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“Are Our Lives about
Me or
We?”
Meditation Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – March 10, 2019
Centenary United Methodist Church Psalm
91:1-2, 9-16; Luke 4:1-13 Today we are going to consider the role that
temptation plays in our lives.
The energy coming from our temptations can be very strong.
Most of us have no idea where such energy has its origin nor do
we take time to consider the implications of what happens to us when we
respond to such surges of energy.
What we feel is the attraction of our desires. We have a foolproof pattern to follow when
temptations come. Following his baptism, Jesus gave us a strategy to
navigate these surges when they arrive. Many of our desires are good
ones. They help us to
decide our vocational field, where we want to live, who we want as
friends, who we eventually choose as our life-partners, where we
volunteer, and the allure of our hobbies. We know that Jesus had a life-changing experience
after he was baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist.
He developed a new identity when he experienced
a surging energy from being
told that he was a child of God.
Many of us know that we are God's sons and daughters. We assume
that such a description is a generality that is applicable to everyone.
Jesus, however, deeply personalized his experience because his
surging energy did not come from a mere assumption.
His life was influenced by a voice that gave him a new identity.
Jesus was so confounded by his experience that he
went away for quite some time into a barren wilderness to consider what
the designation of being God's
son might have for the rest of his life.
Our lesson from Luke captures three of the
temptations that came to him:
1.
2.
3.
All of these strong urges have the same theme in common. They are about the glorification of Self. Up to this point, Jesus had been a carpenter who devoted himself to helping and serving others with his craft. Why would he be tempted to reverse the flow of his energy and become self-serving? These urges were unsuccessful in testing his resolve to continue serving others. For a moment, let us engage in a fantasy. What if
we were suddenly struck by a bolt of lightning?
When we awakened in the hospital, we found ourselves with a
reconfigured brain. We
slowly found that we could use our energy to create anything we wish.
What happened to us has made science fiction a fact in our life.
How would we use such powers? Who would we tell about our new
ability? Would we assume
that they were a gift from God?
Jesus' love for serving people was so much a part of his personal
character that he continued to serve others by displaying his invisible
energy, perhaps never realizing all of the unintended consequences that
would result. The story is told that Jesus turned ordinary
well-water into vintage-wine at a wedding feast (John 2:1f).
Once people learned that Jesus had the ability to heal the sick
and disabled, he became overwhelmed by a steady flow of needy people.
(Mark 3:21f). He attracted
curiosity-seekers who requested that he perform a miracle in front of
them. (Luke 11:16) He told his disciples how to pay their taxes by
taking a freshly caught fish and using a coin found in its mouth to make
the payment. (Matthew 17:27) There was another time when his words
calmed a raging storm. (Matthew 8:26f) We have read where Jesus walked
on water. (Matthew 14:23f)
Jesus helped his disciples to catch a lot of fish by throwing their nets
on the other side of their boat. (John 21:6) The importance of these incidents was not whether
or not they were true. What made these events significant to readers
through the centuries is that these stories came from the reported
memories and traditions of people who were with Jesus during his
ministry. This is how people chose to remember him. People who have focused on these superhuman feats of Jesus could easily have dismissed all of them as ridiculous exaggerations. In so doing they may have missed his message. Even when people experienced the power of Jesus, they did not stay around to hear his message. (Luke 17:11f) That was a danger of displaying powers that no one else had. This was a constant frustration for Jesus as a result of using his unique abilities to serve a needy public.If we had the creative powers of God at our finger tips, it might be wise never to use any of them publicly lest we become the object of curiosity and mystery. Jesus wanted to remain a humble servant who taught people how to heal themselves by changing their thoughts, feelings, and vision. Think of how God manages the created order but chooses to do so by remaining invisible and mysterious. The Kingdom of God, to which Jesus bore witness, is
available to all of us. By
living in it, we can think and feel in ways that few others can.
In a sense, we can become
superhuman too by exuding qualities that exhibit love
in a manner that has removed our animal instincts.
