Year C Lent 4 2025 He Ran

 Year C Lent 4 , 30 March 2025

St James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“He Ran” 

Collect: Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

From now on, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

So Jesus told them this parable:

"There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe--the best one--and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.

"Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"

Even people who have never stepped into a church have heard of the Prodigal Son. It is a part of our language and our culture. Prodigal comes from the same root as prodigious. It could mean “lavish” in a somewhat positive sense, or “wasteful” in the negative.

And the younger son was certainly that. Having had the audacity to ask his father for his share, a minority one, of his inheritance before his father was dead, he took the money and lived prodigiously in a foreign land. No rules, no family reputation to reunion, no expectations, he lived with no regrets and with no accountability. Crazy and wild, until there was nothing left. A good Jewish boy had fallen so low, he ended up feeding livestock. And not just any livestock, pigs. We cannot miss this crucial detail because Jesus was portraying this young man as despicably as he could.

In a patriarchal society, he basically said to his dad, “I wish you were dead. Give me my share of the inheritance.” Horrible.

He lived as a degenerate, wild and loose, dishonoring himself, his family, and his people. Horrible.

When forced to work after having lost everything his future was counting on, he feeds pigs. And he has fallen so low, he considers eating the slop, the unclean animals leftovers for survival. Utterly horrible.

What can he do?

They say Home is where you are always welcome. He thinks on what he threw away, and decides that even if he crawls back in utter humiliation it would be better than what he has. I love how Jesus tells the story here:

But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' So he set off and went to his father.

“When he came to himself.” This younger son, the one who sinned so boldly, came to himself. He himself was not this degenerate sinner envying hogs their slop. He was born to be better, he was better in his deepest and truest self. He had fallen, but he knew that he could pick himself up, maybe not to lift himself back to where he was, but at least better than where he hit bottom because “he came to himself.”

How often do we paint the picture of people at their worst? We force them to stay there. We do not ignore what was done, but we do not define them for life for one moment. We are all a collection of all of our experiences and triumphs and failures, a collage of all that life throws at us. So often once labeled, there can be no redemption.

In The Shawshank Redemption, the character Red played by Morgan Freeman is up for parole for a murder he committed in his youth.

Parole Board Man: Ellis Boyd Redding, your files say you've served 40 years of a life sentence. Do you feel you've been rehabilitated?

Red: Rehabilitated? Well, now let me see. You know, I don't have any idea what that means.

Parole Board Man: Well, it means that you're ready to rejoin society...

Red: I know what you think it means, sonny. To me, it's just a made up word. A politician's word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?

Parole Board Man: Well, are you?

Red: There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try to talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone, and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a ***** word.

Rehabilitated means one has done the work. What Red needed, from the parole board and from himself was Redemption. And for Redemption to come, Grace must be given.

You may think of Jesus as many things, but a genius study of human nature is probably not near the top of your list. But how he phrases this, how he poses the younger son’s situation, it is so real and so true we can picture it clearly 2,000 years later no matter our class, culture, or context.

And for 2,000 years we have celebrated this picture of Grace, much like the fig tree in last week’s parable. We all want love to win, and we want wholeness and forgiveness to be given. And so the story shifts perspective. Whereas we had been following the younger son, we now shift to the dad. Abba, daddy, the one who has the chance to give and model redemption.

We know what is coming. The dad will say welcome, kills the fatted calf, gives him a ring and a robe, and a party is thrown. There is joy and celebration because Grace reigns and has the last say.

But we miss the lavishness, the parable could just as well have been called the Prodigal Father. Not for the party, the robe, or the ring, but for the prodigious love showered and the lack of decorum he shows in receiving his son.

But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.

This one, a proud and assumably well-to-do farmer hugged and kissed his missing son. But the detail that jumps out for me might seem like no big deal. But the point where we see the father being Prodigal is that instead of being the stately man of wealth he forgets all that, and he ran.

He ran.

