Sunday, March 4, 2017: "Led by the Spirit into Testing?" Fr. Carey Stone


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 Lent 1A’17

5 March 2017
Matthew 4.1-11
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
North Little Rock, Arkansas
The Rev. Carey Stone
 
My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Amen. 
James 1.2-4 New Revised Standard Version
 
My house was sold, much of what had been inside was liquidated, and what remained was squeezed into a Pontiac Grand Prix and a U-Haul trailer. I was now ready to make the journey of about 986 miles from Arkansas to Alexandria, VA where I would attend seminary for three years. I had been called out of a comfortable career, home, town filled with friends and family to go and live three miles from our nations capital just one year after 9/11. On the way up there my car began overheating – it was discovered that I had too much trailer for too little of a car. Somehow I made it without burning the transmission or engine up. But that was just the first of many more trials that would follow in the three years ahead, and I would have to pass most of them in order to become a priest in the Episcopal Church.  
 
Jesus had just been transfigured on a mountain with three of his closest disciples and the very voice of God had declared him to be God’s beloved Son.  That makes these next words in scripture all the more troubling: “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” How could this be that the Holy Spirit of God would be leading the beloved Son of God right into the jaws of temptation? Even though Matthew tells us that the devil would be the one doing the tempting it was still the Holy Spirit that was doing the leading. Why? That doesn’t seem to me to be a very loving thing to do! In order for him to be able to help and comfort human beings undergoing temptations of various kinds he himself would have to face down the spine tingling and visceral temptations common to humanity. 
 
But this is where we need a bit of help translating what Jesus’ temptations were. Most of us aren’t tempted to make bread, and even if we were why would that be a bad idea, especially if we were hungry? Most of us are never tempted to climb the Empire State building and throw ourselves off of it, and lastly devil worship has not ever held much attraction so how do we relate these tests to our modern day experience? 
One spiritual writer Fr. Thomas Keating has made a pretty good attempt. He looks at the temptations of Jesus as overarching categories that all of our individual sins would fall under. He calls sin our attempt to meet our own emotional needs apart from God. These needs are for survival/security; affection/esteem; and power and control. With these needs in mind Jesus’ three major temptations begin to make more sense. He was tempted to make stones into bread. He had been fasting almost forty days and was absolutely famished by making bread he could save himself and survive without any help from God. His second temptation, to jump off of a high tower so that angels would be forced to break his fall was a temptation for affection/esteem – Look how spectacular Jesus is by doing something dramatic he could gain the affection of the crowds. The last temptation when Jesus was most vulnerable the devil took him to a high mountain and showed him a vision of all the kingdoms of the world and said that these could all be his if he would simply fall down and worship him. This struck Jesus to his core as he was tempted to seize power and control I don’t think any of us around here have any power or control needs – do you?  All of these temptations hearken back to the garden and Adam and Eve when the devil said “if you would eat of the fruit you’ll be like god.” Thankfully for us Jesus passes his tests with flying colors each time by quoting scripture, decisively countering each satanic offer to find his identity in his own power and ability rather than living life dependent upon God. 
 
The folks in twelve step recovery groups have an acronym that helps explain our problem E – G – O (Ego) Edging God Out. We each are born with two selves a true self made in the image of God that seeks God’s will and a false self that seeks our own will to meet our own needs and to find our identity in our accomplishments rather than in our relationship with God as God’s children. The problem with trying to meet our needs on our own is that the needs then turn into bottomless pits and there is never enough! There is never enough security, never enough affection or esteem, never enough power and control. Each time we get some of these we think if I just had a little bit more – we get some more and again happiness escapes us.  
 
Jesus was led into an ambush not to destroy him but destroy any chance of a false self taking over his true divine self and identity as the Son of God. He didn’t have to prove anything he was already 100% safe and secure, he was already accepted and loved, and thanks to the Father, all power and control was already his as a gift. He knows what we are going through, he knows how to comfort us when we are being tempted to act independently from God. 
 
The character in Chinese for the English word crisis takes two words and puts them together, danger, and opportunity. Jesus’ crisis of temptation occurred as the Spirit led him into the wilderness and it was a dangerous opportunity. Being fully human as well as divine he could have flunked the test but God was rooting for him and he chose wisely. What is your crisis – your dangerous opportunity that God is leading you into – not to break you - but to make you more fully a trusting child who is more convinced than ever that life is not a set of commodities to be grasped after or a title to be earned but that God knows your needs and that your identity, your very life is a gift to be received, Amen.