Readings

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Maurice Andrew writes that the constitution expounded in Deuteronomy is realistic in recognising that one aspect of life cannot be isolated from another.  He goes on to say that there is a sense in which this life grows out of the ground.  In sharing the first fruits of the land there is an acknowledgment that Yahweh led their ancestors through slavery in Egypt to the land of milk and honey.  Andrew sees this as the humanity of individual expression and communal participation. Their produce is not better than anyone else’s produce but as God’s produce, it is produce for them to share together.  Andrew adds, for our time and place, that ‘Benefits do not trickle down but spread up and through’.^[1]

Luke 4: 1-13

Fred Craddock notes that ‘the New Testament brings the wilderness trials of Israel forward, not only into the life of Jesus, but also into the life of the church.’^[2]  The church has continued to reflect on the place of temptation in the human condition, and to focus on this the Gospel reading on the first Sunday of Lent is always an account of Jesus’ temptation.

Craddock points out that this passage not only reflects the forty years in the wilderness of the Hebrew people but also Moses’ forty days on the mountain without food (Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 9:9) and Elijah’s forty days in flight to the mountain of God (I Kings 19:4-8).

Unique to Luke’s account is the final temptation at the temple in Jerusalem foreshadowing the climax of the gospel with both triumph and trials and the destination of Jesus’ journey.  Luke draws our attention to this final struggle noting that the devil ‘departed from him until an opportune time’.^[3] The opportune time was indeed Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.

Sermon

It is helpful to understand the development of a religious perceptive evolving alongside the development of humanity through migration.  The Old Testament outlines this journey for us as the Hebrew Scripture gives a background story to three of the great religions of our world.

These stories of journeys from oppression, domination and slavery are very relevant to our part of the world and may well echo other founding myths and stories.

On this first Sunday of Lent, we once again begin our journey of reflection towards the Easter Event as part of our ongoing faith journey and the evolving life of our church.

In so doing we need to examine recent events in the light of our spiritual tradition.  In amongst the frightening changes in our world we have recently witnessed the public, and somewhat inadequate, apology for abuse in state and religious care.

We cannot undo what is past but the first Sunday in Lent brings us a Jesus who reflects on the temptations of leadership before he begins, what became, a world changing mission.

All three synoptic gospels give us this time in the wilderness where Jesus faces the temptations of leadership before embarking on his mission.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all have slightly different descriptions of the temptations because the communities the gospels came from had different leadership issues or they were aware of different leadership failings.

Mark’s Jesus is tempted, but the narrative gives no detail of the temptations. That makes the possible failing infinite which may well be true.

Luke, on the other hand, is the only Gospel writer to note the final temptation at the temple in Jerusalem and that is consistent with the way Luke organises his material.  The temptation to perform a spectacular stunt becomes a prelude of Jesus’ stubborn refusal to avoid execution and therefore a clue to how the Gospel will end.

That understanding is reinforced by the note that the devil departs until an opportune time, suggesting that the forces of evil will exercise power over Jesus later in the narrative.

A key point in the temptation dialogue is that the tempter uses proof texts as bait.  Likewise, Jesus rebuts them with another texts.  In this way the gospel writer reminds us that our religious writing and cultural heritage is a source of strength and guidance when unexpected unethical opportunities present themselves.  There is surely nothing more mortifying when a seemingly marvelous opportunity presents itself, to then remember that somebody has been burned by that action before.

We have recently celebrated our sporting heroes through the Halberg awards.  A diverse collection of talented dames and superheroes have been raised up on high and forced to face the possibility of enhancing their sport or promoting underpants or becoming more awesome after drinking a carton of milk.

Murray Halberg provides the mythology for that challenge.  I can still remember listening to the Olympic games on the radio, as the young man with the withered arm, left the world class field and thundered towards the gold medal.  The Halberg Awards went on to provide inspiration and leadership for golfers, paddlers, sailors and athletes of all kinds.  But because of Sir Murray and the Halberg foundation no one needs to avoid sport because they are physically different.

We certainly expect people who perform spectacularly to have leadership ability, but it is not a given and adulation invites temptation.  Today’s Gospel reading gives a clear direction to people who choose leadership or accept leadership.  If Jesus began his mission by reflecting on the temptations leadership offers, then it is worth all those with authority over others, continually reflecting on the power they hold.  Certainly, something worth spending at least forty days reflecting upon.

Such reflection was part of my ministry training, and it is a requirement of the Presbyterian Church that ordained ministers attend a proscribed risk management workshop every few years.  The word ‘supervision’ has crept into the language of most caring professions and, although we can lament the decline of journalism, social media can spread truth and malicious gossip faster that any kind of marketplace.

Furthermore satirists, comedians and cartoonist stand ready to pounce and provide a unique leadership of social comment that often exposes the abuse of others.  Alternatively, they encourage abusive or bigoted people to over-react to criticism in ways that neutralise their effectiveness.

