Fighting Temptation

Luke 4:1-9

Lent

Always, the first Sunday in Lent, in the beginning of these 40 days of preparation for renewal and the resurrection celebration come Easter, the season begins with the Gospel story of Jesus’ wilderness experience and temptation. Jesus is fully human, just like me. Jesus was no longer a young man, according to longevity in his day; he was likely middle aged at 30. He had spent most of his work days as a builder, working with his hands. And he listened. He always listened; for the questions within, the questions of others; he listened to birds and watched farmers and herdsmen and women at work; he listened to the teachings of the elders and wonderers, to those oppressed and those disregarded. He listened for God. And the time came when he needed to shift. The listening led him to walk away from construction materials into building spiritual depth, using the common realities of life. Jesus got up, took steps toward following God’s call, claimed his baptism, and listened for the Spirit to tell him what to do.

“Full of the Holy Spirit”, perhaps on a spiritual high, having made a decision to step into new ways of being, the Spirit led him into solitude, into silence, into wilderness. It’s as old as any tradition in nearly all cultures, religions, and times periods; the vision quest, the transformative emersion into the sacred that redirects life’s purpose; a cleansing, a stripping away, a refiner’s firing. Full of the Holy Spirit, that same Spirit led Jesus into nothingness, emptiness, in order to look and listen to his inner being, and to be present completely to God.

The text says he was tempted for 40 days by the devil, the adversary. I wonder how he was tempted in those 40 days; tempted to walk out of the wilderness, tempted to go back to his old way of being, tempted to look for some distractions besides the silence of God, tempted to invite some friends to be with him to keep him company? Was he ever tempted to scream and shout at God, wondering what God was asking of him? Did he spend time with the wilderness Essene Community which included the early monastic mystics, seeking their wisdom and counsel with these temptations? I wonder if “the devil”, the adversary, was some figure outside of him or if the adversary was his own inner demons? Doesn't every fully human person have some?

The text says after the 40 days of being tempted by the devil, this adversary came to Jesus with these final 3 offers, suggestions, considerations. Not knowing what temptations filled the 40 days, we know that at the tail end, these 3 temptations completed his wilderness preparation for his new ministry. Being fully human, just like me, those 3 temptations are not just “spiritual” temptations, or tests that Jesus had to “pass”. These are human temptations for me, for each one of us, stepping foot on the spiritual journey, the human journey to and with God.

The text says “he ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.” I’m not sure if he wanted to eat if there was even a source of food available in the wilderness. Was it his choice not to eat, was that part of the vision quest? Or were there simply no food sources to even consider it. Whichever it may be, he went without food for a long time, survived, and was famished. How easy it is to recall being away from the comfort food of home and long for the fragrance and savoring the taste of fresh baked goods or a good stew simmering.

I have not been to the desert, but I have been hungry. I have experienced emotional, communal, and spiritual wastelands and have been starving for assurance of love and friendship, for the confidence that God is present. I’ve been tempted to feel like a victim, and say “poor me”, knowing full well I chose this path. Famished, seeing only stones surrounding him, I image Jesus wishing those stones were fresh baked bread, to satisfy a hunger after accomplishing a 40 day fast. Like Jesus there is always the temptation to satisfy immediate needs, wants, wishes. Having perhaps “accomplished” a spiritual high of 40 days with God, why not turn the spiritual, God switch off and take time for self. “You deserve a break”. It’s here and now for the asking. Immediate gratification. I’ve worked so hard, I’ve earned a reward of some kind. “You know you want it.” Our advertisements today are full of the adversary’s language. And so for me, this temptation for a fully human Jesus, just like me, is the temptation to fill my own need. Is it bad to eat? To have some satisfaction? No. But simply put, Jesus resists the temptation to put his own interests first. If Jesus lived fully in love with God, seeking first the things of God, not making grand statements regarding personal ability or seeking first his own needs, then I need to follow his lead. If I am invited and encouraged to grow up in everyway into the full stature and measure of Christ, I need to turn away from my inner adversary that would encourage me to be self serving. Can I trust God to meet my needs, God, who has always provided before? Can I let go of making sure all my needs are met before taking the next step to follow God in this journey of life?

