Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw, 3/9/2025
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Awaken me to myself and others
The 12-year-old sat smiling in his window seat as the train left the station.
Soon the conductor approached, to punch his ticket.
"You have the most amazing job in the world, Mister," said the 12-year-old.
"You get to ride around the country, going from town to town - on a train, all day long! And 'they' pay 'you!' It's the perfect job!"
"Sure kid," barked the veteran conductor, "If you don't mind constant bumps and turns, eating in the same dining car every day, and kicking off the hobos."
"Wow, you get to do all that too?!" said the giddy 12-year-old - as the conductor shook his head, stamped the ticket, and shuffled off to the next in line.
What the young see as adventure and excitement - the veterans often see as the dull, drudgery of donkeywork.
While the young gaze wondrously through lenses of newness, imagination, and possibility - the veterans often don the tired and dingy glasses of the average, familiar, and mundane.
And we understand a bit better why Jesus insisted that we come to him as a child, who inherits the kingdom - because he still has the astonishment, awe, and amazement of possibility.
Which is what you and I need a little bit of, dear people of God , who gather on this first Sunday in Lent - which is probably your 10th, 20th, or 50th first Sunday in Lent for many of us - thus making our job, our first job, our difficult job: to rekindle, rediscover, and reclaim our place as excited and expectant 12-year-olds aboard that Gospel train: no matter how many times we've been up and down those tracks before!
Lent is our call to rekindle that first flame - to wake up and draw near!
It's to awaken to the purpose and plan of God, which is new every morning - as well as the potential and possibility that we hold, to make a difference in the world!
And I would like to invite you into the magical majesty of this story this morning, of the Temptation of Jesus - and its invitation to see Temptation as Validation, Preparation, and Celebration.
For, dear saints of God, you and I come together this morning seeking shelter from the storm-clouds amassing above us. Ours are dark and weary times - where the capricious whirlwinds of confusion and the black clouds of chaos cast eerie shadows upon us.
Ours are unprecedented times of turmoil on so many fronts. Wars, rumors of wars. Threats and rescinded threats. Terrors in the skies. Protests in the streets.
We have many here who have traded valuable sleep for the menacing anxiety of this hour - up all night worried about their citizenship, retirement, and financial livelihood - or someone's they care about.
Our hearts break for the children of Gaza, the widows of Ukraine, the refugees of the Congo, and the slaughtered in Sudan - and we know that there is no better time than now to do something about it!
We know we have work ahead. We know we have been called and chosen for the challenges of this hour. We have *not been selected to sit down, and be waited on and looked after - but to stand up, speak out, and do something important!
And we are no strangers to the ways we are tempted to be drawn off track, following detours and diversions that lead us and dump us into deserts of despair and desperation.
But like all things God has created, even temptation has its place.
And our invitation this morning is to use what the devil means for harm, as a force for something good - temptation as validation, preparation, and celebration.
So let us open our hearts, minds, and Bibles now to the inspiration of temptation - as we follow Jesus - from the cleansing river and rejuvenating waters of baptism to the simmering desert and searing heat of devilish enticement.
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We meet Jesus this morning in Luke's 4th chapter -
And it is the scene directly following our Lord's Baptism.
Here, it has been declared, by a dramatic and divine voice from on high - “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”
Jesus has been given the promotion, awarded the approval - called and anointed by the most powerful voice there is, to do the most important work there is, and thus exalted to the grandest throne there is: to be called God's beloved.
And as soon as Jesus received the revelation and declaration of God's approval - temptation comes.
Let me suggest to you that temptation is, first of all, validation.
This is a sign that Jesus is on the right track.
It's a sign that you are on the right track.
Have you ever found in life that there is little resistance to doing the wrong thing - and there is much resistance to doing the right thing?
Why is it easier to hit back, than to refrain?
To give up, than to carry on?
When that dark and satanic force shows up - we can, all of a sudden, say, "I must be doing something important."
Let me steal a term I love from author Steven Pressfield, and that is to characterize temptation as "the resistance."
Whether it is a diet that your doctor said was essential to your health and longevity - and that chocolate ice cream is becoming irresistible -
Or that rude driver who has cut you off, and now you have the opportunity to do the same to him -
Or that letter you vowed to write to your congresswoman, but you have so many other chores to do -
Jesus' encounter with the devil - the resistance - to get off track and out of focus - by taking an easier, more pleasant and pleasing path, means he must already be on the right one!
