Sermon:
Getting It Just Right
Text:
Luke 3: 1-13
Date:
By: Kendall Brown
I have some moments etched into my
mental photo album which are very enriching and rewarding pictures to carry
with me. One of those moments took place
here in this space only a few weeks ago.
I wish that you all could have been up front with me seeing what I saw -
and only I could see that morning. It
was communion Sunday. The moment had not
been rehearsed or planned. It happened
accidentally. Saturday, I planned with
the Elders to serve communion by asking the congregation to come forward for
the bread and wine instead of being served in the pews as we usually do. Then I didn’t give it another thought until
Sunday morning and the service itself.
We had a lot of children in worship that morning: Our usual group who
bring us so much joy. This morning they
brought me more than joy, they offered a blessing.
Every child in the congregation came
forward for communion with his or her parent or mentor. It was amazing to watch them. Every child had on his or her face a picture
of awe, reverence, attentiveness, appreciation, and praise. I watched the parents and mentors guide their
children along, often with a loving hand on the arm guiding the small hand to
the bread and the chalice. I learned
later that just about every mentor and parent had instructed the children
earlier during the service saying, “Now when we go up there this is what you
do.” The children, even more than their
instructors, were anxious to not make a misstep, spill a drop of wine or crumb
of bread. It was so obvious that to
every child the most important thing on earth was to get it just right.
Can you remember a moment when you
wanted more than anything else to get it just right. Maybe you had some special guests coming to
your house. Or maybe you were preparing
for a time when you had to speak in front of a large group of people. Maybe it was your first date. I remember mine with Cheryl. I had enrolled at
Well, I spotted this gal named Cheryl
and wanted to ask her out no matter how bad I smelled. Standing at arm length one day I finally
asked her and she said, “Yes.” Maybe I
wasn’t as bad as I thought that I was.
The day came. I had finished a shower; about an hour’s
worth scrubbing every pore. I was
finishing up in the bathroom when George, one of my new classmates and dorm
companions came in. George knew that I
was going out with Cheryl. Everyone on
campus knew that I was going out with Cheryl.
I was really worried about impressing Cheryl, so I finally swallowed all
my down-east self-sufficiency and opened up to George saying, “George, do I
smell?” George started to laugh – it was
a roll on the floor, gut wrenching, hold your sides in before the burst kind of
laugh. Then, he ran out, still laughing
and went straight across the commons to the women’s dorm to find and tell
Cheryl.
You see the whole campus knew something
that I didn’t know and some were wondering how long it would be before I
cracked. They knew of the existence of
the odor in my room (which I am not explaining online) and were just
waiting. I tried so hard to get it just
right!
When Jesus went off into the wilderness
for forty days at the beginning of his ministry, he had a little more on his
mind than cleaning up for a first date or coming forward to take communion for
the first time. But like us at
significant times in our lives, he went to the wilderness to get it just right. He needed that 40 days before starting his 3
year Galilean ministry with his disciples. He needed that time in order that
the rest of his time on earth be just right.
The forty days of Lent are a mirror
image of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness.
It is a time for us to get it just right. What we are preparing for is worth 40 days a
year for some extra attention. Hardly an
Easter has gone by in my entire life, long before becoming a minister, when I
haven’t attended Easter Sunday worship and had one question enter my mind at
some point. The question: How can all
these people possibly celebrate Easter with real joy and participate in the
resurrection of Jesus without having been here on Maundy Thursday to observe
the Tenebrae (Service of Shadows) and participate in Jesus’ suffering? Easter is a wondrous day, a great
celebration. It is worth it and Easter
even demands that we give our spiritual lives some extra care during Lent that
we might get it just right.
Lent is associated with a work that is
the same work that Jesus did in the wilderness in order to get it just right
for the rest of his life. In short that
work is penance. Penance is more than
counting up all the things that I have done wrong (my misdeeds for the past
year) and then making amends, or accepting my punishment and changing my
ways. In the wilderness, Jesus had to
look at himself. During Lent we are
called to look into the penitential mirror and take stock of who we are. Lent is a time to cut through our illusions
about our own goodness and greatness.
