
 on how to worship God who is giving them the land.
 
It is clear that Moses is concerned
that once the people settle in
 and start working the land
 and providing for themselves through farming
that they will forget God.
 
Moses says some variation
 of “the land that the Lord your God is giving you”
six times in this short passage,
 
he has a right to be worried
it’s a very human temptation
to forget God
 when it appears that we can take care of ourselves through our own work
even though God made it possible for us to work in the first place.
 
So Moses prescribes a ritual for worship
designed to both praise God
and remind the worshipper of God.
 
When the land,
a gift from God,
 starts to produce
the Israelites are to take the first harvest,
 put it in a basket,
bring it to the temple and give it to the priest
who will put it before the altar of God.
 
Seems simple enough,
but there is more,
 in addition to bringing the first fruits
 the worshiper is to retell the story of the people and God
 
"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me." Deuteronomy 26:5-10
 
The story puts the act of offering in context,
 the ability to offer these first fruits
 is only possible because of God’s saving actions and gracious gifts.
Telling the story this way
makes sure that God stays at the center of the story.
 
Worship is designed to keep God as the main character
in the story of life,
and let’s be honest
we need all the help we can get
 
we humans love to think that it is all about us,
and when we start to make ourselves the center of the universe
we get into trouble very quickly.
 
It is this human inclination
 that the Devil plays on as he tempts Jesus in our gospel for today
and Jesus resists
 by keeping God at the center of the story
 
 In his first attempt
 the Devil plays on Jesus’ pride and hunger
by saying “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
 
 Now imagine if Jesus were living with the perspective
 that he was the center of the universe-
 he would be insulted at the Devil’s questioning of his identity
 and authority as Son of God,
and being hungry it would make sense to prove the devil wrong
by creating some bread,
 seems like killing two birds with one stone.
 
But keeping God at the center
Jesus, even though he is the Son of God and is very hungry answers:
 “It is written, ‘one does not live by bread alone.’”
 
So the devil tries another common weak spot for humans,
he offers power,
 all the kingdoms of the world.
In exchange for allegiance that is.
 
We only have to look through history
at the various dictators
to know how this temptation might have played out.
But again Jesus keeping God at the center
 answers: “It is written, ‘worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”
 
And now the Devil knows he’s working with a really tough case
 and so in his last attempt
he combines a question of Jesus’ identity
with quoting scripture,
playing Jesus’ own game saying “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘he will command his angels concerning you, to protect you, and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’  
 
there you have it,
the word of God straight out of Psalm 91,
 how can you argue with that? The Devil implies
 
this tactic has worked really well for the Devil over the years
 playing on the pride of people
 who then pressure other people
 saying: “If you are a Christian, you will go and do____ something very un Christ like”
and by backing up their claim with scripture
people fall prey to the desire
 to prove that they are Christian
 rather than to act like Christ.
 
but yet again Jesus sees through the devil’s ploy
 and keeping God at the center of the story
responds “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
 
At this the devil departs-
 but not for good, just until another time when Jesus is ripe for temptation,
 a time like this one where his defenses are down.
 
That’s when the devil likes to tempt us,
 not when we’re at our strongest,
 but when we’re at our weakest,
 
those times of struggle
 where we desperately desire a certain outcome
 because we are so overcome with the events in our lives
 that we’ve started telling our story with ourselves at the center
 
we are so focused on ourselves
 that we give into temptation
and start testing God saying things like:
“God, if you’re really there I’ll know because you’ll make the one I love all better.”
 or “God, if you’re really compassionate make all this pain go away, right now.”
 
Of course that way lies madness,
because God doesn’t work like that,
God is not a cosmic vending machine
where if we insert our prayers like dollars
our desired outcome will be dispensed.
 
 And how do we know God doesn’t work like that?
 Through all the stories of how God has acted in the past,
 the stories where again and again
God chose to work through death to bring new life.
 
So how do we make it through the tough times and resist temptation?
Through stories,
the stories of how God has acted in the past
and promised to act in the future.
 
 In worship we hear the stories,
and we give to God in recognition that in the great story of life
God is the main character to our supporting role,
and we celebrate the life God has given us.
 