And the very fact that you are being tempted, means there's something very important at play!
Take a look at the Church... we're being tempted... and taking the bait, which is why Church is increasingly irrelevant to modern society.
You've been to many of them - Where entertainment, self-improvement, and personal prosperity are the main themes. Let's avoid the temptation to do anything controversial or contrary to the Gospel of the Status Quo.
Or let's drink from the cup of Christian Nationalism, which, as you may have heard me say before, is a heretical confusion of earthly power and spiritual power - but one too many churches are embracing - as they are being tempted like never before, to take an exalted place in the kingdom of Man, if they will only give up their seat in the Kingdom of God.
It's tempting when a high governmental official calls you up, commends you, and compliments you!
But it's also a sign!
Your temptation is your validation.
When Jesus prayed so hard he sweat blood - pleading for God to make an easier path - how tempted he must have been to run away, steal away, and take that simpler road of cowardice!
When Jesus carried the weight of the world his back in the form of that splintered cross, limping and trudging along that destitute road to Calvary - he must have thought there was an easier way.
And the temptation you are facing this morning - to do the difficult, the needful, and the just thing - may be just as great!
But see it for what it is: validation.
It is a sign and signal that you are on the right path - that God is up to something bigger - that the temptation toward the comfortable, convenient, safe, and popular means you are on to something! Because God is up to something!
And it's not just validation - it's preparation.
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This comes into focus as we examine each of these three temptations of Jesus - who had gone into the wilderness - a deserted place - to pray - foregoing food for 40 days in order to make his prayer that much more formative.
Why would Jesus do such a thing?
The same reason you and I would do such a thing on our 40-day Lenten journey.
To prepare.
God had chosen Jesus to do a monumental thing.
God has chosen you and me to do a monumental thing.
Jesus was tempted by a very dark force -
And you and I know it well!
It was as true for Jesus in the Judean desert two thousand years ago, as it is for you and me amidst the urban skyscraper canyons of today.
We are not talking about a fairy tale story that may hold a vague message for us moderns -
No. God was not playing.
God did not give us this story to pad the pages of our holy book!
God is preparing you.
You are given opportunities to do the right thing, all the time - and when we do those things we build a muscle - we form a callous - we become stronger and more resistant to the wiles of the devil - and the evil of injustice, selfishness, complacency, and division that "dark force" is trying to bring about in our world!
But first, let's get one thing straight - your superpower is God.
You may be handsome, rich, and popular - but those are not your superpowers.
You may be well-connected, well-heeled, and collect friends like Pied Piper.
And so you may be tempted to use your looks, wallet, or Facebook followers as a foundation for your self-worth and accomplishment -
But the first step - the biggest step - the most important step - is to remember that you are great because you are God's!
Your secret sauce is Jesus.
And this is at the pinnacle of Jesus temptation and preparation: remembering that voice that came to him at his baptism - and yours: "You are my child, my beloved, in you I am well-pleased."
And this is what the Devil is trying to take away in these temptations - Jesus' and our - superpowers.
Let's take a look at this first one:
The devil came to Jesus and asked:
"If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread."
He's asking Jesus to prove himself - to use his own power to attain the prize.
Is making bread out of stones what it takes?
No!
It's not what WE do - it's what God does through us.
We do *not look to the time card, the commission check, or the top rung on the ladder as markers of God's work through us or God's love for us.
It is *not how many sales we make, children we teach, "likes" on our social media posts, push up, pull ups, or bucks and bucks that we count at church.
No, Jesus' power is not found in his ability to do things - but in God's ability to do things through him- to be a channel of God's love and power in the world.
So the Devil tried again - offering in an instant, all the kingdoms of the world!
"To you I will give their glory and all this authority... If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."
So let's get distracted by our stuff?
Do we get caught up in the acquisition and accumulation of worldly goods?
How about that suit, diamond ring, snazzy address, or winter coat?
"Legion" are the items we acquire to be admired and accepted by others, not always knowing the spiritual threat these things pose - as they tempt us to get off track - and forget that it's not our stuff that makes us God's - it's our obedience and dedication.
So the devil tried a third time!
Now, going to the big city Jerusalem, atop the grand and golden structure, the holy Temple - where a crowd was always found - as Jesus was tempted to put on a spectacle - dared to an acrobatic deed like none other - surely it would make heads turn and hands clap!