What really matters to most people no longer matters to us.
When our goal is to serve others with our energy, we have chosen "we"
over "me." We
have found the path and
nothing can shake us from staying on it.
We have learned that when we leave the physical world, we leave
all of it behind as we inherit a realm of spirit. Think of the invisible power that guided the
spiritual leaders in our past. Joseph was sold into slavery before
becoming second in command of Egypt. Moses was abandoned as a baby that
floated down the Nile River before he became a great deliverer, leader
and the law-giver of the Israelites.
A bounty-hunter named Saul became an apostle after being struck
down by a blinding light and a voice.
He was so shaken by the event that he changed the direction of
his life. His passion after this change was to take his version of
Jesus' message to the Greek and Roman worlds.
We should never second guess the silent, invisible influences of God's
creative imprint on the evolution of humanity. God knows
how to take a lump of carbon and cause it to mutate into becoming a
brilliant diamond. God can
take a ship wreck and the death of children to inspire the faith of the
children's father to write a beautiful poem. Three years later, Philip
Bliss wrote the music to that poem creating the hymn, "It Is Well with
My Soul." Paul was no stranger to dealing with what he was
feeding his thoughts and feelings.
Paul described his personal
civil war.
(Romans 7:15f) What we think about expands.
All of us struggle with this.
What makes us different are the kinds of temptations that
stimulate our lives. Do we
really need what is being offered to us or can we say, "Not today!
I cannot use what you are offering." Paul tells us that by developing
the mind of Christ within us,
we can discover the path that Jesus found.
During our Lenten walk, it serves us well to examine who we are
serving, me or
we, self or
others. Quality of life has to do with which direction our life's
energies are flowing. What
grows within us is what our thoughts and feelings are feeding.
Jesus was tempted to use his powers to serve
others. Those powers healed
many people but those same powers threatened others. (John 12:19) They
made Jesus and his message stand out among all human beings.
Yet, in spite of the memories of his famous deeds, he remained a
humble servant. He repeatedly said, "Follow me." He would never
have said this to his followers if doing so was an impossibility.
THAT temptation still stands in front of us today.
Testing where that temptation might lead us should give us plenty
to think about during our Lenten walk.
Why not act on it and remain confident that following him will
lead us to where we need to be?
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
Merciful God, we
cannot experience the Lenten season without reflecting on the number of
times we take for granted the blessings that come to us without our
asking. When we are eager
to learn, understanding comes.
When we extend ourselves in love, we are never without receiving
it in return. Yet,
gratitude is often one of the responses we use the least. When we no
longer express gratitude, we often do not look at ourselves as the
reason why. Rekindle in us,
O God, our desire to stretch in the areas of our weaknesses.
Help us to learn that our finest moments are those that guide us
away from the barriers that prevent our continued growth.
Amen.
PASTORAL PRAYER Eternal God, thank you for the
oasis of peace that is made
possible by our being in church. As
we enter our house of worship, it seems as though we constantly need to
be reminded who we are. It is comforting to remember we are your
children, when the problems on our island and around the world seem to
communicate something different.
It is comforting to sense your presence when we fear our beliefs
and faith do not appear very strong.
Equally, it is comforting to be reminded that we are living in a
world, with all its joys and
nightmares, that cannot be compared to what awaits us when we leave
it. Give us guidance, O God, to carry our energy
with peace, to shoulder our perceived burdens with confidence, and to
enter moments of uncertainty with unwavering trust. Thank you for
your support when we enter fragile moments, forgetting that all of them
are temporary intrusions in our
movie. You have created us
with many self-correcting tools
as soon as we begin to energize the notion that it is our right
to hold on to painful memories and hurt feelings.
As we move into our tomorrows, enable us to keep
our minds focused on the idea that this is your world and how grateful
we are to be a part of it.
Somehow, the world’s people need to learn that we are all citizens of
one world and loved equally by you. We want to remain humble servants
who live the message that Jesus taught. We pray these thoughts through
the spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . . |