Sermon for
March 01, 2020
We are doing a number of things this
year during Lent. Including or nails and
the climate change discussion group and also a sermon series on spiritual
disciplines.
Christian Spirituality is about
attending to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and responding to
those movements to draw more into Christ’s likeness. When you think about Spiritual
Disciplines what comes to mind are likely things like prayer, fasting, worship,
stewardship, solitude, silence, worship. But is Christian Spirituality just about
these “sacred activities? OR does/could Christian Spirituality’ include also “what
we do? Colossians 3: 23 reads “ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart,
as though you were working for the Lord and not for people.” R.C.
Sproul an American theologian was quoted saying in essence the same
thing: “ in the presence of God, under
the authority of God, to the glory of God.” This scripture and the quote
from Sproul opens up other thoughts & options of Spiritual discipline.
During Lent some will personalize
the experience by denying themselves a
pleasure by giving something up like coffee or chocolate, screen time, our
chips, peanuts, so together this Lent we are going to add something to our
daily ritual instead of taking something away.
Spiritual disciplines are more than
doing the right things, but working toward the desired goal & the key
desire for Christians is to become more like Jesus. To walk more fully in His
teachings, His ways, His presence and grace.
We hear about the Pharisees in scripture. They
were religious people, they read their Bibles and prayed every day, but it drove
them deeper into pride and narrow mindedness separated them more from others.
Remember the one Pharisee who stood at the temple entrance and prayed these words out enough to be heard: 'God, I thank
you that I am not like other people--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even
like this tax collector. Luke 18:11 His
spiritual discipline was there, but he certainly was not growing more Christ
like. His practice did nothing to take the focus from himself and onto Jesus
purposes or mission.
Christian motivation &
intentional repetition is spiritual discipline. So praying to impress is not a
good spiritual discipline, but praying for the people in trouble, say when you
hear a siren can become a discipline because overtime it creates for you a response
of awareness of others hurting and it is a move of one’s heart toward Christ.
The main source for this series is Barbara Brown Taylor’s book Alters in the
World – A Geography of Faith. Taylor uses a range of spiritual thought and stories
to demonstrate the connection between the spiritual and the physical worlds.
She has had involvement in the Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian
churches before settling in for 20 plus year as an Episcopal Priest. She then
left the church and became a teacher of world religions at Piedmont College, in
Georgia, until 2017. She is the author of 14 books & the recipient of many
awards. She continues to do speaking engagements along with enjoying time on
the farm her and her husband own in Georgia.
When Taylor first moved to Georgia,
besides the cows, the foot paths the cows made and where they went intrigued
her. Not only were the cow paths very narrow in comparison to the width of a
cow, but the paths the cows designed were from the shortest point from A to B
and these paths were the easiest route around certain landforms, hills etc
& often the most shaded. Cattle are very predictable; they follow one
another and are very routine in their daily schedule. You can plan to find them
in certain areas of the field at certain times of the day, or if a sunny day,
look for them in the shade. They are predictable.
This week Andrew & I had drs. appointments in Kingston, picked him up from
school & we drove.
Every now & again I was thinking about how we had to go to get to our
destination. Then routine took over & I followed the predictable cow path.
Soon as I turned down the usual route
onto Sir John A. I knew should have turned onto Gardiners. Routine and taken
over.
We do this when we drive to work or go certain places routinely we take
the shortest route the same path, normal behavior, we
need something extra to override it. Why would we override it? Well once you
leave the cow path the unpredictable field is full of life. It means we have to
wake from our unconscious state and make new choices, become more aware of our
surroundings, tuning all of your senses to exactly where you are and what you
are doing. Suddenly you find yourself seeing and
taking in this unfamiliar experience, losing yourself in the experience. Until
you return to a familiar road.
These are gentle ways of getting
lost, but there are times in life when we find ourselves really lost the need
not to panic, and control your resources is paramount.
Friend visiting his home in South
Africa – had passport, and citizenship papers stolen, couldn’t get back home
here until he worked it all through. He could have panicked & made his
situation all the worse.
We have all lost our way numerous
times in our life. Maybe you set to
finish school and became a parent instead. Maybe you set out to be an
accountant and ended up a plumber. Maybe you set out to be married and ended up
widowed or divorced. Maybe you thought you would live in the city, but here you
are in and around the village of CV or Newburgh.
When these losses happened to you
and you felt very displaced it was not at all pleasant. For myself at the time
of ordination I thought I might be placed in an area close to where I lived,
because of the number of vacancies and my familiarity with a particular charge
that was vacant. That was hard, when that didn’t happen. But it has worked out
very, very well.