Proud and well-to-do folks do not run. This dad did. He did not care how he looked, he could not get to his son who, as if dead to him, was home. Home is where you are always welcome. Nothing could slow him. Not cultural expectations, no judgments of his workers or neighbors, NOTHING could slow him running to give Grace.

This story gives a phrase that we associate with Grace ever since, and we incorporated them into our hymn of Grace.

…This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me,

I once was lost, but now am found…

So often we want to stop the story there, with the party and celebration. Henri Nouwen in his wonderful book, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming, talks about every one of us is the Prodigal, for we all are in need of Grace and redemption from that worst, that sinful part of ourselves. He also says, that all of us are, or can be, the Father as well. Giving Grace, throwing decorum and honor to the wind to bring wholeness and healing to those who so need it.

But the third player in the tale is the one who is the least comfortable, the Older Son. And the perspective shifts again. Nouwen says that we are like him as well. We are not bad, we are not lavish in forgiveness, but we have done what we are supposed to have done and we are resentful. We did not run off. No party is thrown for us. We work ourselves sick, seeing somebody getting away with something from our perspective. We don’t join in the celebration. We stand back, bitter, angry, and apart.

When the Prodigal Father comes out, he invites his oldest into a different way of being. Grace extends both ways. In receiving Grace we come to life again, in giving Grace we truly become like Christ, the one who redeems and receives, the one who forgives and frees.

The father even reminds his oldest that the other son, he has nothing. He will have nothing. He got his stuff, but as long as he breathes the father will give him love and celebrate that he has a son. 

Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”

Friends, we can remain apart from Grace in our self-righteousness. And what a loss that will be. Following the Law, the older son is correct, and miserable. Following Christ’s New Law of Love, we can let go of all the things that keep us from fullness of relationship and wholeness of life. “A new commandment I give unto you that you should love one another as I have loved you.”

This Lent, remember the story, the whole story. May we live fully into this gift and this life of Grace that we have been given. Amen

Year C Lent 3 2025 Second Chances

 Year C Lent 3, 23 March 2025

St James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Second Chances”

Collect: O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Exodus 3:1-15

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I am has sent me to you.'” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you':

This is my name forever,

     and this my title for all generations.”

Luke 13:1-9

At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."

Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

I come this morning with one of the foundational beliefs of my life. It is so simple, but it is the key to all the good we might have in life, or the stumbling block tilting us toward all the heartache and heartbreak of existence. So hold on. Here we go.

In today’s reading, Jesus discusses the problem of why bad things happen to good people. And he clearly goes against the common wisdom, that people get what they deserve. If you have lived long enough, you know that that happens sometimes. Often it doesn’t. 

But the problem with that kind of thinking is that we put ourselves in the role of deciding who deserves what. Jesus goes back to the source of the problem. The splinter in our sibling’s eye is not the problem, it is the log in our own.

Jesus starts with a situation familiar to some who were hearing him that day. Pilate had added insult to injury in his executions of some Galileans.

At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.

Now when Jesus says repent, he does not mean it like we mean it. Repent, too often for us, is just saying sorry. Repent is not about words, but changing one's life. Turn around! Change your ways! That is what Jesus was talking about with Repent.

“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you!”

We all have sinned and fallen short of  the glory of God, or so St. Paul tells us in Romans (3:23). And the idea of levels of sin is where we get into that middle school ranking on the playground: “Who is better than whom?” “Who could beat up whom?” Working in middle schools 12 years, you were okay as long as you were not on the bottom of the list.

In our prayer of confession, while we name ourselves sinners, “by things done and left undone,” we do recognize we all are in the same boat. You, me, all of us. However, where we fall into the trap when we think we are better than anyone else. We may think to ourselves, “Well, at least I am not like him.” We do that because no matter how much we preach and teach and call it amazing, we are not living by Grace, but by works. It is how we seem to be wired. And we play that Middle School ranking game, “At least I am not that bad.”

And that is why Jesus says for us to Repent. Change your ways. 

