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God is close... he gives us gifts!
The Israelites had wondered for 40 years in the desert before coming into the Promised Land. In many ways this was a time of preparation and 40 is a number representing this. Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert and fasted for 40 days. He was deliberately preparing, but it was not a preparation of His own design. It often happens that we and those who follow Christ, after making the decision to do so may also be led by the Holy Spirit into desert places. Our own particular “fast” may not be from food, but the circumstances you are in may feel very much like you are doing it tough and in the desert. It is possible that we need to learn from Jesus example about how to respond in these desert times. Do we recognize the temptation? The first is for the basic need…. Food. Are we, in those hard times, inclined to put our jobs and need for basic finance ahead of the things of God? Don’t we know that God will take care of our basic needs? Jesus knew that he needed food and trusted that God would nourish him when the time was right and he held out waiting for 40 days – not an easy wait! So… let’s imagine it is us being tempted… now that we’ve recognized the way that we put our job ahead of the kingdom of God, let’s imagine we have fixed that and now we are spending lots of time doing things in the church and promoting the kingdom of God. The devil sees that this basic temptation has been dealt with so he goes to the next step. So, still imagining… you may not have much in the way of money, but the recognition that you are getting by being involved in church matters sure makes up for it – think of the influence you have – the power!
Keep in mind that there is a bigger picture
I honestly don’t think many of us get as far as this second temptation – if you are like me you’ll find it hard enough to sort out temptation one, but let’s imagine so that we can be warned…. Is it possible to come to a position of power and then forget to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit? Do we follow our own plans and programs instead of God’s? I can imagine that a clever business person would be able to successfully run a church and see it grow… even plant mission churches overseas, have their own recording studio and promote their own music, run schools… and have power over many kingdoms in the world. Being Christian in philosophy and hugely successful with many followers doesn’t necessarily mean that we are actually progressing God’s kingdom. Okay… we’ve now discovered that we need to be on our guard against our own good intentions and truly be single minded in our goal to bring people to Christ – as opposed to bringing them into our own mission…. Worship God alone! God knows the inclinations we have to take credit for His work. For this reason the Israelites were instructed to offer their sacrifices in a certain way so as to remember that their coming into the Promised Land was God’s doing and not their own doing. “I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the land the LORD swore to our forefathers to give us." From the time in the garden of Eden, the devil was known for taking the words of God and twisting them. He does this once again as his third attempt to tempt Jesus. This time he uses scripture but he takes it out of context. He uses a quote from the psalm that we have as part of our week’s readings, psalm 91: ‘9 If you make the Most High your dwelling— even the LORD, who is my refuge-10 then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” I think of this as being like the proponents of prosperity doctrine. For those who are not acquainted with this, it is the belief that God wishes His followers to be rich and prosperous. You know…. I believe He does! And I believe that He also will protect us. It is absolutely true. But ultimately God is concerned with the richness and prosperity of our souls – and the protection of our souls. Sometimes this means that we will not be physically rich and sometimes bad things will happen. St. Peter was crucified upside down for this same faith that we share and St. Stephen was stoned. There are countless others today who, for the sake of protecting the soul of others, willing forgo the physical protection of their bodies… they know that their souls are protected and an eternal inheritance in heaven is theirs. Jesus was protected. Nothing happened to him that was not in God’s plan. God’s ultimate plan was for Jesus to be crucified. That will look to many people, like a very good reason to think that God failed. God is victorious… he protected… he saved … he rescued. Who? Who has been protected and saved from eternal separation from the life of God? Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans 10 “- ..confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." We all enjoy the protection of the Lord, but we don't put Him to the test when things go wrong. We know that He totally loves us and only has the best plan for us, though sometimes we actually don't understand. We, like Jesus, wait for God and simply trust.
The links below are to recomended sites with sermons:
sermons from Laughing bird.net
St.Louis University Centre for Liturgy- Catholic site in US with lots of insights and commentaries on readings
Link to liturgy tools |
