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LINKS TO THE SERMONS |
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| “The Hike in the Wilderness” “Be Prepared,” is the Scout Motto. Jesus was apparently not a Scout. He went for a hike in the wilderness with no provisions at all. And it was no little hike, not even an overnighter; it was a forty-nighter. I was inducted into the Order of the Arrow back in the sixties in Indiana. They sent me out on an overnighter equipped with an egg and one match. Didn’t get much sleep on the cold damp ground and was pretty hungry by the next morning. Jesus went out for forty days without so much as an egg or a match. The Bible, being the master of the understatement, says, “He fasted for forty days and afterward he was hungry.” Well yea, I guess so! And when you are sleep deprived and starving there are all sorts of strange things that go on in your head. It alters body chemistry. The old holy men and monks used to use that technique to induce visions and spiritual insights. Didn’t need to take drugs, or smoke peyote, just starve for a few days and go without sleep for a few nights and let the body do its thing. But, the point and significance of this story is the nature and substance of the inner dialogue that was induced by the forty day walk in the wilderness; it was a debate about power and what to do with it. In a way it’s an integral part of the coming-of-age scenario we all experience. One of the discoveries of childhood and adolescence is the power you have. Our daughter remarks frequently about how much stronger she is now than when she was four; she can jump higher and lift heavier things. She measures herself against the mark on the wall we made when we moved here to gage her growth; and she flexes her arm muscle for us to admire. She is just beginning to discover her power; not just physical power but mental power, the ability to motivate, manipulate, dominate. She’s only five; imagine when she’s twenty. At some point it can become a little frightening, that power we wield. We can choose to use it for great good or do incredible harm. Power does not discriminate between outcomes – blessing or ruthless damage, it doesn’t care. It is the responsibility of the individual to direct and control that power. That’s what the Scout Oath is about. It acknowledges great power and decides to use it in a way that builds up rather than destroys. Nelson Mandela said, “Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” I remember feeling relatively powerless for most of my childhood. Then the day came when I realized that I had power, not the physical strength that some of the other boys had but brain power. If you use your head you don’t have to be strong, you can get the other guys to do the work for you. I had the power both to decide and to persuade. Right after the euphoria came the wave of fear; that power I possessed was enough to mess up the rest of my life if not carefully managed – and could as easily damage someone else, even someone I loved. That’s where Jesus was in his coming of age drama – a poor kid from a crumby town. But, he had the power to inspire and persuade, a healing touch. It was something like being a presidential candidate. Millions of people go to poles and vote for you. People you don’t even know send you millions of dollars for your campaign. You hold a campaign rally and twenty thousand people turn out on a cold damp afternoon just to catch a glimpse. People are saying that you, more than any other person, are qualified and equipped to be the president of the most powerful nation in the world. That’s heady stuff, and, if you’re are wise, frightening stuff. Jesus had just come from something of a rally. The celebrity draw was none other than John the Baptist, the biggest thing to hit Israel since Elijah himself. He was Oprah and Chuck Norris and Ted Kennedy rolled into one. And this mega-superstar announces that one is coming who is so great that he, John, is not worth to so much as reach down and tie his shoe laces. Then he points to Jesus and says, “There he is, the Lamb of God.” That’s a significant endorsement – heady stuff to say the least. Then when he is baptized, God himself confirms the witness of John the Baptist. No wonder Jesus needed a little alone time to process things. No wonder he didn’t think to pack some food and water. He was, perhaps for the first time, fully aware of his power and now he had to make some decisions about how to use that awesome power he held. One would think that the Bible knowledge would help. Jesus was obviously well versed in scripture, thanks, no doubt, to the training of his mother, Mary, and regular attendance at the synagogue. But, as the inner dialogue develops, it turns out that arguments from the Bible also can be rebutted from the Bible. That’s why a casual knowledge of scripture can be dangerous and I tell you not to trust preachers who like to read a verse from here and one from there. You can build an argument for or against about anything by that method. So, the dark side of the dialogue (the devil) can throw the proof texts around as fluently as the other side. By the time the forty day hike is over, Jesus has decided how and how not to use his awesome power. The decision will be obvious in the playing out of the rest of his ministry. Maybe this story is here so that we who are following on the journey can order our lives accordingly, especially you who are still in the process of discovering the extent of your amazing power. The first temptation was to use his power to satisfy his own legitimate needs, in this case food. His response to the temptation revealed his understanding that self-denial and hardship can have spiritual benefit and help focus one on the nourishment of spiritual connectedness with the Source of our Being. People who squander their power with satisfying their physical needs and desires have shot their resources on that which is temporary and have nothing left to invest in that which is eternal. One of the most important reasons for not messing with drugs and alcohol as an adolescent is because those things are used to sidestep difficult and painful experiences of youth. The character is malformed, the maturing process is stilted and the spirit is shriveled. Personal power is not to be used primarily to avoid personal hardship. We do not live by bread alone. The second temptation was to use his power to establish his super-star status. Jump of the top of the Empire State Building and have the angels catch you, that will have the poporotsy following you for the rest of your life and get you about a billion hits on You Tube. Finally to use ones power to get
more power. They say that power corrupts; it is an opiate –
there is never enough to satisfy the craving. So, Jesus ended the hike and began the journey of fulfilling the will of God, to give himself for others, to invest his power on behalf of the powerless. And because he was faithful on his hike, the angels came and ministered to him. And when he had spent all his power performing the difficult task to which God had called him, once again the angels came. May we all have the grace to so invest our power for the purposes of God and find that when we are spent and exhausted, the angels minister to us as well. |
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.................................................................................... Friends | |