He went on:

“Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

And here it is again. Those we may look down our nose at, they are no better than us, but they are no worse than us. We all are in the same boat. And unless we repent, we all will perish as they did.

We won’t perish from a lack of repentance, but when we perish, the only guarantee in life, we will be in the endless cycle of tit-for-tat “Do unto others before they do unto you!” that has been our Standard Operating Procedure since the dawn of time. Jesus came to bring us the Kingdom, and in the Kingdom we can let go of that way of always doing it the way that it has always been done, and step into the light of Grace.

Lent is not about making us feel bad. We are going through this season of reminder to refresh the wonderful newness of Resurrection that the Kingdom enables. We can Repent. We can do things differently. We have been given another way.

In one of my favorite books, Watership Down by Richard Adams, there is a passage where the hero, Hazel goes off to meet his adversary, General Woundwort. Hazel and Woundwort are adversaries in the book. Hazel, innocent and just trying to keep his people safe and alive, has defied the autocratic Woundwort. And before the final battle, Hazel goes alone to speak with Woundwort, something beyond comprehension to the bully Woundwort. And Hazel not only offers him Grace, but more, redemption. He offers Woundwort a vision where he is not only in charge, but the hero, the Good Guy, not just the Chief Rabbit, but the esteemed and admirable Chief Rabbit. This is the hero, Hazel, offering Woundwort another chance…

A lot of your rabbits are unhappy now and it's all you can do to control them, but with this plan you'd soon see a difference. Rabbits have enough enemies as it is. They ought not to make more among themselves. A mating between free, independent warrens— what do you say?" 

At that moment, in the sunset on Watership Down, there was offered to General Woundwort the opportunity to show whether he was really the leader of vision and genius which he believed himself to be, or whether he was no more than a tyrant with the courage and cunning of a pirate. For one beat of his pulse the lame rabbit's idea shone clearly before him. He grasped it and realized what it meant. The next, he had pushed it away from him. The sun dipped into the cloud bank and now he could see clearly the track along the ridge, leading to the beech hanger and the bloodshed for which he had prepared with so much energy and care.

"I haven't time to sit here talking nonsense," said Wound-wort. "You're in no position to bargain with us. There's nothing more to be said.”

While just a story, it models the great “What If?”s that history is filled with. Those times like when Lincoln appealed [in his first inaugural address] to the “better angels of our nature.”

When offered a different way we are given Life. When offered a different way we are given Hope. Jesus does not want us to perish like those sad cases he mentioned that have been lost to history, but recorded for us in Luke. And then he goes to his favorite way of making a point, a parable. A story we all can get, but complex enough to have us still wrestling with them 2,000 years later. The parables twist our norms and posits that different way for us. Today’s parable in the Gospel reading is no different.

Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

In a word, Jesus instructs us to give the thing, or rather the person, that we would write off and chop down another chance. This one we are ready to throw out onto the burn pile does not need chopping down, but love and care. It needs fertilizer and attention to get back on track.

Don’t condemn those punished by Pilate as worse sinners, or those who were killed in the freak accident as getting what they deserved. Find the one we are ready to write off and invite them back in the fold.

This story is told over and over and over again. The Wolf of Gubbio with St. Francis. Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. The Coen Brothers Huddsucker Proxy. Or even Moses in today’s Old Testament reading, a prince of Egypt who had been hiding in the desert for decades after he murdered someone, God did not forget him. God met him where he was, and invited him home. 

Friends, we talk Grace so readily. But Grace is not cheap. It takes effort and sweat. It can cost us, letting go of the grudges and things that get in our way of Grace. We have to withhold our tendency to judge and discriminate, and embrace that child of God that may need care and love. We often have to make the effort because the one who needs Grace may not be able to love themselves. Like Moses, “And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”

One of the hardest people I find to forgive is myself. Often, even tears later, I beat myself up mercilessly. Why do I think my judgment is better than God’s? If God can forgive me, and give me another chance, maybe I should, too.

