The scripture read today focuses our attention on Jesus at the beginning of his ministry. He is 30 years of age. He has been baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist and has come from this exhilarating moment in his life when John has recognized that he is a special person and there has been the declaration that he is indeed God's favored Son.
And now he has retreated to the desert area beyond the River Jordan for a period of reflection and retreat as he wrestles with questions concerning his vocation, his privileged relationship to the Creator of the universe, and what he is going to do with his life. It is an appropriate scripture for the beginning of the season of Lent, which is also a period of reflection and spiritual retreat.
Jesus has been born into a world to teach and to demonstrate God's love in a world locked in a battle between the powers of evil and the powers of good. Jesus, like many of you, was multi-gifted, with many possibilities, which pulsated through his veins. Like a college student who said to me recently, "I am so confused for I can go in a number of different directions. I want to do this, but I can make more money if I do that. I feel that I would be happy if I do this, but I will probably make my family happy if I do that." Life is never easy and to complicate things even more, there is in life a diabolical, evil temptation, to compromise what is right and good and Godly.
This rather intriguing story of Jesus' temptation, is told by Luke as though there was a news reporter who had attended the event, but the truth is our only source of information would have been Jesus himself, for he was alone. He must have shared with his disciples later, his personal struggles to eliminate a style of life which could have used to advantage the power of authority and the power of miracle to transform rocks into bread thus feeding the hungry, and the captivating power of magic sensationalism.
As each luring temptation is offered by the Devil, from Jesus' training as a young son of the Jewish tradition, came his help from Holy Scripture: "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." "You shall not tempt the Lord your God". "Man shall not live by bread alone".
He ruled out one offer after another from the devil buried deep within him and each of us. He struggled within himself knowing the unbelievable possibilities of accomplishing the establishment of the Kingdom of God on the earth. Through authority he could force the issue. Through miracle he could attract the masses. Through magical sensationalism the crowds would follow him. But For Jesus the end would never justify the means, so he said: No to authority. No to magic. No to sensationalism.
This would be the first word we hear from Jesus as an adult. And this first word is "No". Before his first sermon, before the Beatitudes, which would define the Kingdom people, Jesus defines himself and his way by what he refuses to do. He is known by what he rejects rather that what he affirms.
Temptations come to us as adults, but temptation is a problem also for our children. A recent study conducted by the Urban Institute found that one in five children ages 6-12 are regularly left without adult supervision after school. Older Children in that ranges are often home alone rather than under the supervision of some adult. The researchers said that the time any child spends unsupervised is filled with risks for injury, drug use, and falling behind in school.
Jesus said "No" to Satan. The community program "Just say no to drugs" is a word which our children need to use more often. Sexual promiscuity is encouraged in the media and culture of today. Just say No. It can save a lot of heart aches. The former Charles Schulz once wrote in his Peanuts cartoon: "No problem is so formidable that you can't walk away from it."
To be sure, the day or opportunities for temptation will surely come to us as it came to Jesus. Our prayer as we journey through these 40 days of Lent, is that God will strengthen us and empower us to "Just Say No" and He will!
Dear God, through your Son Jesus, you have asked us to take up the cross and walk with you down a narrow way of obedience, give us the courage to walk faithfully with you.
The enticements of the world are alluring to us. It is difficult for us to say no, difficult even for us to know that there is something to which we ought to say no.
Having so seldom denied ourselves, we often lack the skills of refusal. We grab at this or that bright enticement, fearing that we might miss the one possession that would give our lives meaning.
Jesus, teach us the virtue of negation, the joy of being able to stand against the alluring offerings of the evil side of this world. Give us strength to resist, to renounce, and reject evil in whatever form it presents itself, in order to accept and to take up your way of the cross, a way that leads to life. Amen.
After the Baptism of Jesus by John, and the wilderness retreat of Jesus when he struggled with Satan in a search for his identity and his future, Jesus calls his disciples and begins a ministry of teaching and healing.
John, dressed in a camel's hair shirt and high on eating wild honey, a troublemaker for the status quo, is increasingly troubled himself with the tension around him and not having heard from Jesus, sends someone to ask him "Well?" "Well?" Are you the one or are we to look for another one? And Jesus sends back the answer: "Go and Tell John what you see:" "The blind receive their sight. The lame walk. The dead are raised. The troubled hear a message of good news." See, hear and believe!"
