In the wilderness

I came to Australia as an almost ten year old, and I began my Queensland education in grade five. Memory suggests that grade five social studies was all about white explorers lost in the wilderness: Sturt; Burke and Wills, Ludwig Leichhardt. Story after story from our brief white history of what happened in this strange new continent. It seemed to me that there was an awful fascination with the past.

We might ask why this fascination with the past. This morning I want to affirm something that we hear said fairly regularly – that our future depends on our past. Not that it will be the same as our past, but that if we don’t know our past then we don’t have much of a future.

I believe we need to be grounded in our story. We need to know who we are and whose we are in order to step into the future.

Allow me to offer you a few dot points as it were for the story we share:

A wandering Aramean was our ancestor.

We are sons and daughters of this wandering Aramean, Abraham.

When we were treated harshly – when things went badly for us – God heard our cries.

God brought us out of slavery.

God sent Jesus that we might be saved through him.

We are redeemed – saved by the crucified and risen Jesus.

Or as we recall in our baptismal service:

We are born again as children of God,
joined to Christ in his death and resurrection,
sealed with the Holy Spirit,
made members of the body of Christ, and
called to his ministry in the world.

The Hebrew Scriptures are littered with retellings of the story of being God’s people. Time and again the story of salvation is retold, just as we retell it in our baptismal and eucharistic liturgies. This story is meant to be an integral part of who we are. Our very being – who we are, what we say and what we do – is to proclaim this story.

Why? Why is retelling the story so important?

Well, when we look at the bible we find that the story was often told at times of transition in people’s lives. The story of being God’s people was rehearsed as a source of hope in difficult times. Of course, it was also told at other times – it had to be or there was a risk the story would be forgotten. But the real power of the story comes when the going is tough.

In those situations the story became the means of moving through difficult times and into a new future with God. We are a people whose central story is the Easter story: that movement from crucifixion to resurrection, from death to new life.

When we know this story – when we live out our belief in this story – then, because of the security we have in our groundedness in Christ, we are able to step into an unknown future with God.

And I want to suggest that this is how it was for Jesus in the wilderness. It was because Jesus knew his story as a descendant of a wandering Aramean and because he knew the story of God’s faithfulness that he was able to withstand these temptations.

Henri Nouwen, the Catholic priest who spent his last years living with people with disability, wrote a book on Christian leadership. He uses the temptations of Christ as the framework for his book In the name of Jesus.

In the book he translates each of the temptations into a temptation for our time; he points to the underlying issue; and then he offers a discipline which guides us in our journey of faithfulness to Christ.

For each temptation there is an underlying issue and then a discipline to assist us. To each of these temptations I want to add a principle for being the church in our time and place.

Temptation 1:

The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread."

Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"

Nouwen says that the parallel temptation for us is to be relevant: to do whatever it takes to be attractive as a church. If turning stones into bread will feed the people then, says the devil, go for it. But Jesus says no. We cannot live by bread alone.

Nouwen says the underlying issue is a question asked of us by God: “Do you love me?” He immediately turns our eyes to God. Our focus isn’t on success but on God who asks us “Do you love me?” That is a confronting question to be asked. Can I honestly answer yes without examining every aspect of my life and my relationships? How does my life answer that question? How does your life answer that question? “Do you love me?”

Nouwen suggests that the discipline to help us with this temptation is contemplative prayer. Only when we are willing to spend time – extended periods of time – attending to God will we be able to answer that question.

The temptation to be relevant is very real for the church today. As numbers fall and as our society shows little interest in organised religion we look around for what will grab people’s attention: new programs, new leaders, new buildings, new technology, … the list seems endless.

But Christ reminds us that what we need is every word that comes from the mouth of God. People today will only hear God’s words of salvation, love and grace through us and through the relationships we share with them. We embody the word of God to our families, our neighbours and our communities.

The church of Christendom (that time when the church was at the centre of society) sought to draw people to it; instead, we are called into the world to be the presence of God to others.

As the church in this time and place, we need to be careful of this temptation to be relevant. We cannot ignore our context; we are called to be salt in the world. But we cannot be driven by a desire to be relevant. What draws us into our communities is the call of God we hear when we attend to God’s presence already in those communities.

Temptation 2:

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."

Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"

Nouwen suggests that the second temptation is the temptation to be spectacular. It is only one short step from the desire to be relevant to the desire to be spectacular: the biggest and the best church there is!

The underlying issue here, says Nouwen, is caught up in the words of Jesus to Peter, “Feed my sheep.” We are not called to be spectacular. We are not called to be powerful. We are not called to be successful. We are called to feed Christ’s sheep.

And the discipline we need is that of confession and forgiveness. We need to come before our God in humility confessing our sins and knowing, deep within ourselves, God’s gracious and overwhelming forgiveness.

As I read much of what is around about successful churches, I believe this is a temptation of which we need to be very aware. Anyone who suggests they have all the answers to the problems of the church is to be avoided. What is needed is humility, not arrogance, before God. What is needed is a willingness to risk the path of feeding Christ’s sheep – especially the lost ones – even though they may never thank us for the food which we share. There is nothing spectacular in that sort of service, but that is what we are called to be.

Temptation 3:

Then the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"

Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

This third temptation, says Nouwen, is the temptation to be in control. The underlying challenge is to accept that “somebody else will take us”: to let go of the control of our future. If Jesus had put God to the test at that point and God’s angels had rescued him then Jesus could have felt in control every step of the way even to the cross. But Jesus didn’t feel in control every step of the way. He wept, he was angry, he even felt abandoned. Jesus allowed somebody else to lead him and we need to be willing to do the same.

Nouwen says that the discipline we need to deal with this temptation is that of theological reflection. To reflect theologically is to ask the question “where is God in what is happening?” It is to ask “what does this experience teach me about God?” and “how does my knowledge of who God is help me in this experience?” To reflect theologically is to seek to be constantly aware of the presence of God in our lives. And because the church at mission is seeking always to participate in God’s activity in the world then we must always be attending to the presence of God.

It would be easy at this point in our lives to spend a lot of energy worrying about the future. But that doesn’t get us to God’s future. Trusting God is what sets us free for God’s future. Knowing and living our story as the people of a crucified and risen Christ is what will carry us forward. Only when we love God, when we say “yes” to Christ’s invitation to “feed my sheep”, when we allow ourselves to be led by others, then we will find ourselves in the midst of something wonderful – not just change but transformation: God’s recreation of who we are as God’s people in this time and place.