St. George's Episcopal Church
Roseburg, Oregon
The First Sunday of Lent
5 March 2006
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St. George's Episcopal Church |
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Genesis 9:8-17
Psalm 25:1-10
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:9-15
The Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:9-15)
Our Tempter Lies Within
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector
Not too long ago, I turned on the television and channel flipped through the movie channels. I happened across a terrific movie. It was the 2004 film, Ray, starring Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles. I was blown away by Foxx’s portrayal of Ray Charles. The line between actor and character was not blurred – it disappeared completely. Foxx’s acting was so convincing I was not able to remember that the man on the screen was an actor; he was Ray Charles.
And not only was his portrayal of Ray Charles performances beyond authentic, his portrayal of what Ray Charles experienced as he withdrew from a very long period of heroin addiction was powerful and compelling.
Blind since age seven, Charles was stimulated by his fiercely independent mother, and he found his calling at the keyboard. But early in his career, he became addicted, and he was a user for many years. Finally, when faced with losing his wife and family – and perhaps his soul – Charles sought medical and psychological treatment. He elected to withdraw from heroin cold turkey, and endured absolutely unimaginable physical agony. But perhaps even more tortuous was the psychological agony. His nightmares and daymares were filled with images of his childhood, and the grief and pain he endured over his little brother’s accidental death. Withdrawing from heroin was Ray Charles’ wilderness experience; it was his dark night of the soul.
After his baptism by John, Mark tells us that Jesus was driven into the desert by the spirit where he was tempted by Satan and lived with the wild beasts for forty days. It was the first of Jesus’ dark nights of the soul.
Mark doesn’t tell us what happened in the desert or how Jesus was tempted. Mark hints at the power of the experience by what Jesus did after he returned. Jesus immediately went into the region of Galilee and proclaimed the good news. He immediately began recruiting his disciples. He immediately went to the synagogue and taught with authority. And he immediately began driving out demons and healing people. Jesus had a mission and we learn about it through the impact his actions and words had on others.
But it all began in the desert. Matthew tells us that Satan tempted Jesus with three things. First Satan said “If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into loaves of bread.” Next Satan led him to the pinnacle of the Temple, and said, “Jump from here! If you are the Son of God, the angels will save you.” And finally, the devil showed him all of the kingdoms of the earth and said “If you worship me, I will give them to you.”
And each time, Jesus turned away. He turned away from the temptation to become the kind of messiah that his people expected: a military leader who would overthrow the Roman Empire and restore Israel to her glory. He resisted the temptation to jump off and follow his own path, instead choosing to discern God’s calling for him. He turned away from becoming part of the economic machine of the established Jewish religious hierarchy who served themselves more than they fed the poor and cared for the widows and orphans of their society. Jesus did not give in to what might have been considered the established social norms or the expectations others had of him. He didn’t succumb to society’s or his agenda. Instead he became an activist and advocate, listening carefully to his heart, and heeding a voice deep within him that spoke of a deeper wisdom, and a different path. And when he emerged from the desert he was ready to proclaim the good news to a world not yet ready to hear it. But he would not be deterred by Satan, wild beasts, a self-protective society, or an imperialistic government.
Where do you and I find ourselves in the desert? Where do we find ourselves tempted? I think in many ways, we are tempted by our own selves, by our personalities and how we react to the world and our fellow travelers in this life.
I have been doing a lot of reading in psychology and spirituality lately. Depending on who you read, there are several personality types, and many scholars feel that one’s personality type intimately influences one’s spirituality. Hippocrates, who lived about 500 years before Jesus, felt that there were four basic personality types: phlegmatic, melancholic, choleric, and sanguine. His theory was that the four types were caused by imbalances of the four “humors” produced by different organ systems of the body. A lot has happened since Hippocrates, but psychologists all agree that there are some basic personality types.
In the 1920’s Carl Jung wrote that there were eight different personality types. By the early 1960’s, Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Meyers developed an instrument that suggested that there were sixteen different personality types. I don’t think that people have become more complex during the 2500 years scientists have been looking at this, but rather, our thinking about personality and psychology has evolved and become more sophisticated.
But no matter which behaviorist or psychologist or spiritualist one follows, one thing is clear. Our personality heavily influences what we choose to do and how we react to life’s challenges. And in turn, how we respond directly affects our spiritual life, and how we treat one another and how we love God. This has been borne out by many religious and spiritual perspectives including Christian, Buddhist, Muslim (especially Sufism) and Jewish traditions. At the heart of this insight is the understanding that human beings are spiritual presences (souls) incarnated in the material world and yet mysteriously embodying the same life and Spirit as the Creator (God).
When Jesus went into that desert, he went there to discover something far more basic and very much deeper than a socio-cultural view of his people, and their relation to the competing religious and imperial influences of the region. He went there to connect himself with the Spirit and the Being of God. He needed to go below the surface in order to find an entirely new level of common humanity. It must have been a tortuous journey; anyone who has gone through some serious counseling will understand how wrenching and difficult this is.
Personality studies have revealed some interesting insights about who we are, about what we might find challenging, and what is likely tempt us. Studies also suggest that there are predictable ways we might respond to life’s challenges – and some of them can be self-destructive or harmful to others.
How many times have you realized that you tend to make the same mistake in life? How many times do you say something judgmental or harsh? Do you tend to be lavish with money beyond what circumstances might allow? Do you step over healthy boundaries? Do your insecurities prevent you from taking appropriate steps to protect your self interests?
When Jesus was tempted in the desert, he faced himself in deeply spiritual ways. He had to encounter himself before he could encounter the God within. And the big temptation he experienced was to succumb to what was personally familiar; to do what was self protective; to what was easy.
But that is not what Jesus did. Jesus took a path that showed us a glimpse of something new. A way of living and a way of life that tapped into the Spirit of God, and enabled him to do amazing things, like get people to cooperate rather than fight, and to be together in fellowship, rather than hurling insults at one another.
Lent is a good time to go into your own personal desert and undergo your own form of rehab. To look long and hard at your life to find those actions that always seem to get you into trouble with yourself and with others. Some of these may be personality traits. Others might be spiritual conditions. But in both cases, awareness of ourselves is the first step to becoming aware of God, and to learning how to love one another the way God loves us. To avoid or postpone self awareness and transformation by the power of God and God’s love for us will doom us to make the same mistakes over and over again. Jesus was called to do something different. So are we.
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Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in you I trust;
do not let me be put to shame;
do not let my enemies exult over me.
3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;
let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all day long.
6 Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast
love, for they have been from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for your goodness’ sake, O LORD!
8 Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.
10 All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you--not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Mission of St. George’s Episcopal Church is to lead people to love Jesus, and, through worship and scripture, to become empowered as a servant body – to each other, to our community, and to the world. For information about St. George’s Episcopal Church and its life and mission, please contact us at 1024 Southeast Cass Avenue , Roseburg, OR 97470 or by phone at (541) 673-4048 or (541) 680-3465. Contact Bill by email at wgstroop@earthlink.net and visit our church at http://www.roseburgchurch.net |
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Copyright © 2006, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
3 March 2006
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