And fortified by the story,
gratitude and communal celebration
 God sends us back out into the world,
to live through death into new life. Amen

Sixth Sunday After Epiphany
Deuteronomy 30: 15-20
Psalm 119:1-8
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Matthew 5:21-26

"Baby Steps"

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from God who gives the growth. Amen
 
Life with God is a process,
a journey that is only completed
when we are commended to God at our death
and because it is a journey that we are on
there is always room for improvement,
for growth.
 
Life with God takes practice.
 
Our texts for today
make it very clear
that life with God, as a child of God
is never a one and done event,
 
God saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt
and brought them to freedom and the promised land
but that was only the start of their life with God.
 
God knew that after being slaves for so long
they didn’t know how to live freely and peacefully with one another
so God gave the people leaders in Moses, Aaron and Miriam
and the commandments,
a guide for peaceful prosperous life together
 
and God gave the Israelites time to practice this way of life without distractions
while wandering in the desert
before entering the promised land,
 
they couldn’t handle it all at once,
they had to take baby steps to get there.
 
Our reading from Deuteronomy this morning
is Moses’ last address to the people
before they enter the promised land,
full of riches and opportunity
and other people with their own gods and way of living
 
 and one last time
Moses calls the people to follow the way of life
that they have been practicing,
that God has laid out before them
 
he puts it in stark terms,
life and death,
 
the way of God is life
any other way is death.
Choose life Moses says!
Practice life by living according to the guide God has given you,
it will lead you to life. Choose life!
 
By the time Jesus comes on the scene
the people have been practicing the law of Moses,
with varying degrees of success
for a long time,
 
and in the sermon on the mount
Jesus joins the group of rabbis who say,
it’s time to take it to the next level,
 
‘I didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it’ Jesus tells the crowd
life is even more complex than the law
and the interpretation of the law have been,
now it is no longer good enough
to follow the exact letter of the law
but one must look at the intent behind the law,
 
what is at the root of murder?
It is anger,
we’ve established that murder is bad Jesus says,
now let’s work on what leads to murder.
 
It’s the next step on the way to the abundant life
that Jesus came to bring,
 
and if all of this seems overwhelming and impossible
The truth is that it is
but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try,
it means we are aware of how much we need the grace of God
given to us through the cross of Christ
 God both expects us to follow the law
of love of God and neighbor
and God knows we will fail and need the grace of Christ.
 
Life with God takes practice
 
Paul points out in our reading from 1 Corinthians
that it’s okay, necessary even
to take baby steps in our practice,
 
he calls the Corinthians infants in Christ
and says that he fed them with milk
because they were not ready for solid food.
 
The life of faith is a life of growth in faith,
growth that takes time, nourishment and practice.
 
One of the main ways we nourish and practice
our life in faith
 is through worship.
 
When we gather for worship we gather to praise God, yes
and to be nourished yes
but also to practice,
 
in the time and space of worship
we practice for the rest of life,
we practice how God calls us to live beyond worship.
 
We start with confession and forgiveness,
practicing mending the inevitable broken relationships
that go along with being human.
 
We give thanks in worship,
practicing humility,
acknowledging that all we have in this life are gifts from God,
 
We listen to the word of God, in the readings and sermon,
practicing listening for what God is saying to us in our daily lives.
 
We pray for others and ourselves
practicing communicating with God on a personal level.
 
We offer one another peace
practicing for the times of conflict
when it will be necessary in life
to cross the aisle
 and take the hand of someone you profoundly disagree with
and make peace.
 
We give in worship
practicing living materially God and neighbor centered lives,
acknowledging that we are dependent on God
 and not on ourselves for our lives and livelihoods
and that we are called to share what God has given us.
 
We eat a meal together
at a table where all are welcome
and there is enough for everyone,
practicing God’s truth for the world,
preparing us to know that it is a lie
when we are told there is not enough for everyone
and that some are better than others.
 
We bless one another and receive blessings
practicing offering affirming words to one another
in a world that most often offers criticism.
 
And then we are sent out into the world
as servants of God
to spread this way of life
 
We go out taking baby steps,
a kind word here,
a radical welcome there,
a small moment of peace making,
a word of blessing,
 
and God takes our baby steps
and uses them to give the growth,
to make the kingdom of God a reality.
 
Paul planted, Apollos watered but God gave the growth.
Paul reminds the Corinthians
 
 Whatever we do
However we contribute
Ultimately growth is up to God
And for that I say thanks be to God.