Mini-deserts

Brad Sullivan

1st Sunday in Lent, Year C
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13

In our reading from Deuteronomy today, Moses was preparing the Israelites for their entry into the land of Canaan. God had freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and then, for forty years, the Israelites had been largely isolated, wandering in the desert, learning how to live as God’s people, and being totally provided for by God. They were fed each day with Manna from heaven which they simply had to collect. The Manna appeared every morning, they collected it, and it was gone. The Israelites were living in the desert and were therefore very obviously dependent on God for survival. Therefore, remembering God and staying faithful to him was right there at the forefront of their thoughts. Every day just getting breakfast, they had an obvious reminder of God and their covenant with God.

Moses was speaking to them in our reading today as they were about to enter the promised land of Canaan. This was a wonderful delight for the Israelites. They were finally going to have a permanent home. They were going to be able to grow crops and work the ground, and provide for themselves. This was a good thing, something God wanted for the Israelites, and yet God knows how forgetful we can sometimes be. Once the Israelites started living on their own, without God’s obvious, daily intervention, providing for their very survival, you could bet that they might start to forget God a little bit.

Any of us who have gone on a religious or spiritual retreat for a short time may understand something of what the Israelites experienced. When we’re on retreat, we may find faith in God and focusing on God to be quite easy. Then, when we return to the daily grind with school, or work, or home life, we may find focusing on God to be somewhat more difficult. Daily life can often help us to forget God, to feel that we’re going it alone. We likely find the practices of our faith which help us to stay connected to God to be more difficult during regular life than when we’re on retreat. The more time we spend on retreat or the more time we spend intentionally searching for God in our daily lives, however, can help us to remember God and to see God more easily.

I think this is part of why Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by the devil before truly beginning his ministry. Now, unlike the weekend retreats we may take, Jesus’ temptations in the desert likely not very easy. Jesus really was tempted by what the devil offered, and Jesus had obviously done a good amount of preparation before entering the desert. Notice that each time the devil offered something to Jesus, that Jesus countered with scripture. Jesus knew scripture backwards and forwards and so he was able to see the world through the lens of scripture. He had spent his life preparing, learning, searching after God, drawing near to God so when his temptations came in the desert, he was prepared. Even so, having prepared himself so thoroughly, Jesus still, was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to prepare even more for his ministry.

Now, I was asked a few weeks ago why 40 was such an important number in scripture. Rain pored for 40 days when Noah and his family were on the ark. Moses was on the mountain for 40 days in night. The Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years. Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. Why 40? What’s the significance? On the one hand, as I said a few weeks ago, I don’t know.

On the other hand, I was talking to a colleague and psychologist recently who said that for people overcoming addiction, 40 days is something of a milestone. He said that after 40 days of recovering from an addiction, something happens in the brain such that chances for continued recovery increase exponentially after that point. We don’t know why exactly, but there is something significant about 40 days in our biological makeup.

After 40 days continued recovery from addiction become much more likely. Also, after 40 days of starting some new habit, keeping that new habit becomes more likely. Why was Jesus in the wilderness 40 days? Maybe there is something mystical about the number 40, and maybe 40 days was a helpful number because Jesus was a human being with human biology. How cool is that, the mystical and the biological converging to produce the same result?

I love the idea that 40 days, in the wilderness, on the mountain, or in the ark, that 40 days is not a random number nor is it only a number of mythic or unknown Godly significance, but 40 days is also a number that God used, knowing that 40 days fits with our brain chemistry and development. This convergence of the mystical and the biological give me the feeling that God really does care for our well-being. 40 days in the wilderness is not in temptation out of punishment or meanness, rather, God has folks spend 40 days in the wilderness because God knows those people are going to have a better chance of sticking with God and continuing to see and know God in their daily lives after 40 days in the wilderness than after fewer days in the wilderness.

The Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness for 40 days out of love for Jesus. Notice also that the Holy Spirit did not leave Jesus alone in the wilderness. When Jesus was driven into the wilderness, he was full of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus left the wilderness, he was filled with the power of the Spirit.

God's love for us and the tie that binds us

Brad Sullivan

5th Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13)
Psalm 138
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11

For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been hearing about the Body of Christ. We heard about how there are many parts to the Body of Christ and that each part has its own gift. Paul was writing this to a church that was increasingly divided over whose gifts were better or even divided the person from whom they heard the Gospel. Paul reminded them that Jesus works through all of us. Many different gifts, and the greatest is love.

Today, Paul reminds the Corinthians again to be unified in their belief. Regardless of whether they heard the Gospel from Paul or from another apostle, Paul reminds them again of the importance of their belief in the Gospel, regardless of the one who preached that Gospel to them. Again, Paul is recalling the divisions in the Corinthian church, reminding them to be unified in their faith in Jesus as one body, rather than divided over human matters or controversies.

The focus of the Body of Christ, for Paul, was the good news that Jesus died for our sins. In Jesus’ actions, Paul was firmly convinced of God’s love for us. As he wrote in his letter to the Romans, “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) In this one sentence, we find why the Gospel really is such good news. God loves us. We’re imperfect; we’re sinful; we know this fact. God loves us.

We can see the love God has for us in the calls of Isaiah and Peter which we heard this morning. In Isaiah’s vision of God, Isaiah saw God in his full majesty in his temple. Knowing scripture like we do, we all know that Isaiah should have died from having seen the Lord. No one could see God and live. As we heard in the story, Isaiah knew this too, and was very frightened that he had seen God. “Woe is me!” He said. “I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

In other words, Isaiah was saying, “not only am I unworthy to be your prophet, Lord, but darn it, now I’m about to die.” God, of course didn’t let him die. “You think you’re so unworthy Isaiah, fine,” and God purified Isaiah with the burning coal so that he could speak for God and be his prophet.

We find a similar call narrative in Luke’s telling of the call of Peter. Jesus was teaching in Peter’s boat, he then directs Peter to have this miraculous catch of fish, and what does Peter say, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” There are obviously some differences in these call narratives. Isaiah was in the temple of God, seeing God’s very presence, in all his glory and majesty. Peter was in a boat with a bunch of fish. Isaiah saw God and was afraid for his life, knowing he was a sinful man. Peter was in the presence of a man whom he believed to be a mighty prophet of God, and Peter, like Isaiah, was struck by his own unworthy sinfulness.

Notice the similarities in the reactions of God to Isaiah and of Jesus to Peter. In both cases, these sinful men were asked to go and do service for God’s kingdom. Isaiah was asked to preach God’s word. Peter was asked to fish for people.

Whom did God chose to be his voice, his hand and feet here on earth, perfect human beings? No. God chose sinful human being, people like you and me to be his prophet, to be his disciple and apostle. Further, God not only chose sinful people, but he then helped them move beyond their sinfulness into something more, into his life of love. In these two call narratives of Isaiah and Peter, we can see once again the great love has for us.