Endure, Master Wayne

Brad Sullivan

1 Lent, Year C

February 17, 2016

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

Luke 4:1-13

Endure, Master Wayne

  

            In The Dark Night, the second in the most recent trilogy of Batman movies, Bruce Wayne was considering giving up being Batman.  The Joker had the city of Gotham pretty well under siege, and he promised to stop if Batman would simply give up fighting and turn himself in to the authorities.  As he was wondering what he should do, he had a conversation with Alfred who had raised him since he was a little boy.  He said:

Bruce Wayne:             People are dying, Alfred. What would you have me do?

Alfred Pennyworth:    Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They'll hate you for it, but that's the point of Batman, he can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make, the right choice.

I have a feeling that fatherly, sage advice was similar to what God the Father might have been whispering to Jesus when he was in the wilderness being tempted by the Devil.  In the second temptation of the Devil, Jesus was being given the opportunity to give up all that he was doing in order to fix everything.  The Devil was offering to Jesus the glory and authority over all the kingdoms of the world.  That had to be a tempting offer, and not just because Jesus wanted glory.  Jesus had glory.  He talked about returning in glory and the glory he had in the presence of God before the world existed.  Jesus had glory coming out of every part of himself in the transfiguration.  

What Jesus didn’t have was obedience from everyone.  Jesus didn’t have the ability to force his perfect will onto people.  Jesus loved people and wanted them to believe in God and to live the ways of God’s kingdom.  He wanted that so much that he died for it.  He wanted that so much that when the Devil offered it to him, you know it had to be a tempting offer. 

You’ve got a long, hard mission ahead of you, Jesus.  Preaching, teaching, healing, people loving you, using you, hating you; hypocrites, dust, beating, scorn, blood, pain, death, and all for what?  So that people will still often choose not to live God’s kingdom?  No, bow down to me, and I’ll give you the authority you need to complete your mission.  No one else will even have to do anything.  It’ll be done, here and now.  Bow down to me and accomplish your sole purpose. 

That was tempting.  Avoid pain and suffering, claim here on Earth the glory that is yours from the foundation of the world, and force people to obey you.  Have power over people to make everything go the way you want it to go.  No more getting frustrated at people’s poor choices.  No more having to put up with others in authority choosing the wrong thing.  No more enduring the short-sighted, wrong-thinking of well-intentioned idiots.  You can be in charge and make every decision be the right decision.

And Jesus said, “Thanks Devil guy.  The offer is tempting, but I can’t force everyone to love God and each other by turning my back to God.  As much as I’d like to make everyone do the right thing, that’s not the way the Father and I work.  I have to suffer the pain of watching the ones I love make terrible choice after terrible choice.  I have to love them enough to let them.  I have to endure.  I have to take it.  I have to lead and teach and love even when I’m outcast and hated for it.  I have to make the choice that no one else can make, the right choice. 

For us in the church recently, I’ve seen our church leaders more and more making the right choice.  Looking at our politics and general way of society nowadays, division is the name of the game.  We’re so afraid that the wrong people will end up getting their way, that we have become incredibly divided in our nation.  I would argue that we have bowed down to the Devil, to Satan, the Adversary, the bringer of division.  The polarized ends of our society have wanted to force the decisions go how they want them to, and to Hell with those wrong-minded people.  While seeking to do good, the polarizing, demonizing, divisions in our society are bowing down to the Devil and bringing about so much harm.  It is a temptation all of us fall prey to.  All of us want to at some point bow down to the Devil that gives power so that we can have our way.

That was the temptation of the Bishops of the Anglican Communion meeting in London about a month ago.  They were meeting to determine, among other things, how the Anglican Communion could remain united amidst deep differences around issues of human sexuality, marriage, Biblical interpretation.  Division was knocking at the door.  The Devil was offering power to those threatened by the actions of the Episcopal Church.  Kick them out.  Excommunicate them.  Make them leave the communion, and no longer be bothered by them. 

Well, contrary to what is printed in a lot of main stream papers, the Bishops did not choose to follow that offer made by the Devil.  The Episcopal Church was not excommunicated.  For three years, the Episcopal Church will likely have a diminished role in the councils of the Anglican Communion, but the Communion held.  The bonds of affection which united us in Jesus held over the temptations of the Devil.  We are still one in mission.  We are still one in Jesus.

The clergy and lay leaders of our diocese have faced a similar temptation as we have struggled together for the last four years over the same issues.  Like the Bishops of the Anglican Communion, when we have met at diocesan council as we did this weekend, our diocese has chosen not to give in to the temptation of the Devil, but to remain united.  We have chosen to remain united in mission, and we have chosen to remain united in Jesus.  As we addressed issues which brought up our differences even yesterday, leaders gave heartfelt pleas for folks to vote their way, and they also said that whatever the outcome, we would remain united. 

In both cases, the bishops of the Anglican Communion and the clergy and lay leaders of our diocese have chosen to resist the temptations of the Devil and chosen instead to follow Jesus.  They have chosen to endure all the well-intentioned, wrong-minded people.  They have chosen to see them as wrong-minded, yes, but as well-intentioned and wrong-minded.  They have chosen to see them as brothers and sisters.  They have chosen to give up the power of division and to take on instead the weakness of unity, the weakness of reconciliation, the weakness of striving together, the weakness of Jesus, who gave up his power for the sake of love and chose to be hated, to be an outcast, to be mocked, to be condemned and killed, for the sake of us, his beloved. 

Each of us faces the same challenge within the church, within our daily lives and relationships.  When we fight with those we love, we are often tempted to choose the power of being right and trying to force our rightness onto others.  We’re tempted to choose the power of ending relationships so we don’t have to endure or strive together, so we can be right and make life go the way we want it to.  When strife and crime start happening close to home, we’re tempted to build higher walls, have more security, and to retreat away.  Yet, as Jesus’ disciples, we are guided to follow Jesus, to take on his yoke, to take on the weakness of unity, the weakness of reconciliation, the weakness of striving together, the weakness of stepping out together in into the areas of our lives and the areas of our city that frighten us. 

Resisting the power of the Devil and his division which serves only ourselves, we take on God’s mission of reconciliation together, as one church.  We endure for the sake of Jesus’ beloved.  We endure for the sake of his love, and we leave the wilderness of striving together in our differences strengthened to live God’s mission of reconciliation.  Amen.