If you are a good Christian, does that mean that you are ethically pure? That you don't lie, or steal, or (the church’s favorite) sleep with someone you’re not supposed to? Or if you are a good Christian, does that mean you’re pious? You pray every day, go to church every Sunday, and give lots of money to the church?
Or to be a good Christian, does it mean that you serve the poor? You work in a soup kitchen? You work for justice? Perhaps.
But I don’t think that being ethically pure, that being pious, having a social conscience, working for justice—I don’t think that is the core of what it means to be a good Christian. And the reason I don’t think that’s the core is because I know that I could be ethically pure, at least for a day or two, and I can pray three times a day and go to church every Sunday, and I can work every day in a soup kitchen, and still be a jerk. And still be not whole. Still be hungry.
I think there’s something deeper to what it means to be a good Christian than just those outward acts. And I want to try to get at what that deeper thing is by looking at today’s Gospel reading. The Devil is tempting Jesus. Now, presumably the Devil is tempting Jesus to do things that are bad. And by resisting that, Jesus is good; so, if we can look at what Jesus is doing, and what the Devil is tempting Jesus to do, then we might be able to understand what it means to be a good Christian.
So let’s look at today’s reading—the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. It actually starts with his Baptism. I don’t know how much Jesus knew about who he was before he was baptized. It’s a mystery. We don’t know if Jesus knew that he was God’s Son. We don’t know if he knew that he was “Jesus,” before his baptism. But what we do know is that at his baptism two things happened. One is that God’s Spirit alighted on him. And the other is that a voice spoke from Heaven, and said, “You are my child. I love you. And with you I am well pleased.”
I don’t know what Jesus knew before his baptism, but at his baptism it became explicit. Jesus knew then that God’s Spirit was with him, and that he was God’s beloved Son. And the moment he got that, the moment that it became clear to Jesus that God’s Spirit was with him, and that he was God’s Son, he was tempted. And he was tempted on the level of that identity.
What does it mean to be God’s Son? The first thing the Devil says: “If you’re God’s Son, you can turn these stones into bread.” Jesus has been fasting for a long time, and he is very hungry.
Jesus’ response: “Because I’m God’s Son, I don’t need to.”
“Because I’m God’s Son, I’m fed on a level that’s deeper than just my surface material hunger. I’m fed by something bigger, so I don’t need to change stones into bread.” Now, presumably, Jesus could have turned mountains of stone into mountains of bread; he could have sated this hunger of his with fast food, which is how I live my life. If I’m hungry, I eat; I get hungry again, I eat! Or if I’m not just physically hungry, but lonely, or sad or despondent, I either eat, or I buy. I go to Amazon.com, because I feel I need a new toy to fill that hole. Jesus says, “Because I’m God’s Son, I don’t need to fill that hole. I’m already full with something better. With God’s Spirit, God’s love.”
So then, the Devil takes Jesus high in the sky, shows him all the kingdoms of the world, and says, “I could give you these. You could rule and control the whole world, if you just worship me.” Now the way the Devil rules the world is by dividing, by dividing people and setting them against each other. The word “devil” comes from the word “divide;” that’s what the word means, to separate, to divide. What the Devil says is, if you do this, if you use your power my way, you can control the whole world.
Jesus’ response: “Because I’m the Son of God, I don’t need to be in control. I don’t need to control the world. I have God’s love in me; I have God’s Spirit in me- I don’t need to be in control.”
The next thing the Devil does, he takes Jesus to the top pinnacle of the Temple, and says, “All you have to do is jump off; and because you’re God’s Son, the angels will swoop down and catch you. And, everyone will see it, and they’ll say, whoa! You’ll be famous; you’ll be popular; people will love you! You’ll be on the cover of “People” magazine; you’ll be the “Time” Man of the Year!”
Jesus’ response: “Because I’m God’s Son, I don’t need to be popular. I don’t need to be “Time” Man of the Year. I’m God’s Son. I’m God’s Man of the Year.”
The temptation was for Jesus to forget who he was, and whose he was. To forget that God was in him. And because he didn’t give in to that temptation, because he remembered who he was, he was able to walk through Galilee, and walk toward Jerusalem, and not be knocked off his center. He was able to live with integrity and holiness, and not be afraid, not have to be in control.
