All Saints Anglican Church - Prescott, AZ

A Life Lived for the Gospel

Following Jesus in Humility

To Be A Neighbor

It Is Well With My Soul

What the Love of God Drives Us To

Jesus Wept Over It

The Older Brother - a Homily for Trinity IX - August 9, 2020

Christ Alone

A Better Way

A Homily for Lent II

March 8, 2020

All Saints Anglican Church, Prescott, AZ

 

Text: Matthew 5:27-37

 

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

 

            Every Lent I set up for myself these incredibly high standards – “this Lent, I think to myself, I’m going to do a million things and become super awesome,” and on the surface I tell myself that it is for the sake of my soul, for the stripping away of all that is not of God. But I think deep down inside I want to be what St. Paul calls a super-apostle. A mocking term for those who added to the gospel of Jesus Christ at the church in Corinth.

            This year was really no different

And with some of my Lenten disciplines – I lasted 48 hours.

            Then I had a revelation – for me – this year – I think Lent is as much about mortification of the flesh through abstaining from certain pleasures, especially those which lead me into sin – as it is of learning the habitual act of repentance. Relearning repentance as a central part of the Christian life – learning to recognize when we’ve sinned, learning to flee from that sin when it comes at us, but not simply to flee from it, but flee into the arms of a loving God, flee into the grace of Christ who died on the cross for all our sins. For each of us – Lent ends up being different – some must abstain from something – others must add a new discipline, while others may simply need to relearn the old habit of repenting regularly.

            I recently stumbled across an article on Biblical manhood. The author lamented that one of the things that we tend to do as the church is tell people, men in particularly what not to do – and these admonitions are good – but we rarely tell them what to do. One of his exhortations was that men of God do “not merely avoids habitual sin, but cultivates habitual repentance.”

            Lent is a season of habitual repentance, habitually turning away from our sin, and turning back to God. Daily dying to ourselves and daily coming alive in Christ. It is our opportunity to recapture that calling to habitual repentance.

            This morning’s lesson is hard – I would be lying if when I read it on Monday as I started to prepare, that I thought “good! I get to preach on lust, adultery, divorce, and lying!”

            Perhaps my attitude was not as good as it should have been because we are privileged to have a lectionary that guides and directs us so that ultimately, we submit ourselves to the whole teaching of Christ, submit ourselves even to those parts that make us uncomfortable and this is an uncomfortable subject because chances are – lust – divorce – or a lack of truthfulness has affect each and every one of us – if not all three, at least one or two, for we are sinners who are broken, who struggle to allow God to fill every inch of our hearts and chase after every fleeting thing – and so, by the grace of God, we must wade through difficult passages such as these. For it is ultimately our calling to fill our hearts with the grace that we find in Christ. We are called to be endued with the spirit, to the glory of God in all things.

            Before we go any further – I want to say these two things – first – I speak as one who has a log in my eye – I do not presume to preach to you as one who is morally perfect – but as one like all of us has sinned, has fallen short of the glory of God, who has missed the mark. I have struggled with all kinds of sins, and seen my own darkness in my heart. So, do not hear me as one who is mightier than you – but as one who has sinned, who has repented, who is saved not by my own works but by the grace of God found in Christ Jesus. Hear one who finds Christ’s strength in his own weakness.  

            Secondly – you may very well feel yourself being uncomfortable with this subject matter, your conscience might arise within you and tell you – “repent!” If this is the case, the Holy Spirit is calling you, drawing you back to Christ, this is God calling you back to flee from whatever sin you struggle with. In that – I pray you would be reminded of what the Anglican Puritan Richard Sibbes said “there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”

            While our sin may very well drive us to our knees, may very well make us feel broken and devastated inside – it is in our brokenness and while we are on our knees that Christ finds us. If we feel this sense of sinfulness, if we feel this sense of brokenness – may we also be reminded to flee back to Christ, may that sense also remind us of His incredible mercy, His incredible goodness, may we not despair but turn back to Christ and ask for our brothers and sisters in Christ help in running the race that lies before us.

            Now – you might be wondering – why even bother talking about this? Or perhaps, you are thinking “man, this is uncomfortable, I don’t want our young unmarried, celibate priest to talk about sexuality.” But think about this – the average American over the age of 15 spent two hours and forty six minutes a day watching TV.

