"Living Our Baptismal Calling: Renounce" - Sermon, March 5, 2017
Community UMC, Quincy
March 5, 2017
“Living Our Baptismal Calling: Renounce”
Pastor Andrew Davis
Matthew 4: 1-11
Welcome to the journey of Lent! We come to a new season in the church year
which has oftentimes been characterized as a time of giving something up, a
time of penitence or changing our hearts from sinful ways and behaviors, and
let’s
be real, Lent is sometimes characterized as a rather somber time. I first learned about Lent when I was in
fourth grade when my Sunday School teacher Tracy taught us about it. Being the precocious preteen that I was, I
interjected “isn’t that the stuff you get out of the dryer?” But in thinking
about that moment twenty-something years later, Lent can be seen as a time of
removing the lint from our lives just as the dryer catches the lint from our
clothes. Lent is a good time to trim
away the stuff that brings us down; a bad habit, an addiction, a love-affair
with food, complaining, or other types of negative behavior. But at the same time, we replace the things
that bring us down with things that build us up, things that bring us the same
joy and hope that Easter will bring at the end of this journey. We also have a chance to add spiritual
practices such as extra time for devotion, extra reading in various spiritual
books, extra time in prayer, or even time for meditation or physical
exercise.
As I get older, I realize that Lent is a
great time of personal reflection, of wiping the slate clean, and dying to old
ways of life so that we can live more fully and feel like we have new life in
Spring and at Easter, much in the same way that Jesus journeyed to Jerusalem
and to the cross, only to conquer the grave.
I know right now in our mountain valley, it’s
still winter, but we have a brilliant Spring to look forward to and are already
seeing some signs out there, including more daylight. Yet, I find even with the extra daylight and
signs of Spring, that Lent is a time to look inside of ourselves and become
closer with God. Last year on a whim, I
decided to join my seminary roommate, Josh on a modified Daniel Fast, which may
sound a little extreme, but was so rewarding.
This fast basically involves fasting and abstaining from meats (although
we made an exception for fish), dairy, caffeine, alcohol, and leavened
breads. It was VERY difficult for me the
first few days and some of my friends around the dorm had to put up with me
being a little grouchy for a couple days as my body adjusted, but as the Lenten
journey continued, I found myself focused more on God and desiring God more
than the pleasurable things that I enjoyed.
Plus, the health benefits were nice in losing twenty pounds and having a
new sense of energy. But I also added some
extra reading during that time, including Rev. Eric Elnes’ Gifts of the Dark
Wood, Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor’s Learning to Walk in the Dark, and
Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber’s Accidental
Saints. What
kind of practices are you doing during Lent?
It’s not too late to start!!
As we begin our journey through the
season of Lent and walking with Jesus through the wilderness, then to Jerusalem
and ultimately to the cross, we are also thinking about what it means to live
our baptismal calling. In some ways,
this is a case of ‘what’s old is new again,’ as Lent was
historically a time of preparation for baptism, which would happen at the crack
of dawn on Easter morning. But this
Lenten journey is also a time for us to revisit the vows that each of us who
are already baptized made or were made for us if we were baptized as
infants. And for anyone who hasn’t been
baptized yet, this is a good time of preparation and I would also love to talk
more about it if you are interested in baptism!! Each of the teachings in this series focuses
on the vows we make at baptism. Also piggybacking off of our last series, “The
Great Invitation,” we are now invited to go deeper in our spirituality and
discipleship during Lent through checking in with our neighbors during the week
and through these formation groups on Monday at 10am or Wednesday at 7pm to
start, and others that can be formed at other times of the week.
As we encounter our text this morning
that we read together, what does it mean to renounce the forces of evil and
wickedness in our world? This is one of
the first questions that is asked in our baptismal vows, but we also see in the
text how Jesus is put to the test by the devil, or Satan and how Jesus has to
renounce the spiritual forces of evil and wickedness around him. Now before I get too into the text, anytime I
hear the name Satan, I can't help but think of Dana Carvey’s character, The
Church Lady from Saturday Night Live who would ask regularly, ‘could it be…SATAN?’
Well, a lot of times when we are faced with temptations or any kind of
spiritual force of evil or wickedness, which we are called to renounce through
our baptismal vows, I always think, ‘could it be…SATAN?’
In our text, it sure is Satan. Even more interesting is that it’s the Holy
Spirit that takes Jesus into the desert where he eats or drinks nothing for
forty days and nights, in which Satan (or the tempter, or the Devil depending
on the biblical translation) takes full advantage of Jesus’s famished state,
figuring that Jesus won’t be able to resist such temptations. But like one of those epic video games,
operas, or novels or films, the good always wins out over evil, as Jesus
resists each temptation that is before him and uses scripture (primarily
Deuteronomy) to challenge the devil and make the devil retreat. Nevertheless, the forty days and nights of
fasting has “strengthened and prepared Jesus for the encounter with Satan” even
if “it has also left him hungry” where we see Jesus showing his human side.[i] Even amidst the temptations of “turning
stones into bread” when hungry, saving himself by being dared to jump off the
roof of the temple, or having power over every kingdom, Jesus passes the test
by renouncing the spiritual forces of wickedness and evil, and tells Satan to
take a hike!! Instead of succumbing to temptations,
“the power of God in Christ is stronger than the power of Satan. The power of good always triumphs over the
power of evil, and the power of life – of resurrection – trumps the power of
death and destruction every time.”[ii]
So, what are some of the spiritual
forces of evil and wickedness in our own lives?
