Lectionary Texts: Isaiah 58:1-12, Luke 4:1-13

On Wednesday as several of us came together for Ash Wednesday worship, Lamarr came to me and asked, "So, pastor, what are you giving up for lent?" The question reminded me of the father who was attempting to explain to his 10 year old son the necessity for giving up something for Lent. In fact, the father pointedly suggested that the young man give up candy. Of course, this was not going to be easy, and after fielding several questions the father said "it will improve your character. You'll be a better person on Easter Sunday, if you give up candy. After all, your mother and I have given up liquor for lent." To which the boy replied, "That's funny Dad. I saw you and mother having a drink before dinner last night." And the father without flinching said, "That was wine. We gave up hard liquor." "Oh, that's good," said the young man, "Then, I'll give up hard candy!"

Lent began on Ash Wednesday. It is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday and leads directly to the glorious day of resurrection. On Wednesday we remembered that lent also indicates the beginning of spring. Lent comes from the Latin word lencten meaning spring. Can’t you feel it in the air? Spring is coming. Soon the buds will come out, birds will be singing, allergies will start and soon people will be going about in shorts! It was interesting that on the very day as we put ash on our foreheads saying, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return," that day when we remembered our mortality, was also the day when we began to think about new life and new beginnings.

We reflected on the ash that day – that came from burned palm leaves from our friends at St. Paul and the Redeemer Episcopal Church -- that ash is in fact carbon, the basic building block of life. It is also like coal. These are rather unattractive materials are made of carbon, but so are beautiful and attractive diamonds. Someone said that "Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs." During lent, it will be useful to remind ourselves, that diamonds are nothing more than transformed chunks of coal, that symbols of mortality have seeds of new life in them, just like how lent and spring come at the same time. In the midst of our ashes, we will do well to remember a line from an old gospel song, "I am just a lump of coal today, but I'm going to be a diamond someday." I hope that we all want to be like the coal that stuck to their jobs. New and exciting adventures of faith await us as we grow in Christ. Lent is a good time for growing and stretching and exercising our faith. It is not just a difficult, somber and serious time – It is also a time of new life, just like spring is a time of newness.

So, with that in mind, let’s turn to scripture. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, immediately following his baptism, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. He was not going to stay a coal following his baptism; he was going to be a diamond. He didn’t just wander off into the wilderness. He felt that the Spirit was leading him there. It was an intentional time. He went there because he needed to grow and stretch -- to exercise his faith –that’s the only way to transform from a coal to a diamond. And there he spent forty days reflecting, praying and fasting – but not only that, being tempted.

That’s why this is such a human story. Temptation touches all of us, everyday and many times a day. Reminds me of what happened to a little boy in a grocery store. He was standing near an open box of peanut cookies. "Now then, my boy," said the grocer, "What are you up to?" "Nothing," replied the boy. 'Nothing?" asked the grocer, "it looks to me as if you were trying to steal a cookie?" "You're wrong, mister," the boy replied, "I'm trying hard not to." I know we can all relate to that! Only often we are not as successful!

Many of us get alarmed when we pause and look into our hearts, and we notice that within them are desires and wants that we know if indulged will lead us to evil. We get alarmed because we are good people - honest, hardworking, upright folk - yet there - lurking inside is some anger, jealousy, envy, or bitterness that keep us from doing what God wants of us. But not only that, there are addictions and cravings of all sorts – from the desire to own ever more material things, to the desire to control other people. And I know some of us get distressed and begin to question our spirituality, our faithfulness God and their ability to do God’s will. We begin to feel uncertain and insecure. At the heart of this uneasiness is the thought that if we are really doing what we should be doing, we would not experience these temptations.

To this feeling the gospel today emphatically replies - No! That is not how it works. Temptation is a part of the human condition. In fact, one could say that it is when we are most connected to God then we are most tempted. The good news of today's gospel reading lies in the fact that Jesus himself was tempted. I remember a song from my Sunday School days about temptation that had a good line in it. "Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin. Each victory will help you one other to win." The point is this. Sin occurs only if we yield to temptation. But the point about temptations is to win over them. And small victories help us to gain greater victories. Now, if that doesn’t that sound like a stretching and growing exercise, I don’t know what is? If we somehow were to completely shield ourselves from temptations, I wonder how we will ever grow. It is the victories over temptations that ultimately create the conditions for us to grow into spiritual maturity – that’s the way, coal becomes transformed into a diamonds.