I know you have heard me mention it a lot. While it was airing, it was a favorite topic of discussion of Miriam, Kasey, and me in the office. Ted Lasso was a show about a British Premier League Football Club, but it was really about being human. All the good, bad, and ugly. But also, it was about what we are talking about today. Grace. Giving it when we see someone who needs it. And more importantly, receiving it when we have gotten off track. Near the end of the series, the main character says this:

“I hope that either all of us or none of us are judged by our actions at our weakest moments, but rather by the strength we show when and if we’re ever given a second chance.”

We all need that Get Out of Jail Free card that Grace provides at times.

When my father died when I was young, I remember him telling me all the things he was going to do “One day.” His one day never came.

I swore to myself to do my best to live my life with no regrets. I have failed at that many times in the years that have been given to me, and most of the time I have been able to give myself Grace over that. But of my list of regrets, high on that list are the times when I withheld Grace, when I did not go to people where I consciously or unconsciously did not forgive them. Sometimes it took months or years to confront them, and ask for their forgiveness for my lack of Grace. As I said, these are some of my deepest regrets.

Our place is not to judge.

Our place is not to chop down.

Our place is to dig around, fertilize, and nurture. Let God do any pruning or chopping down that needs to be done.

During this Holy Lent, run to Grace. Flee judgment. And give someone that 2nd Chance that goes against the ways of this world. And that Grace given will be seen as amazing! Amen

Year C Lent 1 2025 Word and Deed

 Year C Lent 1, 9 March 2025

St James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Word and Deed”

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.

Romans 10:8b-13

"The word is near you,

on your lips and in your heart"

(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

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.

Jesus has come down from the mountaintop where he was glorified in his Transfiguration. And in the descent he “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” [Luke 9:51] We tend to accomplish those things that we “set our face” to do. We are resolved. We are bound and determined. We have made up our mind. 

But it took quite a time for Jesus to get to this point. We do not know when all was revealed to him. The Transfiguration earlier in the chapter, Luke 9? At his baptism? Had he known his whole life that this is what his mission and ministry would lead to? We just don’t know. We can’t.

Maybe it came to him in today’s reading from Luke, when we see the temptations he faced in the wilderness. This was the first thing he did after his baptism.

We see the three temptations yearly. And each of the temptations are things many of us still are tempted by today. The temptation to take care of his bodily needs, eating after 40 days of strict fasting, was the first. But it was not just his stomach that the Tempter was playing with, he assaults Jesus’ ego.

“If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”

So, Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes, if you are who your deluded mind thinks you are, make this stone bread! There is no difference between this challenge and all the tests of the scribes and Pharisees. Repeatedly, this idea of Jesus being the Messiah is challenged for it is a threatening thing. For Satan, it is his inevitable downfall. For the religious leaders, it is the same in the loss of their power.

But Jesus does not succumb in body or spirit, he keeps the fast and stays resolved in this revelation of his calling, of his true self.

But the tempting did not stop there, Jesus is shown all the kingdoms of the world in an instant, and he is promised power. One simple kneel and it can all be yours, power and glory. Imagine that, Carpenter!

But Jesus sees the ruse, and that it breaks the first commandment. He responds:

“Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”

Bodily Needs and Ego, Worldly Power, and now we come to the most important of the Temptations. Jesus came to have a human experience to show his love for us. He knows what it is like to be one of us. As the hymn that opens John reminds us…

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. [v. 14]

And here is where the Tempter plays with dynamite. Jesus, show your Spiritual Authority! Let everyone see how the angels will protect you, the Beloved! Let everyone see who you are! Nothing wrong with that! Believers will throng to you! And he responds that he does not need to show anything to anybody. He knows who he is and more importantly whose he is…

“Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

While not done, the Devil does slink off, waiting for a more “opportune time.”

Jesus had a choice, because if there was no free will, even for Jesus, then there were no temptations. Like when you had to write an essay, if you plagiarized, it was easier and faster, but it was taking a shortcut that was insincere. Also, nothing was gained, earned, or learned.  Jesus had to fight these temptations by what he said, and just as importantly, by what he did. Jesus had to fight, in Word and Deed.