What are the temptations out there that may test us in our faith journey
or prevent us from fully immersing ourselves in this journey? And, what are the things that bring us down
that keep us from living life to the fullest?
Sin is something we don’t talk about enough, yet all of us sin, no
matter how hard we try not to. Yet, the
season of Lent gives us the opportunity to repent, or turn around, to
strengthen and prepare ourselves to fight those temptations and renounce those
evil forces that may be around us just as Jesus’s fasting prepared him to
outwit the Devil. However, it’s not just
a time to do such by ourselves, but as a community of faith together.
In his book, The Word Before Powers:
An Ethic of Preaching, “Charles Campbell portrays Jesus as a person whose
entire ministry is about renouncing the spiritual forces of wickedness,
rejecting the evil powers of this world, and repenting of our sinful behavior,
both individual and [as a community].”[iii] As
a community, we can repent for the sins of humanity, while also rejecting the
spiritual forces of wickedness and evil that are present in the world around us
today.[iv] For
example, these last two years our California-Nevada Annual Conference has been
working towards repentance with our Native American brothers and sisters for
the ways that they were historically treated, or in Jim and Jean Strathdee’s “Mass
for the Healing of the Earth,” the “Kyrie” movement is a call to repentance for
the way we as humans hurt our earth and environment. Or as we prepare our hearts to take Holy
Communion shortly, we always begin with a confession of our communal sins and
in a way, a reminder to continue renouncing the spiritual forces of wickedness
and evil in our world when we confess.
This journey that we are embarking on
during Lent in living our baptismal calling is a reminder that “renouncing the
spiritual forces of wickedness, rejecting the evil powers of this world, and
repenting of our sins is ongoing work for each one of us [myself
included]. It isn’t one time. We have to continually resist the temptations
of this world. We have to return to our
baptismal roots again and again to remember what is at stake.”[v]
While Jesus had God on his side and was able to pass the test against the
Devil, we need to remember that we need each other to sustain each other and
hold each other accountable on this journey and beyond.
This same baptismal calling that we are
living into “is a covenant between an individual, Christ, and a community of
faith, to live together as disciples and to give our whole lives over to being
incorporated into the body of Christ” and “make a commitment to hold one
another accountable as disciples of Jesus Christ.”[vi]
There may be temptations and spiritual forces of evil and wickedness before us
as a community, but it is our calling to renounce those forces together,
allowing the love and light of Jesus Christ to shine through each of us. To
paraphrase a quote by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “goodness is
stronger than evil, love is stronger than hate, light is greater than darkness.”[vii] That’s the good news, as good will always
come in the end when we resist and renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness
and evil in the world and tell Satan to take a hike. Our Lenten journey is only beginning, but “as
we move through the season, let us recommit ourselves to joining with Jesus in
living out God’s mission [to resist temptations and the spiritual powers of
evil around us] and [other things around us] that seek to [weigh us down].”[viii]
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, let the
church say, Amen.
As part of our Lenten journey, we are going to be having
a very short period after the sermon these next five weeks of living the
call. In your bulletin are two pieces of
paper and if you need a pencil, there should be some in the pews. On both squares of paper, I want to invite
you to identify one spiritual force of wickedness that you have renounced or
pledge to renounce, one evil power of this world you reject and pledge to
continue to reject, and one sinful pattern in your life you commit to turn
from. If you are comfortable doing so,
you’re invited to pass your square of paper to a neighbor in your immediate
area and check in with each other during the week and encourage and pray for
each other. If you’re not comfortable
sharing your sheet of paper, put it somewhere in your house where you will see
it each day, a bathroom mirror, or tack it to the fridge so you can reflect and
pray on what you have written down throughout the week. I also encourage you to journal about this
during the week, writing down times you’ve succeeded or failed in living the
call, and don’t be afraid to ask for support and encouragement during the week
too. Elsie will play some soft music
during this time, and try to do this silently, so that you and others can pray
or reflect before we join in singing “Jesus Tempted in the Desert,” verses 1
and 4 in 2105 of The Faith we Sing.
[i]
The New Interpreters Bible Commentary, Vol. VIII (Nashville: Abingdon
Press, 1995), 163.
[ii]
Ministries, Discipleship. ‘First Sunday in Lent | Renounce
— Preaching Notes’. 2009. Accessed March 2, 2017.
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/first-sunday-in-lent-renounce-preaching-notes.
[iii]
Qtd. In Ministries, Discipleship. ‘First Sunday in Lent
| Renounce — Preaching Notes’. 2009. Accessed March 2, 2017.
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/first-sunday-in-lent-renounce-preaching-notes.
[iv]
Ibid.
[v]
Ibid.
[vi]
Ibid.
[vii]
Attributed to Archbishop Desmund Tutu
[viii]
Ministries, Discipleship. ‘First Sunday in Lent | Renounce
— Preaching Notes’. 2009. Accessed March 2, 2017. https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/first-sunday-in-lent-renounce-preaching-notes.
Comments
Post a Comment