Preached by the Very Rev. Mike Kinman at Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016.
The sin is the choice that is no choice… And the Devil convinces us it’s the best we can do. +
So, here we are again – back in the desert with Jesus.
It seems like just yesterday that things were so very different. Jesus was coming out of the Jordan River, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
Surely, this was the beginning of something great, something powerful, something amazing.
Surely, the next stop was liberation and power and glory, heading to Jerusalem to knock Herod off his throne and the Romans out of Israel.
Instead that same Spirit, the one of the beautiful voice and those words we all so long to hear, and believe about ourselves – you are my Beloved, in you I am well pleased. That same Spirit led Jesus not toward Jerusalem, not yet … but into the desert.
A place of hunger.
A place of poverty.
A place of powerlessness, vulnerability and fear.
The Spirit led Jesus into the desert because the Spirit knew that was where he belonged, that is where God always resides.
In the desert, in the wilderness – in the places of greatest poverty, greatest powerlessness, greatest vulnerability, greatest fear. That is where God resides – not on a throne but in a manger. Not in a palace but in a shelter.
Not at a lush oasis but in the desert.
And Jesus didn’t just visit. Jesus became a desert person. He stayed there for forty days, which is Bible-speak for a long, long time.
And he became poor.
And hungry
And powerless
And vulnerable
And afraid
And the Devil was there with him.
It seems like just yesterday that things were so different. That dawn was about to break and empires were about to fall.
And yet that is always when the Devil makes his appearance – just when we are sure he is nowhere to be found.
As French poet Charles Baudelaire wrote:
“My dear friends, do not ever forget, when you hear the progress of lights praised, that the loveliest trick of the Devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.”
Jesus, the Son of God, the beloved, in whom God was well pleased.
Was poor.
And hungry
And powerless
And vulnerable
And afraid
And the Devil was there with him.
And that should be no surprise to us.
The Devil is always where Jesus is. Because Jesus is always with us when we are at our most vulnerable. And that’s where the Devil makes his living. That’s where the Devil eats his lunch. When we are at our most vulnerable.
Offering us the choice that is no choice.
And convincing us it’s the best we can do.
The Devil caught Jesus at his worst and most vulnerable -- and instead of doing what God would do … having compassion on him, meeting his worst with God’s best. The Devil did what the Devil does – he preyed on him. The Devil tried to take advantage of Jesus’ vulnerability to enslave Jesus for himself.
The Devil offered him a choice that is no choice – and tried to convince him it’s the best he could do.
Jesus was hungry, and powerless and fearful. And instead of offering him food, and power and assurance. Instead of reminding him, “Hey -- you are God’s child, the beloved, in you God is well pleased,” the Devil says: “I will give you food … I will give you power … I will give you assurance … but you have to play by my rules. You have to live by my values. You have be slave in my house.
The sin is the choice. The sin is the choice that is no choice. The sin is when people are forced to choose between starving, powerlessness and fear on one hand …. and slavery on the other.
It is the choice that is no choice that the Devil in the form of Pharaoh offered when the people of Israel were starving in a famine:
Become slaves and eat … or stay free and die.
It was the choice that is no choice that the desert tempted the people of Israel to be forced to make again when they longed for the fleshpots of Egypt – return to slavery in Egypt or starve in the desert.
That’s not the way of God. God met the people in the desert … God met their worst with God’s best. And God provided bread from heaven and water from the rock. A pillar of cloud to guide them by day and a pillar of fire by night.
In the desert, the Devil offered the choice that is no choice – and tried to convince Jesus it was the best he could do.
But Jesus remembered.
As poor, powerless, vulnerable, hungry and afraid as Jesus was, Jesus remembered the voice, and remembered the words.
Jesus remembered that he was God’s beloved, and that in him God was well pleased.
Jesus remembered that the love of God would never leave him. Jesus remembered the bread from heaven and the water from the rock, the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
And Jesus said to the Devil, “I am not a slave to you or to any. I am a child of God. I am beloved. I make God dance and sing and I will not suffer your lash no matter how sweet you make it sound.
“And I will be fed. And I will be strong. And I will be safe and secure not because of your lies. Not because of your choice that is no choice. We can do better. Because I am a child of God. I am beloved. And the whole reason I am in the desert is because God takes care of God’s own.”
