Sermon 2019.08.11
Wilderness Strong
(Luke 4:1-13; sermon 3 of 4 in series “In the Wilderness”)

1. Stranger in a strange land.  From time to time, we all find ourselves in a wilderness. In 2006, I was just entering into Methodist ministry. I’d closed my computer business, enrolled in Duke Divinity School, and received a half-time student pastor appointment to a small two-church charge in rural North Carolina. The job came with a house and a paycheck, which was good because I came with a family I needed to shelter and feed.

We moved at the end of June. I didn’t start seminary until the end of August. So for the first two months, I was “pastor” of these little churches without benefit of any formal training except one week of License to Preach School, or as I called it, “pastor boot camp.” 

My church folks were friendly people who told me about the proud history of their area. Both churches dated to the Revolutionary War. The lady in whose memory the big stained glass window was given was, they told me, the only woman to ride with the Ku Klux Klan.

Then one of my members offered to let us use their family’s membership in the county swimming pool. Except, they carefully pointed out, the pool was a private club and it was whites-only. In fact, another church member had taken some black children she was tutoring to the pool and they’d been thrown out, and the police were called to enforce it.

Now I had a problem. I was barely one month into my first appointment as a pastor, with almost no training. Should I speak or preach about this injustice? It might mean being fired from my job, losing my house and my income, and leaving me and my family stranded, strangers in a strange land… 

2. In the wilderness.  August 2006 was a wilderness moment for me. We all have them – times when the choices before us are not obvious, when the right thing to do is difficult or costly, when we feel lost and alone.

Our sermon series this month is “In the Wilderness.” Wilderness doesn’t always look like a jungle or desert. Sometimes it looks like our office, our school, our home, or even our church – a place of challenge and change, of confrontation and choice.

The first week, we remembered the Israelite people wandering through the wilderness of the Sinai peninsula with Moses, worrying about food and water, and forming the “back to Egypt” committee. Faced with an unknown future of change, they wanted to go back to a known, stagnant past of slavery. Yet God led them through and met their essential needs.

Last week, Jessica and Megan walked us through Psalm 23. Even when we find ourselves in a wild place, a dark valley, we can trust God our shepherd to lead us safely to green pastures.

3. The tempter tempts.  Today, we heard about Jesus’ own wilderness experience. Jesus is about thirty years old and is about to start his public ministry. He has just been baptized by his cousin John. In a moment of glory, the heavens opened up, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and God’s voice proclaimed: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:21-23).

From such a high point, Jesus is immediately thrust into a low point, a difficult time of challenge. The Spirit leads him into the wilderness, the dry, scrubby, mountainous country west of the Jordan River, filled with bandits and beasts. Jesus has no food, and he is hungry! Maybe even hangry – cranky and angry with hunger.

Then the devil shows up. Satan has many names. Sometimes he is called “The Accuser,” the one who whispers we aren’t worthy of God’s love. And sometimes he is called “The Tempter,” the little voice telling us it’s okay to do what feels good, to take the easy way out, damn the consequences. 

The Tempter seems like an ally, a friend. “You’re hungry, Jesus,” he says, “You are the privileged and powerful Son of God. Why not turn this stone into bread? You can do it. You want to do it. You deserve it!” (4:3). 

Or, “You know God will bear you up on the wings of angels. The bible says so. Jump off this tower and fly over Jerusalem. When the crowds see you, you’ll be famous and they’ll listen to anything you say” (4:9-11).

Or, “You came to save the world, right? Just worship me, and I can give you all the political power in the world. Then you can make them do anything you want.” (4:6-7). 

Food. Fame. Power. Such basic things. Such reasonable things. What does the tempter tempt you with in your wilderness? “Pop the pill, it’ll make you happy.” / “Cheat a customer, it’ll make your numbers look better this month.” / “Have an affair, you deserve to be loved.” / “Pick on the weak kid or the stranger, it’ll make you popular.” / “Go ahead, swim in the pool, you aren’t hurting anyone.”

4. Of ends and means.  The devil is in the details, they say… and that is certainly true. One of the basic challenges in ethics – the study of what is right and what is wrong and how we make our  choices – is the question of means and ends. Does the end justify the means? Or can the means sully the end?

In other words, is the result so important and so right that you are justified in doing anything to achieve it? Maybe a few people get hurt along the way, but the good that will result is much greater. After all, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

Or… does what you do to achieve the end result tarnish the process? In other words, it isn’t okay to hurt a few people even if the outcome seems to be a worthwhile greater good.

Rarely is the choice clear. So easily we are tempted. Note that the devil even quotes scripture in tempting Jesus! (4:10,11) The Bible is a tool that can be misused as well as used, if we aren’t careful in listening to the Holy Spirit. We can’t cherry pick the verses we like and ignore the great overarching story of God’s love and God’s call to holy living.

Our guide in making these choices, our compass in the wilderness, should be Jesus himself, who came not to be served, but to serve (Matthew 20:28). Jesus reminds us, “even as you do it for the least of these, you do it for me” (Matthew 25:40). Jesus hangs every choice on love of God and love of neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40).

5. Strong in the Spirit.  We don’t like being in the wilderness. We don’t like making these hard choices. And we are so tempted to take the easy way out, the popular way out, the way that makes us happy, whatever the cost to others.

But the Holy Spirit goes with us into the wilderness, and if we listen to the Spirit’s promptings and lean on the Spirit’s strength, we will come through the wilderness. In fact, we will come out stronger than we went in. 

Jesus emerged from the wilderness empowered for three years of powerful ministry. And when Satan returned to tempt him in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus still chose the cross so that we might be forgiven our sins and share his eternal life.

What about that North Carolina swimming pool? Well, at first I decided to keep quiet. My family and I wouldn’t go swimming there, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to call it out either. I didn’t want to get fired! Then one Sunday in August, the scripture was James chapter 2: “How can you claim to be Christians if you treat some people better than others.”

And I thought, “Dang it, God! You aren’t going to let me off the hook on this one.” So the young Yankee pastor preached to his southern congregation the message that throwing some people out of the swimming pool because of the color of their skin was wrong. 

I wasn’t fired. My family didn’t lose their home. Some people thanked me for speaking truth.  Change came slowly. No one dropped their membership in the pool… but one middle school girl told her mom, “If that’s true what Pastor said about the pool, and I couldn’t take my friends from school there, I don’t think I want to go swimming anymore.” 

I came through the wilderness stronger, thanks to the power of the Holy Spirit. When you find yourself in a dark place with difficult choices, be careful which voices you listen to… the easy whispers of the tempter, or the strong and loving voice of Him who calls us to accountability, and promises to walk with us to the end… to our heavenly reward.  - Amen.