Sunday 15 Jan, wk20: Identity issues...WMRBW

Continuing on a theme of being 'beloved' and picking up the theme of identity.

1st READING: Luke 4:1-30;
2nd READING: Luke 5:1-11

SERMON 'If'
Let’s pray:
May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts, 
be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

He stands, dripping, in the waters of the Jordan.
Baptised, Jesus has been named and claimed by God, as God’s ‘beloved’.
On the cusp of his public ministry,
Jesus is confirmed in his identity:
‘you are my Son’, says God,
‘I love you, I am well pleased with you.’

That’s part of the reading from the Gospel of Luke which we heard last week.
This week, the story continues...
Jesus, still a little wet behind the ears, moves from Jordan’s banks, and,
full of God’s Spirit, is led to the desert.
Going to the desert,
going into the wilderness,
is a time-honoured tradition within the ongoing story of God’s people –
but, why go there?

The desert is a time for remembering:
looking back at the story of God’s people –
those who journeyed out of Egypt from slavery and into freedom,
a freedom to follow God, who so visibly led them
by a pillar of cloud by day,
and a pillar of fire by night;
following God in the wilderness, who so physically fed them
through the provision of manna and quail...
and gave them water, to slake their thirst.
A time of remembering God’s faithfulness,
God’s provision....

The desert is also a time of preparation:
a time to get ready to follow God’s call.
The desert, a place of few distractions,
gives space to focus upon God,
to be still, to listen, and to wait for God’s voice.
Over the centuries, the prophets of Israel spent time in the desert...
and so, like the prophets of old,
Jesus sets his face to the barren, stony, seemingly lifeless desert:
to remember those who have gone before,
and to prepare for his mission,
for his part in the great arc of the story that encompasses both God,
and the people of God.

Having had his identity confirmed by God in his baptism,
identity features strongly as a theme during this time in the desert.
Or, more to the point, the attempt at undermining identity
through the use of one tiny, but powerful word:
‘if’.
‘If’ is a great word –
particularly if you want to plant a seed of doubt.
This word is used several times in a conversation
that we, as readers, as listeners, see and overhear.
It’s a conversation between Jesus, and the devil,
a conversation in which the devil tries to tempt Jesus –
to deflect him from his mission;
to crowd his mind with fanciful thoughts,
delusions of grandeur,
and completely distract him,
to try to do everything in his power
to prevent Jesus from living in the fullness of God’s strength and power.

Now, last week, we heard the story of a young King Solomon,
in the very early days of his reign.
In the midst of his prayers, God speaks.
And God makes him an offer:
God says to Solomon:
‘Ask for whatever you want me to give you.’
it’s an unconditional offer – ‘whatever you want,’ full stop.
Here, in the desert, however, the offer that the devil makes to Jesus
is very much conditional –
it comes with strings attached:
‘if you do this, then I’ll do ...that.’

In the conversation, the devil offers Jesus three things:
bread, power, and proof –
a way to really, really know that God will protect and keep him
safe from harm no matter what....
And it all begins with ‘if’:
‘if you are the Son of God’.
And the first temptation hits home hard.
Jesus is hungry.
He’s been fasting and praying.
Our reading tells us that he’d been in the desert for 40 days:
echoing the time that the liberated children of Israel had
wandered in the wilderness – each of his days representing one of their years.
Turn stones to bread?
A good plan.
Or, maybe not.

‘...if you are the Son of God...’
whispers the devil, and the condition:
‘prove it, do this...’
Jesus, though hungry, doesn’t need to prove to himself –
or anyone else for that matter – who he is.
He’s grounded in his understanding of who he is –
of whose he is...
God’s Son.
Beloved.
And with whom God is pleased.
He doesn’t need to prove that by doing some cheap side-show trick.
Jesus is not a show pony:
he’s the Son of God.
And, later in his ministry,
when crowds badger him for signs and miracles, as proof, or, as entertainment,
he won’t respond quite in the way that they expect.
Let Rome provide the bread and circuses:
Jesus provides something more essential, more long-lasting –
life in all its fullness:
humans don’t live by bread alone...
there’s more, so much more.

The second offer made to Jesus is grand in scope and in vision:
the devil takes him to a vantage point,
from which Jesus can see all the kingdoms of the world.
The great sweeping gesture is made to the carpenter’s son –
the invitation to look at all of this –
all of the power, the glory,
the splendour of it all:
‘All this will be yours,’
says the devil,
and, here’s the condition, the catch –
‘if you worship me.’
But wait a moment:
here is the Father of Lies, saying all authority is
given to him to give to Jesus...
No.
Actually, it belongs to God.
For, in the beginning, was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God...
through him, all things were made...’
All power, all authority comes from God –
Jesus has no need to bend the knee before the devil, who is lying, delusional, or both.
Jesus, bats this one away, keeping his focus upon God:
‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’

