"...with God's Help!"

 

Luke 4:1-13

Lent 1 / Year C

“Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin repent and return to God?”  “I will, with God’s help.”      

This year’s Lenten theme is pilgrimage.  It invites us to see life not as some tedious, pointless undertaking or as a self-centered enterprise where everyone’s sole purpose is to maximize one’s own personal experience, but as a journey which begins in God, goes forward with God, and ends in God.  And as I said on Ash Wednesday, I plan to use this motif to interpret the appointed lessons during our Lenten pilgrimage as we walk with Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem and to the Cross.

So we begin today, as we do on the first Sunday of every Lent, by reading about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness.  It points to something true in everyone’s life… namely, you cannot go through life without being tried and tested.  And it becomes especially acute once you have committed yourself to a particular purpose or practice.  As a trivial example, before I gave up chocolate for Lent I was never tempted not to treat myself to a sweet snack.  I simply felt an urge and indulged.  Now that I have committed to abstain during Lent, the pangs come often and temptation is as near as the bakery department at Publix.

Our pilgrimage in and to God is no different.  Once you are baptized and commit yourself to live in accord with the renunciations, affirmations, and commitments of its covenant the testing begins.  If you take your allegience to Christ seriously and if you intend to walk the pilgrim’s way then you can count on obstacles, just as surely as those of us who have gone on walking pilgrimages can count on sore feet, tired legs, bad weather, and heavy loads (none of which seem to happen if you opt to spend your vacation lounging around a pool while reading a book and taking advantage of the all-inclusive drink package). 

So, here is one thing we learn from today’s reading: trials and testing are inevitable.  Here is another thing we learn: there are ample spiritual resources to help see us through.

Before I made my first pilgrimage on the Camino, my friend Dale (yes, the same Dale with the packing protocol radically different from his wife’s) took me to an R.E.I. store to get outfitted.  If you are not familiar with it, R.E.I. stand for Recreational Equipment, Inc., but I think it stands for Really Expensive Inventory!  Dale took me through the process of buying a backpack, hiking shoes, wicking-fabric clothing, blister resistant socks, rain gear, a water filtration system, and so much more.  I will say, with the exception of the filtration gizmo which I never used, all of these resources proved to be immensely helpful on our 15-18 mile per day walks.

When Jesus responds to every temptation by quoting Scripture he points to one of the resources God makes available to us.  Our Ash Wednesday liturgy highlighted several more: self-examination and repentance, prayer, fasting, self-denial, and reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.  In a letter to the Church in Philippi, Paul compares the spiritual resources of truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God to armament worn by a soldier (6:11-18) and just as you would not even think of going into battle without being properly outfitted, neither should you attempt to face tests and trials without taking on what God provides.  To the church in Ephesus Paul describes what God provides as being the fruit of the Spirit (5:2).  They include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

We Episcopalians are not particularly good about reaching out to God for spiritual help.  I think it is in our DNA going all the way back to Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the architect of the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549.  He believed if people knew the 10 Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Nicene Creed most often most of the time they would know what to do and would do it.  This is why so many of our colonial era churches have what we have in our chapel: tablets with the words of these three teachings inscribed on them.  What I like about Cranmer’s thinking is this: we are not helpless agents who are not responsible for our foibles contending we simply have no power to do any different.  We have all the direction we need and are fully capable of giving it heed.  What I don’t like about his thinking is this: too often, when we are at our wit’s end, the message we hear is “buckle down on your own and try harder to be a better person.”

Let me suggest a mantra for us to use on our Lenten journey straight from the prayer book, right out of the baptismal covenant to repeat over and over again, especially when we are tried and tested: “I will, with God’s help.”  It’s such a wonderful synthesis between the tension of personal responsibility and our need to rely on God.  I will… with God’s help.  It confesses I am committed, and I have spiritual resources to help me do more than I can do on my own. 

One of my favorite verses for pilgrims is Isaiah 40:3: “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.  They shall mount up like eagles with wings of great length.  They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”  It reaffirms God is a present help for all who look to heaven for the provisions necessary for life’s journey.  “Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin repent and return to God?”  “I will, with God’s help.”