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Luke 4:1-13       David Orendorff         February 21, 2010

We are a culture that loves choices.  To be able to choose is perceived as freedom.  We have more freedom of choice than anyone in history. I have more choices in the first hour of being awake than 98% of the world has for a month or more.  Without a good plan and a list walking into Safeway can cause a paralysis of choice.

All of these wonderful choices boil down to one fundamental choice, how will we spend our lives?  Make no mistake; living life is a spending of precious minutes, talents, materials and opportunities.  And it is we who, for the most part, choose the spending.  Today’s passage relates directly to the choices we must make for a life well spent.

The setting is important. Jesus is led by the Spirit to the wilderness.  It is a place of chaos where he is vulnerable to the weather, to beasts and to robbers.  In the wilderness only God stands between Jesus and destruction.  Secondly, Jesus chooses to fast, to voluntarily put off life’s comforts and to take on life’s suffering.  By going to the wilderness and fasting Jesus has chosen to make himself reliant solely on the mercy of God.  That is when the devil comes.

The devil observes that Jesus must be pretty hungry after a long fast, and since he is the Son of God couldn’t he use his privilege to turn some nearby stones into bread.  It seems an innocent enough choice when you’re really hungry.  Jesus’ answer to the devil recognizes the fundamental need for bread to live, “People do not live by bread alone” implicitly acknowledges that bread is needed.  However, the complete passage from Deuteronomy that Jesus is quoting goes, “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”[1] Our real life is not in bread but in what God has to say to us.  And Jesus speaks for God when he answers the attorney saying God’s commandment is this, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”[2]

We have this same choice. We too are God’s children and the Holy Spirit is in us as well, giving us power to turn the stones of our labor into bread.  And that is a good thing.  The bad news is that we live in a culture obsessed with making and keeping as much bread as possible.  We live in a time and place that chooses to eat the whole loaf at every meal, often without even saying thank you.  In fact, among the world’s population we are God’s very blessed children being in the top 2% for bread, education, and income.  You name it and we are at the top.  The test the devil offers is “What are we going to do from up here?”  Will we use the power in us to feed our tummies and desires first and then, maybe, with the leftovers, if there are any leftovers, feed others?  How will we use the power God has given us?

The devil poses a second choice Jesus must make for the spending of his life saying, “I have power and glory over all the kingdoms of the world.  I will give you power and glory if you worship me.” Jesus’ response is simple and direct.  Again quoting Deuteronomy he says, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”[3]

Like having a lot of bread, our culture is also obsessed with “authority and glory” or alternatively translated, “power and prestige” or “the need to be looking good.”  How else do we explain the size and price of our homes and cars?  Doing cross cultural training I learned that a first question we ask (or wonder) when meeting each other is, “What do you do for a living?” whereas many other cultures ask questions about family.

But to spend life trying to look good is a trap.  It is the promise of a false security which a fall in the shower ends. Yet folks around us persist in climbing a bad ladder. I don’t know how many times people have said to me how hard it is to do their job. Their jobs steal excessive time which could be spent with family, friends, as a volunteer.  Sometimes they are fearful of losing their job and so serve the necessity of amassing greater kingdoms.  Some feel trapped by an internal need for a promotion that gives more money and greater security (or so they think).  There are ethical choices some must make and sometimes the choice Jesus would make is not an option.  All this could be solved by a job that paid less, a smaller home and an old car but they persist.

Our choice, having been baptized, is whether we will spend our life for looking good or for serving God.  Will we serve the devil to gain authority and glory with its false security or will we only worship and serve the God of amazing grace, of extravagant servanthood and generosity?

The devil poses the third choice Jesus must make for the spending of his life this way:  Taking Jesus to the highest tower in Jerusalem, which happens to be on the temple, he asks Jesus to test God’s love for him by throwing himself down onto the stone terrace below.  He even quotes scripture, “God will give his angels charge of you, to guard you,” and “on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” [4] Jesus will face this same choice again at his death when he is challenged to call upon God and save himself from the cross.[5]

The first two tests of choice have to do with how Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, will spend his material life.  This third test of choice is the question of how Jesus will spend his spiritual life.  Is his faith about what God can do to make his life easier, healthier, and safer or is it about what God can do through him to make life easier, healthier and safer for others?

Jesus again makes a clear choice.  He says, “You shall not tempt/test the Lord your God.”  That is, for Jesus trusting God is not about getting God and God’s angels to take care of him.  Jesus uses the power of God in him, the power of the Holy Spirit, his spiritual capital, not for himself, but for all of those about him who are outcasts, ill, broken, and lost and simply trusts God’s eternal love and care.

Those of us who choose to follow the way of Jesus have chosen to at least try to be generous and not greedy with our daily bread.  We have chosen to live not by the false security of power and prestige but by the word of God which is love. And we have chosen to use the power of God within us not for ourselves but for others in humble service.

Our lives have been blessed with many who have chosen the way of Jesus.  Many of them like Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Gandhi, Saint Francis and Saint Clare and Albert Schweitzer we have met in books and movies.  I met a new one on YouTube this week, her name is Alexandra Scott.

Play video http://www.alexslemonade.org/about

With great compassion God has placed among us those who whose humble faith and service can inspire us.  There are, of course, our various family and friends who love us with forgiveness and generosity beyond our deserving.  But there are also many of you Bearcreekians that witness how to spend a life for God.  There are the Wilsons who in response to Nick’s brush with cancer spend a portion of their lives serving other families facing cancer at Children’s Hospital. And there are Andy and Joan Pierce who, over the years, have had fun with a variety of medical issues and become the proud owners of a number of medical gadgets. Assisted by the contributions of others, like George Best, they have turned a garage full of equipment into a sharing ministry for those who now need particular medical equipment. And further, Joan, with the witness and talent of others, has turned her considerable and growing faith in prayer into our Prayer Shawl ministry.

By these and more we witness to each other how to spend our lives in the way of Jesus.  So far 29 folks have responded to my request for their volunteer hours beyond Bear Creek, naming 44 ways they make a difference in the world with 5225 hours which is 218 24 hour days.  I am inspired by you.

By the choices Jesus made we are moved to choose to spend life not for more unneeded bread but to serve the poor who need daily bread.  By our witness to each other we are inspired to choose to spend our time not for the false security of looking good, but to worship and serve God by serving God’s word of love.  And by our shared life of compassion and prayer we are enthused to faith not for its personal gain, but because of what God as Holy Spirit can do in and through us for the healing of the world.  And by our choices to spend our lives for God and others, eternal life finds us.  Shalom and Amen.

[2] Luke 10:27

[3] Deuteronomy 6:13, 10:20

[4] Psalm 91:11-12

[5] Luke 23:39 and parallels