Year C, Lent 2, February 24, 2013

Temptation: Don't Run and Hide

Year C, Lent 2, 2013

Luke 13:31-35 (click on the scripture to read it)

The joy of having multiple preachers in a parish is that we are able to experience Holy Scripture from different voices coming from diverse perspectives.  These diverse perspectives originate through our preachers’ personal experiences with the Divine.  Whether it’s from age, gender, or cultural experiences, it is the preacher’s unique perspective from which their insights about God are revealed.

The blessing for me in having a diverse preaching staff is NOT that I don’t have to write a sermon each week; the blessing for me and for the other preachers is that we get the opportunity to stop talking and listen. We get to listen and be fed.

Last week one of our lay preachers gave the sermon.  A lay preacher is someone who is not ordained, (they are not clergy,) yet they have been called by God, trained and affirmed by a congregation, and licensed by the Diocese to preach during our worship.   Last week, Lay Preacher Susan Palwick, preached on Jesus and his 40 days being tempted in the desert.  She opened up for me a new perspective of that Gospel.  Finally I have been given a perspective that I can truly make a connection with.  She said it had to of been easy for Jesus to say no to the written list of temptations in the scripture, but how the real struggle with temptation would have come from a temptation that was unwritten.  The new perspective on temptation that was revealed to me last Sunday was the temptation for Jesus to stay in the desert; to retreat; to run off by himself and live a peaceful life of solitude.

In solitude, Jesus would not be faced with having to decide who to call as his disciples.  He would have avoided being around undesirable people.  He would not have had any worries about being infected by leprosy and all the other illnesses he encountered during his healing ministry.  He would not have had to struggle with the stress of disappointing people or trying to figure out what the right thing was to do in the midst of so many cultural and theological choices.  If Jesus would have become a recluse, he would not have had to face the human fear of knowing someone wanted to kill him.  If Jesus had given in to the temptation of retreating from the messiness of living in a broken world, he would not have had to muster up the courage to face the decision to march into Jerusalem and save the world.

It would have been way too easy for the fully human part of Jesus to run from the human emotions brought on by fear, yet he found the courage to follow the path that he was being called to travel.

One facet of Lent is when we intentionally confront our own personal human struggles.  We certainly don’t come out of Lent telling ourselves how wonderful and perfect we are.  Part of living into our Lenten journeys is to discover the fears that are holding us back.  After we do, we are to muster up the courage to come out of our desert hiding, and risk living into who we are called to be.

As Christians we are called to turn to scripture and be open to the Holy Spirit as it opens our eyes and guides us.  This guidance does not come in definitive answers.  But as the Spirit guides us through the scriptures, we are given the vision to see the answers within the world around us and the courage to live into what God wants us to see.

When I look at today’s Gospel reading I am drawn to the two Pharisees.  Within Holy Scripture we can find many times when the Pharisees are a less than desirable group of people, but there are times when some of them are heroic.  The two Pharisees in today’s story come bearing the news that king Herod wants Jesus dead.  We could simply say, “how nice of them to be concerned enough about Jesus that they would come and tell him about Herod’s desires.”  We could say that, but there is more to it.  For me, the great thing about these two Pharisees is that they could have retreated with this information. They could have taken that information and withdrawn with it.  They could have kept it to themselves, and in keeping it to themselves would have been safe.

What if Herod found out that they tipped him off?  Herod was not a nice guy.  He had already beheaded John the Baptist and these Pharisees would have known it.  Instead of playing it safe, they risked their lives to try to save the life of another.  Now, Jesus had the courage to look beyond his fear and do what he was called to do.  But since we know the outcome of the story, since we know about the resurrection, we have come to expect this type of courage from him.

These two guys however, were normal everyday people like you and me.  They had a difficult choice to make, and they faced their fears and did what they needed to do.

