Year C Lent 1 2022 First Loves, First Fruits

 Year C Lent 1, 6 March 2022

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“First Loves, First Fruits”

Collect: Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us." When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me." You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

Luke 4:1-13

After his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written,

'Worship the Lord your God,

and serve only him.'"

Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,

'He will command his angels concerning you,

to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up,

so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"

Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Blessings on your Holy Lent, friends. Today we will look at Lent, not from a perspective of fasting, but from a perspective of loving. If you heard me on Ash Wednesday, 

“In claiming our cross, we embrace our love. In claiming our love, we tell what we truly treasure. And Jesus says it best of all…

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

We all have our loves, yes plural. There are things that we hold dear, and there are things that we hold most dear. Lent is about winnowing things down to the most dear, so that for a season, 40 days and 6 Sundays we get a clear image of our treasures.

Insurance companies will ask you to do an assessment of your valuables when you take out a homeowners policy. Today, I am asking you to think about your VALUES, not your VALUABLES. 

In our Deuteronomy passage for the day, we see the instruction that of one’s produce, the first fruits belong to God. Now many of you know that we have today our annual meeting, and we are kicking off a capital campaign to raise around $400,000. We could do that by asking for your spare change, and in 20 years we might be able to think about one of our 4 desired projects. But we are asking you to think about sacrificing, to make this gift a priority. It is a rare ask, but it is needed to go in the directions we feel God is calling us to go in the coming years. (It just so happened that today’s passage was on first fruits, but it certainly fits today in our church’s context. This was coincidental, not planned.)

Moses was asking the people to remember why they have what they have. He was asking them to remember who put them where they were, to enjoy the good gifts that they have received.

Put first things first. There is a wonderful line that always stuck with me from The Devil Wears Prada, “The person whose calls you always take, that's the relationship you're in.” It’s pretty telling where your priorities lie.

Where on your list of relationships is your relationship with God? Where does God rank for you?

I hope that it is pretty high up there. To paraphrase Jesus: “Love God with all you’ve got, and everything else falls into place.” [Or more traditionally, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33]

But God is one thing I hope you value, the highest. There are others that are pretty high up there, too. When I do weddings, one line I always include, “You are now one another’s highest earthly priority.” The strength of the marriage and the family is what creates the envelope of safety that children flourish in best. As the children see the love and concern, the disagreements and the forgiveness of those they hold most dear, they are given a model of how God loves, nurtures, and cares for us. As we value this most special and intimate of relationships, so many other responsibilities of our lives are cared for as well. Another line I always use, “As you succeed, so do we all.”

We see some pretty important values of Jesus in his temptations. If you do not like Brussel sprouts, Brussel sprouts are not a temptation. In our Gospel reading, we see the Devil come at Jesus with some things that he rejects. Now it would be an easy reading of the text to say Jesus despises those things that the Devil brought forward, but if he did, then they would not by definition be temptations.

Looking at them quickly, Jesus is tempted: 

• by care of his body

• by authority and power

• and, by attracting others

We all need to care for our bodies. Coming out of COVID many of us were in better shape before. Many of us have been working hard to get back to the condition we were or better than we were before the pandemic. This is a good thing. Your body is something that you should value and take care of daily. It is the vessel that allows you to sail through this life, and it is so easy to sink if we do not. St. Francis lived a powerful and godly life, but on his deathbed at age 44, one of his regrets was that he did not take better care of his body which he affectionately called “Brother Ass” as in donkey. His body patiently carried him through life, silently accepting the physical abuse Francis heaped on it, just like a patient little burro. St. Francis recanted this. We are to love and care for our bodies.

Jesus loved his body. He even used it as a metaphor for his covenant of Grace, “Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you.” But Jesus’ devotion to God was greater. In his lengthy fast, he saw the need for love of God to be greater than love of self, in particular his body. This is values clarification. Discernment is choosing between the Good and the Best. 

Now this one may cause you to think, and maybe stretch. But Jesus was on earth with a mission. As we talked about last Sunday in his strategy session with Moses and Elijah, they met over his “exodus,” his divine deliverance not just for a people but for ALL PEOPLE. No one accomplishes anything great without having authority and power. The problem is our understanding of Authority and Power, Capital A Capital P, comes from a very unhealthy view of how to influence and lead in this world. Jesus gave us a model quite different, through Love and Service. He modeled it with the Grace he gave to the Woman at the Well and to Zacchaeus, to the Woman caught in Adultery and to the Gerasene Demoniac. Grace-filled Love, Agape, is the model, and servant leadership is the style. Picture Jesus stripping down to a towel and washing the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. 

Jesus was tempted by Authority and Power because of his great desire to establish and expand the Kingdom of God on earth. That was his mission. Directly following his baptism in the Jordan River we get this in the Gospel of Mark, JUST 14 verses in! Mark 1:14 and 15 “Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” That was his mission and he desperately wanted to fulfill it. But Jesus was wise enough to know that real change, lasting change, takes time. You cannot rush the things that you want to last.  Jesus knew that a flash in the pan would not be the life by life, nation by nation, whole world transformed Gospel he came to preach and initiate. He wanted it so badly, but he loved God more.

The last temptation mentioned was signs of power. When we have an ability, it is normal and natural to want to use it. The Olympics just finished, and we saw the best of the best of the best at peak condition doing things that most of us could only dream about. That is why we revel in this event every 4 years. Jesus had power. He could work miracles. The Devil knew it, too. But Jesus knew that there are times and places for all things. Throwing himself from the Temple was not one of them. Would it attract people? YES! But would it draw them for the spectacle and not for the message? Probably. Jesus, like all people or institutions with power, one wants the opportunity to flex the muscles and show what is possible. But again, Jesus loved God more. He knew that that first devotion would put everything else in order. 

Many of you may have heard St. Augustine’s often misquoted phrase from his sermon “On Love” 

“Love God, and do as you will.”

Many read that as, “Love God and do whatever you want.” He is not saying that. As we love God, and grow in that love, we get in tune with God and our desires are transformed. Our wants and even our needs slowly get in line with God’s wants and desires for us and for the life God dreams for us.

This is the fuller context of Augustine’s statement: 

Once and for all, I give you this one short command: love, and do what you will. If you hold your peace, hold your peace out of love. If you cry out, cry out in love. If you correct someone, correct them out of love. If you spare them, spare them out of love. Let the root of love be in you: nothing can spring from it but good. link to source

And that love through which we do all we do is directly linked to love of God. When Jesus was asked the greatest commandment in the 600+ laws of the Torah, he responded “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all you soul, 

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-39

If we love God, our values shift. If we love God, we start to love what God loves. If we love God, we begin to become more and more like God. That is why St. Augustine can say with clarity and surety, “Love God, and do as you will.” If we say love God and do whatever you want, is it really God we are loving but our basest wants and desires?

What are your first fruits? The birthday girl or boy is the one who gets the first slice of cake. Go for the corner! But in what you give your life to, what gets the first slice? What gets the portion before all others? Look at your calendar. Look at your checkbook or your credit card statement. Look at who's phone call you always take.

Lent is the time when we get to ask ourselves these questions. We fast to get clear what our priorities are. We commit ourselves to devotion to figure out what we love most. We give to others as we have been given. We treasure what we treasure, and we give from our treasure because of who we treasure. We give because God first gave to us!

Continued blessings on this Lent. Continued blessings on your Love of God. Put that first, and do what you will! Amen