Lent is a time to look at our selves (not at other selves) to see the
places, which if they were changed the world would be the better for it.
Each time the Devil stepped forward with
another temptation for Jesus in the wilderness, the Devil was asking Jesus to
look in a mirror and declare who he was.
Because Jesus answered the Devil the way he did, he was able to look at
himself in the mirror. Had Jesus
succumbed to the temptations he would have become one of those sad persons
about whom others wonder, “How does that person look at himself in the mirror
in the morning?” There is an answer to
that question. People about whom others
wonder, “How does that person look at himself in the mirror?” do look at
themselves in mirrors - every day. They are able to do it because they have
equipped themselves with an illusion of who they are and they have never
submitted themselves to Jesus’ wilderness work of self-examination. That might have something to do with why more
people have always been in church on Easter than on Good Friday, Maundy Thursday
or Wed night Lenten services. Because
the bottom line of Lenten work and worship is self examination – and most
people don’t engage in that task easily.
Let us consider some of the self images
that Jesus did not want to look at when the temptations of the wilderness held
the mirror of self examination before him.
Jesus did not want to look into the
mirror and see a person who abused the power and privilege that God had given
him. As God’s son, he certainly had a
lot. He did not use that power and
privilege to satisfy his own personal longings or even needs. You do
not have to be in a high office to be tempted to abuse power and
privilege. The temptation to abuse
others is in every relationship – in our families, our church, any other organization
that we might be in, at work and with friends.
Taking advantage of someone is an abuse of power in a personal
relationship.
Jesus did not want to see in the looking
glass of self examination a person who manipulated others. The opportunity was often there. After feeding the multitude with a handful of
fish and bread, Jesus was asked to repeat the miracle. He refused.
How others would have been impressed, how easily he could manipulate
other by jumping off the temple roof and surviving. Jesus was the very definition of integrity.
Persons of integrity do not abuse, manipulate or try to control others.
Jesus did not want to see in the Devil’s
glass a reflection of one who controlled others. He refused the Devil’s invite to be in charge
or all that he could see from the highest mountain. Lent, like the wilderness for Jesus,
challenges us to look in the mirror and see the places where we are tempted to
control others and where we are called to let go and let God. It is a huge self illusion to think that we
can control others in the first place.
It is an idolatrous illusion because at some point we are probably
trying to play God in other\s lives. The
only one having any business playing God anywhere is God.
Another way to get at the wilderness
experience is to think about agendas.
Before starting his ministry, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness
working hard spiritually to get it just right.
What the devil was putting before him was the question of his agenda for
the rest of his life. We have all run
into people with hidden agendas. In a
nutshell, hidden agendas are pretty obnoxious.
They destroy relationships and undermine trust. Then you run into people who are very
transparent. They haven’t got a thing to
hide. What you see is what you get. They
don’t try to fool anyone – other people or themselves when they look in the
mirror. They are the ones in whose
presence one is blessed not cursed. They
steer away from using, abusing, controlling, and manipulating others. All those things become eventually the life
game of people with hidden agendas along with huge does of dishonesty. May our agendas during lent be the agenda of
integrity and honesty with ourselves and others.
I began this morning with the image of
children taking communion. One of the
sources of attractiveness of those children was that in that moment as the
children came forward, not one of them had any kind of hidden agenda at
work. There might have been some hidden
agendas somewhere in their lives but in that moment hidden agendas were not
front center on the stage. What was
front and center was transparency that allowed others to see in them children
with only one agenda – a desire to get it just right because it is so
important.
I have seen that desire at other places
around this church. The Consistory of
Lent is a time for us to experience
individually what we do so well corporately around here – Get It Just Right.
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