some proof of God before you believe the words of promise?
That is the temptation, and it will hound you and pursue you like it did Jesus. It will assume many voices and variations. I hear them often. The temptations usually arise in questions - honest ones though they be:
“Pastor Kurt, I just don't think that God can love all people. Can God?”
I hear the temptations in the assertions that the word of promise which is forgiveness and grace can't be for those people who never come to church. Or for those minorities or those homosexuals or those liberals or those who don't believe or act the way we do.
I hear the temptations in the statements that God's promise of forgiveness and grace given at Baptism can't do it all - that there has to be something we have to do to finally win the prize.
Perhaps the temptations come in the voice of the cynic: "Yes, you Christians talk about God's love and how God will provide. That will do you a lot of good in the unemployment line! If God cares for you so much, then let God get you a job!"
Or "How can you believe in a God of love, Christian, when your loved one dies a slow, painful death? Is your God so weak or cruel that God could not have done something about it? Is God's promise anything but an empty word?"
Make no mistake. God is a loving God. God does keep promises. It is temptation's voice which challenges this.
We all fall into temptation. The church is no more immune to the temptations than you or I. The church has, too often, been tempted to appease people, to coddle their childish beliefs rather than urge them to rethink their understandings of what it means to be a chosen people. The church falls into temptation when its leaders fail to prod people, and challenge them to struggle with difficult teachings, or to incorporate the heart of Christian teaching in daily living.
The message that God loves all people, that God sees all people as equal, is a tough thing for us to swallow. It’s nice to talk about our intentions to love all people. It’s nice to think we are inclusive or accepting of people who are different from us.
But it’s a wholly different thing to put those concepts into life. Perhaps its temptation's influence when the church is rebuffed in its efforts to be faithful or when the church is pushed into a neat little compartment - a part of our life that only comes into play once a week.
Too often, the church has been reluctant to move from nostalgia, and the ways of the past, in order to make the gospel more palatable and comforting. The truth is, Scripture calls us to rely totally on God's word and scatters us throughout society for the good of our neighbors. The church must always be faithful to the word of God. To settle for anything less is to play into the devil's hand.
Is there a practical meaning for us in this lesson today? This temptation story should strengthen the church and its people. Here we learn that Jesus wouldn't bow to the temptation, instead he relied completely on God. He didn't bemoan the fact, "Why is God doing this to me?" He didn't try to fight it on his own. The good news is that the devil failed with Jesus.
Despite the left-handed attacks, the devil was unable to pry Jesus loose from his trust in God's word. He tried again and again, but Jesus hung on. He hung on at the cross as the temptation came to its climax, "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." Jesus held on to the promise.
God freed Jesus. God raised him from the dead. God will free us once and for all, too.
Jesus, the Son of God, is our Lord. That is the best news you could ever hear because it means that the victory he won over unbelief against the devil, he won for you. When you are tempted, torn between faith and unbelief; when the cynics rise up and declare that the promise of your baptism is not enough; when you are confronted with personal crisis - be assured. Be assured that you are following a God who was there before you.
Rejoice and be glad. God will keep you. God has promised to do that. By God’s word alone.
Amen.
***
The End of Religion
March 28, 1993
Lent 5A
John 11:1-45 NRSV
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.”
Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him.
Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone
