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Rez is a community where Jesus welcomes, shapes, and sends disciples for the good of our neighborhood. No matter where you are in life, this is a place for you.
Life Together In The Goodness Of God
our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen you may be seated good morning everyone if this is your first time to resurrection i want to extend a special welcome to you and say we're glad you're with us i'm father sean mccain didis and the rector of the church here that sentence that i just read to you came it's a famous sentence if you've like passed near a church i'm sure you've heard it before but it comes from saint augustin out of his confessions and that phrase our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you is a it's sort of a prayer to god an acknowledgement a confession and for me for many years this has been a phrase that's been really helpful in clarifying the entire point of lent this 40 day season that we are in journey on right now together this season is a season of preparation and it's heading towards easter we started at ash wednesday and mother yana's not in here but she preached a banger on wednesday kicking us off for lent we are headed towards easter and the church in this 40 day season we prepare in certain ways we have these ancient practices of prayer fasting and almsgiving or giving our money to the poor these disciplines of voluntary voluntary emptying or self-denial look like giving up food some of you are doing this i've heard about this already or giving up your money giving it to the poor good causes or giving up somehow the noise that crowds out god's voice in our life they invite us these practices to take company with our lord who is also as we heard in this morning's gospel reading fasting in the wilderness for 40 days and they remind us these practices that we are ultimately dependent we are not indeed as self-sufficient as we think we are right that we are deeply deeply hungry in fact there's a hunger in our souls that we medicate and cover up with so many things lent gives us the opportunity to silence or simplify those things that we could actually acknowledge those deep hungers of the soul and also that we need something that we cannot provide for ourselves we are so in need self-denial helps unclutter sort of clean the table off right quiet ourselves long enough to notice that indeed our heart is restless and it will not find its rest anywhere other than in good company with god i know that's like hard work and lent but isn't that good news that we can tend to that work that we so deeply need now i know if we're really honest i know that many of us carry a bone deep exhaustion in our lives right now many of us do i certainly can relate to that the cost of living seems to just keep climbing with no end in sight the world is increasingly unsettling and unbelievable and disturbing in new and creative ways daily life work family bills the news it it becomes this weight the press is down on us right and we carry this around we even get so accustomed to that weight that we think well this is just being 40 as i tell myself and this is the way it is sean get comfortable you know you don't sleep as well as you used to but sometimes that burden that that that lie sort of gets lumped into those other things we think this is normal when in fact it's i don't i do not accept the fact that it's normal we're just actually unsettled and maybe rightly so we're deeply tired we're hungry we're restless we tell ourselves things like if i could just get through this next month we'll be good if i could just get to the next paycheck if i could just get that job if i can be with that person if i can finally win their approval and respect if i can just get around that corner ahead of me whatever that corner may be the problem with this friends is life life is one big corner and living in that if i can just mode will always keep us restless and restless and waiting and hungry and we can't wait for things to resolve around that corner before we can grow and be satiated by the thing we need most which is learning to live a life resting in the presence of god and being fed by god that cannot wait for that corner now this wilderness that we're in in lent this wilderness that actually even liturgically i don't know if you know this about church architecture but you sit between the waters of the red sea and the land of promise you live and sit in the wilderness the mead bar in hebrew actually in between things this wilderness it symbolizes challenge those in between places but it's it's not a pause before real life begins this is actually a very honest look at our real lives as we have them it's a really honest description of how things are and how they even may feel for you and the good news friends is it's exactly here precisely in the wilderness that jesus meets us we don't have to get our business together we don't have to sort out our lives we don't have to finally arrive around whatever corner we hope to get around to be with jesus jesus meets us where we are it is worth an amen that's like really good news for us in our gospel reading in matthew four immediately after jesus's baptism the spirit drives jesus into the desert into the wilderness for 40 days no food and then the tempter arrives with three temptations right in escalating order actually together they reveal what is at stake not just for jesus but actually for all of us these temptations i'll walk through each of these real briefly and tell you what i mean the first temptation is bread if you are the son of god turn these stones into loaves is the temptation i would call this a shortcut temptation when you're hungry and exhausted someone with a very reasonable sounding offer to relieve you is a shortcut right that sounds super tempting but jesus refuses to use his power for his own advantage or comfort what a stark by the way what a stark contrast to the powerful and the rulers of our day to not use the power for your own advantage or comfort to refuse that temptation in fact what a lord we have in jesus can we just celebrate jesus can we just celebrate jesus he's a man right what a stark contrast following jesus is not a shortcut and if you think man if i become a christian then all my life gets settled and like we're off man it gets hard it's difficult it is good but it is not without difficulty and challenge right following jesus is not a shortcut to put our needs especially above the needs of others others right but actually jesus invites us to put our needs below others following jesus leads us not to shortcuts but to service i think that's what