The Temptation to be Normal

 Mark 1:9-15

February 1, 2021

Lent 1

Temptation of Christ
J. Kirk Richards

 

So Jesus’ baptism was lovely.

The heavens were torn apart and the spirit came down

and the voice of God said “you are my beloved. “

It was a beautiful thing I’m sure.

 

But Jesus had no time for a baptismal party.

No time for punch and sheet cake

and those little quarter-cut pimento cheese sandwiches.

because the nice spirit who just descended lightly on Jesus

just picked Jesus up and threw him out into the wilderness.

 

When we think of the wilderness it’s usually lovely too:

A camping trip, a weekend getaway,

respite from our normal life.

But in Jesus time, the wilderness was not

a place people ever really wanted to go.

It was desert.

There were no comforts, no resources,

no springs or streams,

no plants for food, no shelter.

Besides the wild beasts mentioned,

There was also the real possibility of wild people

who were out to do others harm.

 

In the bible, the Wilderness represented dangerous,

unruly, risky places.

Places that most people would be avoiding.

We could consider the wilderness as

the opposite of “normal and respectable”.

 

Yet this is where the Spirit drives Jesus right after his baptism.

Right after the anointing of him and the beginning of ministry.

The Spirit sends Jesus into a place

that people would normally avoid.

 

And not only is Jesus driven into this uncomfortable place.

But it says he was there to be tempted by Satan.

 

Notice that in Mark’s gospel –

what most people think was the first gospel written down --

there is no explanation of what that temptation was,

 

This whole story is just one sentence:

¹³He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan;

and he was with the wild beasts;

and the angels waited on him.

 

When Christianity has normally defined Temptation,

we often think of vices:

Dessert, drinking, drugs, sexual temptations.

Habits or indiscretions that are enjoyable at

the moment, but can get us into trouble.

And as church people, we often congratulate ourselves

because, for the most part we have avoided these temptations

or we can appear to have avoided these temptations anyway.

But are those things out there really our greatest temptation?

Was that Jesus temptation?

 

There is a young and popular theologian

named Shane Claibourne.

He was part of an adult series that Augsburg did

about living out our faith.

He was saying that normally, when we testify to Jesus power

to transform lives, we’re usually talking about Jesus

taking people who are outside of our mainstream -

who are not “normal and respectable” –

like people addicted or people who are homeless or those

who commit crimes and then they follow Jesus and they become

 “normal and respectable”.

And those stories are certainly respectable.

 

But he said his own story with Jesus was opposite that.

He had a very good life, one others would aspire to.

He was destined for “normal and respectable”.

He was homecoming king, had good grades, he was popular

was going to go to college and would

have had a lucrative career.

But then Jesus came in and messed everything up for him.

 

His faith journey moved him to

go to India to help children for a year

then he gave up all his stuff,

now he lives in a community with other Christians

They make his own clothes, grow their own food,

they work and live in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Philadelphia.

He does not have what most people would call

a “normal and respectable life”

God called him outside a normal life to something different.

 

And I think that may be closer to Jesus journey.

Jesus temptation wasn’t chocolate cake, or drinking,

or lust or anything outside the norm.

Don’t you think that his greatest temptation was

just to live a normal life?

And isn’t that our temptation too?

 

At Jesus baptism, the heavens opened up and God spoke,

claimed Jesus as his own, and I guess Jesus could have

opted for a normal life.

He could have chosen to get married

and have children, open up his carpentry business,

and just go to synagogue on Saturday night.

But he chose to follow his destiny.

God’s particular call for him – savior of the world.

 

And what if that is really our greatest temptation too?

To always go with the status quo,

to always follow the way of the world,

to do what is “normal and respectable”

and follow whatever the dominant culture expects.

 

Now I’m not saying that the spirit is calling each one of us

to leave our jobs and family and drop out and live in

communes in poor neighborhoods.

That is not my call.

That may be the call for  some of us,

but not all of us.

 

But I do think that God is calling us, as people

and as a congregations, to be different.

To be different than the dominant culture.
We are called:

-To trust God above our own abilities,

-To not put our trust in the gods of the market system

or the blind pursuit of wealth and security.

-To trust in God’s abundance. To share what we have.

-To not fall in step with the drums of war and violence.

-To not fear those who are different from us.

-To care for other people’s families as much as we care for our own.

-To love and pray for our enemies, to turn the other cheek.

We are called to follow Jesus teaching.

 

Our temptation is to fall in line with the rest of the world.

But we are called to be different. Not mainstream.

And that means we often have to choose what is

not seen as by some as “normal and respectable”.