My new perspective into the temptation of Jesus has revealed a powerful temptation for humanity.  The struggle for us here and now is the temptation of hiding out and removing ourselves from unwanted situations.  Like the Pharisees in our Gospel today, we too are normal people who struggle everyday with the choice to hide from or embrace what life brings.

This new insight has opened my eyes to the story of a boy named Zach.

Last week, my son Cooper came to me with his iPod in hand, seeking to download a new song.  In trying to be a responsible parent and especially as the gatekeeper of the credit card attached to his music account, I have to enter a passcode to allow him to download new music.  Not only does this protect my credit card, but it also allows me to know what music is on his iPod.

When he came to me I had not heard of the artist or of the song he wanted, but looking over his shoulder I see his protective mother hen giving me the okay to proceed.  Cooper was talking to me about the song and how he and his mother heard the artist on NPR and yada yada yada.  I had just gotten home and I was distracted.  His words for the most part were going in one ear and out the other.

The next day when I picked up Cooper from school, he was strolling down the sidewalk towards the car wearing his headphones and listening to his iPod.  Ah…he is not supposed to have his iPod at school, yet he was clearly not trying to hide it.  When he got into the car his first words were, “let me explain why I had my iPod at school.”  He said, “You know that song you let me download?  Well, I wanted my enrichment class at school to listen to it.  It even made some of the 7th and 8th graders in the class cry.”

At that point I needed to hear the song and we listened to it three times between his school and the church.

Three years ago a Minnesota teenager was diagnosed with a vicious form of Bone Cancer.  In the beginning, the 13 year old named Zach was strong and faced each day the best he could.  But as the devastating effects of treatment took a hold of him, he began to retreat.  His real fears became his desert, and he could not bring himself to walk out of it.

At some point Zach’s eyes began to open, and he began the climb out of his solitude and out of his darkness.  Zach decided to face his fears and live into his life the best he could.  Toward the end of 2012, Zach was told that he will die and most likely sometime in the spring.  Instead of retreating into solitude, he turned to his love of music and wrote a farewell song to his friends and family, thanking them for their love and support.

Zach put his song on YouTube and it went viral.  For those of you who don’t know what that means, Zach’s song spread like the plague. As of last week, over 2 million people have watched that video.

Zach’s story is not a sympathy story; it’s not a story about poor Zach.  This does not mean that we shouldn’t have compassion for Zach, but through our compassion we should hear the real story;

a story of faith, courage, and living.   

My prayer for us during our Lenten journeys is that we won’t hide from the challenges our lives bring, but rather that we’ll have the courage to face each struggle that comes our way; that we will confront them head on; and that we will begin trusting in God in such a way that each of us will begin to truly live.   

Cooper was so touched that he risked getting in trouble in order to share Zach’s song and his story with his classmates.

Now I want to share it with you. 

(Click HERE to watch the video)

“Clouds” by Zach Sobiech

Well I fell down, down, down
Into this dark and lonely hole
There was no one there to care about me anymore
And I needed a way to climb and grab a hold of the edge
You were sitting there holding a rope

And we’ll go up, up, up
But I’ll fly a little higher
We’ll go up in the clouds because the view is a little nicer
Up here my dear
It won’t be long now, it won’t be long now

When I get back on land
Well I’ll never get my chance
Be ready to live and it’ll be ripped right out of my hands
Maybe someday we’ll take a little ride
We’ll go up, up, up and everything will be just fine

And we’ll go up, up, up
But I’ll fly a little higher
We’ll go up in the clouds because the view is a little nicer
Up here my dear

It won’t be long now, it won’t be long now
If only I had a little bit more time
If only I had a little bit more time with you

We could go up, up, up
And take that little ride
And sit there holding hands
And everything would be just right
And maybe someday I’ll see you again
We’ll float up in the clouds and we’ll never see the end

And we’ll go up, up, up
But I’ll fly a little higher
We’ll go up in the clouds because the view is a little nicer
Up here my dear
It won’t be long now, it won’t be long now