that first temptation is all about the second temptation throw yourself from the temple and let the angels catch you sort of a base jumping nightmare right this is what i would call a spectacle make people believe through seeing something really impressive then they'll believe then they'll respect me but friends jesus never ever ever performed a miracle to display his power just to impress or prove things to people he's not that insecure he let that sink in for a second in fact jesus's miracles were often performed in private and he would tell people all the time don't say a word and what would they do go blabbing about telling everybody right don't tell anyone what you've seen here don't tell anybody keep this under wraps and i think the reason is besides being totally secure in who god is jesus's healings were always concerned about life that's what they were actually all about life against all forms of death or oppression not performances for an audience demanding proof now the third temptation cuts to the center i think of the drama in the wilderness it's about power ultimately from a high mountain the tempter officers offers jesus all the kingdoms of the world there's a catch in exchange for his submission just bow down to me just it's not a big deal just reorganize your loyalties just a little bit just one i'm just asking for one change right the theologian gustavo gutierre has observed that this is the perennial or the most enduring temptation of the christian life and the christian community twisting what is servant power into dominant power we're constantly threatened by this perversion i think i mean i didn't even have to think about this right in the sermon i'm like oh you know what that's like it's like legislating the ten commandments be posted in a classroom rather than funding children getting school lunches right dominance versus serving power if you would just rearrange your priorities a little bit and submit to our way of doing things the church and the christian community says no we have a god we have a jesus we have a messiah the power that we are being tempted to wield in perverted ways must always be loyal to jesus and when it is we will always find that it serves it never dominates but there's another form this temptation takes especially for a really tired people especially from your 40s like me and you're feeling it 40 or beyond right actually can i just say i see 50 and six-year-olds and i'm like what are y'all doing that's different you just enter into a new sort of like energy space because i'm like talk to me later send me an email give me the tricks whatever vitamins you guys are on especially for a time especially especially for a time especially for a tired people there's another form that this temptation takes it's it's not the temptation to seize power it's the temptation to despair that any power matters at all why it doesn't even matter at this point to become cynical to stop believing that transformation is actually possible the change and liberation is actually within reach to let hope quietly die because the world is heavy and frankly i'm just worn out you know i fight this regularly this one i can tell you all day about this one i wonder if you fight that temptation too what i've learned is that giving into that temptation of cynicism is a failure of loyalty when it comes down to it a turning away from the one who first called us and what i find really good news in this some encouragement is jesus faces all of these temptations he can sympathize with our weakness he's a human being just like us he faces all of these temptations and here's what i find so remarkable he does not face it from a position of ease or comfort jesus wasn't placed in a perfect garden like adam and then tempted jesus was taken into a broken desert of a world a wilderness jesus begins where adam ended up in the wreckage under a full weight of human failure and mortality jesus chooses to enter our exhaustion through self-denial in the wilderness and that's where we find him this morning and in that place where jesus meets us where he meets our exhausted selves he catches what's already falling in our lives and he says i'm here i'll catch that i'm with you i got you this is why the real work of lent if i'm honest i shouldn't say this because i'm a priest i'm supposed to be really good at all the spiritual things i'm not lent is really difficult for me i don't i don't love lent there's a bunch of like enneagram fortune like oh my gosh i love lent or right i don't i don't get it it's hard for me because it's hard work for me beyond what we give up or whatever we choose to simplify in our lives for 40 days i find it really hard to relearn vulnerability with god and dependency on god i like to solve it i like to fix it i like to fight it right i like to get to easter because you know that's going to be a party right but sometimes sometimes what i most need is what i least enjoy you feel that can anybody relate to that and in lent i face my failures with my temptations to shortcuts quick fixes with a spectacle i can just like i'll just go through the motions and impress them and with power that sometimes i'll twist and self-serve with but friends the good news for us in lent is that god meets us right in those temptations and wherever we're about to slip and let those down jesus says i got you i got you follow me follow me where you fail i succeed in your weakness i have strength in your brokenness i extend mercy god does not wait for us to sort those things out before we can learn to live a life dependent and at rest with god before god shows up there's not a list of prerequisites for us god is already at work in presence and that god and jesus enters the wilderness before us meets us there and refuses temptation in every way that we have failed and never leaves us but always remains with us and he speaks those words that we so desperately need to hear whenever we need to hear them i am here i can catch that i'm with you in a few minutes we will come to this table to receive the opposite of those temptations that we all face on a daily basis a gift of bread and wine that is christ's body and blood that is freely given not hoarded not used for leverage not a display of power as a spectacle not self-serving but given for healing for forgiveness for liberation and what jesus chose in the desert facing those temptations is now what he offers to us freely this morning to you freely this morning my prayer is that all of us as we journey and lent would have hearts that are open to receive that gift that encouragement to receive that gift that encouragement and that good company with god this morning amen