Seeing is a matter of faith and the perspective of time also helps. You can become overwhelmed by the immediate, and can only survive by remembering that there is something beyond the immediate. I have known individuals living in the same time and in the same town, and one will be hopeful and the other will see nothing but despair. I have seen individuals faced with the same challenges and one will hold his shoulders back and his head up while the other will take his own life. What do you see when you look around?
Do you see the trouble that stalks our streets?
Do you see the cynicism of people concerning public officials? Former President Clinton participated in friendships and relationships, which led to some highly questionable pardons at the last minute of his Presidency. He has opened an office in troubled Harlem, but how many black men who robbed convenience stores for $155.00 did he pardon? Were the pardons the crowned jewels of his rather colorful White House years? If so, God save the nation. You can make an easy case for cynicism. Local legislators sell their influence and compromise their integrity. Don't get me started.
Do you see the Government as corrupt, the courts bought and paid for by the wealthy, and the future bleak and foreboding?
Do you see troubled teenagers dressed in funky clothing?
Do you see the State building new prisons and using old trailers in crowded schools?
Do you see disease increasing and good people suffering and dying?
One's faith in God or lack of faith in God shapes what you see around you. If you believe that, "This is My Father's World" then you will be enabled to see beyond what is to what will become, beyond the immediate to God's coming future Kingdom.
There is trouble around us and it is threatening and foreboding, overwhelming and dangerous and you can lose your life.
But there was trouble around Jesus, John the Baptist, who would lose his life and those who come alive in the Biblical Narratives lived in trouble. But they seemed to look upon trouble with a different set of eyes. They seemed to have the ability to see through the darkness to the coming light. Through defeat to victory. Through death to life. Through hunger to the feast. Through failure to success. Through despair to fulfillment.
For example there was:
2. As you look around do you see through eyes of faith beyond the immediate or do you see only the surface of the overwhelming problems and challenges, which surround you? Are you blinded by the pain of what you feel, or can you see beyond?
For example, is Springtime a time of troubling pollen or budding plants? It is perhaps the easiest time to see through eyes of faith because nature verifies what we have hoped for months. Not so many weeks ago, The Robins came back once again, these early harbingers of spring. In spite of our problems, in spite of how many times we have stood beside open graves, the Robins always come back.
While recently flying in a small plane, all of a sudden we were blinded by bad weather, but the instruments continued to guide us safely toward home. Sometimes you have to fly by instruments - the instruments of faith.
People of faith and all people are given a chance for that matter, but people of faith claim the unique ability to see beyond what is to what will come, beyond the surface to the depth, beyond the storm clouds of today to the bright sun which glows above. The ability to see beyond is a gift and it is also a choice. What's your choice? You see what you look for.
Let us look through eyes of faith and see beyond the immediate to the coming desired goals of God. If we look through eyes of faith, we will experience success rather than failure, we will feel hope rather than despair. We will see victory rather than defeat. We will experience life rather than death.
The Cross did not hold him. The Grave will not contain him. Death will not stop him. Through eyes of faith, we see beyond the immediate and the obvious to the final victory. The grave cannot contain him….He'll Rise again. "Ain't no power can keep me down - death can't keep me in the ground."
Summary: So Jesus told the disciples, "Go and tell John what you see." You never know when times get hard if it is but the prelude of something great. Time will help you see more clearly your history. The Perspective of Years will make clear what God is doing for us and with us and through us today. But seeing through eyes of faith is without a doubt --a human choice. What's your Choice?
The people of the Bible often used illustrations from the land to communicate great truth. For example: Jeremiah wrote: "Blessed is the person who trusts in the Lord…For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots by the river and shall not fear when the heat comes."
And the Psalmist: ""Blessed are those who delight in the law of the Lord, for they are like trees planted by streams of water that yield their fruit in season." And Jesus, who would often draw illustrations from the land, spoke of having faith the size of a mustard seed that would grow into a giant tree. In the scripture today He speaks of the importance of the fig tree, which bears fruit. The intentional choice of the biblical characteristics of trees for illustrative material fascinates me, especially in the spring of the year as the trees are dazzling with new growth, buds, and the early beginnings of fruit. As Joyce Kilmer once wrote: "I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree."
Trees are lovely and like people come in so many varieties.
