CLEARING THE DECKS FOR LENT
MATTHEW 4:1-11; FEBRUARY 10, 2008 – LENT ONE
THOMAS H. YORTY, WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

            In January of 1846 Henry David Thoreau, after drilling a hole in the ice of Walden Pond and lowering a stone tied to a rope 102 feet to the bottom, wrote this reflection: “let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance
            that alluvion which covers the globe, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, through church and state, through philosophy and religion until we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality, and say—this is, and no mistake;
            and then begin, having a point of departure, a place where we might found a wall or a state or set a lamppost safely.” Hold Thoreau for a moment.

            I’d like to talk with you today about Jesus’ experience being tested in the wilderness and its relevance to us on this interfaith weekend. Matthew said it was God’s Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness immediately after his baptism. Why? To be tested.
            Isn’t it immediately after we set ourselves to some task or on some path in life that we find obstacles in our way?
            If I resolve to clean the house Saturday morning, all sorts of things can prevent me when the day comes and the chores stare me in the face.

            While you and I will not be tested necessarily the same way Jesus was tested, we will experience like him moments after we have made some momentous commitment to new behavior or a worthy goal, when we will be tempted to relinquish our resolve.
            The story of Jesus’ testing in the wilderness is the traditional reading for the start of Lent because this is the season when followers of Jesus determine to go deeper in their spiritual journey. In the quest for some bedrock like Thoreau to refine and rebuild their life. Some of us might have decided to give something up for Lent to depend more on God or add some spiritual practice and we will be tested.
            But I want to say the matter of being tested transcends Lent and whatever ways we observe it. Some of us are now facing life transitions or career choices or passages in our relationships not to mention this interfaith partnership that are the arenas or wilderness where we will be tried.

            It was not until Thoreau measured Walden Pond that he could offer reflections about it. Many in Concord believed the pond extended through open caves to the other end of the globe. All sorts of myths and suspicions confused the perceptions and thinking about Walden Pond—until Thoreau measured its depth.
            But after Thoreau knew what the pond consisted of in its dimensions he could then build his observations and reflections on the hard facts of its size and shape.
            He talked about the pond’s geological history; its economic value as a producer of ice and fish; its social and aesthetic importance. His reflections are sublime, especially the transcendent beauty of Walden’s pickerel whose colors, he says, are like flowers and precious stones.

            What happens to Jesus in the wilderness, to you and me in some moment of testing is that we find our true foundation, we discover the ground upon which we take our stand.
            Until then we may think the pond of our faith or family ties or professional commitments has unlimited depth. Yet, until then we slip and slide in the bog of doubt or guilt or ambition that muddy the waters of personal and professional life.
            Then some test comes along and we discover our true depth and integrity, the rock-like principles we stand upon.

            I am suggesting testing and temptation are necessary for growth. It is why the Spirit of God not only condones Jesus’ testing but leads him into it.
            In being tested Jesus defines who he is. Before his trial he has been hailed at birth by angels, venerated by John the Baptist and claimed by a voice from heaven as God’s Son. But his ministry is yet to begin. Nothing has been built upon this claim for his identity. Now he is to discover what being God’s Son means.
            And when Satan departs in the story we know what it means. It means that Jesus’ unshakeable allegiance is to his Father in heaven; it means he will not use his power and privilege for any reason no matter how worthy to test God’s relationship to him; and it means he was human because after the trials he is exhausted and depleted.

            One writer says the other name for Satan is the Old Deluder and his most successful delusion is that he has persuaded some very smart people that he doesn’t exist.
            But in today’s story Satan is as real as Jesus. This is not a battle between super heroes, but two adversaries, and there is no guarantee Jesus will prevail.
            Why? Because the temptations put to Jesus are so reasonable. What could possibly be wrong yielding to them? And here we discover that Satan appeals to us where we feel spiritually strong, for where we think we are strong we fail to keep watch against the thief in the night. We assume Satan attacks us where we are weak. But proof of his cleverness is that he appeals to us where we feel secure.1