            This number nearly doubles for retirees over the age of 65 – to four hours fourteen minutes a day! Now, perhaps these are edifying shows – but a lot of what we consume on television tells us the antithesis of the gospel of hope – tells us the antithesis of a message of purity. It tells us that we should get what we want, and we should get it now, it tells us that the hook up culture that is so pervasive in our culture is okay and normal, it tells us that self-centeredness and selfishness is a good way to live. It portrays sexual immorality as good and right.

            Meanwhile, we might spend an hour and a half or two hours in corporate worship a week, and another two or three hours in fellowship. S0 we spend 21 or more hours a week being catechized by the culture and at most five hours being catechized by the church and perhaps a couple more if we are disciplined in our devotional life. If we do not live with a critical mind, if we are not diligent about how we fill our time and our minds – which is more likely to have an effect on how we think? Which is most likely to form our minds and souls? Which is more likely to shape our worldview?

            My friends – we must be on guard to what is forming our minds – and aware of how we think through things and what affects us out mind, body, and soul. And let us not be formed by the secular culture – but let us be formed by the word of God – be formed by His truth, by His church, and let us fully submit ourselves to it that our lives may be good and glorify God.

            Now, let us tackle the first uncomfortable thing – Christ says: “everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

How we view the other effects how we think of them – upon seeing an attractive person do we seek after that person for our own gratification, do we try to have them for our own pleasure, in reality or in our mind?

            Let’s take this a step deeper – I mentioned a minute ago the statistics on the consumption of television because we live in a time and culture that has been classified as “pornified” by not just concerned Christians but secular commentators as well. In younger generations – pornographic consumption is normalized – and shows on TV that would have been considered objectionable twenty or thirty years ago for their objectification of women are so normal that we don’t even blink. If we pause a moment and really think critically about this – we know it to be true. I could share here statistics on rates of consumption, and annual budgets on pornography, as they are readily available – but I suspect that we do not need further evidence of this and I do not wish to dwell in this dark place for too long.

            But let be aware that the sexualization of our culture is everywhere – and it has corrupted the heart of our present age.

            But perhaps you’re wondering – why does this even matter? What I do in the privacy of my own house is my business, or perhaps, what happens between two consenting adults is their business!

How we view people is fundamental to our worldview – are people there to fill our wants and needs? Are human beings there to fulfill our want for pleasure? Are we using the other to give our heart some place to rest, instead of letting our hearts rest in God?

            One thing I’ve noticed in talking with people who struggle with lust and sexual immorality is that they often don’t feel worthy of love – we live in an isolating culture and these people typically feel completely alone, feel too broken for community and sexual sin provides a brief reprieve from these feelings, it provides a brief, all be it artificial connection.

But my friends although sin, whatever it may be, feels dark and dreadful – and it may seem as though it is a bleak and painful spiral that never ends. Let me also tell you that there is healing in repentance – there is healing in Christ.

Perhaps my favorite St. Augustine quote is “our hearts are restless until they rest in thee O Lord.” Until we learn to allow our hearts to rest in the Lord – we will look for other things to fill them – it may not be lust, or sexual sin, it may be gluttony, greed, gossip, or something else but each of these will leave us empty. Instead, let us learn to root out these sins, and let us learn to let our hearts truly rest in the Lord.

            And so what do we do to root these sins out? How do we live in such a time? Christ’s instructions are stark “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out, and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.”

            Now – let us not make the mistake of Origen, who took this a bit too literally – who in fact removed a part of his body because he felt it caused him to sin and he became hopeless. With the exception of Origen no church father took this commandment literally – but rather as a sharp hyperbole to give no room for sin. In a culture that looks at sexuality as a fluid and throw away thing – we are called to live a life of purity, we are called to give sin no place in our life. If there is something causing you to stumble – prayerfully root it out!

            This does not mean we will live a perfect life – and this certainly doesn’t mean that we will live in constant perfection – this is not promised in Holy Scripture – it does however mean that we would prefer they way of the Lord over the way of the flesh and the world.

            Now, I hope we have thoroughly established that lust and sexual sin is bad – and that it should be rooted out. I want to suggest a better way – there are many practical steps we can take but I want to suggest one this morning and that is instead of seeing someone else as an object to be consumed or a place to find our happiness – we recapture the other as the image bearer of God.

In a collection of liturgical poems and prayers written by an Anglican Priest – called “Every Moment Holy” there is a prayer called “Upon Seeing a Beautiful Person” and it captures this heart which we are trying to cultivate perfectly and goes as follows: “Lord I praise you for divine beauty, reflected in the form of this person. Now train my heart so that my response to their beauty would not be twisted downward into envy or desire, but would instead be directed upward in worship of you, their Creator – as was your intention for all such beauty before the breaking of the world.”

