“WRESTLING
IN THE WILDERNESS”
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A sermon preached Readings: Psalm
91:1-2,9-16, Luke 4:1-13 |
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Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit in the desert,
where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. (Lk 4:1-2a)
Have you seen the latest TV advert for Walker’s
crisps?
As
usual Gary Lineker is scheming to steal the child’s bag of crisps –
but this time there is a Lenten theme –
around his head flies a tiny Terry Venables with red horns,
the devil egging him on to do the evil deed.
I
wonder how you envisage Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness – was it like that?
– a confrontation with a little guy with
horns and a tail and a toasting fork?
You
may want to see the story in that sort of way
– though I suspect many of us would
probably put the action inside Jesus’ head.
Of course none of us know quite how it happened -
but I wonder if the temptation was something like this?
I see Jesus sitting on a rock, his head in his hands, saying –
“If only I new what God wanted me to do
”I’ve got so many conflicting thoughts in my head -
“What
does he want me to do with my life?
I
know God has given me power and gifts,
but how does he want me to use them?
“Should
I wow the people with miracles of might so that they have to listen,
or should I just speak the truth and love people and take it from there?”
And
you’ve only to look at what faced Fr Aristide
when he was suddenly taken from his slum parish and made President of Haiti
– to see how hard it is suddenly to have
power and know how to use it.
We
all know, thank God, what choices Jesus made in the end,
but make no mistake - Jesus really has to struggle to figure it out.
It’s
a struggle that starts here in the wilderness,
a struggle which stays with him right up to Gethsemane three years later –
Because you see God did not send Jesus a DIY Guide
through the post entitled
“How to be Son of God in Three Easy Lessons”
Rather he said,
”Go out into the wilderness,
give yourself space to think and wrestle and pray
in the power of the Spirit
till you find the truth.
No easy answers
You
may say, But surely the Scriptures were Jesus’ guidebook?
Well yes they were, for him as for us,
but not the sort of guide with easy read out answers
– note that in the story Jesus and the
Devil both quote the Bible
– this is a book to be read and prayed
over and wrestled with
– not one to give easy slide rule answers to
every question.
Let
me say a special word
to those of you who are really struggling with God at the moment –
struggling to know what he wants you to do.
I
know there are several of you here today in that position
– and I know it can be hard -
but here is a good Gospel message for you –
it’s
OK to struggle,
it’s OK not to know all the answers all the time –
its OK to have contrary ideas bouncing around in your head –
If
that is where you are,
you are standing in just the same place that Jesus was standing in 2000 years
ago.
And it is more important to be asking questions with Christ in a hard place
than pretending to know all the answers and getting them all wrong.
Stick
with it.
God won’t necessarily give you simple answers even then –
but gradually he will help you see yourself for what you are,
and God for what he is –
and there is the start of wisdom
and an understanding of what God is calling you to do.
Those
of you who came to the Mint pantomime a few weeks ago
were privileged to see Ribby Rowsell’s stunning performance as
Mirror Mirror on the wall –
I am frankly perplexed as to why she didn’t win a Oscar nomination
for best supporting actress –
but then the Academy is notoriously fickle.
Mirrors
don’t speak like that in real life –
but there is of course much we can learn about ourselves from looking in the
mirror.
Trevor
Dennis has a story in which he dreams he is looking into a mirror,
but as he looks it gradually distorts,
like an end of the pier Hall of Mirrors,
until he suddenly realises that the mirror is now showing him not his public
persona,
not the image he projects on the world –
but his real inner self.
[Trevor Dennis, Speaking of God, SPCK 1992, p 96]
Imagine
you are standing in front of that mirror now –
Look
into it.
What do you see?
Dare you look?
Its kind of scary and exciting, liberating and frightening,
just to get a glimpse of the real me.
That’s
what can start to happen when
I really take seriously Lenten prayer and meditation –
It’s
like I go with Jesus into a desert place -
where I can begin to leave behind the veneer of my public image,
the
things I hide behind, my false securities –
and let God see me as I really am,
and let him show me myself as I really am.
That
can be frightening and hard,
as we start removing the protective layers -
there’s often a lot of confessing and re-thinking to do -
but don’t panic – keep on going –
let God show you who you really are.
Remember,
God made you in his own image,
and he actually loves you,
especially the bit buried in the middle of you,
so it’s OK to show it to him.
Sometimes
talk about “fighting temptation”
can sound very negative -
all about hating myself for what I am
and even denying my essential humanity.
Actually
it should be very positive -
about finding who I really am,
and celebrating my essential humanity offered in God’s service.
Tom Wright says somewhere it is like learning to
play the violin.
He says that the process of learning what God wants of us in life is
“like someone learning a musical instrument,
learning how to tune it and play it to its best possibility”
[Tom Wright,
Luke for Everyone, SPCK 2001 p 44]
You
recall the story
of
the old Lambarene tropical African mission station
with the decaying piano full of damp and worm,
twisted on its frame.
And into the hall steps Albert Schweitzer,
the famous organ scholar now missionary –
and with his skill he brings forth rich music –
the master’s touch.
Lord
let me go into the wilderness with you,
leave behind all that gets in my way,
offer my inner soul to you afresh,
and pray that you will play upon me with the master’s touch.
So
here is a Lenten exercise for you –
look in the mirror, look for the inner you,
See
that beneath all the accretions of human sin and sorrow
there is the image of God within me.
thank
God for it,
and ask God how best he can use what you find there.
What
music he can play upon the keys of your life.
And
exactly how does God want to use us?
What tune would he play?
That
is the question – that is our struggle.
There
are 150 of us here today –
I
am sure that God must be calling someone right now,
maybe many ones to a new challenge,
to a new joy, to a new journey with him –
Is
it you?
Is
he calling you to preach? – we need preachers -
Is he calling you to serve, to love?
to
commit yourself to a particular person or a particular cause?
Has
he a special job for you ?
Maybe
this Lent your wrestling will finally bear fruit.
In the arid modern wilderness of Death Valley
there is a viewpoint called Dante’s View.
It is so called because from this one spot you can see
both the lowest and the highest points in the whole of N America -
The tiny blackish patch far far below you is Badwater,
at 282 ft below sea level the lowest spot in the continent.
And over there on the distant western horizon is Mt. Whitney,
which rises to 14,496 ft.
From
one point the heights and the depths.
As we struggle in the wilderness of this life,
it may sometimes feel we are much closer to the infernal depths
than to the paradisal heights.
Well
fear not –
as angels ministered to Christ in the desert,
so Christ himself went down into hell itself to minister to those he found
there.
“And
yea, though I walk in the Valley of the Shadow of Death,
I shall fear no evil….”
Or
as the Psalmist puts it elsewhere (Ps 139.7-8)
“Whither
shall I go from thy spirit?
or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there:
if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.”
So
this Lent let us seek God in humility and joy –
Let
us walk the wilderness way
Until finally we find the promised land
Let
us study the mirror dimly,
until
finally we see
not only ourselves but God himself, face to face
Let
us ask God to tune the battered strings in our life, –
Until finally we are fit to sing the songs of Zion.