Taylor shares a number of her lost
times and says that she would not give a single one of them back. She writes I have lived through parts of life that no
one in her right mind would ever willingly have chosen, finding enough
overlooked treasure in them to outweigh my projected wages in the life I had
planned. She goes on to say, “these are some of the reasons that I decided to
stop fighting the prospect of getting lost and engage it as a spiritual
practice instead. Finding things when she was lost, that she would never
have discovered had she stayed the course.
If you think back in your life, at
times when you changed for the better, how of them were wilderness times?
When
the safety net has split, when the way ahead is not clear, the sudden vulnerability
can be very frightening and very revealing. We often protect ourselves from becoming
too vulnerable. You may have told yourself you would die if it ever came to such
as this, yet here you are & you lived through it.
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the
wilderness today. Did he understand where he was going? Don’t think so, Jesus
became more and more vulnerable as his body became weaker and weaker, but he
continued on.
He was tested and tempted and led
from one unfamiliar point to another from the highest point of the temple to a
high mountain, but Jesus never was tempted to give in or go back.
Faith involves following the Spirit
to uncertain places. By faith Abraham, when
called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and
went, even though he did not know where he was going. Hebrews 11:8
Abraham’s descendants ended up in Egypt again
& the cow paths was their bondage to Pharaoh, straight from their slave
huts they would go to the mud pits where they made bricks. Their lives were so
frozen in place, this was the cost of security. Pharaoh was happy for their
slave labour but not their birth rite. Then Pharaoh demanded all baby boys be
killed, to cease the population from expanding, God heard their cries and sent
Moses to liberate the Hebrews from their bondage. They left Egypt for the
wilderness not knowing where their next meal would come from or how long they
would travel. It took 40 years in the wilderness to learn the holy art of being
lost. They suffered they at times were ready to go back, no matter how bad,
they complained bitterly, built a golden calf to worship thinking it might get
them back on the path, as God seemed to be intent on destroying them. But
God didn’t. HE strengthened them & when the milk and honey came they
thanked God and meant it.
The disciples in the gospels are called to lay
down their nets and follow Jesus not knowing where they are being called for
what, and they would help to build the church, and preach and witness and many
times were lost on the journey to share the good news.
Faith by definition is a journey
into unknown ground, it is a pilgrimage into ministry and mystery. Getting lost
is not an escape, but a readiness to be displaced, to be vulnerable and exposed
and open to prayer and personal change.
You may think of other ways to get
lost, or to accept that you really have gotten lost through no choice of your
own. It happens, anywhere and in all kinds of ways. You can get lost on your
way home. You can get lost looking for love, you can get lost between jobs, or
looking for God. However getting lost happens, take heart. Others before you
have found their way in the wilderness too.
As Jesus was, we too are tempted in
the wilderness to take the shortcuts, be taken in by the false promises of
possessions, popularity, and power. But
in reality, truth is, the devil’s way is the harder way, and Jesus harder way
is the easier way and not the lonely way.
The
Global Positioning Systems are very common in cars now, following the
instructions of a intangible voice coming from your dashboard, is a lot faster
than stopping to read a map to find you way and knowing that wherever you are,
there is an eye upon you so you will not miss your way. A single woman purchased a system for her car
and was thrilled to find out she could pick the gender of her GPS voice &
also the tone of the voice that would speak to her. She chose the honey-coated
male voice to give her directions.
Sometimes she uses it just to go to the
local grocery store at night, just so she can hear him talk to her in the dark.
Entering the wilderness, being
vulnerable, moving with love into uncertain places, may not be high on our
list, you will be tempted to go back, take a short cut, avoid the
vulnerability, give in to fear, or follow the true path of Christ?
Prayers of
the People
Gracious
God, we offer your thanks for all the ways we have met you in the week just
past.
In
quiet moments we remember with gratitude:
A
word of encouragement, (Hold
a brief silence)
An
insight of truth, (Hold a brief silence)
An
answer to prayer, (Hold
a brief silence)
Calm
in the midst of stress, (Hold
a brief silence)
Someone
who offered us support or challenge,
(Hold a brief silence)
A
sense of accomplishment in work that mattered,
(Hold a brief silence)
Moments
of rest and relaxation. (Hold
a brief silence)
Thank
you, loving God, for all these signs that you love us, understand us and walk with us. As we remember mercies already
received, we think of the need for your mercy in the world around us. And so in
faith we pray for:
The
world and the many places that have been in the news this week (Hold a brief silence)
The
church and our congregation as we face challenges and opportunities for mission
(Hold a brief silence)
Our
workplaces and community and the many roles we play, (Hold
a brief silence)
Our
family and circle of friends who we name before you now, & those on our
prayer list – Allen, Wilson families,
many concerned with the corona virus, negotiations, strikes, protests.