But what was Jesus tempted about? You may have noticed that each of his temptations had to do with his mission. His tempter was not telling him to do some horribly evil thing. Isn’t that true about most of the temptations we face in our daily lives, as well? They come to us shrouded in goodness – in plausibility - in attractiveness. You're hungry Jesus - if you are the Son of God - do what comes naturally to you - turn these rocks into bread. Use your position, Jesus – you are the son of God, use it to your advantage - it won't hurt anyone. You want to change the world - to make a difference - to see justice done – preach good news to the poor and set the captives free – all you have to do is simply bow down right now and worship me. Jesus - you know God loves you. Your plan will sell a lot easier if people see that you are special to Him. Let God save you from certain disaster - let his angels carry you up from the ground in the presence of the priests and the teachers and everyone in Jerusalem. Wouldn’t that make a great story in the 10 o’clock news? Just think about it -- You won't have to go around from home to home then - preaching and healing people. You won't have to work to convince people to follow your way - they'll line up for miles and miles just for a chance to see you.

Temptation is a natural thing. It appeals to our natural impulses. It is also an easy thing - that is a major part of it's attraction. And Jesus showed us how to win those victories. He rebuffed the things that tempted him with his focus on the scripture and what God revealed to Israel through Moses and the prophets. When tempted with the easy way - he drew from his heart to his mind the word of God that he had been taught: One does not live by bread alone; worship the Lord your God and serve only him; do not put the Lord your god to the test. Jesus resisted the easy way, the natural way - by recalling God's way - by speaking it out in the midst of his temptation. And with those victories, Jesus exercised his spiritual muscles. Now when the devil would come to detract him again from his mission -- because as you can see from our text, Satan left him alone, for a more opportune time -- he can boldly say, "Get behind me, Satan, you are trying to detract me from the things of God."

On Wednesday, when Lamarr came up and asked me about what I am giving up for lent, I said to him, "Lamarr, I am not giving up, but I am taking on." "So what are you taking on," he asked. I am taking on some thing that will exercise my faith and allow it to stretch and grow. "I am going to build a new set of relationships with unchurched people," I said. You see, like most pastors I know, most of my relationships are with churched people. Under normal and natural circumstances, that’s how it happens. But that’s the easy and natural way -- not necessarily the right way. But if I were to identify the one thing that is most important for our church right now, it to reach out to unchurched people. So, my lecten exercise is to build new relationships. Now, I know, some of you might say that I should try some of the things that Jesus was tempted about – like go up to the roof of the church and jump down. No, that’s too easy. I need to do it in a way that is consistent with the way Jesus did it. By going out and building relationships one by one.

Now, I say that, also because I want to commend that to you as well. We often think about Lent as having an inward spirituality -- it is a time for looking inward, for fasting, prayer and giving up hard candy. Now, I am sure that many of us can benefit from developing an inward spirituality. However, that’s not the only way to spiritually grow – to exercise and stretch your faith. Outward spirituality has a lot to offer us.

On Ash Wednesday, our lectionary scripture helped us to get a handle on this. It was from Isaiah 58. This is the chapter where Isaiah the prophet of comfort and hope offers a tirade against safe religion – against those who fast for the wrong reason or don’t have a consistency between their inward spirituality and outward spirituality. God says to the prophet, when the fast is announced to the people with the sounding of the trumpet, announce to my people their rebellion and their sin. They seem perplexed. What is going on, they ask. "Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" Don't we ask these kind of questions? Here's God's answer. "Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting will not make your voice heard on high." There is an inconsistency with what we profess and what we do, between our theology and our praxis, our spirituality and our livelihood. So, what's the answer? Listen to the reinterpretation of the fast. "Is not this the fast that I chose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and the break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself (or separate yourself) from your kin?" That's the real fast, he says. And then the promise, "Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am."