Now, this would all simply be interesting if it only had to do with Jesus. Then we could just say, “Well, good for him.” But it doesn’t have to do with just Jesus. I’ve been baptized. God’s Spirit alighted on me; God’s voice spoke from Heaven to me and told me that I’m God’s son. You’re God’s son. You’re God’s daughter. In baptism it’s made explicit that God’s Spirit is with us, in us, and we are children of God. The temptation is for us to forget that. For me it plays out by clinging to stuff, yearning for stuff, so I feel safe and secure; or wanting to control my world and environment; or to have people love me.
But if I can remember who I really am, I don’t need those things. To be a good Christian is to remember, to know, that I’m God’s child. Now I know it in my head. I know it because I go to church a lot, and I hear this stuff. But it’s hard for me to get it in my heart. It’s hard for me to really live it, which is why I love Lent.
Lent is an opportunity for me to pay attention to what I’m doing in my life, to see if there’s something I can change that will help me to “get it” more deeply. To look for some way that I can step off the treadmill of my life, change things around a little bit, so that it can sink in— who I really am.
One part of why I like Lent is that it has that invitation every year, which comes and wakes me up. The other part is that I am so undisciplined that I can’t keep a New Year’s resolution. I’ve never in my life kept a New Year’s resolution. Lent’s only 40 days. So, it’s New Year’s Lite. And, technically, because Sundays are Feasts of the Resurrection, Sundays don’t count, so it’s like New Year’s really Lite! The invitation for me is to think of what can I change over the next 40 days that’ll help me wake up and realize more deeply how much I’m loved by God.
I’ve tried lots of different things. This year, I’m thinking of starting every day with Morning Prayer, having meditation time every day, 20 minutes or so, and ending the day with Compline. Morning Prayer and Compline are both services in the Prayerbook. If I were a good priest, I would already be doing this everyday, but there’s something about moving a family and starting a new job that just throws everything out of whack, and Lent is an invitation to me to focus on getting that balance back. One year for Lent, I gave up lunches. Just Wednesday and Friday. The reason I gave up lunches was because I’m pretty much an instant gratification guy, and if I’m hungry, I eat; or if I want something, I buy it. And I thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to sort of see what it’s like to have an empty place, to delay gratification for a little while, and just sit with that empty feeling. I was wondering whether or not it would kill me… And I didn’t die.
One year I gave up news. No news for 40 days. I thought, maybe that constant stream of overinformation wasn’t good for me, so why not just shut it off for 40 days. I was also really curious about whether or not if I turned CNN off and then 40 days later turned it on, if it would be any different, or if it would just be the same stories over and over again? And the other reason I gave up news is because I’m an extrovert. I hate being alone. I’m uncomfortable with silence. So when I get home, and no one’s there, I turn on NPR. And either NPR or CNN are my constant companions. And I thought, what would it be like to go for 40 days without the noise, without the company.
I have a friend who gave up fear for Lent. Wouldn’t that be something? Fear. For 40 days, I’m just not going to live out of being afraid. I’m just going to live.
The one I’m embarrassed to admit is, my first year in Sun Valley, I took on the discipline of skiing every day, whether I wanted to or not. I did that for two reasons. One was, I wasn’t a skier, and I moved into this community that was all about skiing, and I wanted to learn what that community was about. So every day at lunch, I’d go to the Learning Mountain, which was right around the corner from the church, and I’d do a few runs. But the other reason I did it was, I was starting a new job, and I have this propensity to think that I’m so important, that the world can’t live without me for an hour— and I thought, I’m going to give that up, and I’m just going to take an hour off and go ski.
So I invite you to a holy Lent. But not just as individual Christians-- I also want to invite us as a congregation into a holy Lent. Tonight is the Annual Meeting, which gives us an opportunity to look at how we’re doing as a church, and how we might want to shake things up a bit. What would Trinity Cathedral really look like, and what would Trinity Cathedral really do in Sacramento, if we got it, if we really understood, that we are God’s beloved children here, in our hearts. So at tonight’s Annual Meeting I will be talking a little bit about that, and inviting us to look more into that, and that’s part of the reason that we had that online survey over the past few months. It’s a chance for us to look at how we want to be as Trinity Cathedral in Sacramento. The Bishop has also invited us to look at that as a Diocese— how do we want to be God’s beloved children in Northern California? He has put together a Lenten study, one study for each week, and you can pick up a copy on your way out of church. He’s inviting feedback on how we might want to serve Northern California.
So all of this is just an invitation to take an inventory of your life and your congregation. To change things a little, to try and open your heart up, to see how you can live, how you can be touched with, the fact that you are God’s beloved child, and God’s Spirit is in you. You need not fear, and you can step courageously and boldly and with integrity into your life. Amen.