            Let us learn to praise God for the beauty that we see, the goodness that we experience, all that is true and wonderful in the world – not to desire to have dominance over it, not to make it our own but let us learn to give thanks to God for all He has done.

            No, my friends – the other – the brilliant, the beautiful, the funny, the fantastic, the ugly, the utterly destructive, the clown, and the klutz – every single person we will ever experience – each and every one of them are created in the image of God. Let us be mindful of this – and let us not grow to desire to have them for our own but rather learn to love God all the more for the wonders He has made for each and every one of us is fearfully and wonderfully made!

 

            Here, before we tackle divorce – I want to make one more note as we read and meditate upon the Sermon on the Mount, Christ does something – he flips the cultural standard on the head – it’s fine to appear good – but Christ is more concerned with what is going on inside the heart.  For the Christian purity comes from casting aside the sins of the mind  and the heart. It comes from not simply from avoiding the bad thing or looking good to the world, but with the prayer that God will give us a pure heart. It is tempting to focus only on outward appearance – but let us be more concerned with God’s healing of our own hearts.

 

            And now divorce – I pray that I approach this with care – I know that divorce has touched several in our midst– I know that many of you have experienced divorce or someone you love has gone through it for one reason or another. If this is you – as we explore this difficult question I encourage each of us to remember the words we started with from Richard Sibbes - “there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”

            First – let us be very clear – divorce is bad. Period – divorce is not the way it was supposed to be and our hearts should break when it happens.

            Christ makes clear that there is one reason for divorce – sexual immorality – the word is fairly all encompassing – this can include an affair – this can include habitual, unrepentant use pornography – basically anything that violates the sanctity of the marriage bed.  Again – we see a high view of sexual purity being portrayed by Christ.

            Most theologians, though not all, agree that there is two other Biblical reason for divorce and the first is spousal abuse. I agree with this – abuse – like sexual immorality fundamentally shatters the covenant of marriage, and as such we should give no quarter to it. Likewise – when a spouse is abandoned by the other – this is a reasonable cause for divorce as well.

            In all three of these cases we should take deep and careful care, and bear love for the victim or victims, and have sharp and strong calls to repentance for the perpetrator.

            Beyond this – scripture gives no room for divorce.

 

            For some – this may be hard to hear – and for some this may be a comfort affirmation of what is in the past – but in all of this, let us be mindful that there is grace found in the deep love of Christ.

            Next – let us take a moment to talk about why divorce is so bad – God created the union of marriage to bring two people together – to bind two in flesh into one – for His glory and our sanctification. It is a reflection of God’s love for his people. To fall into divorce is to break these bonds, it is to shatter the covenant, and to kill something good.

            I think what is best here – is if you find these words to be a struggle, or that they hit too close to home – let us talk, let us dive deep into repentance and into the grace of God. For God can heal all wounds – and can draw you away from your past pains and sin and into a deeper and more beautiful relationship with Him. My friends – no matter how dark your past is – please be assured that God loves you – you are forgiven – and there is hope for a brighter future.

Much can be said about the painful nature of divorce  – but let us turn now and focus on how we can move forward – how we can create better relationships, and have better health, for we all come to the table with our own brokenness, we all come with past hurts from people who we thought we could trust, we all come with our own foibles and fears.

Our culture tells us – that the foundation of intimacy is sexuality – what if instead of that as Christians we start the simplest of things – we realize that intimacy is not magically found but that it is built.

Think for a moment about your walk with God. If you never come to church, never crack your bible, never pray – what will your relationship with God be like? It will not exist. If you only pray when you come to church on Sunday, and that is the only time you hear the word of God – your relationship might be a little bit better

– but if you find yourself in constant prayer, in the word, devouring it day in and out, spending time in fellowship, being encouraged and encouraging – then your relationship with God will be deep and intimate. Why do we expect human relationships to be any different? They take work. To quote a theologian I know and respect: “great relationships are not simply ‘discovered’; they are slowly and skillfully built.”

As a community in a microwave world – let us be committed to building relationships that last – not just marriage but friendships as well – the same theologian spells out the three following ingredients they are important for genuine friendships and for intimate marriages.

