Not Gonna Fall for It.

Sermon Matthew 4:1-11 March 1, 2020 1^st Sunday in Lent 

Reverend Monica Gould Naomi Makemie & Francis Makemie Presbyterian Churches.

Not Gonna Fall for It.

The phone rings.

The first thing we wonder is if it is a ‘real phone call’.

We carefully wait for the number to show up on our caller id.

Again, we wonder if this is a ‘real call’.

We look at the caller id and recognize it to be our area code and our local number prefix. We think perhaps it really is a phone call for us with a ‘real person’ speaking.

We hesitate with a moment of trust.

But, then we hesitate with a moment of doubt…thinking, “I’m not gonna fall for it.”

We’ve answered too many phone calls that we thought were real calls. The worst duping we have had is thinking we are talking to a real person and it turns out the whole time it was a recorded voice.

We slam down the phone and yell at it again saying, “I’m not gonna fall for it!” Knowing once again the temptation to answer the phone was greater than the will power to let it ring.

We fall for a lot schemes, scams, and false promises. We give to good causes trusting that they make a difference only to find out the head of the organization has used all the funds for himself. We say yes to the fancy reward the person on the phone says we have won, only to discover it was a scheme to get us to buy into a time share we didn’t want. We find ourselves frustrated with having been manipulated into believing the promises of those who offer us items, services, and a way of life.

It feels like our identity has been stolen.

The truth of who we are has been affronted.

We want to be able to trust the world around us. We want to know that our obedience to the rules of nature and the world matter. We want faithfulness to mean something.  We want who we are to count. We want our identity as children of God to be true.

We start the season of Lent with the story of Jesus being sent into the wilderness to be tempted by the ‘evil one.’

We hear this story every year.

We hear this story to remind us that the world has always been an imperfect place.

We hear this story to remind us that none of us is perfect.

We hear this story to remind us that God is present with us in all of the challenges we face.

God is there to provide us with the strength to say no if we are willing to receive it.

God is there to provide us with resilience to withstand our accusers in our innocence. God is there to offer us poured out mercy for our blatant, purposeful misdeeds.

God is there always calling us by name, claiming us as God’s own.

This story helps us to know who God is in the life of Jesus, the man, the human, come to live among us. 

Jesus is the one who offers his life for us. Jesus is the one to whom we offer our lives, our trust, our obedience, and faithfulness.

The gospel of Matthew was written to the Jewish community and everything in it revolves around the kingdom of heaven. The writer of the gospel draws from the story of Exodus when the people were brought out of the land of slavery and into the land of promise because of God’s love for them.

God called them children and required obedience and faithfulness.

God provided them with daily food, manna from heaven.

God guided them through the wilderness.

God brought them to freedom, to a life of plenty.

Yet, in the wilderness the people complained, worshiped idols, blamed God for all their troubles, didn’t trust God in any manner even with the daily miracles.

In the wilderness, God discovered an unfaithful people subjected to the temptations around them and unable to hang on to hope.

In Matthew’s gospel we discover Jesus, the Son of God,

is able to make it in the wilderness.

He is able to live out the will of God.

He is able to trust and remain faithful in all the temptations facing him.

We see that there is one who can make it.

There is one to whom evil can’t control.

There is one that cannot be duped.

There is one who does not fall for it.

There is one in whom perfection dwells.

And in this One we find our hope.

This one is Jesus sent by God to draw all humankind back into the promise of God’s love.

We need to know there is someone like us who has experienced it all. We need to know there is someone like us who has overcome the world.

Jesus went into the wilderness as the newly identified Son of God. Three times Jesus is confronted with the appeals of this world-one to be the head of the social justice campaign to end world hunger, the other to be the political giant to bring down the powerful and lift up the weak, the third to have it all by bowing down to the snake. The world uses a variety of methods to take our attention away from our true identity. The world would have us believe that our label as children of God has little relevance. Note that all three of these temptations are not for evil but for good and immense possibilities for good at that.

There in the wilderness, Jesus is not tempted because he has departed from the will of God. He is tempted because he knows who he is and because he is obedient to the God who has called him by name. He is tempted because he is living out God’s claim on his life. The fierceness (as one author said) of Jesus’ wilderness struggle is the testimony to his power.

Often we find ourselves in the fiercest struggle for our life when we are being obedient to God and when we are walking closest to him. 

Giving in to temptation is often comfortable and feels very good and at times gives us an enormous sense of relief. That’s why addictions are so hard to break. They serve an important purpose. They relieve strain, stress. They make one feel good and comfortable. And that is the scary part of giving in to temptation.

Henri Nouwen wrote: “Accept your identity as a child of God. Once you’ve claimed it and settled in it, you can live in a world that gives you much joy as well as pain. You can receive the praise as well as the blame that comes to you as an opportunity for strengthening your basic identity, because identity that makes you free is anchored beyond all human praise and blame. You belong to God and it is as a child of God that you are sent into the world. You need spiritual guidance, you need people who can keep you anchored in your true identity. The temptation to disconnect from that deep place in where God dwells and to let yourself drown on the praise and blame of the world always remains. Only God can fully dwell in that deepest place in you and give you a sense of safety.” 

With this assurance, no blame, or taunting, or hate speech on Twitter can touch you. Our assurance of who we are lies in the depth of our soul. No one can come near that deep place in our soul to take away who we are.

Photo by Brendow Verlag Sculture de Dorothea Steigerwald "Refuge"

H.N. “Gradually you will begin feeling more connected and become who you truly are-a child of God. There lies your true freedom.”

We really don’t want to live out our lives as ultimate skeptics, always having to say to ourselves, “I’m not gonna fall for it.” We want to be able to trust the world around us. We want to know that our obedience to the rules of nature and the world matter. We want faithfulness to mean something.  We want who we are to count. We want our identity as children of God to be true.

This season of Lent let’s recognize the gift of who we are in the hands of God. Let’s commit to opening our hearts to trust even if we might get hurt. Let’s receive the mercy and forgiveness that’s been poured out on us and not wipe it away. Let’s choose to be faithful and go into our everyday beaming with the joy of God’s promise.

Amen.

Resources. NIB Volume VIII Matthew Gospel; Henri Nouwen Inner Voice to Freedom (I think)

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