Sermon Sunday February 10, 2008
First Sunday in Lent
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am currently reading a book called "The Defense Never Rests." It was written by a man named Craig Parton and in it he tells of how he came to Lutheranism. He tells of growing up in the Christian Science tradition and then in college becoming very active in evangelicalism. And then I believe when he was in graduate school when he took a class that compared different Christian denominations. Through this he began to learn about Lutheranism and saw a lot in Lutheranism that he felt was lacking in evangelicalism. And then one fateful Good Friday night he went to his first Lutheran service and he was hooked.
And he said that one element of the Lutheran traditions that he was particularly struck by was the small catechism. What really impressed him was that the catechism got right down to the essentials. He said it "majored on the majors and refused to let the student of Scripture get lost in the trees." He loved how it how it focused on what is called the sedes doctrinae; or "Seat of doctrine-i.e., Bible verses that establish Christian dogma.."
And as a person who did not grow up Lutheran but was drawn to Lutheranism as an adult, I can relate to that experience myself. And for me, one of the things that I have come to appreciate, that seemed to be lacking in the tradition that I grew up in, is the seasons of the church year, particularly Lent. Lent, like the catechism gets right to the heart of the Christian faith.
Lent doesn’t water anything down for us. In Lent we are confronted face to face with the suffering and agony that our Lord Jesus endured on our behalf in the final steps of His journey to the cross and on the cross. We are confronted with the reality that it is our sin that He atones for on the cross and it is our sin that killed Him.
And so here you are in the first week of Lent and you are confronted with these scripture passages, these words from God, that get right to the point by confronting you with the reality of temptation and your weakness to it. Through the Word that your Lord brings to you today you are reminded that from the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden on into Jesus’ temptations, right on into today and your daily lives, the devil entices us with things that appear to be good.
We are confronted with a Word today that reminds us that Satan is in fact a real entity and force in the world that we live in. He is not a metaphor or a symbol, he is real, and he lives to oppose the coming of the Kingdom of God.
It was the devil whom our Lord Jesus was confronted with in the Gospel lesson for today. The devil comes to Jesus in the wilderness with three temptations. In the first temptation the devil comes to Jesus tempting Him to use His authority and power to turn stones into bread. What was so wrong with this?? Jesus’ hunger would have been alleviated and He would have been able to meet the needs of others. This would have met many people’s expectations for what the messiah was supposed to be and so it would have given Jesus enormous political power.
But it also would have meant Jesus denying His humanity and the trust in God that Jesus teaches of in Matthew 6 when He teaches the disciples to strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness and that in that God will provide for their needs.
And so Jesus resists that temptation by quoting to the devil from scripture where it says that "One does not live by bread alone but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God." And so the devil responds by doing what the devil does, he takes something good and distorts it and tries to use it for something other than it’s intended purpose. In this case the devil tempts Jesus to throw Himself from the pinnacle and then quotes a portion of scripture in a way that would make it seem as if it were promising that if Jesus did do that then God would send angels to bear Him up.
But Jesus goes right back to the source, the Word of God, and throws it right back in the devil’s face and rightly quotes another passage that says "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." And finally the devil, in what seems to be a last ditch attempt, tries to tempt Jesus with all the kingdoms of the world and says that he will give them to Jesus if He would fall down and worship Satan. And finally Jesus fires back with another Scripture passage that says "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him." And He simply commands the devil away from Him.
It’s interesting that right from the beginning of this passage, the devil is referred to as ‘the tempter.’ Temptation is one of biggest weapons in the devil’s arsenal. That is his modus operandi, as it were. He will appeal to our pride, our shame, the law, our sinful nature, but all of that is done in the interest of tempting us. As I said earlier, the devil lives to oppose the kingdom of God. Well, what better way to tear down the kingdom of God than to tempt away it’s members?
And in our Old Testament lesson we can see just how powerless we are to temptation. Adam and Eve were tempted by the devil and they fell for it hook, line, and sinker just as any one of us would have. And Jesus knew just how vulnerable we are to temptation, and for that reason He included it in His instructions for us in how to pray. Indeed the sixth petition in the Lord’s prayer is that we not be lead into temptation.