This is when it hit me. There is this little word here – Then. Its like the "But" word that Anna talked about last Sunday. Then – If you do this, "then" this will be the result. If you understand your prayer and fasting to be consistent with your life – if your inward spirituality is consistent with your outward spirituality, "Then." I have read this passage many times over the years, but this didn’t strike me as forcefully as it did this time. This is where the healing comes from. Now, the fact of the matter is that many of us look at the items that are listed there to loose the bonds of injustice, to let the oppressed go free, to share our bread with the hungry and so on, and say to ourselves, but I am not ready to do that. I need some healing first. When I am healed, then I can go out and do these things. So, I need to fast and pray so that I may find healing and wholeness, then I can go and engage outwardly. Now, that, I want to suggest to you is a temptation. Praying and fasting are good things. But remember what I said earlier. Temptations are not about evil things. They are about good things, but not necessarily the right things.

Now, you know, if you want to wait till you are completely healed and ready, your stresses are lifted and life is manageable, it will never happen. If you are stuck in that rut, I want to confess to you, that I may have helped you get stuck and this same Second Isaiah who wrote these words may have helped you to get stuck there.

When I first came to Cornell, now 11 years ago, I preached and emphasized over and over again, one verse of scripture from Second Isaiah, 40:31 – "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary and shall walk and not faint." The implication being, let’s wait. Let’s hunker down. Let’s focus on our inward spirituality. And we did. And I think it was good and important for that time. But several years later, when the Lord told me, it was time to get up and get engaged, and reach out to our neighbors, colleagues friends and family, -- no, this was not about loosening the bonds of injustice and letting the oppressed go free and sharing your bread with the hungry, either. This was about building relationships with our friends and neighbors. So, when I heard this from the Lord and passed that along to you, we could hardly get up off our knees. We were stuck in a paradigm. And that paradigm said, we need to focus on inward spirituality first and then when we’ve dealt with our stresses, struggles, sicknesses and sins, when we find ourselves to be whole again, then may be we can think about getting engaged with our world.

So, Isaiah says, This is the real fast. And if you engage in that fast, why, then, your light shall break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up quickly. Did you hear that? Then your healing shall spring up quickly. And if you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, satisfy the needs of the afflicted, etc., why then, your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong, and listen to this, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.

This is a new paradigm folks. The same Isaiah who said to us earlier that we need to focus on inward spirituality is now saying to us that healing comes from an outward spirituality. So, I want to suggest this to you as our real fast for lent. Not a giving up, but a taking on. So, what are we taking on. For now, let’s leave aside the radical stuff. Sarah, Lamarr, Maria and Anna went with me to the Congress on Concentrated Poverty and have come back charged up about how we need to get engaged. They will tell you more about that in time to come. But I want to suggest to you a simple, important – perhaps even urgent, and effective lenten exercise. That we build relationships, make new friends and renew old friendships and that we all do that intentionally, I think that will have a significant impact on God’s Kingdom. our community and our church.

How do we do this – First, I want to suggest that we identify and pray for our unchurched colleagues, neighbors and friends. We can do that right here and now. Then I want to suggest that you give that person a phone call or send an email tomorrow and say I’d like to find some time to sit down for a cup of coffee this week, or lunch or invite that person to your home to dinner. Now you need to think about this a bit. Is there someone in this congregation that your friend would relate well to – that has similar interests, backgrounds, professional associations – arrange your appointment so that if at all possible you can engage that person with a member of the congregation. The purpose of this exercise is to win people for Christ – and that happens best through deep friendships. So don’t just talk about things that are going on at work, ask about things that are going on in that person’s life. What are the struggles and stresses that they are dealing with – offer to pray for him or her, and do pray if the opportunity arises. A question that I often like to ask people is what are the life experiences that make them who they are and make them passionate about something. That leads to some interesting stories. Now, remember, we can’t lead a person to Christ in one sitting, perhaps not even five. Perhaps you are not the person to lead your friend to Christ, the other person from church may be the one. Perhaps they would find our church attractive and come and hear the gospel preached and see the gospel lived out in our lives.

That’s what I am going to take on for lent. I want to bring before you and I’d ask you to bring before this congregation people you are reaching out to, so we can pray for them as well. Now, this is not that hard, is it? There are six weeks in lent – perhaps you can make six appointments. May be that’s too much. But perhaps you can only think of three people – to meet and build relationship with during lent. Would you ask God to lead you to the right people, then. I hope you think about this as a lenten exercise of outward spirituality that will bring you the promised healing.