The devil led Jesus up. In Matthew’s Gospel says Jesus was led up “a very high mountain” where there was a vision of some sort displaying all the world’s kingdoms, all the nations. Here Jesus was tempted to have authority, power, and glory… if he would worship the devil, the adversary, who had the authority, the power, the glory to give to power-seeker and glory-mongers who came seeking them. There may be all kinds of interpretations about the significance of this temptation. We could spiritualize it and say it is about the Kingdom of God. Jesus response was simply that one must worship God and serve God only. So, to what degree am I tempted to worship and serve the powers that be? To what degree do I worship and serve and bow down to political, societal, economic, religious kingdoms, trying to please the adversary that demands attention away from God? Can I be in this world but of God’s realm, worshiping and serving God alone while engaged with various institutions that invite or insist on my allegiance. To what degree am I tempted to have power? Authority? Esteem? Glory? Who doesn’t want to stand on the podium and be recognized like a superstar, and international face? Even the Gospel stories suggest that faithful servants get their reward, even the last get to be first. There is a notion of glory; event the humbled with be exalted. We could easily slip on that temptation high slope of seeking power, glory, and have our own ego needs met, to be somebody big. Fantasy? Well, lots of folks have bought it, pursuing authority, power, fame and glory, giving into doing whatever necessary to get it. Miriam, serve God, no one else, not even yourself. Yes, perhaps serving God may be through institutions or other people, but focus is God. Worship God only, not the work, not the reward, the payoff, not what might be, and certainly not the inner adversarial mumblings.

Lastly, Jesus is taken to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, the rooftop of the holy of Holies, the sanctuary of God. At this location the devil quotes scripture, Ps 91:11&12. Hmmm. How often has scripture been quoted in adversarial ways, to manipulate, to confuse, to twist into saying whatever the speaker wishes it to say? How often has scripture been used to cause destruction? How often to be used contrary to God’s desire? How often are we tempted to hear the Word of the Lord in the sanctuary that could fit nicely with our own ambitions and use it and abuse it to fly off doing our own thing? “Well, it says in the Bible that….” And so we justify our actions with the abusive authority of scripture, saying, “Thus says the Lord…” OR, how tempting might it be to make a spectacle within the context of worship, drawing attention to oneself rather than to God? OR thinking of Jesus’ long ordeal of 40 days, being dirty, tired, hungry, how easy it may be for one to be discouraged and uncertain, wondering if God is really in this call and journey, being disillusioned. How easy it would be, discouraged and uncertain, to either bargain with God (“if you are in this then show me, prove to me you will provide and take care of me, I’m gonna jump now…”), or in depression find the temptation to end it all with a jump to death? Here is the temptation to give into abandonment of faith even in pursuit of certainties? Isn’t that what faith is, the assurance of things hoped for with out seeing, without certainty, without proof, living the mystery, living the questions? “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” says Jesus. Am I tempted to be the authority to test God’s promises? God’s providence? God’s love? God’s presence?

And so the devil left Jesus, having tempted him in every way humanly, and otherwise, possible…. “until an opportune time” it says. It implies that there were other occasions of temptation to come. Jesus had other temptations, other occasions of struggle with the adversary, just like me. The Good News is that Jesus is fully human, and knows my weaknesses in every way having been tempted, like me. Full of the Holy Spirit, led by the Spirit, in wilderness times of preparation and transition, of vulnerability to adversarial voices, he kept his focus, his intent on God, and so can I. There will be other times of trial, of testing, of temptation. There will be other times of disillusionment, temptations to be self serving, to seek grand results, to “make it big”, to gain recognition. There will be adversarial voices that suggest a need for God toshow some concrete certainty. There will be adversarial times of discouragement that may even carry death wishes. But here is the Good News. God was in Jesus, and is in me. God did not abandon Jesus, nor will God abandon me… or you. This journey with God is unknown, but it is certain to be with God, and that is enough. Seek God first, the realm of God first, the presence and wisdom and Spirit of God first, and everything else will be as it needs to be.

In Mark’s Gospel telling of Jesus’ ordeal in the wilderness it ends with, “and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him”. (Mark 1:13) I love that. He was where the wild things are, and the angels waited on him. Its okay. Be where the wild things are. Be aware of God’s messengers, God’s angels, God’s presence in the midst of the wildness. And be still. All will be well.

