Who Do We Serve?
Posted on Mar 05, 2017 by David Whetter
The celebration is over. I know, it was fun to celebrate Christmas and even the Season of Epiphany where we talked about all those miracles Jesus did and heard about how God revealed Jesus to the world, but it is time to stop celebrating. It is time, now, to enter a period of journeying in the wilderness so that we might better understand the challenges we face in our lives and how we might better “listen” to Jesus as we heard last Sunday. On this 40-day journey we will be challenged to renew our baptismal vows so that we might be the children of God that we have been created to be. But, if we are going to renew our faith lives, one of the first things we need to do is determine who we really believe we belong to, if we believe we belong to anyone, and who is it that we really serve?
Now I know both of these questions seem a little weird for people who pride themselves on their freedom and independence. In our culture it is seen as a weakness to say that we are not completely free and that we actually belong to someone else. And the notion that we are actually servants to someone else is especially off putting. Claiming an identity that says I belong to someone else and I serve someone else is just un-American. But, to deny this and to ignore the fact that in our freedom we really do belong to someone and we are called to be a servant would then actually deny our baptism and who has claimed us.
Eight weeks ago we began the Season of Epiphany by reading the story of Jesus’ baptism. In that story Matthew tells us, “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (3:16-17). God claimed Jesus that day in front of the whole world. There would be no denying it after that that Jesus belonged to God and that God’s Spirit rested up Jesus.
Then after hearing the story of Jesus’ baptism, our readings in Matthew jumped forward in time so we might know how Jesus’ ministry began. We jumped to the part of how Jesus began to call his disciples and how he began to preach and teach about God’s kingdom and how he began healing the sick. We have spent the past several weeks reading through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, but today, on the first Sunday in Lent, we go back to a time before Jesus’ ministry began; we go back to his baptism.
Literally, as Jesus was coming up out of the water during his baptism, Matthew says that the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus. That must have been an incredible sight. And then, to hear God’s voice and to hear God claim Jesus as his, must have been even more exciting. But what happened next, wasn’t so exciting. Instead of celebrating, like we usually do at a time of baptism, Matthew tells us “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (4:1). I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about the Holy Spirit. I mean, instead of empowering Jesus to go and do God’s work, the Spirit led Jesus literally into the presence of the devil, the great deceiver, so that Jesus could be tempted by the devil. That stinks. And to make matters worse, before being tempted, we are told that Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights until he was “famished.” It was only when Jesus was at his weakest moment that the devil shows up and it is then that the devil begins to challenge Jesus’ very identity. “If you are the Son of God…prove it!” And, who would have blamed Jesus after not eating for forty days if he would have turned the stones into bread? In our world today, we are tempted like this all the time. We live in a culture where people expect to get what they want, and to get it fast. So we treat God the way inconsiderate people treat a table server. “I want healing. A better job. A bigger house. A growing church.” “And why shouldn’t I ask it?” you might say. “Doesn’t God want the best for us?” Yes God does, but as any parent knows, often times what is best for our children is not necessarily what our children want.
Jesus, however, in his time of fasting in the wilderness had learned much of who and whose he was. He discovered in that time that as God’s beloved Son, he had all he needed and that he did not need to test God’s love for him. So, he rejected the devil’s temptation and those temptations of power and greed that would follow, for Jesus knew who he served. He served the Father, because in the waters of his baptism he was claimed and proclaimed as a child of God’s and that same claiming and proclaiming has been offered to you and I.
But, rejecting the devil’s temptations in this world is not easy. So often, we are deceived into thinking that that new job offer of more power, more authority, and/or more money is all we will need and life will be good. Or, if we could just hit the lottery, then all my life’s problems would be solved, only to discover that it is often a lie. The temptations of the world are real and to be able to overcome such deceit, we are challenged today to always remember whose we are and who we have been created to serve. As we heard today, the devil is good at what the devil does; deceive us. Adam and Eve learned that the hard way. But, in Jesus we are given a gift that Adam and Eve did not have. Adam and Eve, like you and I, did not have the courage to deny the devil, because they did not recognize that to do so took a community. Jesus knew that to deny the devil would took dependence on God and God’s ways, and so he called upon his relationship with God to deny Satan. He used God’s words and God’s teachings to overcome those great temptations. You and I are called to be in relationship with God and to help us do that Jesus created the church. In the church, we are given the gift of community, a community that is made up of a diverse group of people with different talents and blessings and when those gifts are used together, the community we call the church, the community we call Salem can overcome any temptation that Satan can throw at us. Jesus did not resist the devil all by himself. No, he called upon God and God’s ways to do that. You and I can do the same when we are willing to be part of a community of faith and when we are willing to opening share our lives with this community.
For those of you who have been attending Oasis this year, you know that during our closing worship, I have been encouraging you to share your joys and concerns with each other. I have not been doing that to be nosey or to get you to tell the community your darkest secrets, but instead, so that we might build better relationships with each other. So that we might fully realize that in a community of faith like Salem, we are stronger and we are able to overcome all things because God is at work in and through all of us. We are the church.
As we enter into this 40-day journey now, we are challenged to remember who it is that has claimed us and who it is we serve. We are challenged today to recognize the temptations that we face every day and instead of facing them alone, I pray we learn to face them together. I pray we learn that in Christ, whom we serve, that we have the strength to reject the devil and all his false promises. Amen.