 

In our baptism, God chose us to do his ministry in the world.

We are called to walk with Jesus in our lives.

And sometimes that means making difficult choices

that make other people uncomfortable

and sometimes it takes us to uncomfortable places.

Uncomfortable for us and for those around us.

Our trust in the Holy Spirit takes us to the wilderness.

But the promise is that God is with us there.

 

Our baptismal call is not always easy.

Jesus road was not smooth and pleasant.

But God promises to be there with us,

as we stumble and fall and rise again

and throughout our journey with Christ.

Transfiguration

 Mark 9:2-9

February 14, 2021

Transfiguration

 

In my past two congregations,

in Ohio and Texas,

while I was there we had some major

anniversaries that we celebrated.

In that process, I enjoyed investigating the origins of

those congregations I served at.

I also did this while I was a member at my home

congregation in New York City too

I liked reading the minutes of the council meetings

and the saved letters to get a glimpse of

what was going on in everyone’s heads at the time.

And in reading some of the history about

two years ago,

I was struck by a similarity between all of them:

These people that started these churches

did not know what they were doing.

Now I don’t mean that in a bad way

Or like they were not smart or capable

Or that the congregations they started were not

successful and long lived.

I mean just in the way that none of them had any

experience in starting a church.

Most of them had new and inexperienced pastors

or no pastors at all. None of them were professional

church planters, most of them were farmers, and bankers

and musicians, and shop owners, doing all this

church stuff in their spare time.

 

Most of they were finding their way around

in the dark, imitating other churches and

taking educated guesses on what to do next

and how build buildings and organize committees

and reach new people in the developing cities and the

changing landscapes that they came together in.

 

I’m guessing that Christ Lutheran has much of

the same history. The fact is there is no one right

way to do church, so you have to make it up as you go along.

 

The one thing that all these people did have though

was their love of God and Jesus and their

passion to bring Christ’s love to the people in their midst.

They may not have know exactly how to do it,

but they had a vision, and they trusted

the Holy Spirit to guide them in their steps.

 

And although, many of our churches have been

around for years, some hundreds of years,

we find ourselves in the same position today.

 

We may have known what we were doing

about 10 or 15 years ago, we might have even

thought we knew what we were doing one year ago,

but now, we are all feeling our way in the dark,

guessing at what the next steps are,

what things will be like in the future.

What will the church look like after COVID?

Who will return? When will we be able to back to normal?

What will normal even be after all this?

And here at Christ Lutheran Church of Hilton Head,

we have a new pastor, a new sanctuary being rebuilt,

you’ve had a recent conflict, there are lots of unknowns here.

 

So, the truth is, we don’t know what we’re doing either.

But we do have now what all those people had

back at the beginning of all these churches,

 and what we have now is a vision.

Not a vision statement, although those are good,

not even a vision as in a clear  picture of where we want

to go although that could be helpful sometimes

but all of us share the same vision:

Christ was crucified, and Christ rose again.

 

Today is Transfiguration.
The day that we remember that day when Jesus and

the disciples go  up on the mountaintop to pray and suddenly,

Jesus is changed, transfigured, his clothes are dazzling,

he’s glowing with light. And he is talking

with two great figures of the faith:  Elijah and Moses.

It is a beautiful vision.

 

It is a testament and a promise to Peter,

James, and John, the three lead

disciples he brought with him up the mountain,

it told them that the glory of God was with them,

in Jesus, and that it would not be taken away.

 

After this moment on the mountain top,

the disciples would go through a lot of things.
A lot of pain, anguish, mourning, sadness, and doubt.

And all through it, they would keep this vision with them,

it would tell them that what they were doing was not folly,

that they were following the way of the one true God

incarnate, God in the flesh.

 

And we have been given visions too.

Visions of God’s love, peace, and justice.

We have been given a vision of the wonderful

things that the church of Christ can be

in a world of hurt and pain and need.

 

In just this week, I have been impressed

with your enthusiasm, your engagement,

your welcome, your passion for service,

and your love of Christ and others.

That gives me a vision of what we can be together.

 

We, the church, are the body of Christ,

When a group of random people gather together

and become a community following Christ’s ways

we too can be transfigured,

changed into something more than the sum of our parts.

 

We may not know exactly what we’re doing,

but with the love and power of God,

the church can become --

like Jesus on that mountaintop – dazzling,

When we come together in Christ’s name,

we can be the visible bearers

of the light of Christ to our communities

and to our world.

 

I am hopeful and excited about our future together.

We will trust the Holy Spirit together,

and we will be transfigured

in the name of Jesus, the one who was crucified,

and the one who rose again.