We are attacked everyday by the devil’s slings and arrows of temptation and everyday we fail in the face of such attacks. We fail when we give in to the devil’s temptation to fear, love and trust anything other than God or when we measure God’s faithfulness to us by how comfortable we are. We give into the devil’s temptation when we seek our own glory over God’s glory or even when we fail to be thankful for the blessings that God showers upon us. We fail when we put the desires of our own sinful body ahead of the needs of our soul. These are really just the tip of the iceberg. We constantly give in to the devil’s slings and arrows of temptation and deception.
The truth is Adam and Eve’s sin is our sin. Put any one of us in the Garden of Eden and the same thing would have happened. But there is Another who is not susceptible to the devil’s arsenal of temptation and deceit. He is Christ Jesus and we see in today’s Gospel lesson that when He was confronted by the temptation of the devil He always had an answer and ultimately He fired back by simply saying to the tempter "Away with you Satan!" And He came out of the wilderness and continued on the path that would lead to His enduring great suffering for you.
The attack from the devil would not stop. But Jesus would continue undeterred to calvary where He laid down His life for you, and took on the punishment that you deserve. And He did this for you. He did this to fulfill the righteousness that Paul speaks of in the second lesson for today; the righteousness that leads to justification for all. He did this to take upon Himself the guilt of all of us who were made sinners through the sin of Adam and Eve and give to us the righteousness that secures for us our place in God’s kingdom.
And so today Satan’s attacks of temptation continue. But in the face of those attacks you have been given a Word from God’s mouth. And that Word promises that by the obedience of Christ Jesus you have been made righteous. And so when the devil’s attacks continue, and they will, you can simply turn to the tempter and say "Away with you Satan." And this is also a Word that you are called to bring to your neighbor so they can know that the act of obedience of Christ Jesus that has made you righteous was done for them also and that there is place for them in the Kingdom of God; the Kingdom that the tempter is committed to destroying.
Amen
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am currently reading a book called "The Defense Never Rests." It was written by a man named Craig Parton and in it he tells of how he came to Lutheranism. He tells of growing up in the Christian Science tradition and then in college becoming very active in evangelicalism. And then I believe when he was in graduate school when he took a class that compared different Christian denominations. Through this he began to learn about Lutheranism and saw a lot in Lutheranism that he felt was lacking in evangelicalism. And then one fateful Good Friday night he went to his first Lutheran service and he was hooked.
And he said that one element of the Lutheran traditions that he was particularly struck by was the small catechism. What really impressed him was that the catechism got right down to the essentials. He said it "majored on the majors and refused to let the student of Scripture get lost in the trees." He loved how it how it focused on what is called the sedes doctrinae; or "Seat of doctrine-i.e., Bible verses that establish Christian dogma.."
And as a person who did not grow up Lutheran but was drawn to Lutheranism as an adult, I can relate to that experience myself. And for me, one of the things that I have come to appreciate, that seemed to be lacking in the tradition that I grew up in, is the seasons of the church year, particularly Lent. Lent, like the catechism gets right to the heart of the Christian faith.
Lent doesn’t water anything down for us. In Lent we are confronted face to face with the suffering and agony that our Lord Jesus endured on our behalf in the final steps of His journey to the cross and on the cross. We are confronted with the reality that it is our sin that He atones for on the cross and it is our sin that killed Him.
And so here you are in the first week of Lent and you are confronted with these scripture passages, these words from God, that get right to the point by confronting you with the reality of temptation and your weakness to it. Through the Word that your Lord brings to you today you are reminded that from the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden on into Jesus’ temptations, right on into today and your daily lives, the devil entices us with things that appear to be good.
We are confronted with a Word today that reminds us that Satan is in fact a real entity and force in the world that we live in. He is not a metaphor or a symbol, he is real, and he lives to oppose the coming of the Kingdom of God.
