Lent 1(C) + Bound in Love + 2.14.16

(Artwork by Lynn Maudlin for Diana Glyer's
Clay in the Potter's Hands)

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Deuteronomy 26:1–11; Ps. 91:1–2, 9–16; Romans 10:8b–13; St Luke 4:1–13)

Because he is bound to me in love, therefore will I deliver him; *
I will protect him, because he knows my Name. Ps. 91: 14

We are bound to God in love, but sometimes we forget that. Sometimes we wander the desert wastelands of life and we forget just how beloved we are in God’s sight.

I just watched a highly theological movie, “The Avengers” (2012). In it, we have many superheroes and two Norse gods, brothers, who are sparring. Loki wants power over the earth, much as the devil tempts Jesus to today, but Thor wishes to protect the earth. There is a theme throughout—superheroes could potentially die, but can a demigod? So Loki places Thor into a metal tube going straight down to earth from up in the sky to test this theory, and the result is a bit mixed. Thor does survive, but by avoiding the head-on collision. Is he invincible? We do not know, but he survived a very extreme test.
Jesus is also exposed to a test in the desert. Regular humans can survive many days without food if they have water, but Jesus survives forty days without food. Now, you are welcome to take this less literally, but for today I am intrigued. Is this to show us that even the person who has just now been established as the Son of God in not only his baptism, but also in his genealogy, which links him through Adam to the lineage of God, even this super-human, Son of God person, can be made to feel vulnerable?
And the devil hits him at all the spots which we assume must be Jesus’ weak spots-the ways in which he is most human. After fasting, will he turn stone to bread? Even though we know he is capable of tremendous resources with creating bread, he will not participate in self-indulgence. Will he, Son of God, the rightful leader of all the world, claim his throne? No, it is not in God’s nature to wrest power from humanity, but to invite our worship and love. Will he make one grand leap of faith to show just how the angels can protect him? No, because leaping off of the temple mount would be an action to show much more about how important he is than anything else. That’s not what angels are for, says Jesus. They are there for those who really need them.

But Jesus has to go through all of this, and it needs to be recorded for us, because we need to know he understands a bit about us as humans. About the wandering Aramean that we all are at heart. The lump of clay and stardust—earth-bound and heavenly at once—that each of us is.

Because what fascinates us about super-heroes is not just how awesomely different they are. But it is how they are so like us in so many ways. They can be tempted and tested, too. In all the stories, just like us, they wake up every day in the desert of life and have to choose to live into their own strengths.

To every one of the challenges, Jesus responds out of God’s strength and God’s word—there is power in what he affirms, not from the twist on scripture the devil presents, but from the truth of holy scripture. Life is not all about food, earthly power is just a mirror of real strength, and God is not to be tested, but to be trusted.

How many of us really trust God? One commentator tells us that here Jesus is tempted to betray himself, but that Jesus does not do so because he knows that he does not need to prove anything.[1] If Jesus does not need to prove anything, why do we often feel that we need to? I don’t know about you, but I often find myself wishing to prove that I am worthy—worthy of love or respect or whatever small position I have in the world. That I am at some level as worthy of respect as the superheroes we often admire on the silver screen or in the comic books.

But that need to prove ourselves is rooted in a lie. It is the greatest lie that we will ever hear—that we are not loved just for who we are, no matter our skin color or ethnic background or sexual orientation or expression, or personality type, physical characteristics, or any other marker that we may have that our culture reads as difference, as lesser.
God made us that way, and at a certain basic level, God does not make mistakes. We have a God-given right to be proud and strong in ourselves as we are, just as Jesus was. Reconnecting with that strength is not always easy. We may need to delve more into scripture this Lent and take up a deeper daily Bible reading experience, but whatever it is, find your own spiritual tools to build yourself up in God. You may need to also come here with questions or to another trusted resource if you encounter surprising parts of scripture, as often happens. This also means respecting each other as we also know this—God gave us each our own minds—to have different opinions and hopes and dreams.
And, as we are reminded in the reading from Deuteronomy today, we also have our own histories—our individual histories and those of our people. This is a part of the story, too-those who have enslaved others and those who have suffered. These all affect all of us, and so an awareness is needed in order to better love one another in Christ.

But remember—the desert is our daily life much more than any physical place. It is in the tests that we are faced with every day—to shy away from injustice or lack of love instead of confront it—to be tempted to give ourselves power over others instead of sharing power, or to submit to fear. These we must fight, but in love.

And so, this Lent, let us practice love in the desert-love for ourselves and for others, embracing our differences, for, as Marianne Williamson famously said in her book Return to Love:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”[2]

So, like Jesus, let us struggle through the tests of the desert, and let us shine. Knowing that we are loved just as we are, let us share that love with others this Lent and always.

---

[1] Ruth Anne Reese, “Commentary on Luke 4:1-13,” February 14, 2016, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2769.

[2] Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love (as quoted here: http://skdesigns.com/internet/articles/quotes/williamson/our_deepest_fear/).