First Sunday in Lent -- 10 February 2008

ST PAUL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ABQ NM -- The Rev. P. L. Holman

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11

"Dressed for the Journey"

I enjoy seeing live theater productions -- musical, comedy, drama, whatever. It's not just the story line and time away from work that's relaxing, but the staging and costuming. Whether it's ANNIE in Des Moines IA or MISS SAIGON at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts or even CYRANO at the ABQ Little Theater, the creative way a standard stage is transformed into mansion, airfield, or battlefield, and actors clad in regular fabrics combined in extraordinary ways draw the audience into the heart of their story always manages to captivate my imagination. As the first act begins the analytic in me starts right away to pay attention to the details of set and costume design, guessing at technique and fabric and such, but almost before I know it I am drawn into the story itself and reality is suspended for the duration of the production. My attentiveness is rewarded handsomely.

The season of Lent calls for our attention. On Ash Wednesday, the mark of the cross made on our foreheads in oil-darkened palm ashes reminds us that in between the spirit-inspired dust of our birth and the ashes-dust of our death, we are blessed with life to live in thanksgiving to God the giver of all life. Pay attention, that dark cross reminds us, to those things in our lives that need to change. Pay attention to the crosses around you -- you aren't alone on this journey.

During these forty days we have fewer distractions in worship -- no flowers and banners to distract us; the alleluias are silenced, tucked away symbolically in the chest at the foot of our Christmas tree cross in the Narthex. Even the water in the baptismal font is gone for a time, replaced by the sand of our wilderness wanderings, the parched terrain of our pride and self-centeredness filling for these forty days the place that was home to life-giving waters….

On this journey together we are called to repent. That's not just saying we're sorry. True repentance is a process. It involves recognizing our need to change, as individuals and as a community, to change from behaviors and actions that harm the dignity, health, body and soul -- ours and those of others. Then, having acknowledged our regret, to reorient our lives and focus on doing what is faithful and pleasing in God's sight. 

At Bible study Thursday morning someone observed that the common thread among the lessons for today is OBEDIENCE. Ah, now there's a popular concept! Not. I remember back in the day, late 60's and early 70's, when protests against the war in Viet Nam were raging and the "women's lib" movement generating reactions all over the map, that the idea of obedience was like a battle line. Flags were burning, and so were bras. Many of us who married in that time changed the vows to omit "obey" -- not us! We weren't having any of that, thank you.

Yet at the heart of that word "obedience" is a very life-giving wisdom: to follow the guidance of, literally to listen toward another. To obey is to listen toward the wisdom of another -- and it can mean either death or life. The apostle Paul uses eight verses and many words to remind the Roman church of their call to obedience, and the consequences of failing to obey the life-giving word of God. In the Garden of Eden the woman and her husband had a home and job security; God had provided enough but they wanted more. Their failure to heed God's word made their nakedness an issue and introduced human mortality. In the wilderness of Israel Jesus centers himself in God's power, power sufficient to respond to the temptation to be selfish. The wisdom of God provides strength for the journey that would eventually lead Jesus through death to Life.

One common thread today is obedience. The temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness are woven with a common thread as well. In addition to the temptations of power and control, of triumph and glory, all the enticements of the devil involve the temptation to avoid SUFFERING -- as if somehow that's possible! We know the reality of suffering, as the Middle East conflict we are engaged in runs our national debt to catastrophic levels, and damages or kills thousands of our young men and women as well as hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. We know the reality of suffering, as we struggle to reconcile our own standard of living with our responsibility to advocate for the growing need for food sufficiency, health care and housing in New Mexico in order to build a healthier community right here. We know the reality of suffering, as we walk along side brothers and sisters like Paula [Lund now at home under hospice care] whose illnesses tear at our hearts and whose suffering is a burden we long somehow to help carry. Avoid suffering? "Show us the way, Lord, show us the way."

God's reply to our petition is Jesus. Jesus, fully human, the one who does not avoid temptation but offers through his suffering and death the gift of grace so amazing it can lead us through any darkness to life. The prayer Jesus taught puts important words in our mouths: "Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil." Yet our hearts cry out, "We're already in the trial times now, O Lord, save us in the midst of them!" That saving grace is embodied in the community around us. Remember this: Jesus' temptations followed his baptism; the devil's wiles were no match for Jesus' identity as God's beloved. There's hope for us in that, as we in community journey through these days connected by water, wine and wheat, strengthened by spiritual gifts that are deeper than we can imagine. It is the depth of those gifts that enables us to walk with the dying, to open ourselves to new ways of living more simply that others may simply live. We are clothed in all we need for life, clothed in Christ and the forgiveness that gives us permission to fail trusting the One who is mystery of God – fully human, fully divine – the Christ will never fail us.

Mark Twain once said "Clothes make the man. Naked men have little or no influence on society."  Pastor Jason and I stand before you most Sunday mornings clad in white robes, a symbol of the baptism that yokes us, calling you to confession and pronouncing God's forgiveness. This morning, however, that happened in a rather unique way. Did you notice? The form for our shared confession and forgiveness is from the order of service called Compline or Night Prayer in the ELW. Its shape reminds all of you, and the two of us, that we are equal partners on this journey. Though our roles are different in worship the common thread that weaves our lives is the FORGIVENESS we all need to journey from life to Life. All too often manifest in the church, our human tendency is to bear grudges, to find fault and place blame especially in anxious times like these. Without our willingness to forgive one another any efforts to be church, to be witnesses of God's love to the world around us, without forgiveness our efforts will always fall short -- we'll be like the naked ones who have no influence on anyone.

For God's sake, dress me with your forgiveness, and I will you, so that together -- clothed in Christ -- we can discover the depth of grace God longs for us to share with the world. Amen.