The invention of the printing press was hugely significant in the Reformation.  Printing not only widely distributed Luther’s ideas and translation of the Bible.  Printing allowed the mass production of cartoons that allowed illiterate people to appreciate and ridicule the abuse they were subject to.  Certainly the internet’s ability to distribute fake news indicates that some free flow of information needs at least forty days and nights in the wilderness before people should have access to it.

Luke personifies such evil and highlights just how subtle the temptations of leadership can be as the tempter frames persuasion in proof texts.

The key point for all of us is that it is a vigorous understanding of Jesus’ religious tradition that allows him to resist temptation.  But it is also the concern for others, and the empathy born of that religious tradition, that tempts him in the first place.

If we understand turning the stones into bread as a desire, not just to satisfy Jesus’ hunger but also the hunger of his community, it sounds admirable.  But Jesus rebuts the temptation by suggesting that ‘one does not live by bread alone. (Luke 4:4)

That highlights the long term need to fulfil people’s spiritual needs and to meeting their physical needs on a long-term basis.

Christian World Service has always focused heavily on partnerships with local people to build local economies rather than simply giving food.  Women’s Refuge provides an essential service by providing shelter for women and children escaping from dangerous and abusive relationships.  But there is an even greater spiritual challenge of building hope and self-esteem so women can avoid dangerous relationships in the first place.

There is an equally difficult spiritual challenge in raising the self-esteem of dangerous males and giving them hope that they can form relationships grounded in love and mutuality, rather than simply dominating fearful women by brute force.

Fred Craddock cynically suggests that ‘there is in us and among us strong opposition to love, health, wholeness, and peace’^[4].  That might seem overly pessimistic, but it is a reality that normal good people do some very bad things particularly as small misdemeanours escalate.  Crime dramas illustrate this for us and, while on holiday with our son he sarcastically noted how sparse the population around Helensville was since they filmed the ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’ there.

In truth we have an inbuilt opposition to love, health, wholeness, and peace.  It is the very basic ‘me first’ instinct to survive and reproduce which puts our own needs above all others.  All animals have it.  Fortunately. as a communal animal we also have an instinct to co-operate with others. But that involves a good deal of learning and rational thought to develop.  In times of stress that communal instinct is easily subverted in the face of fear or threat.  There is also the very self-focused thought that the effort we make deserves greater recognition or reward.

I have known a few people who have lost their jobs because they stole from their employer, and they inevitably feel justified in their action and aggrieved at losing their job.

In some cases the trouble began with the employer’s generosity and lack of clear guidelines that was gradually over exploited by the employee.

History is littered with very good leaders whose undoing was misappropriating their community’s wealth.  People also use their status and power to further their own expanding ambitions.  Like the example of, theft as a servant, such corruption can begin with a grateful community offering adulation and gifts to the point where leaders expect to live a better lifestyle than the people they lead.  They therefore take what they feel entitled to.

King David, you remember, felt quite entitled to take Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of his soldiers.  He then put out a contract on her husband to avoid the political consequence.  It was Nathan, not detective Mike Shepherd, that called David to account.

Neither was there a car chase but the family carnage was significant.

The story of David and Bathsheba is archetypal of all monarchies, dictatorships, democracies, corporations, religious organisations, learning intuitions, tribes, families or whatever hierarchal community we care to imagine.

Susan Howatch, wrote a whole series of novels relating to the difficulties her fictional Church of England clergy got themselves into.  Interestingly the sniveling failures, the triumphant self-assured, and the professionally competent, all got into the same sort of trouble.  In fact, her scenarios were so accurate that I found a forward written by her in a textbook on safety in ministry written by two American psychologists who were also ordained ministers.

All of us, in whatever calling we follow, and at whatever level of leadership that calling demands of us, have triumphs and troughs.  Both euphoria and depression can take us to Luke’s ‘opportune time’ where we are capable of capitulating to a temptation we might intelligently rebut in a rational debate.

For those of us who are called to be Christ to our world the message in the way Jesus began his mission is a classic text to guide to avoid the temptations of being Christ to others.

For Jesus there was a heightened Spiritual experience, a euphoric connection with divine mystery in Jesus’ baptism.  Then Luke’s Gospel inserts a genealogy, but on returning to the main story line, he tells us at the beginning of our reading that ‘Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordon and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness. (Luke 4:1)

As we step into our Lenten journey, may that Spirit guide our inner questioning and bring us refreshed to the Easter meeting with the Risen Christ.  Re-empowered to be Christ to others.

[1] Maurice Andrew The Old Testament in Aotearoa New Zealand (Wellington: DEFT 1999), pp.166, 167.

[2] Fred B. Craddock Luke. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press 2009), p. 54.

[3] ibid.,p.55.

[4] ibid., p.55.