Psalm 32: 1-8; Matthew 4: 1-11
by Rev. Carson Overstreet
Van Wyck Presbyterian Church
March 5, 2017
First Sunday in Lent
Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
While I kept silence, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Selah
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’,
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Selah
Therefore let all who are faithful
offer prayer to you;
at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters
shall not reach them.
You are a hiding-place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.
Selah
I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you. - Psalm 32: 1-8
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.
The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But he answered, ‘It is written,
“One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ’
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
“He will command his angels concerning you”,
and “On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’
Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
“Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.” ’
Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him. - Matthew 4: 1-11
The clients I worked with had lots of different motivations to begin an exercise program. Some received doctors’ orders to lose some weight and better their blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Some were hoping to toss old routines and discover some new tricks to take the next step towards a healthy lifestyle. Some had set a new goal in life and needed some help with accountability so they could reach it.
One client I will never forget is Beth. Beth was a delightful woman. She was in her fifties. She and her husband loved to travel. She would always tell me the best part of taking a trip is planning the next one. Beth worked with the head trainer, Jerry, and also myself.
But Beth had a different kind of motivation for working out. She had been diagnosed with Lupus, a debilitating disease that causes chronic damage to the joints, skin, heart, lungs, the blood, and even the brain. There is no cure for Lupus but lifestyle modifications and of course medication help to improve one’s quality of life.
Beth was an inspiring woman to me. She could have let this diagnosis overwhelm her life and shut her down. Instead she handled this big life change with a lot of grace and a lot of perseverance. She even asked the head trainer and I to plan a weekend retreat so that she and her girlfriends could focus on a holistic styled boot camp.
Jerry and I planned the three day retreat with food menus and prepared healthy meals and snacks for all of us. We planned for time windows of guided relaxation and meditation, and had a massage therapist come and treat the ladies. And we planned the actual boot camp into daily intervals with group circuit exercises that challenged the women’s strength and endurance.
The hope for the holistic boot camp was for Beth and her friends to cultivate a new desire to care for themselves in life-giving ways. It matters what we fuel our bodies with to be sustained. It matters to have periods of rest and reflection to find a balanced life. It matters to have a daily rhythm of gaining strength instead of falling into apathy’s temptations. Our boot camp retreat fired up all of our desires to modify life habits to really live into our fullest potential! What we took away from that retreat was not just for that weekend or a season of life but to put all we had learned into daily practice.
The Psalmist recognized the need for change in his life. He was motivated in a different way than Beth. He encountered a life experience which caused him to withdraw from God in silence – one might even argue that the Psalmist experienced a season of apathy. And as a result it caused whatever strength he had to feel dried up and wasted away.
We can only go so far in life when we rely on the strength that comes from sources other than God. The human heart certainly has an insatiable desire and we so easily fill the void with anything and everything until it gets to the point where faith is the last source we tap into.
The turning point for the Psalmist was acknowledging the truth. He confessed to himself and to God where he was standing along the path of life and faith. When the Psalmist stopped denying that he alone could fix his own problems and started trusting God with them then he discovered something amazing. He discovered that God is truly a hiding place for us to have our hunger filled, our thirsts quenched, our weaknesses empowered.
When the Psalmist drew near to God he saw a new path open up that would lead to strength and deliverance (Psalm 32:7). And the Psalmist heard the Spirit whisper a word of encouragement: “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Psalm 32: 8). God promised to lead the way as the Psalmist’s great spiritual coach. In turn the Psalmist gained new motivation to trust God in grace and perseverance.
As soon as Jesus was claimed as God’s beloved Son and baptized by John the Baptist, the Spirit instructed Jesus to go into the wilderness to be tempted. Matthew tells us that for forty days and nights Jesus fasted and prayed and afterwards he hungered.
Jesus was then temped to rely on his own ability to satisfy his physical and emotional hunger (Matthew 4:3). He was tempted to test the limits of God’s presence and provision in life (Matthew 4:6). He was tempted to make God’s kingdom a lesser priority and trust in the distortion of worldly strength (Matthew 4:9).