            Now, let me again be honest – I do not teach this as someone who has relationships all figured out – but as someone who knows relational brokenness too well, as someone who has hurt and been hurt. But – I believe if we focus on building good relationships within the body of Christ – if we focus on building intimate friendships and solid marriages the world will be blessed by us, we will grow in Christ, and we will continue to find healing from all the past pains – whether it be divorce, familial betrayal, or other darkness from our past.

            At the foundation of good relationships comes – emotional intimacy – sharing with one another our burdens, our hurts, and our past sorrows and even our sins. For as we share with God all our hurts and failures – we learn trust when we become vulnerable with one another.

            Likewise – relational intimacy – committing to time together – letting our yes be our yes and our no a no, learning not only to bear with each other’s burdens and delight in each other’s joys, but to walk through the sorrows of our souls. In this commitment to one another it builds those good bonds that draw us deeper and deeper.

            And finally – appropriate touch – as you all know my least favorite – but this continues the deeper bonds of intimacy. In a culture that is profoundly touched starved – we have an opportunity to model healthy touch, touch that portrays not lust but love – and it is even in touch that Jesus heals – and at times to show deep affection with those whom he loves. Think of John at the last supper where he is reclining upon Jesus.

            It is out of these basic elements – that good – strong friendships and marriages come. The sexual union that is the mark of marriage, and comes after these elements not before – so when we wrongly order how we build our relationships – it is no wonder that there is so much dysfunction.

True intimacy comes from knowing the other – and loving them deeply and self-sacrificially – not from desiring having them for your own. So much could be said upon both of these topics – but I hope that these words have encouraged you – have helped you to turn to a hope-filled future – helped you turn away from fleeting worldly pleasures, and not beat you down but shown you the richest love that Christ has poured out for us.

            Finally – we must note that Christ tells us to let our yes be yes and no a no. Much ink has been split on this – what does it mean? Should Christians make vows? Should we swear when we are called into court? These are worthy questions – but for now simply know that at the heart of it is this call – it is to be honest. If you say you’re going to do something – do it. If you can’t do it for some reason or if you aren’t going to do it – say no. Say yes when you mean yes, and no when you mean no.

            We have covered some hard topics and I didn’t spend nearly as much time as I would have liked on any of them – and I do not want to weigh you too heavily. Let us seek the holiness God has called us to and remember that for all our foibles and failings there is grace. I stumbled across a good quote the other day that I want to end with: “Having a Christian worldview means being utterly convinced that biblical principles are not only true but also work better in the grit and grime of the real world.”

            Having now started to establish a Biblically principled view of sexuality – let us repent from any past sins, turn away from our old way, and stand firm in the way of Christ, not because we are better than others but because we are thoroughly convinced that they are good – because in the nitty gritty of life they work – because life is better when we live in them and most importantly because when we live in Christ’s holiness our lives glorify God.

            In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The Temptation or Christ

A Homily for Lent 1

March 1, 2020

All Saints Anglican Church, Prescott, AZ

 

Text: Matthew 4:1-11

 

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

            It was a perfect day, like any other day, and they were tending to the garden, pruning branches, fertilizing the roots, and assuring all the plants had enough water when the serpent walked up, beautiful and perfect in every way. She liked the serpent, she always found him to be pretty, and he was delightfully clever. But that day he looked into her eyes and said something that changed the world forever.

            It wasn’t that he said a lot, or even made any sort of pervasive arguments, and she wished she’d known better how to respond. No, all that the serpent said was: “did God really say?” It was just a tiny seed of doubt, a tiny nudge away from the truth. They had hoped not to fail God, they had hoped not to disappoint him. He was their friend, and how they liked those walks in the garden in the cool of the day. How they liked to be with him, he loved them so, he loved them, better than she loved her children.

            But that question – how it haunted her every day – how it haunted her, why did she fall for such a silly little thing – why didn’t she answer better when he asked: “did God really say?”

            We have two accounts of Satan tempting people, two accounts of the devil seeking to trip up people – he first goes after Adam and Eve – he goes after the first people, our first parents and tempts them into disbelief – even if its just momentary disbelief – “are you certain?” He asks and it’s this little question that is enough to lead them into sin. Then, when, instead of telling the devil what God actually, instead of telling the devil to go away for what he was suggesting was evil, they add to what God said, the devil sees his opportunity. He tempts Eve further – he tempts her by calling God a liar, and promising her power, and she and Adam take and eat, and sin entered the world. Sin infected them, and it has infected everyone ever since. Sin has lead to death, sickness, disease, pain, anger, disbelief, war, famine, and natural disaster. Sin is deadly, sin is the dreadful infection.

