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Lent III Sermon (2015 Edisto)
Lent III Sermon (2015 Edisto)
Could he be nice and not rock the boat, or could he pass on that temptation
and become the one who he found himself to be - a ferocious defender of
the Temple and an openly angry prophet of a different kind?
He chose, as we see, not to be nice. I would propose, though, that he
preferred not to turn away because he could see evil wherever it was, and
he had to respond when he saw it.
Evil is all the fear, anxiety, pressure and experience that pulls us off of that
path, selfishly inward, away from Gods intent for us. Most of the time it is
subtle; at other times it is obvious as we see in the Gospel. Sometimes, you
just have to stand up and shout.
Being nice could have bought Jesus some time, but he could not abide what
he saw.
The path evil takes is subtle but the goal is grand: ruination in any of its
many forms. Most public figures who have authored their own moral demise
would tell us that they got to their own private hell that way, as would most
addicts and abusers, the chronically angry, the selfishly lonely, those in the
solitary confinement of an empty marriage, and every form of lifelessness
around us and within us. Its always a slow and easy decent.
Didnt Jesus die to take all that way, you might ask? No. Jesus did not die
to undermine the moral and ethical enterprise. He did not die to make our
lives pointless by removing the consequences of our actions and inactions.
Jesus died to make it clear that while evil is opposite of God, it is not the
equal of God.
No action, inaction or consequence can separate us from the love of God. He
did not die to keep us from wandering off and suffering from it. He died to
make it clear that we can come home from anyplace we wander to, no
matter how far.
The practical among us may begin to wonder: What, then, does faith offer us
in a world beset by evil? The answer is strength and guidance.
Put on the whole armor of God, Paul tells us in Ephesians (6:1018). The belt
of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the Gospel, the shield of
faith, the helmet of salvation and take up the sword of the spirit in order that
we might withstand the force of evil.
I am more than sure that few if any of us have tapped ALL of the strength
for generosity and wholeness, healing and well-being that God has available
for us.
The 23rd psalm reminds us that God leads, guides us, in the paths of
righteousness so that even when we walk in valley of the shadow of death
thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
I am more than convinced that none of us have ever been in a valley so dark
that God could not find us and comfort us if we remember that the biblical
word comfort literally means to strengthen. Strength and guidance are the
tangibles our faith offers us.
But if the truth be told that is not what most of us want. What we usually
ask for is a set of circumstances where neither is needed.
Take away my affliction; then I wont need strength. Keep me safe; then I
wont need any guidance.
Alas it does not work that way. The offer is (1) strength to resist the force of
evil and (2) guidance to keep us on the path we were created for.
We know that evil is a force because it takes energy to resist it. It is true. It
is built into life. It is what makes it possible for us to be moral and ethical as
God created us to be.
Evil is mostly subtle in our experience but always grand in its desire: to pull
us away from Gods intent and toward our own ruination. Dont take it too
seriously. If evil were all that powerful our lives would be far worse than
they are. But dont dismiss it either. Jesus saw it for what it was in an
instant; others around him simply saw it as the way things were. His
problem was that by word and action he named it and, worse yet, those who
were the perpetrators from the top down.
As Peter wrote, Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your
adversary the Devil prowls around looking for someone to devour. (I Peter
5:8).
The season of Lent is about that discipline, the alertness that allows us to
tap the strength and follow the guidance our Lord offers us that we might be
whole, generous and happy as God created us to be.
It is not about giving up candy or fried chicken or losing ten pounds. It is
about being watchful and alert to everything that pulls you away from the
love of God through his Son, Jesus Christ. All the other give-up stuff is
silliness against building the moral muscle to say,
there is nothing that can separate me from the love of God, nor height, nor
depth, nor principalities nor power - nothing that can separate me from the
love of God.
But those powers of separation are out there. The question for all of us to
answer is simply this: do we have the eyes to see them and then do
something about them?