"If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here!"
And in a grand display of God's power, certainly Jesus would find praise and popularity!
But Jesus would not take the bait.
He didn't need the crowd's approval. He was not going to do anything to impress anyone but the Father!
We wish that were true for ourselves, as the opinions of others, of what we wear, where we live, what we drive, and what we eat - are all-too often dictated by the world that woos us and not the God who calls us.
So these three temptations - to trust in worldly power, possessions, and popularity - we know well -
When kings, presidents, All Stars, award-winning celebrities, and top-selling copier salesmen, reach their pinnacles:
It's the temptation to use power, position, and popularity in corrupt and self-serving ways.
And the higher God calls us, the lower we must go - to our knees - never forget your superpower!
That's what Jesus was trying to do - to tattoo God's truth across his chest - that it is in God we trust! It is in the Almighty we find our power - and it is through standing up to anything that would say otherwise, we are strengthened for the journey!
And that journey of preparation leads us to celebration.
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An experience most of us have had, is the delight of being selected. Maybe it was a raffle or sweepstakes - I know it was not the Powerball or you wouldn't be here..
But it was some sort of selection - for a job you wanted - or the spouse you yearned for - but I ask you to imagine this, because the greatest selection of your life has already come to pass - and that is your selection by God. And what joy and delight that brings!
As I've mentioned, the declaration of Jesus' worth at his baptism, is a universal declaration, and we can never forget that in our temptation there is celebration - because nobody is tempted unless there is something at stake - there is value in question - there is a high stake, at stake. And you have been selected, by Almighty God, for such a moment as this.
Now I know you, and how you will question the lofty nature of this call in comparison the paltry summation we all have of our worth. "How can I do something so big when I am so small?"
Well, that's just not how life works. We may be small, but together, in God's world, we add up to something big.
Later in our service we will show you a video clip of our church on a comedy channel that aired on Thursday - and I went to the "Comment" section on YouTube channel of that particular clip and responded to a post from a man claiming our work of ridding the community of unwanted firearms is useless - because there are just too many firearms.
"Oh, why do you even try?" - was the sentiment - and yes, it is of universal application as you and I look at the mountainous problems before us.
And what crossed my mind is that great truth that we have all come to know -
That a mountain of sand in the desert is never moved all at once -
But it takes a gentle breeze to blow just one grain of sand -
A stiffer wind to take a bit more -
And a sandstorm to do that much more.
But none, in itself can do it all, all at once.
That's just *not how life works.
This is how God does things - this is how God does things through you and me.
Some of us are called to move just one grain of sand.
Some of us are called to move a shovel-ful.
Others are given the grace to have a wheelbarrow.
But God uses each of us to contribute to that Divine Plan - that Divine Kingdom - which is ours to bring from heaven to earth - as we gleefully celebrate what God is doing through little old us.
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And I know this is hard - apathy, indifference, and indifference are perhaps our biggest temptations.
But I have found that the harder the temptation, the more important the work.
The more Satan is trying to get you - the more valuable the thing he's trying to keep you from doing the crucial work before us.
Brothers and sisters, these times are too caustic and corrosive to allow any of us *not to take God's work seriously.
Temptation is not a sign of your weakness, but signal of your importance. Temptation is not an obstacle to be avoided, but an opportunity to grow.
Temptation is not meant to break us, but to help us see the victory that awaits. Temptation can shape us into the people God intends us to be - help us reach our destiny by embracing God's desires.
So, as we face our own wilderness experiences, let us look to Jesus. He is our example as one who faced temptation with grit, courage, and unwavering faith.
He is the One who gave us that same Holy Spirit to strengthen us in our moments of trial.
He is the One who has called us, St. David's, into this holy fellowship of support - as brothers and sisters in Christ, strengthening and encouraging one another for the journey!
So, let us, therefore, walk in faith, not fear - embracing the challenges before us.
Let the cries of our hurting world call us to be everything God has given us the power to be!
Let us see temptation not as a threat to knock us down, but as an opportunity to lift us up.
Let us emerge from our wilderness, my beloved brothers and sisters, not defeated, but transformed, not deflated, but renewed, not discouraged but energized and ready to build a more just and loving world!
Let us follow the path of the Suffering Servant - whose power gives us strength to overcome temptation, and to march strong and proud with all the martyrs, angels, and saints, in the just and holy light of God’s love.
Amen.