Transformation

Exodus 34:29-35;  Luke 9:28-36;  II Cor. 3:12-18

 “And all of us, with unveiled faces…are being transformed…”                  (II Cor.3:18)

 “Here and there in the world and now and then in ourselves is a New Creation.”  This side of glory, maybe that is the best we can hope for. (F. Buechner quoting Paul Tillich, Now and Then p. 27)

 trans – a prefix meaning:  across, beyond, through, so as to change; on or to the other side  (transact, transcend, transcribe, transfer, transfigure, transform, transgress, translate, transmit, transplant, transpose, transport)

 

Things change.  A different way, another angle, change in light or sound or location can make all things new. Life invites change, movement, new possibilities, new perspectives.  People change. All things living and most things non-living change, evolve, are reshaped over time.  This is good.  This is natural.  It simply is.  Change must happen.  It must happen if there is to be life.  So why do we work so hard to keep things and people as they were?  Why such resistance?  Why is change so frightening?  And why do we so often fail to see or resist the Holy One, the Holy Spirit, God within us who gently invites and patiently waits for our transformation?

Like the story of Yellow and Stripe, the caterpillars in Hope for the Flowers, by Trina Paulus, we tend to resist taking the risk of letting go of our present state of belief and behavior because it is all we know, even if we are stuck and not growing or going anywhere.  To undergo the risk of transformation requires letting go of what was, in order to become what will be.  It’s unknown. It requires trust.  It invites us into the sacred mystery.

Today is called “Transformation Sunday”.  It is usually the Sunday that connects the seasons of Epiphany and Lent.  It is the turning point in the Gospel story when Jesus’ healing and teaching ministry begins to create opposition, and his face it turned toward Jerusalem and its consequences.   The lectionary scripture passages recite the stories of Moses’ and Jesus’ transfigurations.  (Read the Exodus and Luke passages.) 

Notice the similarities of the stories. The location of both stories are on mountains.  There is an encounter with the Holy Presence, with God.  Clouds or fog or ‘something’ seems to blur the human vision from seeing in its usual way, inviting a new seeing.  There is conversation with God; a voice from heaven heard by humans. The holy encounter of light and radiance and splendor changed the appearance of both Moses and Jesus.  They had a brilliance about them.  They had shining faces.  In both stories people seeing this transformation respond with awe and fear. The Israelites were afraid to come near Moses.  The disciples were “terrified as they entered the cloud”.

In The Cloud of Unknowing, an unknown author from the 14^th century writes of entering into the transformative place within the spiritual life; of hearing with new ears, the ear of one’s heart, or seeing with ‘the third eye’ as some mystic refer to it, not seeing or judging with what our own eyes see, with blurred vision, but with the eye of God within.  It is frightening because the unknown is scary.  I wonder if in this present generation we might reclaim the natural reality of the unknown as an opportunity, with anticipation?  Scientifically or technologically we want to nail everything down to certainty.  How about being willing to enter the adventure of the journey or path into the unknown?  Isn’t that exactly what all the heroic explorers of the New World, the Frontier, and outer space have done?  Why not join the voyage of inner space, Spirit spaces and places, where God might invite new discoveries of our selves, of life, of God?

We love mystery novels and movies, but we don’t want to be in mysterious times of life.  The unknown, or the holiness, or the invitation to change, stops our forward movement.  We want to hold onto what was.  Or, like Peter who wanted to build some dwellings and just stay in the holy moment, we want to stay put and not have to go back down the mountain, changed or seeing God or Jesus differently.  Or coming down the mountain we don’t know how to explain what happened or is happening within, and so we remain silent about it, not knowing how to put holy mystery into words. Or like the Israelites, we need to have the ‘changed one’, the one with the shining face, “veiled”.  Their change is too much for us to handle.  Or, in reading these stories and other mystic encounters with God, we never imagine that we too might be invited to step into transformative experiences.

Celtic spirituality speaks of “thin places”, where the veil between divine and human, heaven and earth, is so sheer that moving from one to the other seems to have no boundary prohibiting passage; that union and fusion is likely to occur.  Perhaps that is what happened to Moses on the mountain, first when he saw the burning bush, and also when receiving the law of God.  Elijah also, who went to the same mountain as Moses,  encountered God in sheer silence, covering his face in awe and fear.  Or many others, in many times and places had mystic, transformative experiences with the Holy One, wherein ‘mountain top’ experiences didn’t happen only on mountain tops:  Mary Magadalene in the garden on the first Easter;  the 2 on the Emmaus Road encountering Jesus in the breaking of the bread;  Peter on a roof top in Joppa; Joan of Arc in visions;  Julian of Norwich in the ‘showings’; John of the Cross in the dark night of the soul; Martin Luther King, Jr. having been to the mountain top in his own dream.