Well that ‘ol Devil bowed his head
Because he knew that he’d been beat.
And he took his leave from Jesus
Until a more opportune time to meet.
Sisters and brothers, the Devil is alive and well – and now is his opportune time.
And that means it is time for the church to get prayed up and suited up.
To put on the armor of light and the helmet of salvation.
Like Jesus, it is time for us to remember that the love of God will never leave us. To remember the bread from heaven and the water from the rock and the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
Like Jesus, it is time for us to remember to hear and to believe that we are God’s beloved in whom God is well pleased – to hear and believe that truth in the deserts of our lives and to take that truth to the deserts of our community.
To the places in our hearts and on our streets where God’s people are poor.
And hungry
And powerless
And vulnerable
And afraid
“My dear friends, do not ever forget, when you hear the progress of lights praised, that the loveliest trick of the Devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.”
Do not be fooled, the Devil is here.
The Devil is right here in St. Louis, where God’s children are dying of hunger, poverty, powerlessness, vulnerability and fear.
The Devil is here offering the choices that are no choices – and with a silver tongue convincing us it’s the best we can do.
The Devil is here in the form of the gun lobby, meeting people who are hungry for real power over their lives, hungry to feel like human beings with control over their own destiny and offering them instead the power of the gun that enslaves us all to a culture where violence begets violence and trauma begets trauma in a never-ending cycle.
And the Devil is saying “that’s the best we can do.”
The Devil is here in the form of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, meeting people in North St. Louis who are hungry for jobs so they can feed their families and know the dignity of an honest day’s work and offering them the promise of jobs – jobs most of them would not qualify for anyway – only if they will sell their souls to an agency that coordinates drone strikes on civilians in far away lands and illegally monitors the young activists in our own city who are working the hardest to bring true liberation.
And the Devil is saying “that’s the best we can do.”
The Devil is here forcing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered children of God to choose between hiding who we are and keeping our jobs or getting an apartment.
The Devil is here forcing the abused woman to choose between staying in a marriage that is killing her slowly or risking the violence that could kill her or her babies quickly.
The Devil is here forcing women trapped in prostitution to choose between turning a trick in the back of a car or getting beat if they don’t come back to their pimp with the cash.
The Devil is here offering us the choice that is no choice – and convincing us it’s the best we can do.
The Devil departed from Jesus until an opportune time – and that time is now.
But now is our opportune time as well.
We are the Beloved Children of God, and now is our opportune time and instead of doing what the Devil does – instead of catching God’s people at their worst and preying on them. Instead of trying to take advantage of our vulnerability to enslave us for himself. Now is our opportune time to be God’s beloved, to be those in whom God is well pleased, to follow Jesus into the desert – if we’re not there already -- and do what God does when we are poor.
And hungry
And powerless
And vulnerable
And afraid
To meet the people’s worst with our best.
To people hungry for power over their lives not offering a gun but real authority over what happens in their lives and in their communities.
To people hungry for the dignity and fruits of a job not offering the empty promise of being a part of morally bankrupt instrument of death but the best jobs, green energy jobs, hi-tech jobs, community development jobs, jobs selling fresh produce and providing excellent education not just where the white and wealthy reside but in those desert neighborhoods that need those jobs the most.
To we who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender not the choice of silence or poverty but the power of constitutional protection.
To we who are abused women not the choice of dying slow or dying fast but a route to escape and safety.
To we who are women trapped in violence, drug abuse and prostitution not the choice between rape and assault but communities of health, and love and recovery.
Here we are again – back in the desert with Jesus. And the Devil is right here with us.
And that should be no surprise to us. The Devil is always where Jesus is. Because Jesus is always with us when we are at our most vulnerable.
And when the Devil offers the most vulnerable among us the choice that is no choice, Jesus reminds us to stand together with him – and to get right in the Devil’s grille, to look him dead in the eye and say:
“I am not a slave to you or to any. I am a child of God. I am beloved. I can make God dance and sing and I will not suffer your lash no matter how sweet you make it sound.
“And I will be fed. And I will be strong. And I will be safe and secure and not because of your lies. Not because of your choice that is no choice. We can and we will do better. Because we are children of God. We are beloved. And we will be out in the desert offering real love to God’s people because God takes care of God’s own.”
Here we are again – back in the desert with Jesus and the Devil.
Whose side will we be on?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment