Sermon: First Sunday of Lent - Doing the Hard Thing

"Doing the Hard Thing"
First Sunday in Lent
Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-16; Luke 4: 1-13 by Rev. Carson Overstreet
Van Wyck Presbyterian Church
February 14, 2016


You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust.’
Because you have made the Lord your refuge,
the Most High your dwelling-place,
no evil shall befall you,
no scourge come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder,
the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.
Those who love me, I will deliver;
I will protect those who know my name.
When they call to me, I will answer them;
I will be with them in trouble,
I will rescue them and honour them.
With long life I will satisfy them,
and show them my salvation. - Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-16


Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.

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.” ’

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.” ’

Then the devil took him 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.” ’

When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. - Luke 4: 1-13


Today marks the first Sunday in Lent. We are entering into a tradition that began in the fourth century. Back then it was in preparation for Baptism as the newly baptized were received by the church on Easter Sunday. Over the centuries Lent has been a spiritual journey as we follow Jesus Christ’s ministry which leads to the cross and empty tomb. The culmination towards Holy Week assures us that Jesus fulfills the prophecies of God’s promise for salvation.

The days of Lent are long and they last for 40 days. Henri Nouwen speaks of Lent as a wilderness time for us to move from “one interpretation of life to a different interpretation.” It is a time of spiritual growth as we reflect upon Christ’s costly grace of the cross and the implications it has upon our lives of faith.

Christ’s journey into his public ministry began with the fullness of God’s abundant Spirit. Christ’s ministry is claimed and inaugurated by the waters and Holy Spirit of baptism. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus is then led out to the wilderness to do the hard thing; to fast and pray for 40 days and 40 nights. And at the end of those 40 days he was famished.

As Jesus wandered through the desert he was tempted to do the easy thing – to turn that stone into bread for a quick fix. Jesus was tempted to take his eyes off God and look towards another kingdom. Jesus was tempted to test God and push the boundaries of God’s abundant love. Each of these temptations challenged Jesus’ faithfulness to God. And yet Jesus’ unwavering obedience offers us a roadmap of how to take each step of the Lenten journey.

It is tempting to forgo Lent and just jump to the celebration of Easter Sunday. But that would allow our spirits to cave in to doing the easy thing. It would be a missed opportunity to gain a richer experience of the ways our faith guides us to living as God’s new creation because something in us has to die.

Let’s be honest – Lent is uncomfortable. Lent is a time for us to examine the reality of what our hearts really hold. It is a space to be honest about what distracts us from following God’s ways and what obstacles seem to choke the roots of our faith. We are each a sinner of God’s own redeeming.

Whether we want to acknowledge it or not – every one of us has spiritual baggage that gets in the way of following God faithfully. To fast and to pray is to allow the Spirit of God to chisel away at those things that have hardened our hearts. Walking in the wilderness allows us to be led by the Spirit and let the Word of God reshape us.

It is tempting to take our eyes off God and look for other kingdoms of our own making. When we choose to focus on other things like money, busyness, our will, or working 24/7 with no room for rest, then we are placing God in a small box and labeling it cheap grace.

Cheap grace turns a blind eye to our deep need for God’s guidance, action and grace. Cheap grace says we only need God in a pinch because we can do life ourselves. Cheap grace overlooks the human condition of sin which causes us to live in a constant state of hunger for more. But what in fact is the “more” we are looking for?

Lent pushes us to see the bigger picture of our lives. The Spirit asks if we are willing to allow God to enter into our bigger picture or just a little here…a little there? Lent moves us from cheap grace to costly grace because Jesus’ sacrificial love held nothing back from God or humanity. Jesus’ sacrificial touches every aspect of our lives. The gift of faith is to guide our every decision in holy integrity so that we might become more like Christ in God’s coming kingdom.

It is tempting to test God and push the boundaries of God’s abundant love. Every child of God does it no matter our age. The lessons of parenting are endless as boundaries of love are pushed from toddler years, youth, and even into and beyond our young adult years. Boundaries make us feel constrained and come with negative perceptions.

But the boundaries of God’s love were never intended to be rules and shall nots. They were reinterpreted by Christ. They are a gift given not to test but to encourage us to trust in God’s abundance and to be shaped by God’s mercy. We are to love God with our whole heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. God’s love reminds us who we are and whose we are. It urges us to respond every day with a heart of gratitude for this gift of wondrous love.

We are therefore called to enter this wilderness experience of temptations and dessert spaces by clothing ourselves in Christ’s spiritual virtues. Luke tells us that Christ’s centering spiritual virtue is prayer. Do you want to know the secret to Jesus’ 40 days of prayer in the wilderness? It is not in the technique or in how many minutes he spent in uttered speech or silence. The secret is vulnerability. Jesus allowed the Spirit to guide him into the landscape of the human condition. By doing so, Jesus allowed the Spirit to expose his own vulnerability in the wildreness.

Father Henry is a retired Roman Catholic priest in Tupelo, Mississippi. I had the privilege of knowing him as a colleague in ministry during my first call. A few years back he asked quite a provocative question during a Lenten series. His question was this: “Do we use our faith for pretense or for drawing us closer to God?” That question continues to stay very close to me in my personal life and ministry.

Pretense causes us to put up walls so that others cannot see our brokenness. Pretense paints our lives into a perfect picture where we have it all together. The smile we show to everyone covers the pain that we carry deep inside. And sometimes we even think we can hide our brokenness from God as well!

Pretense hides our shared realities that we feel weak and do not fully know how to stand firm in the Lord. Pretense is the cataract to our spiritual eyes and prevents us from refocusing on what God is trying to do in our lives. Pretense creates an obstacle to truly experience forgiveness and to break with the past. Pretense blocks the path of truly following Jesus Christ to die to sin and be raised to new life.

Do we use our faith for pretense or for drawing us closer to God?

If we are truly allowing our faith to draw us closer to God then we must expose the depths of our human condition to God. We must even take a risk to allow ourselves to be vulnerable with others. We take the next right step by being real with our faith. The spiritual virtue of Jesus Christ leads us to be real through personal and communal prayer.

Some people take the 40 days of Lent to give up something. I would like to invite our congregation to give up some time every day to cultivate the spiritual discipline of prayer.

Together we will be reading daily online devotions. Make sure the church has your email address to receive these daily emails or “like” our church facebook page to receive them. With each devotion listen for God’s presence in the Word and also in the world around you. Let God’s Word feed the hungers of your heart. Let God’s Word guide you to do the hard thing and pray with a vulnerable heart each day. It is by doing this that the Spirit might chisel through the wall of our pretenses. The Spirit will empower us to let go of the quick fixes, the little kingdoms, and the ways we push the boundaries of God’s love.

Together we will also grow in Christ’s spiritual virtue by using a prayer wall which is in the Vaughan Room just behind the cross of this sanctuary. Take a prayer tag and write a prayer. Your prayer might stem from something the Lenten devotion has stirred within you. Or maybe your prayer centers upon a question or situation you are wrestling with to find God’s direction in.

Each week when you are here, take some time to pray over these prayer cards and vulnerable words. Some might be signed with a name and some might be anonymous. The prayer wall is a safe space to lift our questions, concerns, and collective searching for God’s direction in the bigger picture of life and faith. It is a space to nurture this discipline of prayer every day. Thank God that God listens to these vulnerable spaces and trust God to move each of us to a new interpretation – a new place of deeper faith – this Lenten season.

May the Spirit empower us to do the hard thing and live a holy Lent.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sources:
Henri Nouwen, "Lent and Easter" (Ligouri: Ligouri Publications, 2005), p. viii.