(Hold a brief silence)
Those
known to us with special needs,
(Hold a brief silence)
Thank
you for hearing our prayers and for your grace that embraces all whom we pray
for. Grant that we may go from this place of worship with your grace in
expectation and in hope.
Matthew 4:1-11
Passing the Test
OBJECTS
SUGGESTED:
A blackboard
and chalk or poster board and markers. Print the word TEST on the board.
What comes to your mind when you hear the
word TEST? We are tested in many ways. Some schools require that children know
how to tie their shoes before they begin kindergarten. Later, students take
spelling tests and math tests. Adults must take a driving test, showing they
have the skills necessary to drive a car. Pilots take tests to be able to fly a
plane. Can you think of other types of tests? Why are tests necessary? Yes, to
find out if you have the skills or knowledge necessary to go to the next step.
There is one type of test that is to be
avoided. Have you ever had anyone say to you, “I dare you?” When a person says
that, they are usually asking you to do something that is dangerous or
improper.
Even Jesus was put to the test and was
dared to do dangerous things while he lived among us. He refused to accept the
dare. He said, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall
not test the Lord, your God'” (4:7).
It is important to remember that advice
and not do things that dare or test God. As we learn more about God, through
prayer and by studying the Bible, we will begin to build an attitude of trust.
The feeling we may have inside, that need to test God, will develop into trust.
If we change the letters inside of TEST we
find we have TRUST. (Remove the ES from the word TEST, which has been written
on the board prior to the lesson, and insert RUS to form TRUST.)
Trust God and trust yourself to make good
choices.
What’s your favorite food? (Give children
time to respond.) Maybe you like pizza, or hamburgers, or ice cream. Just
talking about food makes you hungry, doesn’t it? Ummm, I’d like to have a pizza
right now.
One time Jesus was taken into the
wilderness. Jesus was there and he didn’t have any food with him. That’s when
the devil began to temp Jesus. Do you know what the word “tempt” means? (Allow
the children to respond.) To be tempted is when we think we might want to do
something that we know we should not do, like telling a lie, or taking
something that belongs to someone else.
Jesus didn’t have food with him, and he
was hungry. The devil tempted Jesus turn the stones into bread. Jesus was
hungry, but he refused to turn stones into bread.
From the very top of the temple, the devil
told Jesus to jump off. The devil said the angels would keep Jesus from being
hurt. What could have happened if Jesus had jumped off the roof? (Allow the
children to respond – they might say “break his leg,” or “get hurt”.) Yes, Jesus
might have been hurt, or even killed. Jesus didn’t jump.
The next time the devil tempted Jesus,
they were on a high mountain, and the devil said that everything that Jesus
could see would be his if he would worship the devil. Jesus didn’t listen to
the devil.
When he was tempted to turn the stones
into bread, Jesus said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” (Matthew
4:4 WEB)
And, when he was tempted to jump off the
roof of the temple, Jesus said, “Again it is written, ‘You shall
not test the Lord, your God.’” (Matthew 4:7 WEB) Did you
hear that? Again, Jesus used the words, “it is written.” Those must be
important words.
When Jesus was tempted to worship the
devil, Jesus spoke very. He said, “Get behind me,
Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall
serve him only.’” (Matthew 4:10 WEB)
Aren’t you glad that Jesus reminded the
devil that God had already made sure that those temptations were taken care of
in the Holy Bible? What were the important words that Jesus said? (Pause to
listen for their responses.) Yes, “It is written….”
When Jesus was tempted, he found help in a
book? That book was the Bible. When he said, “It is written,” he meant, “It is
written in the Bible.” Because Jesus knew the Bible so well, he was able to use
it to help him stand when the Devil was trying to get him to fall.
If the Bible could help Jesus like that,
it can help us too. That’s one reason we study the Bible–because it can help us
when we need help.
When we are tempted to do things we know
we should not do, we can say, “It is written, I’m not supposed to do that.”
Let’s pray.
PRAYER:
Dear God, thank you for the Holy Bible.
Thank you for giving us words to say when we are tempted. We are glad that we
can defeat temptation with Jesus’ words. Amen.
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