Beloved In The Wilderness

We trace the wilderness story and confront the urge to prove ourselves through Lenten checklists. We shift from guilt-driven striving to practices that help us remember we are God’s beloved and live from that identity together.

Transcript

Temptation In The Wilderness

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Our gospel reading this morning comes from Matthew chapter 4. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward was famished. The tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But Jesus answered, It is written, one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took Jesus to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, God will command the angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. Jesus said to the devil, Again it is written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Again the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said to him, All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to the devil, Away with you, Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve God alone. Then the devil left Jesus, and suddenly angels came and waited on him. You may be seated. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. A few months ago, a couple of my seminarian friends and I started a weekly breakfast group. We did this so we would have a fixed time every week to catch up and talk about our lives. However, as some of you have who have been to seminary may know, it is hard to keep a bunch of seminarians from talking about theology, church policies, and our sense of call. And so this weekly meeting has also become an outlet for discerning how to be future leaders in the church. During one of these early morning breakfasts, we were discussing what practices we were doing for Lent, either fasting from something or taking something on. As we were talking, I ended up venting to my group that Lent stresses me out because I always promise to do more than is truly feasible. I will eat vegan and only cook at home. I'll pray three times a day, abstain from watching TV, stop eating sweets, even on my birthday, which always falls in Lent, and the list goes on and on. I want to try and take on so many practices to make Lent feel special, to seemingly work and earn the promise hope of Easter and the new relationship in God Jesus gives us. But I always fail by the third week and just give up. I get overwhelmed with all that I feel I have to do. I imagine some of you have felt overwhelmed about Lenten practices or even living out your faith every day before. Whether you grew up Lutheran or in another tradition, it is a pretty typical practice to give up something for a Lent in order to prepare yourself for Easter. While there are ways to do this practice where it is truly beneficial, like giving up buying coffee every day and donating that money to those in need, Lenten disciplines more often than not take on a negative air to them. We do them because we feel like we have to. We do them to seemingly earn God's grace. We may even do them because we feel we are not holy enough, good enough to receive God's promises. We feel guilty, perhaps even shameful, of who we are, and we feel we need to prove to God that we are worthy of all the love and hope Jesus gives us. But guilt and shame are not the real reasons for Lent or our spiritual practices. We repent, confessing the ways we have fallen short in our lives, and we take on disciplines not as a way to beat ourselves up or prove to God that we are worthy of their love, but as a way to reorient ourselves to a life focused on God. This is easier said than done, though, as we will still sin, still fall short in focusing our attentions on God. We get caught up in our work or our schooling. We feel scared when we hear of disaster or tragedy on the news. We worry about our families' futures. It is hard to focus on God even in the best of times with everything that begs for our attention. Reorienting our lives to God seems like such a difficult goal for everyone, regardless of what we are called to do in our lives. But in my breakfast group, as I laid this stress and frustration out to my friends, one of them gave me one of the best pieces of advice I have received in all of my years of seminary. They calmly looked at me and said, Lent is about remembering who you are and whose you are. Who you are and whose you are. After having fasted for 40 days and forty nights, the tempter, also referred to as the devil, comes and challenges Jesus. Jesus is first tempted with food, then with bodily safety, and finally with power. All while the devil challenges Jesus' identity. The Bible translation we are reading from today has the tempter repeatedly try to provoke Jesus, saying, if you are the Son of God, then do this. If you are the Son of God. Is he really the Son of God? Certainly, if he is, he can prove it. Do something miraculous, turn stones into bread. Save yourself, have angels rescue you from falling. Take the power you deserve, worship the tempter, and he will give it to you. Jesus is being tempted to forget who he is and whose he is. But as we see, Jesus does not cave to the temptations of the devil. He does not have to prove his identity to anyone as God's beloved. He will not serve anyone but God. Jesus remembers that he is God's, and there is nothing anyone can do to take that away from him. Like our brother Jesus, we too are children of God. This is who we are. God is constantly reaching out to us, calling us each by name and reminding us of our true identity as God's beloved. Nothing we can do can separate us from this fact. No sin is strong enough for us to lose it, and no work is good enough for us to earn it. God claims us just as we are. We are God's beloved. While this is an amazing truth, it is one that can be difficult for us to see and remember. Life makes us question our awesome identity and if we are truly worthy of it. But with God's help, we can learn how to see God's love and to truly begin to accept it. This is what the season of Lent is about. Not guilt or shame, not trying to prove ourselves to God, but for receiving God's help in remembering who we are. We repent for having been distracted from our true identity as God's children. We give up things that make it hard to see God's love and our calling to serve all creation. And we take on practices God calls us to that help us to trust in our belovedness. This season, these practices all help God open us up to receive the joyous promise of everlasting love and life given to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As we journey through this season of Lent, I encourage you to ask yourself this. How is God calling you to remember who you are? For some, it may be fasting from something that distracts them from accepting their belovedness. For others, it may be taking on new forms of prayer or spiritual practices that will enrich their relationship with God. For me, this year I will be observing a traditional spiritual practice, veiling. Veiling has been a practice in the Christian church often required of women for generations. This often symbolized how men were in charge over women and their need to submit to it. It should be unsurprising to those here that I am not veiling because of some old patriarchal belief in the church. But I veil to reclaim it for anyone, regardless of gender, as a tangible reminder of God's presence in our lives. This head covering is a physical reminder for me that despite what I sometimes may think or believe, I am God's child. I am beloved. How is God calling you to remember who you are? As we discern this question this Lent, we are not alone. We can support each other throughout these 40 days as God works within us. As we do, may God enlighten us to the things and ways that are distracting us from remembering our true identity. May God also grant us the courage to be vulnerable and open ourselves to God's love. And finally, on this Lenten journey, may God reveal to us the simple yet awesome truth. We are God's beloved children, and nothing can ever take that away from us. Remember who you are and whose you are. Thanks be to God. Amen.