And the third temptation:
again, an ‘if’.
The scene changes, and they are in Jerusalem,
standing on the highest point of the temple –
the highest point in the whole city.
And here, the devil changes tack, and quotes scripture right back at Jesus:
showing that God will protect Jesus, that angels will guard him from all harm.
‘...if you are the Son of God...why not test God?
Jump off, and see what happens.’
But wait, what’s actually happening here:
is it a case of putting God to the test?
Well, yes, there’s an element of that.
But I wonder if there’s more?
The devil doesn’t care if Jesus is harmed, if Jesus is stopped in his tracks:
in fact, isn’t that exactly what the devil has in mind?
In goading him to jump, would Jesus have jumped to his death?
If you put God to the test, you may just die in this instance.
Even the devil uses scripture...
showing how easy it is to prove anything you like
by twisting scripture out of context –

Jesus refuses this third offer.
And the devil leaves him...waiting ‘until an opportune time,’ as our reading states.
This part of the story ends with a sense of foreboding and menace.

His time of remembering, and preparation, and testing over,
Jesus heads back to the Galilee, and begins his public ministry.
News spreads.
People are getting to hear about this radical young rabbi –
and what they hear is positive indeed,
and then, he heads to his home town.
If we were thinking of identity in the midst of his temptations in the desert,
here, in Nazareth, there are further issues of identity.
He heads to the synagogue,
reads from scripture that great passage of hope,
that message of liberation found in the book of the prophet Isaiah...
and there, in the midst of his home town crowd,
having read,
Jesus looks at them and says in a voice filled with authority:
‘today this scripture is fulfilled.’
He then begins to expound on the text, and initially, it goes well.
They are proud of this local boy done good – you can almost hear them say:
‘hey, this is Joe’s kid, who’d have thought it, eh?’
And they are warm in their sense of being special, of being chosen,
and, although the Romans are in control,
well, they don’t fall within God’s mercy or grace:
God’s love, God’s good news,
is only for those sitting in the synagogue.
God’s love, God’s good news, is ring-fenced.
Nobody outside the circle can get in.
For this home-town crowd, their whole identity is based on a sense of
‘well at least we’re not like those dratted Romans: 
we’re not like them, 
and they’re definitely not like us!’
It feels like their whole identity is wrapped up in looking down on the rest of humanity:
God is their God alone,
and not to be shared with outsiders,
with those who are different from them.
And then,... Jesus, changes the parameters.
With their sense of identity unexpectedly challenged,
the home crowd’s mood suddenly changes.
Jesus somehow manages to escape what has become a baying mob,
intent upon killing him, because they’re enraged at the very thought
that the good news is not just for them, after all,
for all are welcome into God’s kingdom.

Later, while teaching a crowd, Jesus will meet the ones who will
become his first followers – his disciples.
He will ask them for the use of their boats,
he will tell them how to do their jobs – (a little annoying, maybe!?)
‘why not cast your nets over there?’
This, in the face of the previous long night’s empty catch...
but, they go along with him, and, in doing so,
find the catch of their lives,
as they haul up nets filled to breaking point,
and gingerly sail boats so heavy, that they’re on the verge of sinking.
‘From now on, you’ll be fishing for people,’ says Jesus.
Intrigued, they put aside their preconceptions about God,
they allow for a different way of walking, and of being in the world...
Not really sure of who he is,
but knowing that he’s the rabbi everyone’s been talking about...
and that...there’s something, something special about him,
they leave everything, and follow.
It’s a journey of a lifetime,
in which they find out their own true identity;
in which, through their own temptations,
they learn that they, too, are God’s beloved,
and that God’s love stretches wider than they ever imagined.

In the desert, the devil tried to chop away at Jesus’ identity with the word ‘if’...
In Nazareth, the home town crowd thought they knew who Jesus was – Joe’s kid...
and initially, they were warm in their wee bubble;
but that bubble burst, along with their preconceptions of Jesus...
who they ran out of town for telling them some home truths about their own identity.
In a boat, with the smell of fish hanging in the air,
the fishermen, while not fully understanding Jesus’ identity,
knew there was something that marked him out,
and so they dared to hope,
and followed the call to fish in other, different waters....

In the here and now, what about us:
who do we say Jesus is?
Do we demand proof:
'if you are the Son of God, then...?'
Do we think that the good news is just for us –
and get enraged when the young rabbi challenges us to draw the circle wider?
Or, do we leave our boats, and our preconceptions behind,
and follow the One who calls us to be a part of his great, ongoing story?
Do we dare embrace our own identity as God’s beloved sons and daughters,
called to share with all, the great love of God revealed in the Son?
Who do we say Jesus is –
and, what are we doing about it?

Let’s pray:
You call us,
Wanderer of seashores and sidewalks,
inviting us to sail out of our safe harbours
into the uncharted waters of faith;
to wander off from our predictable paths, 
to follow You into the unpredictable 
footsteps of the kingdom;
to leave the comfort of our homes 
and accompany You into the uncomfortable neighbourhoods we usually avoid.

As we wait, speak to us
of that hope which is our anchor;
of that peace which is our rock;
of that grace which is our refuge,
And as you speak,
may we find ourselves –
who we truly are – in you,
this day and always... amen.*
     *based on a prayer by Walter Brueggeman, with some wee adjustments