The Challenge of The Wilderness
St Philips Sermon, Sunday 6th March 2022
Deuteronomy 26: 1-11, Rom 10: 8b – 13, Luke 4: 1-13
In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus faces
temptation in the wilderness. We can relate to this because we have all experienced
a kind of wilderness during the past two years. It has been a wilderness of
Covid, of grief and loss. Things may have improved but the future of this virus
is still uncertain. So, we are free in a sense, but cautious as we learn to
live with Covid.
During the pandemic, we still experienced the familiar difficulties of our world. Our world is always turbulent. Social injustice, war, civil unrest, and environmental challenges are not new, and sometimes the violence and the suffering of the world can feel relentless, and now we have war here in Europe on our doorstep.
We learn to live with the difficulties of our world. It is part of the human experience, but this constant turbulence has a way of eroding wellbeing even when the troubles may not affect us directly.
The season of Lent provides an opportunity to confront the
wilderness of our world. In the company of Jesus and each other, we can use
Lent to recognise the reality that our world is not under our control, that we
need one another, and we must care for and protect each other. Lent is an
opportunity for us to recognise that we are called to be part of God’s love for
the world. The way we live our lives can show God’s love to the world.
Jesus is in the wilderness for 40 days encountering his own turbulence. He is alone both day and night, with no one to talk to. He experiences hardship, hunger, doubt, and temptation as his constant companions. We are reminded that Jesus is both human and divine. The wilderness experience emphasises his humanity because in the wilderness he feels exactly what we feel now.
Jesus experiences hunger like so many people in our world today, not just in countries where there is famine, but also in countries like the UK where there is immense wealth. I live near two foodbanks that are doing their best to feed local people who are struggling to eat, and this support will become even more vital as the cost of living increases.
Jesus has no place of shelter in the wilderness. Homelessness in this country is a persistent problem and it simply should not be the case in a country that is so wealthy. People are now fleeing the Ukraine. Last year people were fleeing from Afghanistan. Refugees can be found all over the world in camps or taking perilous journeys in hope of a more stable life. And instead of being assisted, refugees are constantly demonised by governments, media and by everyday people.
People are fleeing the Ukraine and our Government is quibbling about visas and who can come to the UK. I think this is an affront to God because we know in times of war and crisis people need help.
We need the season of Lent to make us sensitive to the reality of our world and its hardships. We need the season of Lent to connect with the humanity of Jesus, so that we can remember or our humanity and reach out to serve others.
In the wilderness Jesus experiences hardship. He enters into the suffering of the world but in doing so he shows us that God has not forgotten us. Jesus shows us that we can have hope. Jesus the Son is able to resist the temptation and suffering in the wilderness because he has understood who God the Father is and God is calling us to look at the reality of our world and respond.
‘The bible has many stories about people who have looked for God in the wilderness or desert. Some people fled to the desert because they needed to escape their situation, people like Moses, Hagar and Elijah. Other people went to the wilderness because they needed a place of quiet so that they could listen to God, John the Baptist did this.[1]
You don't have to go to the wilderness or desert to have a desert experience. Sometimes the wilderness finds you right where you are and we find ourselves in situations where there are problems or challenges to deal with, or perhaps life has changed in some way and become unfamiliar. This is what happened to all of us during the pandemic, but it is also the nature of the world we live in. Something can happen and our life is changed, and we are suddenly in unfamiliar wilderness territory.
But this unfamiliar territory can also be a place or time where we encounter God in a new way. It can be a place of growth, a place where we realise who we are, a place where we become sensitive to the lives of others, a place where we learn anew who God is and how we should live in our world.
Before ending up in the wilderness, Jesus had a fantastic baptism experience in the river Jordan. At his baptism, Jesus is identified as the Son by a voice from heaven and he is anointed by the Holy Spirit. He experiences a high point of ministry which is full of promise but then he goes into the wilderness to be confronted with the reality of our world.
There in the wilderness Jesus is hungry, dirty, cold in the night, but very hot during the day and he is being tempted to bring this terrible experience to an end. He is being tempted to use his power and take the short way out.
The way Jesus is tested is very subtle, but it seeks to undermine his understanding about his calling and who he is. The temptations seek to twist and disfigure his calling so that he becomes self-serving. Jesus is being tested to use his privilege and his power for his own ends and in this way undermine his ministry.
The temptations actually seem quite reasonable. Jesus has eaten nothing for 40 days and then he is confronted with the temptation of changing a stone into a loaf of bread.
On the face of it that doesn’t seem wrong. After all Jesus is hungry and he has the means to feed himself, but he refuses to use his power in this way because the temptation is not actually about alleviating his hunger. The temptation is about using his power in a way that shows he doesn’t need to rely on God the Father.
Jesus is then shown the kingdoms of the world and tempted with their glory. If he chooses to worship the devil. he will be given all these kingdoms and he can avoid the shame and the humiliation of the cross, but Jesus chooses to worship God the father and he chooses to embrace the journey to the cross.
And then his vocation, his purpose and ministry are questioned. Are you really the Son of God? Are you really the saviour? Throw yourself down and find out, but Jesus refuses to throw himself down, because Jesus knows who God the father is, and he knows who he is.
Sin and temptation are alive and well in our world today. Some people benefitted from the time in our pandemic wilderness.‘160 million people were pushed into poverty by the pandemic, but whilst this was happening a new billionaire was created every 26 hours.’ [2] There are people in this world with unimaginable wealth, whilst so many live in unimaginable poverty.
Our systems and ways of life often protect the wealthy at the cost of the poor or oppress those who are marginalised, denying help to people who need it. The temptations of greed and power confront us in small ways induvial ways and in huge systemic ways.
Jesus overcomes temptation with the truth of God. He confronts it with scripture and faith. During this season of Lent, we need to do the same and take the time to focus on the bible, on prayer, on worship, on giving to others and serving others where we can.
As we do this, we will challenge ourselves to recognise our own sinfulness and fragility. We will be able to understand the challenges of our world and we will be able to find ways of responding.
This Lent we can face the reality of our world. We can journey through our own wilderness, not alone but as a worshipping community together with others and we can do this together with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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