Pride, Power and Possessions

Pride, Power and Possessions   

Psalm 32    

Matthew 4:1-11 

Jesus, after his baptism, is drawn by the Spirit into the wilderness for prayer and fasting. The presumed location of the Baptism of Christ, is the Jordan River, a few miles away from the city of Jericho. Jericho claims it is the oldest city in the world with continuous habitation. Hard to build a counter claim to that. 

At any rate, head east from Jericho, and you cross the Jordan River and are in the country of Jordan. If you go north along the Jordan River Valley, you find lush fields with all kinds of vegetables and fruits and nuts. Head south or west towards Jerusalem, and you are in a barren wasteland, where fasting would be easy, and drinking water is hard to come by. In fact, access to fresh water in that part of the world is a major tool of manipulation even today. 

The teaching of the church assures us that Jesus is without sin. So the gospel writers tell us that the temptation of Jesus comes from the devil, and not from his own nature. You and I, we do not need to much help to be tempted to sin. 

The devil wraps his temptations to Jesus in quotes from the Bible. Manipulators are like that, twisting words, taken out of context, to hide their own motivations. Even in a world of bible quotes, it is important to be true to the spirit of love and the word. 

It is the tradition of the church to see these temptations of Christ as summary issues for pride, power and possessions. You know, the stuff humans fight over all of the time. These are the things that can most easily push my buttons. 

It is easy to say “I am not arrogant,” so that pride thing isn’t a problem for me. But if I am disrespected, ignored, or mistreated, the fire can turn my face red in a hurry. It is rooted in the same place. It is also where we turn disrespect into a weapon to deploy against others. In this political climate, it is a rare person who can stay on the high moral path, focused on issues and not personalities.  

Power over others is a very seductive opportunity to sin. We can easily wrap it in Bible verses, and shame those who disagree with our positions on women’s rights, respect for the rights of the LGBT community, and especially foreigners. The group with power makes new laws, and then enforces the law in the name of justice, without testing the law against the scales of justice. Sin loves to masquerade as the champion of Law and Order. 

Possessions. I am inclined to think first of the oppressive Occupation of the West Bank by Israel. But it is just as close to us as approval of dirty crude oil pipelines - through territories, in conflict with standing treaties with indigenous people in our own land. Manipulating the law to take or use what does not belong to you does not make the act “just,” simply legal. Protesting abuse of the legal system is not an unjust act.   

Jesus steps into the wilderness, and confronts the symbols of our own sinful natures. I do not often have to evoke the devil to find a source of evil, or the temptation to do evil in this world. Fortunately, the temptations in this story have a direct reference to my own life, and I do not have to wonder about the divine power of Jesus. 

If you listen carefully to the temptations the devil puts in front of Jesus, they do not seem to be terrible. Bread is not bad - I love bread. The secret is always to think through to what are all of the expected responses to the change. We might not be liable for all of the unintended consequences of our actions, but we ought to think about how these changes are likely to impact others. 

Jesus was able to relate each of these challenges directly to his relationship with God in heaven. The secret to living a moral and useful life is in being able to name and honor the relationships in your life. It is all about the relationship. 

Healthy relationships are what we practice at church, so that we can be more effective when we go home, or go to work. We exercise our best selves, and rely on the resources of our good and generous God, and then use those pre-rehearsed responses, so that we are able to be effective in emotional and close situations. 

On Ash Wednesday, we got very specific in here about how Lent is the time for us to reflect on our lives, and let God show us the places God would like us to improve. One of the great truths about the human spirit - that I have come to appreciate in my adult life - is how hard it is to see myself and my motivations in a self-critical way. The old saw is, “The truth will set you free.” That is especially true in knowing yourself, the problem is, your ego can take a real beating in that self-evaluation. 

I am calling it a “posture of confession,” simply meaning that we understand that we still have faults that we can and should correct. As we are able to identify and claim those faults, we become able to make the changes in our lives to draw nearer to God. This is the key to spiritual growth, which is the whole meaning of Lent for the faithful. 

So we assume a “posture of confession” claiming our intention to be humble before God. We listen to a word from God, not to correct others, but to improve our own spiritual health. 

We recognize from the gospel passage, that the changes in the world and its temptations, can lure us into a self-rationalized state of sin. Even when we feel good about it, sin is sin and diminishes our ability to bear the light of God’s truth. Sin breaks the good relationships that God intends for us.   

As we recognize the pattern of temptation in our lives, we recognize the scope and kind of change that it appears God is calling us towards. So all we can do, like Jesus, is to deny the temptation and then pray for the strength to stay the course. 

Change is inevitable. The only thing harder than change, is trying to prevent change from happening. That will wear a person out. So we enter Lent with humility, willing to learn what God might want us to change. 

We enter Lent knowing that change has to come, and that we might use the opportunity to draw nearer to God. And that, is how saints are made. And you and I are sharing the walk into the future of the saints. 

Jericho is a land remarkable for fresh water springs, when for miles and miles, it is all desert. The presence of the water makes possible the Date Palms, and banana trees, and even the Sycamore tree that Zacchaeus climbed up in. 

The love of God wells up like a fresh water spring in the Lent of the year. It is an invitation to draw nearer to the love of God. An invitation to see, our own lives, with God’s eyes. It is not intended to be a punishment, but a pathway to greater peace. Amen.