Trees, amazing in variety and remarkable in beauty and crucial to the ecological systems of the world. Crucial for the carbon dioxide they take from the air and the oxygen, which they release into the air. Crucial for the fruit, which they provide for our tables and necessary for the balance of life. One of our children's classes this past year studied the importance of protecting the rain forest. This week, as my mind absorbed the striking beauty of the trees of our community and encountered the scripture references to be read in our worship this morning, I began to think of the advantages that trees have over human beings:
They never ask who am I? What am I doing hear? And as far as I can tell they are content being who they are. They never want to be somebody else. The oak does not long to be a dogwood. And the spruce does not envy the drooping elegance of the willow tree. Trees never ask, what is my purpose in life? They never have to attend seminars on the power of positive leafing. They don't carry with them a palm pilot or a day planner or any kind. They're content with their lot in life. Content with who they are. Those who trust in the Lord are like trees planted by streams of water.
One of my hopes for our confirmation class members is that they will realize, some for the first time, that they are made in the image of God. That they will know themselves as "Children of God." That they will learn to appreciate whom God has created.
The apostle Paul at last in his maturing process reached a level of a tree when he wrote: "I have learned to be content, in whatever state I am in."
They don't numb their brains with alcohol or drugs. They don't run away. They don't whisper lies nor hold on to old grudges. They don't drive their cars at high speed nor do they abuse their bodies or anyone else's body. They don't shoot each other with guns. They don't betray trust-such a sacred, fragile vessel. It's crazy what some folks do to themselves in the name of doing something to someone else.
Duffy Robbins is a youth leader in Christ's ministry to the young in America and he writes of a time when he lost a favorite pen in his house. He set out to find it under his sofa cushions. He was shocked to discover that under his neat looking sofa cushions was a horrible jumble of food crumbs, paper wrappers, spare change and other junk. It was a mess, probably not unlike most of ours. He writes that his experience taught him to never look under his sofa cushions again. No, to clean out under the cushions more often.
Sometimes we don't search deep inside ourselves because we are uneasy about the mess we will find. One of the advantages of spring-cleaning is to clean out the things under the cushions. One of the advantages of spiritual cleaning in Lent is to confess to God the mess we have made with our lives and to clean it out and start over again. We read a lot about pollution, it is a problem. Lent is a season to clean up pollution in the soul.
Trees don't spend their lives in fear of what tomorrow may bring. They don't worry about how fortunate or unfortunate they are. They never seem to worry about aging, or sickness or the stock market. They don't fret over FCAT results. They accept life as it comes day after day, year after year. So often we tend to complicate our lives with the additional burdens of worry and fear.
It is always interesting to me that both the Christmas angel and the Easter angel at the empty tomb said, "Do not be afraid." The apostle was to encourage the young disciple Timothy by saying: "God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity, but a spirit of power and love and self-control." (II Timothy 1:6)
One of our members in talking about the impact of the stock market decline on the results of our capital campaign commented: "It will have no negative effect because we are a people of faith and will be giving over a period of three years out of future earnings." In fact that person made a significant faith commitment on future confidence. And already as the pledges have begun to come in, we are seeing faith commitments based not on fear.
Trees do their thing, without worry or fear. How many of us who have troubles enough without adding to them, do add to them by draining our energy with unfounded fears. How many of you are worrying about things you can do nothing about right now and probably need to just turn it loose.
Years ago when I was growing up in Marengo County, deer hunting was a favorite sport in the fall and winter months. One of the many stories told around many a camp fire was about the year this fellow had been hunting in a new stand of woods late in the afternoon. Worried about getting lost, he had carried along a roll of duct tape with him to mark his path along way so that he could find his way back out of the tall timber. One thing led to another and he stayed too late and then couldn't see the duck tape markings. Finally, exhausted from moving around in circles in the darkness, he climbed a tree and duck taped himself to a tall oak tree. Early the next morning his buddies found him about 500 yards from the base camp, duck taped to the tree where he had slept all night. It took a couple of buddies to climb the tree to cut him free.
There are many a human being who, not with duct tape, but with anxiety about the future, have forgotten the words of the Master: "Do not be anxious about your lives" and are living paralyzed, limited lives, bound to the fears of the unknown. Trees don't make that mistake.
