The Way Forward
“A Way Forward” Luke 4:1-13, 1st Sunday in Lent
The way forward is not always so. If we wish to grow spiritually in this time
we should take stock. We should
inventory our household of faith , individually as well as corporately. Honesty
is required. As one preacher said, “
Lent is the season to confront reality”
( in “ Anglican Digest”, Spring 2011 by Rev. Thomas M. Kryder-Reid) ( He
also relates this….) This reminds me of
the story I heard of a certain church usher. “
One Sunday morning an elderly woman walked
into a local country church. The
friendly usher greeted her at the door. ‘ Good morning, ma’am. Would you like
to sit?’ ‘ The front row, please,’ she
replied. The usher said, ‘ You don’t
want to do that. We have a visiting
preacher today who is really boring.’
The woman, bristling at the comment, asked, ‘ Do you know who I am?’ The usher said, ‘ No ma’ am, who are you?’ She replied, ‘ I am the preacher’s mother!’ The usher asked, ‘ Do you know who I am?’ She
said,’ No.’ He said,’ Good.’
The way forward as Chuck Swindoll said may
be two steps back and one step forward.
I trust you and I are moving at least in the right direction to do God’s
will. If not then this time of year as
we approach Good Friday and Easter is a good time to do just that. In our Gospel reading for today we hear of
our Lord going through several temptations or testings. He is our example of course as He sees a way
forward despite these challenges from the devil.
I think we should be careful to note the
reality of temptation and the devil’s role in that too. He does go about as a “ roaring lion (I Peter
5:8) walks about , seeking whom he may devour.”
This is not just an allegory. We are constantly to be aware of our
spiritual battle. Our Lord “ full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and
was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” Luke 4:1 My original title for this was, “Looking at the
Bigger Goals Despite the Challenges" . That is what Jesus did. He saw the temptations of the devil for what
they were, things to get Him to avoid God’s purposes for His life and
ministry.
We must see these things as well as that
for what they are. How did Jesus avoid
the temptations? He did not . He was tempted it says in the Book of Hebrews
4:14 .. “ (He) was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin.” We
must realize that experience temptation is not the sin. The sin is saying yes to the temptation and
no to God’s Word .When the difficulties and testings hit us we too must try and
model how Jesus handled them . He did
not let the devil take Scripture and quote it to him without sense. “ If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself
down…for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee…” In other words, trust God and He will protect
you the devil said. But this last temptation was the devil’s way to get Jesus
to say to God, “ I will do whatever I want, and you must rescue me , God.” That is not the way God works.
From 1380- 1471 there lived a Christian who
edited and perhaps wrote much of The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a
Kempis. He wrote temptations. Thomas said that temptations can “ be useful
to us even though they cause us …pain. …They
can make us humble.” He says this about
how the devil tempts us to fail, “ We
will do better in dealing with temptations if we keep an eye on them in the
very beginning. …Meet them at the door
as soon as they knock, and do not let them in.”
Lastly he says this about temptations:
“ ‘But,
you may say, ‘ what about those who find such pleasure and delight when they
give in to temptations?’ To be sure,
there is pleasure for them, but how long does it last? It is like smoke----it vanishes quickly. …The very thing they think will bring them
joy will bring them sorrow….Because of their blindness and numbness they may
never see or feel how miserable they are.
They may not even know that their soul is slowly dying.”
In this time of the 40 days we have to take
inventory. Look at areas of our
shortcomings and sins. What habits do we
need to discard? When I was in the
military my lay leader said he wanted to do something special for Ash Wednesday. I said, “ What is it?” He said, “ I want us to write down all of our
failures and difficulties from the last year on a piece of paper.” I replied, “ Are you serious? That would be a
long list, and I hope no-one looks at it.”
He said, “ What we will do is write them down and then we will go
outside the chapel and burn them. For God does not remember them anymore. He forgives us, and now we need to move on in
that forgiveness.” It was a powerful
moment and I have never forgotten that !
When we come short we too should remember
God’s love for us despite our failures.
He has called us to holiness. He
has called us to a new life.
“ In the Name of the Father ,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
Amen.
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