Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Lent is a season of reflection, renewal and growth immediately preceeding the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus, the Christ.
For years I have maintained a personal journal for spiritual reflection.
This year, I am adding to my practices an open invitation to sharing the Christian journey with any that desire a conversation or prayer partner. The basis of this Blog will come from the previous Sunday's preparation for preaching to my congregation. It will not be my sermon notes. It will include a weekly prayer, the same prayer which accompanies a prayer list for members and friends of the Ashton Community United Methodist Church.
I also invite you to consider checking out the Scriptures from the lectionary which may be found by visiting www.textweek.com.
This past Sunday the part of Christ's Body which uses the liturgical calendar and Revised Common Lectionary read from Matthew 4:1-11, the scene of Jesus' time in the Desert following his baptism and God's revelation of his beloved nature. The temptation of Christ serves as a paradigm of warning to all who seek after God's will in their life. I believe it is a tenet of Christian life, that shortly after committing oneself to the cause of God's kingdom on earth, temptation will quickly follow. If it were not so I don't believe Jesus would have included in his own teaching about prayer to his disciples any mention of temptation. Each of the gospels testify to his inclusion of the concern for protection against being led into temptation.
The season of Lent is a time of preparation and renewal. Historically the church used the season as a time of restoration and reconciliation for those who had become seperated from the Church.
Lent was, and is, also a time of preparation of candidates for baptism and confirmation, the signs of entry into the church. Preparation for the profession of faith was a serious proposition. In the preparation, the candidate pledged their allegiance to Jesus as their Lord, and renounced the Satan, and the forces of evil and wickedness in the world.
I believe that with the renunciation of Satan came the trigger for temptation. Satan is the consummate rejected lover. Satan vies for our attention, offering power. Jesus offers the revelation of the image and love of God. Satan would have us believe that what Jesus taught was illusion. Satan would like us to believe that this world is all that exists. Satan would have us live in the same self-imposed bitter isolation from the love of God that Satan has chosen.
In our post modern post enlightenment world, many are uncomfortable with the idea of believing in Satan as a spiritual entity. While large percentages of Americans polled will attest to believing in God, far fewer of the same number will actually concede a belief in Satan. They are monistic theists.
I am a dualistic monotheist. I believe in the yin and yan - light and dark - evil and good. I believe that each of us wrestles with this duality within ourselves. I venture to guess that the greatest percentage of the battle is a battle which we fight within ourselves. Once we claim the spiritual disciplines of prayer, study of scripture, attending to the means of grace through worship and communion we grow in perfection of love (agape). But, as a dualist, I also believe that we need to name the enemy of Christ, not as the present leader of our nation names people, but as the spiritual force that is far stronger than any one individual. Once named, prayer focused on the enemy of God's kingdom can be effective.
So the questions for you this week:
What are the sources of temptation in your life?
How are you protecting yourself against temptation?
Where do you see God at work in your life, providing protection?
Creating and Reconciling God, we find ourselves tempted in so many ways. The first and most important thing you would have us do is to have a realistic and true understanding of ourselves. You would have us acknowledge our unique gifts and use them to the good of your kingdom. But the first temptation is to loose the proper perspective. We are prone to thinking either to highly or too lowly of our abilities. We let pride trip us up in relationships with others. Worse yet, thinking of ourselves as unworthy or undeserving, we fail to accept your love and healing spiritual presence in our lives.
In this season of lent, preparing for spring and the celebration of Jesus’ victory over sin and death, restore us to the image of your first creating, as good and loved children. Amen
Closing thoughts...
God loves each and every one of us. The Love of God revealed in Jesus is a love that desires healing of broken spirits, empty and broken hearts. May you experience the grace that heals and restores each of us to the image and likeness of our loving God.
