Lent 1 C + Whose you are + 3.6.22

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M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Romans 10:8b-13; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Luke 4:1-13)

 

“Remember who you are and whose you are.” This is the theme I sense in this week’s readings as we kick off the Lenten Season. Reconnect with your heritage. Spiritual and otherwise.

In Deuteronomy, we hear: “When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.’” This section is said to those of Jewish descent to help them remember their past and reconnect with their roots. It forms a part of our spiritual ancestry via our Judeo-Christian tradition.

And in the gospel passage from Luke today we see Jesus reconnect with his roots- going to the Wilderness to reconnect with God as the Israelites did so many years before. Except, as sometimes happens when we truly seek God- he runs into spiritual obstacles and temptations. The tempter comes to test him.

In indigenous cultures all around the world, Vision Quests, sometimes called by different names, form an important part of a young person’s journey to adulthood. A young person is sent out on their own to experience nature and in so doing is invited into a process of self-discovery. In some traditions, the animal who assists the young person in their survival is interpreted as their adult spirit animal, and usually hardships happen which the young person must endure in order to mature. Eventually these lessons not only teach the young adult about themselves, but lead them back to a sense of belonging in their tribe.

Bishop Steven Charleston, who is an Episcopal bishop who also is a member of the Choctaw Nation has a book about The Four Vision Quests of Jesus. He asserts that Jesus has four experiences of Vision Quest that help guide his journey, the first being at his Baptism leading him to the wilderness. Then he goes to the mountain, the garden and the cross. In the wilderness, Jesus has a ground/stone moment, a sky moment and then a moment of his relationship with all of creation.

The stone moment, Jesus connects with the ground. Charleston shares how to the Choctaw, stones represent our oldest spiritual relatives as everything on earth comes from God. He goes on to say:

[Jesus] pays attention to the stones around him in the desert. And in his hunger, he imagines the stones as loaves of bread on the desert floor. What did the stones have to teach him? Are they physical nourishment for him alone or spiritual nourishment of a different kind? (Charleston, Four Vision Quests)

He will not be lured by the trap of treating the stones as potential food just for himself, says Charleston. Instead, he is reminded that he must provide spiritual food for others.

In the second moment of this vision quest, Jesus has a moment of realignment of his relationship with the sky and the heavens.

As Robert Shore-Goss, reading Charleston, describes it:
The Devil asked him to throw himself off the edge so that God might save him through the angels, preventing him from falling down and smashing on the Earth. For Charleston, there is an alignment of Mother Earth, the human tribe, and God. … Jesus chose balanced alignment. This alignment is reflected in his prayer “your will be done on earth and heaven.” Earth reflects the heavens.[1]

And Jesus is brought to a third challenge. This is of his relationship with all of creation. The tempter would have Jesus claim all the nations for his own power. But the devil can’t give Jesus what is already his. This is the final step of truly claiming his selfhood in preparation to lead others.

As Charleston says:
We are not to insult God by claiming that we can use creation for our own purposes., much less for profit. We are not the masters of all we see. We cannot swallow the universe into the stomach of our greed. We do not need more. The ethic implicit in a culture that understands family as a vast matrix of kinship is an ethic of sharing. The sky vision shows Jesus the fundamental value of native life: it Is to be lived in a spirit of stewardship. Human beings are entrusted with everything that they see. They are responsible for it. They are to be in awe of it. They are to delight in it.[2]

In claiming all of this, Jesus’ vision quest does not just call us to be enthralled by Jesus’ fortitude. It is also to help us remember who we are and whose we are. As Charleston says, we as humans are stewards of creation and must be in right relationship with the earth. How can we use this time of Lent to restore our relationship with all of creation? We have made a small step as a church by ordering recycling and organic waste containers. We hope to put a lot less trash into the landfill and help heal the earth in this small way. We will soon separate out our waste by having separate recycling and organic/food waste containers and invite you all to help us do so as we strive to care for creation.
Various scriptures today continue to call us back to ourselves as we continue this Lenten journey. In Romans, we are reminded of the ancient Hebrew scriptures again, the word is near to us- and because we have proclaimed faith in Jesus, we are saved. This is who we are.

Psalm 91 reminds us we are safe because we are in God’s hands. “Because he is bound to me in love, therefore will I deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my Name.” We who know God’s name are protected. We are children of God.

And when we remember who we are and whose we are, we act accordingly.

Just as Jesus learned in his stone moment, may we remember not to use power for our own selfish gain and to combat others who would wield power for selfish purposes.

Just as Jesus did in his sky moment, may we learn not to test God but instead to trust God. This is so we can be in alignment with God, creation and other humans.

Just as Jesus did in his creation-connection moment, may we remember that as stewards we must treat the earth well and not exploit it.

May we walk lightly in this journey of Lent, remembering who we are and whose we are, and act accordingly.

Amen.


[2] Steven Charleston, The Four Vision Quests of Jesus, Church Publishing, 2015.


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