All of us are being transformed.  The question is, are we attentive to this transformation?  Are we participants?  or are we too afraid to allow ourselves entrance into mystery? holiness? even when it is all around, inviting us to wake up to sacred presence. 

Paul the  Apostle had a major transformative experience on the Damascus Road (see Acts 9).  Attuned to the Spirit of God, he likely had many other times when he sensed thin spaces, the mystery of the Holy Presence.   And so in encouraging and offering holy wisdom to the struggling, bickering church in Corinth, Paul writes that we are all merely human, we yet have a treasure in these earthen vessels (II Cor 4).  We are not perfect, but we are invited into glory, into mystery, into God.  We are all being transformed, the good, the bad, the ugly.  We are invited to stand with unveiled faces in the holy presence of God. 

            “When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.” (I Cor. 3:16-18)

Freedom, no boundaries of separation from God; naked, shining faces reflecting God’s glory; being changed, transformed into Godliness, God’s image, bit by bit, into glory, beauty, resplendence…. for all of us.  Scary?  Yes.  Good?  Wonderful! And humbling, that we too might encounter God’s holy presence, that we too might be like God.  Do we want to?  Are we open to God’s holy encounters?  Encountering God are we willing to be changed?  Can we expose ourselves to God?  Can we expose our new shining, transformed expressions to family and friends who may be uncomfortable with our transforming?  Will we be willing participants in God’s work of our transformation?

 

In waking, in sleeping, on mountains or in valleys, on our daily sacred journeys may we all be alive to the transforming work of God in us all.  (And that is a reminder that God is also at work in my neighbor.  Can I encourage and support their transformation in the Spirit?)  May we all stand with unveiled faces and see and be seen by God who is always at work in us to bring us into fullness of Life.

 

Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven to earth come down,
fix in us Thy humble dwelling, …
….visit us with Thy salvation, enter every trembling heart.
 
Finish, then, Thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be;
let us see Thy great salvation perfectly restored in Thee;
changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place…
…lost in wonder, love, and praise.  (Charles Wesley, 1747)

What's Your Vocation

Isaiah 6:1-8   Luke 5:1-11

What is your vocation.

Most folks respond to that question with an answer that names their “job”, or the work they do which sustains them and/or their family financially. “Vocational training schools” teach students some “trade” in which they can find employment.  But living into one’s “vocation” is not necessarily the same as living out one’s employment or job.

The word VOCATION comes from the latin word, voco meaning “call”, and voce, meaning voice.  One’s vocation in its true sense is living out of the voice that calls us to be and do a particular something.

Recently I met a woman, named Tonya Rund.  She worked for FedEX driving a deliver truck.  She tells of a few of her regular stops, delivering art supplies to artists in their home studios.  She wished she could do what they did, create beauty in the quiet of a home space.  One day she asked one artist if she could stay a bit and watch the artist at work.  She did.  The artist encouraged to sign up for an art class somewhere to explore art, which she did.  Listening for her own inner longings, she began to hear and respond to a call, a voice encouraging her toward art.   After some time of blending the FedEx job with her call toward art, Tonya now creates beautiful clay art pieces and her vocation, as well as her employment, is art.  (You can visit her at www.tonyarund.com)

Today’s lectionary passages are “vocation” stories.  They invite us to listen to the voice of God’s calling and responding to call that comes both within and outside, toward vocation beyond employment.