It was the devil whom our Lord Jesus was confronted with in the Gospel lesson for today. The devil comes to Jesus in the wilderness with three temptations. In the first temptation the devil comes to Jesus tempting Him to use His authority and power to turn stones into bread. What was so wrong with this?? Jesus’ hunger would have been alleviated and He would have been able to meet the needs of others. This would have met many people’s expectations for what the messiah was supposed to be and so it would have given Jesus enormous political power.
But it also would have meant Jesus denying His humanity and the trust in God that Jesus teaches of in Matthew 6 when He teaches the disciples to strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness and that in that God will provide for their needs.
And so Jesus resists that temptation by quoting to the devil from scripture where it says that "One does not live by bread alone but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God." And so the devil responds by doing what the devil does, he takes something good and distorts it and tries to use it for something other than it’s intended purpose. In this case the devil tempts Jesus to throw Himself from the pinnacle and then quotes a portion of scripture in a way that would make it seem as if it were promising that if Jesus did do that then God would send angels to bear Him up.
But Jesus goes right back to the source, the Word of God, and throws it right back in the devil’s face and rightly quotes another passage that says "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." And finally the devil, in what seems to be a last ditch attempt, tries to tempt Jesus with all the kingdoms of the world and says that he will give them to Jesus if He would fall down and worship Satan. And finally Jesus fires back with another Scripture passage that says "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him." And He simply commands the devil away from Him.
It’s interesting that right from the beginning of this passage, the devil is referred to as ‘the tempter.’ Temptation is one of biggest weapons in the devil’s arsenal. That is his modus operandi, as it were. He will appeal to our pride, our shame, the law, our sinful nature, but all of that is done in the interest of tempting us. As I said earlier, the devil lives to oppose the kingdom of God. Well, what better way to tear down the kingdom of God than to tempt away it’s members?
And in our Old Testament lesson we can see just how powerless we are to temptation. Adam and Eve were tempted by the devil and they fell for it hook, line, and sinker just as any one of us would have. And Jesus knew just how vulnerable we are to temptation, and for that reason He included it in His instructions for us in how to pray. Indeed the sixth petition in the Lord’s prayer is that we not be lead into temptation.
We are attacked everyday by the devil’s slings and arrows of temptation and everyday we fail in the face of such attacks. We fail when we give in to the devil’s temptation to fear, love and trust anything other than God or when we measure God’s faithfulness to us by how comfortable we are. We give into the devil’s temptation when we seek our own glory over God’s glory or even when we fail to be thankful for the blessings that God showers upon us. We fail when we put the desires of our own sinful body ahead of the needs of our soul. These are really just the tip of the iceberg. We constantly give in to the devil’s slings and arrows of temptation and deception.
The truth is Adam and Eve’s sin is our sin. Put any one of us in the Garden of Eden and the same thing would have happened. But there is Another who is not susceptible to the devil’s arsenal of temptation and deceit. He is Christ Jesus and we see in today’s Gospel lesson that when He was confronted by the temptation of the devil He always had an answer and ultimately He fired back by simply saying to the tempter "Away with you Satan!" And He came out of the wilderness and continued on the path that would lead to His enduring great suffering for you.
The attack from the devil would not stop. But Jesus would continue undeterred to calvary where He laid down His life for you, and took on the punishment that you deserve. And He did this for you. He did this to fulfill the righteousness that Paul speaks of in the second lesson for today; the righteousness that leads to justification for all. He did this to take upon Himself the guilt of all of us who were made sinners through the sin of Adam and Eve and give to us the righteousness that secures for us our place in God’s kingdom.
And so today Satan’s attacks of temptation continue. But in the face of those attacks you have been given a Word from God’s mouth. And that Word promises that by the obedience of Christ Jesus you have been made righteous. And so when the devil’s attacks continue, and they will, you can simply turn to the tempter and say "Away with you Satan." And this is also a Word that you are called to bring to your neighbor so they can know that the act of obedience of Christ Jesus that has made you righteous was done for them also and that there is place for them in the Kingdom of God; the Kingdom that the tempter is committed to destroying.
Amen
posted by Steve at 10:56 PM
1 Comments:
This wasn't a great sermon, I felt. The beginning of the sermon didn't really connect with the rest of it. I understand what you were doing, but it wasn't really needed or used throughout the sermon.
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