And we do, too.

St Paul directs us to do this. 

"The word is near you,

on your lips and in your heart"

(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 

Saying it is not enough. Not stating it when given an opportunity is not enough. We testify with our mouths and with our lives. It is both/and. 

Putting it all out there and holding nothing back is a statement of faith.

When we are tempted, and we will be, know this. See it for what it is, not what you wish it would be.

It is a temptation. Name it. See it. And then, let it go.

Our friends in 12 Steps have a great way of recognizing temptations, and the many forms they come in. Naming that they are powerless to their addictions, the acknowledge that they are there. They don’t just ignore them. That seems to give temptations even more power.

I have said this before, but I find it to be helpful. 12 Step groups say, Never make a decision when you are Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. H.A.L.T. Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. HALT when you are less than your full and best self. 

Temptations still seek that “opportune time” as it says in our Gospel, and we need to see and acknowledge that. Opportune Times are when we are not at our best, usually Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and/or Tired.

Temptations tend to play in the shallow end of the pool. They are surface level band-aids, not getting to the real issue. Eating silly junk food mindlessly? Maybe you just needed some water, or to get up and get your body moving for 5 minutes.

Avoiding the temptation, and working on the real want or need in the deeper end of the pool can respond in healthy, better ways. Instead of streaming mindlessly on my social media app, maybe I actually call and really interact with an old friend. Replace the temptation with a positive and affirming good choice.

The other way to avoid temptation is to keep our eye on the bigger picture. Jesus did that. He did not get bogged down in the daily troubles. He dealt with them or delegated them, but he repeatedly came back to doing what he came to do. He “set his face to Jerusalem.” There is something to be said for the end prize staying in our sights.

One time I was on a sailing adventure in the Florida Keys. We had been snorkeling off of Islamorada all day. It had been wonderful, but we stayed out beyond when we should. It was getting dark, and we had never been to where we were mooring for the night. All of us on the boat were exhausted, and we had a few hours of sailing to get to shore. It was winter, so the sun went down sooner even though the weather was fine and the water was warm. So we started to head in, knowing we would get in long after dark..  

Now when you are sailing, there are no roads, and there are no street signs. You have to know where you are going, and you have to know where you are. You also have to know what stands between you and where you want to be. There are coral reefs all over the place in this part of the Keys, so we had to be very careful. You do not want your boat to scrape. We had our depth gauge and our GPS, and a wing and a prayer, trying to get into the John Pennekamp State Park where we were mooring.  

When we got a few miles away, we were able to distinguish lights on the shore. Now there are different ways of lining yourself up to get into shore. At the park where we were headed, they had cleared a channel to get into the park through the reefs. There were two lights, with one that had a flashing signal to distinguish them, and you had to line them up. Once they were lined up, you had to keep straight to make sure you had a clear path to get in safe and sound. The seas were a bit choppy, so going in a straight line required constant attention and responding to the wind and the waves. 

I was at the helm, and so for hours I had to keep my eyes on the light. I would watch the light, and stay focused on the light, and if I did I would find my way home.

It may have been a temptation to stop or rest, but I knew we needed to get in and get fed and then to go to bed. There was no resting allowed. And the only way to get there was to keep those lights lined up and follow them in. The prize was in sight, and as long as I kept it that way, we would get in safely, and finally we did.

Friends, you may be wandering in the dark, looking for a light to lead you home. You may have given up on your Lenten fasting already because of temptations. Just start again, by the way. You may be struggling with something bigger than any of us could imagine. We come together not because of are better than anyone. We come together because we are sinners in need of grace, the flawed and bungled and botched looking for some moments of clarity and sanity in a hurting world. We come together to know we are not alone, and that there are fellow travellers winding their own way down the road with us.

You will be tempted, but as you respond in word and deed, you can overcome. Together we can and will make it. Amen