Sermon-Year A-1st Lent-2-10-08
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."

Ah, Lent. How about a good sermon about temptation? Three male Episcopal priests are out in a boat on a lake, fishing. The fish were not biting, and the guys were doing a lot of talking. They knew that confession is always good for the soul, so they decided to share with each other that one sin that gave them the most trouble in their spiritual lives.
The first priest said his weakness was materialism. He really, really liked the better things in life, and whenever he moved between churches, his first consideration was always the size of the salary offered. The second priest said his weakness was a little addiction to betting. He would bet on football, golf, and horses at the track, and he worried that it was going to get out of hand. The third priest, who was sitting in the back of the boat, just turned the boat for shore and was rowing for the dock at top speed. The other two priests said, “Hey, what's the hurry? You haven't made your confession yet!” The third priest said, “Well, my worst sin is gossip, and I just can't wait to get home!”
Where were we last Sunday, geographically? Can you remember? The transfiguration? Where? Right, on a mountaintop. This week we return to a mountaintop-only things are much different. Jesus, in the gospel of Matthew was just baptized, and he comes up out of the water and the Holy Spirit rests upon him. And “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” He has this glorious moment in the river Jordan, and then BAM-he’s driven into the wilderness to be tempted. As a rule, I have found this to be true about great spiritual experiences-glory then challenge. The Cursillistas first explained this to me a long time ago-when we at our highest-that’s when we’re most vulnerable to that voice whispering in our head. The fourth day, they call it. So Jesus goes, AGAIN to the mountaintop-only this time it’s not wonderful. It’s terrible. He fasts 40 days. And then the voice starts whispering in his ear. Think of the hungry people, think of all the good you can do, think of the suffering that you can end-just turn stones into bread.
Years ago Bob Greene, the columnist for the Chicago Sun Times wrote a story about a doctor in the poor part of town who asked people only to pay what they could for a visit.
Greene wrote the article without mentioning the doctor’s name or where his office was. It was such a popular article he decided to write a follow up piece, only this time he would mention the doctor’s name-so many people wanted to contribute to his work. So Greene interviewed him again, but this time the doctor said, no mention of my name or where I am. And Greene said, “oh, you’re worried about getting flooded with patients.” “No,” the doctor said, “I know how to set limits.” “You concerned that this might happen or that”, Greene asked. “No,” the doctor said, “I’m worried that I might start doing this for the wrong reasons.”
Did you hear the first reading for today, the story of Adam and Eve? Hear is humanity in a lush green fertile rich garden. Everything we would ever want. All we have to do is, not to try to grab the power to be God. And we can’t avoid it. We eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We want so desperately to be in charge of our world. Jesus is in a windswept barren desolate wilderness-no food. And he’s asked to become powerful like God-and change this wilderness mountaintop into a paradise-a land of bread and plenty. And he says no. There’s a reason we have these two lessons on the same Sunday. We’re supposed to be hearing something about ourselves-and about temptation. Do you know what tempts you-and I don’t mean, chocolate, or desserts. I mean the real stuff, do you know in what ways you are tempted, lured, enticed? Do we ever really know what the voice is that whispers in our head, the voice that always says, “you can have more.”
Today we turn in our Adopt-a-Child Size commitments. Last year we helped clothe over 500 children-give them complete winter outfits. It’s not easy coming up with that much money, that much effort. Years ago Teresa was approached by a large company that said to her, “we will underwrite the whole program-buy all the clothes for all the kids, but we need to take the blessing of the commitments and bags out of the equation-and we need a big picture with us and the kids and the company name .” And Teresa came to me and said, “this is a dream come true, but I’m not sure what to do.” I would trust Teresa in any decision, so I asked her, “what do you think we should do?” And she said, “blessing the pieces of paper and the clothes are too important, being anonymous and letting the parents get the credit for these clothes is too important-I think we have to turn it down.” And so we did. And it was a very hard year. Every temptation for Jesus is a request to do good-too quickly. Every offer by the adversary is the voice in each of our heads that speaks to us about what we want and who we are, you can have it all, the voice says, you can be it all. Just skip over this one step.
Satan, the adversary was offering Jesus everything that Jesus said that he came for-to give people the bread of life, to inspire folks to trust in God, to live as good citizens of a new kingdom. Why does Jesus keep saying “no”.
Years ago I was visiting a young man in jail. And I asked him, “what do you think got you here?” And he thought about it for awhile and said, “I think I tried to take too many shortcuts. I wanted it all”
Testing, temptation isn’t the problem. Wanting to get the good stuff without walking the whole journey-that’s the problem. Wanting the miracles without the sacrifice, wanting the resurrection without the cross. Adam and Eve had it all, and still wanted to be God. Jesus is on the mountaintop with nothing-and refuses to grab it all. One preacher said, “Jesus let stones be stones.” How hard that had to be. Let stones be stones.
We will never have a chance to be all powerful. We won’t be given the opportunity to change rocks into croissants. But every day I hear a voice inside my head that offers me the endzone without running down the field. Every day we all have chances to take shortcuts to what we want, to who we want to be. And each shortcut robs us of our faith and our self.
It’s Lent, the time for growing in self-knowledge and becoming aware of the ways we take shortcuts, choose the easy way, listen to the whisper in our ear that says “you can get there easier, quicker-without going through the all the trouble.”
This is part of the mountaintop, too. Stay strong, take the long road. This is part of the journey up the mountain, too.
Matthew 4:1-11
4:1Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 4:2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 4:3 The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." 4:4 But he answered, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" 4:5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 4:6 saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" 4:7 Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" 4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 4:9 and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." 4:10 Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"

Get up, don’t be afraid.