This is certainly true of the giant Cyprus in the swamps of Wewahitchka just down state, and the giant sequoias in California. Their root system is unlike most trees that have root systems that grow deep into the ground. The Sequoia and Cyprus trees have roots just barely below the surface of the ground and their roots are small in comparison to other huge, towering trees. There just below and sometimes above the ground, the roots grow together and intertwine with one another giving them extraordinary strength. So when the strong winds come they hold each other up. I wish we were as wise as the trees.
In Key West the small, one-room wide homes, are joined together with Hurricane bars. For years and years they have with stood the winds of the Gulf and the Atlantic by holding on to each other. The church at its best is the church in community, in support of one another.
Finally, Trees bear fruit without complaint and without excuse. When you are true to your self, you bear fruit.
Some trees bear fruit annually, like the fig, or the apple, or pear, or peach trees, but some only sporadically: For example the bitternut tree bears fruit every third or fourth year. The bamboo is the champion of delay as it bears fruit only every 120 years. But each tree is true to its own nature and none bears the same fruit, only the fruit for which they were designed. Jesus questioned the value of a tree that does not bear fruit. Of course, he wasn't really talking about trees at all. He was talking in this parable of the trees, talking about his disciples, his followers.
The question for us this morning is: Are we bearing fruit in our lives? "Leave it for a year, tend to it," the gracious gardener says, and then if it is not producing, cut it down. To our lives, God as the gracious garner comes. Having given us a season or more, he approaches us with a basket in one hand and an axe in the other. If there is fruit he lays down the axe and gathers the fruit into the basket. If there is no fruit, he lays down the basket.
How wonderful are the trees of the earth and human beings who are tree-like in their faith.
One Biblical Scholar has written that the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of our faith, is contained in the varied images of Luke 15 and can be summarized in a phrase:
"The Lost are now Found!"
There is a lost coin, which is found.
There is a lost lamb, which is found.
There is a lost son, which is found.
The father of the so called Prodigal Son clearly articulates this good news for us in his statement in Luke 15:24 "My son was dead, and is alive again, he was lost and is found!" Good News: the lost are found!
If you are young in the faith, if you are just putting together what all of this means, you can discover it in Luke 15. Look with me at but one of the images used by Jesus, recorded in this Chapter:
The parable of the Prodigal Son or perhaps better called, The Parable of the Forgiving Father, describes our condition and the love of the Heavenly Father. There are three primary characters in this story: The Father, the prodigal son and the stay at home brother:
1. The Father, and don't miss this truth, is like the Heavenly Father, the Creator of the Universe. The Father has lost his son, blood of his blood, flesh of his flesh, and the kid who has lived his life like a loose cannon, has demanded his inheritance and literally thrown it away on loose living.
I can only image what my father would have said to me had I asked for my share of the inheritance early. But then I begin to think about my father's relationship with his two sons and then I remembered that at every significant juncture, I recall that he was there.
When I played ball, he was always in the stands, he was there when I bought my first car. When I signed the loan papers for our home. He never gave us anything but made us sign loan papers that he in time canceled before we ever got near paying them off. He forgave the loan. Can you image a bank forgiving your loans? Banks don't do that, but father's do. At least some father, at least sometimes.
And I know fathers are not perfect. I know what I am talking about, as I am one. They can be inconsistent, short fused, ignore you and say ugly things that will hurt your feelings. But I will give them the benefit of the doubt; they want to do the best for you. The Bible teaches that they are to be the spiritual head of the house. Well are you. Are you the ones who get your kids in church? Are you the one who leads the family in prayer? Are you the Spiritual Head of the House?
When the Prodigal, wayward son, had at last destroyed his life (and in time when you live only for yourself and for the present moment, then you will self-destruct). But after he had self-destructed, he came to himself and came home and was met by a forgiving father whose love remembered no wrong doing, but welcomed him home.
Could it be, we ask ourselves, could our God, be like that? We have all played the fool and made careless mistakes, or been involved in wrongful actions, and God, the Heavenly Father, although he expects the best of us, forgives our sin, and remembers our foolishness no more. Good news, God is a forgiving, loving Father.
"The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost." These three parables of the lost son, the lost coin, the lost sheep, all have within them a common thread-there is a concerned individual-a woman, shepherd, a father, someone who longs for and looks for the lost lamb, the lost coin, the lost son. God is the Shepherd; God is the woman looking for the lost coin, God is the loving father, with a broken heart. No, your God is not keeping a score of our stupidity or our idiocy, or our mistakes or our ugly, vindictive thoughts. No! He is looking for us, searching for us, hoping that we will come to ourselves and that we will come home to him.