Listen to Isaiah’s story.  We know Isaiah to ‘a prophet’. It was not his primary “job”.  His primary job was as a ‘priest’ serving in the Temple in Jerusalem.  Most likely he continued serving as a priest, but also became a prophet after listening to the voce, the voice of God calling him to that vocation.  Read  Is 6:1-8

As a priest, Isaiah was a mediator between people and God.  He spent his life in ministry, offering incense and performing the sacrificial rituals in the Temple spaces. This ordained priest had a vision in the context of his daily work.  He hears voices, and he feels the earth shake around him.  This priestly man says,  ‘Woe is me…I’m ruined, (or I’m gonna die!) because I am a sinner, my mouth doesn’t sound like ‘holy, holy, holy’.  No one can be in the presence of such holiness and live!’ The vision continues with the angelic seraph purifying his mouth, purifying his being, with that symbolic coal.  Isaiah is forgiven.  The priest receives absolution, was made pure, had God’s gracious cleansing.    Then, his own unworthiness made worthy, he heard and recognized the holy voice and presence of God, calling him, asking him:   “Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?”  God invokes, invites Isaiah to a new vocation.  Isaiah says,  “Here I am. Send me!”

Isaiah, already a priest, was still open to hear a new word from God’s call; a vocation, a voice perhaps from outside his being but resonated within his being.  Did you notice that this priestly Isaiah’s first response was,  “I’m not worthy!”  (Not me!)  This is like so many who were called by God in other Biblical stories whose first response was, “Not me!”  “I’m not worthy.”  “It’s too much for me to do.”  Moses was one, Gideon, Jeremiah also.  Later we know Mary, the mother of Jesus also when invited into a special calling said….How can that be!?  Common responses are surprise and disbelief that we might hear clearly or have the ability to be used by God for a particular something.  Only when we listen carefully as the external call resonates, vibrates, stirs within our own being, can it join with our own inner voice to respond.

Listen to the story of Simon Peter and his fellow fisherman as they hear the voice of vocation.  Fishing was their employment, the family business.  Doing the daily task of fishing, just as Isaiah was doing his daily task, the voice of vocation came calling.  Both the prophet priest and the fisherman disciples are in the midst of routine, unsuspecting, when God’s voice calls into a new reality.  Read:  Luke 5:1-11.

The end of the reading says the fishermen “left everything” and followed Jesus.  Common thought is that they never returned to fishing, now their “career” was discipling.  Well, let’s think about that.  From other stories in the gospels we know that they still had their boats and they still went fishing, and most likely not just for the sport of it.  There are stories of crossing the sea in a boat, of Peter climbing out of the boat to walk on water, of storms, and even after Jesus resurrection Peter declares, “I’m going fishing”.  These were family men and they needed to provide for their families.  Most likely, they “left everything” for that day.  Most likely they kept their occupation of fishing which provided the resources for them to focus on learning from Jesus and being trained for servant ministry, to trust, to be grace-filled, to grow in God.

Like Isaiah, Simon was amazed and frightened that he was in the initial moment, in the presence of holiness.  “Go away from me!”  ‘I’m not worthy’ or ‘I can’t deal with this!’  Like Isaiah, there is a word of consolation, or comfort, of forgiveness or grace that relaxes the anxiety and fear.  “Don’t be afraid”… of me, or yourself, or your frailty, or of what you are called to become.  Jesus invites a new vocation of people catching, of bringing people into the realization of God’s realm.

God is still calling individuals, us,  into vocation, to listen for clearer focus and direction or reason for living.  God speaks through dreams, longings, and visions, through hardship and miracles, through senses, and often in common and in uncommon ways, always unpredictable, calling us to act, to be, to participate with the work of God in the world.  Are we listening?  Are we awake in the ordinary tasks of a day in which God might have a word for us?  And perhaps God’s direction and invitation is not to “leave everything” but in everything be and act from a God-centeredness.  Perhaps God’s calling  to a new vocation is to simply be attentive to God’s agenda within our daily lives.

The Bible’s stories are not only stories of God and people long ago.  The Living Word is that it is OUR story as well. Teachers, farmers, business women, politicians, parents, salesmen, young and old together, all receive God’s whisper, thunder, invitation, prompting to be God’s prophet, minister, disciple, person in this time and place.  How quickly do we say,  “Whoa!   Wait a minute, not me!  I’m afraid.  I’m afraid I don’t understand.  Find someone else!  Go away from me.”  Can we stop our anxious blithering long enough to hear God say, ‘Don’t be afraid.  My grace frees you to be all you need to be.  Will you go for me, will you participate with me, taking your part in transforming my people and my world whom I love?’

 Dare we say,  “Here I am Lord, send me”?

Dare we listen for the Word of the Lord?

Has God a vocation for you?