            But Satan also tempted the second Adam, Satan came to him in the wilderness and asked him to prove himself. But Christ owed no one proof – but rather – set for us a model of rebuke, a model of putting off the devil, a model of total dependence upon God.

            The wilderness – spiritual or literal is an interesting place – because in wilderness there are deep dark dangers – there are pitfalls, there are demons, there is dread and terribleness – but too in the wilderness is the opportunity to depend totally upon God.

            One of three things can happen when we enter into a wilderness season – whether it be that of the intentional abstinence of Lent – the intentional mortification of the flesh – or that of the seasons when disappointment, disaster, and darkness besets us.

            First we can be tempted into hardening our hearts – tempted into death – tempted into saying God is not God – God does not love and care for us, and so in our despondency we cast him aside for this present trial seems too dark, too hard.

            Second – we can be tempted into self-reliance – tempted into saying we do not need God or anyone else, but we can handle this on our own. We can find within ourselves all the answers that we need – we can find happiness in the wilderness of the world, and so we kick God out, and strive to be our own gods.

            We live in a time – where everyone has their own truths, where everyone is encouraged “to be true to themselves.” We are told to find happiness within ourselves – but such advice leads to spiritual disaster. No – I think that ancient definition of happiness is far better – Christian happiness is that feeling that we get when we see a friend from afar coming towards us. And this leads us to the third thing that can happen in the wilderness – we see God coming towards us – like the father of the prodigal son – we see God running to us and we are reminded that we desperately need to learn on God – desperately need to become saturated in His word, desperately need to lean totally and completely upon Him. Desperately need the Lord to be our shepherd, need to trust that He will lead us through the darkness and into the light of knowing Him.

            The wilderness has had such a power over people because it is there we can meet God, it is in the wilderness of fasting – or the literal wilderness that we can learn to become completely dependent upon God, but at the same time – it is there that we can learn total self-reliance.

            It is not without some irony that some have noted that out of the desert came the great teachings of the first monks, the great teachings that came out of total reliance upon God – but at the same time – out of the desert comes the city that is completely man made, where man taught himself to be dependent upon no-one else and that city is known by the moniker of “sin city.”

            It is in the desert that Jesus wrestled with Satan and put him away – it is in the desert – not the garden that Jesus overcame the temptations that Adam and Eve failed to resist, it is in the desert that Christ showed us – how to abide deeply in Him, so that we may not fall as our first parents fell.

            As modern and post-modern Americans we tend to forget that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” as St. Paul so eloquently put it. We tend to forget that the devil and his minions are very real – and are like roaring lions that seek the destruction of souls.

            We have reasonable explanations for everything, and as such we have taught ourselves not to put on the whole armor of God, but an even deeper self-reliance, but this is not what Christ has modeled for us, and this is not the right response that we are called to.

            The great evangelical Anglican Bishop J.C. Ryle summarized what first we must keep in mind, how deep and dark and dangerous the devil is:

            “what a real and mighty enemy we have in the devil.” Ryle writes, “He is not afraid to assault even the Lord Jesus Himself. Three times over he attacks God’s own Son. Our Saviour was ‘tempted of the devil.’

            It was the devil who brought sin into the world at the beginning. This is he, who vexed Job, deceived David, and gave Peter a heavy fall. This is he, whom the Bible calls a “murderer,’ a ‘liar,’ and a ‘roaring lion.’ This is he, whose enmity to our souls never slumbers and never sleeps. This is he, who for nearly 6000 years has been working at one work, to ruin men and women, and to draw them to hell. This is he, whose cunning and subtlety pass man’s understanding, and who often appears as ‘an angel of light.’”

            Let us not have the hubris, or foolishness of our modern age and think that the devil no longer roams, think that what we see with our eyes, and touch with our hands is all that there is – let us be ever mindful of that great enemy of God and mankind, and let us take upon ourselves the whole armor of God, take upon ourselves the victory we find in Christ.

            Now, St. Matthew does something interesting with His gospel. As we read it, it becomes very clear that he is writing to early Jewish believers in Christ. We know that this is his audience because he takes for granted that his readers would understand Jewish rituals and traditions, and does not take the time to explain them to his readers, where St. Mark does.

            But he does something else interesting – the Old Testament is filled with men who were nearly deliverers – nearly ones who crushed the head of the serpent, crushed the head of the tempter – Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and David to name a few. Each one, came close, each one models for us faith – but each one sinned, each one fell short.