The amazing good news of our faith is that the creator of the universe is approachable and, in fact, loves his creation and is doing everything he can, within the restrictions of his self imposed gift of our independence and freedom, to help us. He is like a father who can do everything he can for us, short of violating his son's freedom.
When you pray, Jesus, taught us to declare: "Our Father" To the religious world of the first Century, Jesus addressed the uncertainty of who God was with his clear teachings. He was not one to be appeased and feared, or terrorized by. He is not out to hurt us, but out to help us, not terrorize us.
There are religious teachings to this day, that teach that the God waiting to catch us in some wrongdoing and destroy us. But we teach not of a God to be feared, but of an all powerful, forgiving, loving one who wants us to stand to our full humanity.
2. The Second character is the Prodigal Son. The foolish younger son who is the great spender, but spends his dad's money on that which is not lasting and much too quickly is without the resources to buy the kind of friends who will stand by you, as long as you are picking up the tab.
There is a type of religious faith that talks a great deal about the devil. How powerful he or she is and how we are constantly under attack from Satan. I don't talk a great deal about Satan, not because I am not aware of an evil tendency in the heart of us all, but because I don't want to give him authority over our lives. Just like a negative attitude will keep you down, if you think about Satan all the time, it gives him power over your life. Satan has no power over a Christian disciple. You are in charge of your life. The mistakes you have made are not because of Satan, or your mother, or your brother, but it is me, Oh Lord, standing in the need of grace.
You are in charge of managing your life. You are in charge of doing your homework, cleaning your room, taking care of your job responsibilities, providing for your family. And when you make mistakes, it's you that is responsible for blowing it. The prodigal son made a mess out of his life, and it was he that finally came to himself.
When he comes to himself, he goes home! I would like to think that home is lodged in your mind as a place of peace and security, that no matter how bad it gets out in the world, you can think to yourself, I'll go home. There is at home someone who believes in me in spite of what I have done or not done. In spite of the mess I have made out of my life. The Prodigal Son goes home where he is hoping at least he will be allowed to eat at one of the servant's tables, work the fields and earn the respect of his family. But no, he is surprised by grace, His father embraces him and he is welcomed home with a party. His father gives him new clothes, the family ring for his finger, kills the fatted calf and prepares Beef Wellington. "My son who was dead is now alive, who was lost is now found." At night the restored son back in his old bedroom, would drift off to sleep humming to himself, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind but now I see."
3. And thirdly there was the elder brother. Now he was an interesting study of human behavior at its worst. At it's worst, those of you who are an elder brother like say, at it's worst? He stayed home, worked the fields, managed the farm, helped the old man every time he needed help, never had a party thrown for him, and you say, at its worst? Here the young bum returns home and his dad throws a party with Beef Wellington, Duchess Potatoes and Coconut Cream Pie, but for him, his dad can't even come up with Hamburger Helper, Stovetop Stuffing or a moon pie. Those of you who are in the elder brother position of the family will probably chose his side here.
But before you side with him, consider that Jesus was probably setting up this story to illustrate that we are all sinners before God's amazing gracious love. Is the lust of the younger son not matched by the resentment of the elder son? Which sin is the worst? What's worse? Jesus seems to be posing in this story a colorful sin or a self-righteous, better than your attitude?
Jesus seems to pose in this story, the frustration of the Father. He has two sons and he has almost lost them both. Two sons, both of which deserve to be thrown out of the house and the father cannot get either of them to sit down at the same table. Both sons suffer from the illusion that they can be in a relationship with their father without being related to each other.
Don't miss this part of this powerful story. God desires all humanity to sit down at a common table and break bread in peace. The question is suddenly posed: "How can we expect to relate to God if we refuse to relate to each other?" No wonder Jesus said: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God." "When you have done it unto the least of them, you have done it unto me."
Summary: Well, let's see, we have considered the Loving Father, the Prodigal Son, and the stay at home, shortsighted elderly brother. The only other things left to consider would be the servants and the fatted calf, and the only thing that saves you from my dealing with both of them is my kind hearted spirit and the time of the hour.
Nevertheless, the Good News of our Faith, is this: When we are lost, God looks for us, searches for us, and longs for us to come home.