For years I have read this text focusing on how famished Jesus was and how he must have struggled SOME with these temptations before standing strong. Matthew’s story reveals Jesus’ humanity in a way you and I can relate to!
However Jesus was led into the wilderness for those 40 days in order to fully tap into the power of God’s grace. As a result Jesus was empowered to face those temptations in the fullness of God’s strength. When you and I put ourselves in the story, those temptations Jesus faced can easily lead you and me to waiver in our spiritual obedience.
During the season of Lent we remember Christ’s steadfast obedience to God and the sacrifice of his self-giving love. Christians across denominational lines will respond in kind by giving something up – an unhealthy food, sweets, coffee, wine, social media, and so on. All of these are good things to give up for Lent.
However, Lent is bigger than the small sacrifices we might make. It’s a time to be honest about what tempts us to make the gift of faith - our spiritual health - a lesser priority in our lives. So much competes for our time today with obligations for family, work, and overly full schedules. Lent is a time to take inventory of our ultimate concerns in life and measure them alongside God’s desire for each of us to reach our God-given potential. Lent is a time to exercise the muscles of our faith to grow ever stronger in Christ’s faithfulness for we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Today on this First Sunday in Lent, we enter into the wilderness experience of Spiritual Boot Camp. God’s Word and the Spirit are moving among us in a time of self-discovery. The Spirit is present to reveal the need for something to change in our lives.
Just like that fitness retreat I helped to plan years ago, spiritual boot camp at its best has a holistic approach that touches every fiber of our being.
We reflect on the sources we have been choosing to sustain our hearts and minds. It really does matter what we are fueling our bodies, hearts, and minds with to sustain our faith. Consider some basic changes for your daily rhythm of life: Eat cleaner and drink more water. Get your body in motion. Watch less television and decrease your screen time in order to feed your mind with God’s Word. As our call to worship stated this morning, “The Word of the Lord is our daily bread.”[1]
We take a pulse on how well we have been to creating spaces of rest in our lives. It really does matter that we find regular Sabbath time to rest and reflect in order to find a balanced life. Finding intervals of time to listen for God and contemplate Christ’s faithfulness is a gift of grace. It is an opportunity to be cradled in God’s presence and provision as we draw near to God throughout our forty days and nights of Lent just as Jesus did in the wilderness.
Lastly, spiritual boot camp pushes us out of our comfort zones to be honest about the temptations in life. We are tempted to focus more on our human strength and self-reliance. We are tempted to make spiritual health and God's kingdom lesser priorities. True spiritual strength comes from exercising our faith.
We all need to be encouraged to cultivate spiritual disciplines to build up our spiritual health and keep our eyes on God. Those disciplines come from pumping our hearts and minds with healthy repetitions of spiritual sets. Just like we may do a set of running in place to jump start our heart, doing 10 pushups, and then 10 tricep dips…a spiritual set would include reading God’s Word, prayer that intentionally listens for God, and serving others.
We pastors are like personal and communal faith trainers. And we are working with God as our head spiritual coach. Among all that we ministers do, your pastor loves to get each of us pumped up to tap into something greater than ourselves. So let’s get pumped up this season of Lent.
It’s time for Spiritual Boot Camp! It’s time to tap into the power of God’s grace. It takes 30 days to make a new habit and we are all so lucky that Lent includes 40 days and six Sundays!
Are you willing to let go of old excuses and certain habits in order to discover who God is creating you to be? Are you ready to tap into the strength of God’s grace in order to experience a newly resurrected life? These changes are not only for the Lenten season. They are life-giving commitments to guide us into the future.
So before you hit the spiritual circuits, I ask you to begin with the first step, as any good trainer would ask: What is truly motivating your need for change?
In the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sources Referenced:
Sermon Theme and Title "Spiritual Boot Camp: The Need for Change" adapted from "A Preacher's Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016), p. 21, Sermon Theme "Boot Camp for the Soul," by Winnie Varghese
[1] Feasting on the Word Worship Companion: Liturgies for Year A, Volume 1 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013), p. 96.
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