            All Satan asks of Jesus in the wilderness is proof that Jesus is who he says he is. All Satan seems to want is evidence that God and Jesus are on the same side. Satan wants to be satisfied that Jesus and God are not mere figments of the spiritual imagination. 1
            What could be a more reasonable request? But it is a slippery slope proving to yourself that you are who you say you are or that your faith is what you claim it is to the flood of self doubt and shipwreck of abandoned beliefs. Isn’t this invariably the case with bullies of all ages who beat their chests claiming superior status or religious zealots whose preaching speaks too loudly like Shakespeare’s lady?
            Jesus chooses not to use his relationship to God to satisfy his own hunger and ensure his own safety in the first and second temptations. He will not make a contest of God’s love for him like a child who pleads with a parent for some desired end by saying, “if you loved me.” But Jesus’ third temptation to possess the kingdoms of the earth is the most subtle of all. It reminds us that the world’s most horrific evil results from the pursuit of some notion of good.

            Today is the third and last gathering of Sharing Sabbaths weekend. Friday, members of Temple Beth Zion, Musjid Nu’man, the Islamic Society of the Niagara Frontier and Westminster visited Muslim prayer services and Jewish Shabbat. Today we conclude with members of TBZ, Musjid Nu’man and the Islamic Society visiting this service.
            Such exchanges and dialogue are needed in today’s world because some religious voices in each of our traditions condone horrific evil for purported good; usually good defined as the protection and propagation of religious faith and culture.
            The end justifies the means if it is a religious end which is invariably a good end, the thinking goes. But such self justification has mired the world in terrorism and protracted war and threatens the survival of the planet.

            I pause to reflect on the third temptation and its implications for multi-faith relations because if we are to have a peaceful world safe enough for our children, we would do well to identify the third temptation when it rears its head in our own hearts and communities.
            And here let me say that by religion I do not mean only the great faith traditions but any passion from political party to economic system to NFL team that in the heart of the believer is superior to all others and worthy of being the standard bearer for all people.
            It is hard to draw the line between where theological propositions and economic opportunity and personal preferences for life style start and stop. Faith gets integrated into a way of life. Leaders have always invoked religious commitments to fight the enemy when the war is really about having the power to impose my way of life on others.

            Just as people in Concord thought that Walden Pond was bottomless and perpetuated myths and confusion about the depth of the pond, so in the world’s great religions from Buddhism to Christianity to Hinduism to Islam to Judaism there is no small confusion.
            And while practitioners of one faith cannot take responsibility for the practice of other faiths they can take responsibility for their own spirituality. They can seek to find the true bottom if you will of their spiritual heritage – that is the spiritual tenets and principles upon which their day to day living depends.
            I fear the Old Deluder is filling our heads if not our hearts with much misguided, dangerous information about one another’s faith and religious practice. It happens not just between religions but within religions. “Those darn evangelicals and mega-churches” we mainline Christians sometimes think. If only they saw the error of their ways. Yet such myths and confusion are a smoke screen for prejudice and profiling of what Christians think or Jews value or Muslims want.

            When Satan suggested that Jesus could possess the kingdoms of the world it seemed a flawless way to achieve an end all of our religious texts long for – when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess to our God.
            With one gesture, the need for preaching, conversions, martyrdoms, missionaries, interfaith dialogue, the whole enterprise would be satisfied.
            But that is the lust for power and God-like status that burned in the hearts of Adam and Eve and burns still in human hearts.

            Friday night at Temple Beth Zion, in that incredible sanctuary, while evening prayers were being sung by the angelic voices of the worship leaders, I looked up from my pew and had the sense of being, all of us, in the hull of a proud ship—with those wide walls leaning outward like the port and starboard sides of a great vessel.
            And the two magnificent Ben Shan tablets of the law vertically rising in parallel before us—as a mighty mast; and the exquisite creation window of Genesis 1: verses 1and 2 filling the entire east wall at the synagogue like a vast sail filled with God’s Spirit—the very same Spirit that hovered over the waters at Creation depicted in the window and, as Matthew says today, led Jesus into the wilderness.
            As we sang and prayed together Muslim, Christian and Jew in the spiritual home of our Jewish hosts I imagined our congregations being lead together into the stormy waters of this world to be tested, not unlike Jesus. And I knew if, like him, we could only stand upon the firm foundation of ultimate allegiance and trust in our God: Allah, Elohim, and the Lord we would be used to bring peace in these critical times. Amen.