Trinity Lutheran Church

Let us Pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable unto you O Lord our Rock and Our Redeemer. Amen.

 I must be a bad Christian. I cut my hair. I wear clothes that are two materials. I am a woman who is also called to be a minister. I firmly believe that God has called each one of us to love all people, not just those we like. I get angry, and sometimes I get really mad. Sometimes I don’t pray before I eat my meal. I have trouble giving it all over to God. I worry about things I cannot control and I often wonder why things happen to good people. I don’t always pass on email forwards of facebook status updates to show others how much I believe in God. Sometimes people’s faith scared me. And I believe communion should not just be celebrated on special Sundays, but every time the community gathers.
 Sometimes, I get tempted though to show just how Christian I am, and usually it is when I see my fellow clergy friends wearing their clerics. I often wonder, should I be wearing mine now too? Don’t get me wrong I like my cleric, I like the perks it gets me, like getting out of a speeding ticket, but I often do not wear mine to a baseball game, or in the grocery store, or out to dinner with my husband. But, I am tempted none the less to show others just how pastoral I am. Sometimes, I feel as though this could best be expressed by wearing my cleric wherever I go. Now does this make me a better Pastor? No. Does it make me a better Christian? No. But I feel the temptation to do it, especially when all my other Pastor friends do. And we all face these temptations in our lives. To prove to others just how Christian we are. Just how Lutheran we are.
 We hear friends or acquaintances say, “IF you are Christian you would do this, you would join our prayer group, vote for this person, not listen to that music, protest for this cause, eat only this food, wear only these clothes, etc..” Or we hear “IF you are Lutheran you would like green jello”, ok maybe not really. But we are faced with temptation. We are faced with in some way showing our worth to those around us. And not just religiously, we face temptation in other ways as well.
 We do not have to look very far to see that temptation is all around us. We live in a world where anything you want you can have as long as you have enough money and you know who to ask. Need examples? Look to the stars, no not up in the sky, but the celebrities. In the past few years how many starts have died from drug overdoses? The childhood stars who group up and are arrested for DUIs, stealing, murder, or abuse. The athletes who have one, two, or thirteen mistresses. Everyone faces temptation, even when we do not see it or expect that they would. When we live in a society where we are asked to prove just how good we are and we are able to get whatever we want whenever we want it, we are going to get ourselves into some sticky situations. We will be tempted, in ways that seem trivial to others, but in ways that are so enormous for us.
 Jesus was tempted, and we often forget that. We sometimes forget that while he was the Son of God, he was also human. After living for 40 days in the wilderness the devil came to him, to tempt him. The book of Mark does not spend much time on the temptation and the book of Luke gives a similar account to what we have read today. The devil comes to tempt Jesus into proving just who he claims to be. Jesus is tempted to show the devil, that what people are saying, what God said during his baptism, is true. He is God’s beloved son, with whom he is well pleased. The account of Jesus’ temptation occurs right after his baptism, and I think there is good reason for it to be there. And I think Jesus knows who he is, and no matter what the devil says to him or tempts him with, Jesus can rely on those promises made to him in his baptism. He is God’s son. So when the devil says to Jesus, “IF you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Instead of listening or turning the loaves into bread to prove something to the tempter, Jesus reverts back to the Scriptures. Jesus could have easily turned those stones in loaves, I mean it is only a few years later when he will feed 5,000 with a few loaves of bread and some fish.
 As the devil tried to tempt Jesus into somehow proving that who he says he is and who God has named as his beloved in his baptism, Jesus did not budge. Jesus went back to the scriptures, to the thing he knew to be true. Jesus was steeped in the word of God, in the promises God had made to Jesus’ ancestors. In knowing this and being comfortable with it, Jesus never gave into temptation. Jesus never said, “Ok that is it, I am going to really show you Mr. Devil!” Instead, Jesus reverted back to the scriptures, Jesus resisted temptation, resisted doing what he could have easily done, and relied on the promises of God.
 I think this is why it is important that this story follows Jesus’ baptism. When Jesus is tempted he relies on God. When we are tempted what do we do? Do we try to prove to others that we are who they think we are? Or who they want us to be? Now sometimes, it is good for our family members and friends to call us back to who they know we are, especially when we are in the middle of temptation. But when we are called to prove who we to someone else, and it goes against who we know we are as children of God, then it can get dangerous. When we know deep in our core that what the temptation is will hurt ourselves and others we care about we may want to rely on those promises we know.
 In our baptisms we have been marked with the cross of Christ forever and sealed by the Holy Spirit. We have been called one of God’s children, not by anything we did, but by what God has done for us. Part of that is sending God’s only son to be in this world. To be human like us and to face temptation. Jesus did not do the things he could have easily done, he could have easily turned those stones into bread and feed a lot of people, but instead Jesus put his faith and his trust in God. And it is important to note the Scripture he used when replying to the devil, ““One does not live on bread alone, but the word of God” comes from book of Deuteronomy. It was to remind the Israelites, after their journey in the wilderness, when all they had to eat was the manna God provided to survive, that now out of the wilderness, their survival would depend on the word of God. In the new land, in the promised land, they way they were called to live as a community was to rely on the word of God. God had provided and would continue to provide for them, if they listen to where God was calling them. If they relied and remembered the promises God made to them in the wilderness and to their ancestors.
 Those same words when spoken by Jesus are to remind all the hearers of the word that our survival, our strength comes from the word of God. When we need help facing the challenges of life, of not being who others think we should be, resisting other temptations, we can take our cue from Jesus. We will face temptation in our life, that is a given and our response will not always be the right one, but we can be assured of one thing, that we are always loved and we are never alone. Jesus relied on those same promises and like us, he was never alone in this world. Amen.