"Clarity”
A Sermon by Rev.
Luke 4:1-13
Sanbornton Congregational Church, UCC
February 25, 2007
(Please do not re-print or re-use without permission of the author)
Opening Prayer:
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.
The new governor of
“Governor Deval Patrick unabashedly defended his use of a $46,000 Cadillac Deville for state business…as the focus intensified on the new governor’s spending habits, the administration also found itself fielding questions about hiring a $72,000-a-year-aide to handle scheduling and interview requests for Patrick’s wife, a law partner at Ropes & Gray.” (“Patrick Defends Use of Cadillac”, by Andrea Estes,
I mention this not to poke at our
When Jesus went into the wilderness, he did not anticipate paparazzi lying in wait for a juicy story; but he knew that once his public ministry began, there would be plenty of people ready to seize an opportunity to compromise him. And we know from how the story later unfolds, Jesus dealt with intense scrutiny. Religious authorities tried to discredit Jesus many times – for healing on the Sabbath, for violating purity codes. Jesus had an answer for them every time - but only because Jesus had first looked at himself with brutal, honest, clarity.
Jesus went into the wilderness – not to attain a clarity of vision – I think he had that. I think he was pretty clear about the purpose of his ministry and what he wanted to accomplish. He wanted all who would listen to understand their potential as co-creators with God. He wanted to break down the separation that he saw everywhere – that people with power abused.
Jesus went into the wilderness to get crystal clear about what the stumbling blocks were for him. He wanted to know what they looked like, sounded like, felt like. And the only way for him to get clear on this was to go to a place and have no distractions.
Talk about a prayer intensive. Talk about an advanced retreat. A disclaimer might be - not recommended for beginners. It was the moment that Jesus had likely been preparing for, for quite some time.
What were the stumbling blocks Jesus confronted? Henri Nouwen puts it best – the desire to “be relevant, powerful and spectacular.”. These were real dangers for Jesus. Giving into any of them would have derailed his ministry.
Consider if you will….
If Jesus hadn’t conquered the desire to be spectacular, why on that day with the thousands of hungry people around him, he could have simply said, look at me! I can turn these stones into bread and feed you all! And those gathered would have never grasped or understood the mystery and generosity of God: generosity unleashed in the hearts of each person, allowing loaves and fishes to be given and shared and multiplied so that there was plenty for all. If Jesus had not conquered the desire to be spectacular, he would have been nothing more than a circus act.
If Jesus hadn’t conquered his desire for earthly power – the religious and Roman authorities would have played him to their own advantage. He would have lost his prophetic voice. He would have been nothing more than a puppet leader, a slight irritation or inconvenience to those in power.
If Jesus hadn’t conquered his desire to be relevant, he would have claimed his healing power as his own; and the ones he touched would have never known their own capacity to heal and to be whole. He would have been nothing more than a faith healer.
Let’s face it, if Jesus had never been led into the wilderness; had never faced squarely the voices, the temptations, the desires within himself – (the shadow side as we spoke of last week). We would not be gathered here today.
We see then that the stakes were high for Jesus. His ministry on the line. With each choice he made, he consolidated his divine power. He strengthened what he wanted to strengthen within himself.
We can understand the urgency and importance for Jesus. We might ask this morning – how is that we get in our own way? What separates us from the lives we want? What keeps us from becoming fully the person we long to become? What distracts us from living our life purpose, our vision?
How do we strengthen ourselves and find the freedom to make more aware choices? We start with the every day, small choices.
Thich Nhat Hanh, the wise Buddhist teacher speaks of it as understanding that each of us has seeds within us: we all have healthy, beautiful seeds; we have seeds of compassion and love and patience; and we also have seeds of anger, of impatience, of judgmentalism, of greed, of craving. We can choose, moment to moment, day by day, which seeds to nourish, water, and make stronger and which seeds we would prefer not grow.
It is appropriate then, that during Lent as we look toward spring that we take the opportunity to use this time to consciously nourish the seeds we wish will take root and grow. If we let the opportunity go by – we will still be struggling with the same old habits, some old tendencies, some old shooting ourselves in the foot over and over.
As Thich Nhat Hanh writes in Peace is Every Step: “Every time a seed has an occasion to manifest itself, it produces new seeds of the same kind. If we are angry…new seeds of anger are produced and deposited in the soil of our unconscious mind…That is why we have to be careful in selecting the kind of life we lead and the emotions we express. When I smile, the seeds of smiling and joy have come up…But if I don’t practice smiling for a number of years, that seed will weaken, and I may not be able to smile anymore.” (Peace is Every Step , p.74)
Andrew Harvey, in his book, Son of Man reminds us that Jesus used the mustard seed as a parable for the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because when the mustard plant takes root – it grows into a large plant, giving shelter to bird and other creatures. It is, in fact, so strong, it takes over. He used this parable to show us – that with a little effort on our part to help our seeds along, God will do the rest; the Spirit will take hold and do amazing things. And as our seeds become large, healthy plants – we are able to give shelter to others.
Maybe this is what frightens us. We’re not prepared for the Spirit to take hold of our lives in such a powerful way. Yet we need not be afraid. Jesus has walked this journey ahead of us and is with us now. All we need to do is start small – start with the tiniest seeds. And step by step by step, watch with wonder what a little cooperation on our part and the Spirit of God can accomplish.
For after all, as Adrian Walker noted in his Boston Globe column, “People, almost all of us, are bundles of contradictions…” It’s no wonder we get so confused, so sidetracked, so distracted. Jesus found his clarity in the wilderness; and so can we.
Let us pray,
God of all seasons,
In this holy season of Lent,
as we journey with Jesus to the cross,
help us to discern in our lives
what we must lay down
and what we must take up;
what we must end
and what we must begin.
Give us grace to lead a disciplined life,
in glad obedience
and with the joy
which comes from a closer walk with Christ.
Amen.
Common Order, Pages 431-432