            But over and over again – St. Matthew points his readers to ways in which Christ fulfilled that which those who came before him failed to fulfill. He is delivered from Egypt, he wanders in the wilderness, he gives five books of teachings and two tablets of the law – for St. Matthew Christ is the new Israel, He is creating the new Israel, He is opening the door to finally and fully be that blessing to all the nations as Abraham was promised. Christ is the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets.

            It was interesting, on Friday we were talking at the confirmation class about this passage a little bit – and the way it is written, it’s not entirely clear – did the devil tempt Jesus throughout the forty days or did the devil wait until Jesus was weakened and tired?

            The first few verses are not terribly clear, they read – “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him.”

            Perhaps – the devil was like St. Paul’s thorn in his side constantly tempting him, causing Him to struggle, and thereby reminding Jesus to trust in God the Father, to lean not on His own understanding, to learn not in his fleshy power, but perhaps the devil came at the end of the temptation, when his flesh was weakened, when the days were starting to feel longer, and more exhausting. I think I read it in the later way – that he was sustained until the end – and as his fasting was coming to the end – the devil came to Him and tempted him.

            Charles Spurgeon summarizes this rather eloquently:

“throughout the long fast he was miraculously sustained; but at the close of it hunger began to try him. We are more in danger when our labour or suffering is over than during the time of its continuance. Now that the Lord is drained dry by his long fast, and is made faint by hunger, the enemy is  upon him. The devil is a great coward, and takes a mean advantage of us.”

The devil waits until we are the most vulnerable and then launches various and sundry attacks upon us. He whispers “you are not good enough for God to love, you are too broken, to despised,” or else “you can do this on your own, you do not need him, you’re stronger, more independent, you are better than God.”

            Both are insidious lies that live in our culture today – lies that say – you are irredeemable, or that you do not need redemption. My friends – we desperately need redemption – we are not otherwise fine without Christ, we are not mostly okay and Jesus is like vitamins – nice and makes us stronger, but most of us don’t really need him – No! we desperately need him in our lives – outside of Him we are dead– but there is no sin too dark, nor no depth too deep that God can not find us there – there is nothing that can separate us from His love – so do not believe the lies of the devil.

            But Christ resists three temptations: the temptation to find sustenance outside of God, the temptation to test God, and the temptation to power. We face these temptations as well – and we find our hope not in ourselves but in Christ for He overcame them for us.

            Ultimately. It is no surprise that Christ over comes the temptations for He is God-incarnate, Immanuel, God with us – but at the same time – he does what so many before Him had failed to do – he starts that great crushing of the wicked serpent’s head – he shows us that He will overcome evil for our sake.

            He says to Satan – “God’s word is where true life comes from, not bread alone, not temporality alone,”

he says “do not test God for you Satan have already thrown yourself down from heaven, and the angels did not catch you – I have come down from heaven willingly – and on the last day I will be raised up above all others and in that raising up – I will raise all who trust in me, I will crush your head, I will destroy your power.”

He says – “no, I will only worship God the father – I will only serve Him, I and in that – I will inherit not earthly kingdoms that will fall away – but the eternal kingdom of heaven.”

            Christ overcomes the devil in the wilderness for us – when so many others had failed, and as such in the wilderness of our lives – the wilderness of dreadful dark days – the wilderness of the Lenten fast – we are called not to trust in our own strength and power – but in the strength we find in Christ alone.

            And he models for us that which St. Paul fleshes out in his epistle to the Ephesians – “take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.”

            The devil throws at Jesus every attack he can think of – even manipulates the word of God – and Jesus responds with the word of God – rightly understood. Likewise, St. Paul paints for us a picture that knowing the word of God is an offensive way to push back the power of the devil, but too we hold faith that Christ has created in us a new heart – we let the truth of Christ bind us together – we put on Christ righteousness that it may become our own righteousness, that our inner life would be protected, we guard our mind with the fact of our salvation.

            The Lord has given us sufficient protection regardless of what attacks the devil may come up with.

            As we travel through this Lenten season, as we see our church blessed, as we see our lives become more rich in the Lord, let us keep in mind to put on the whole armor of God, let us keep in mind that Christ has perfectly put away the temptations of the devil, let us learn not to depend upon ourselves, but throw all our cares upon the Lord, that we may find our riches and joy in Christ alone.

            In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.