Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC's - First Sunday in Lent - 03/05/17 Sermon - “Toe to toe with the devil"

Sunday 03/05/17 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s

Sermon Title: “Toe to toe with the devil”

Old Testament Scripture: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

                                            

New Testament Scripture: Romans 5:12-19

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 4:1-11

          My friends, my sisters and brothers, welcome once again on this the First Sunday in the season of Lent, or Great Lent, or Holy Lent. The season of Lent is a Forty-day season of spiritual reflection, repentance, renewal, and growth in faith, in preparation for the crucifixion and then the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. In this season, we are called to grow closer to Christ, and we also hope to grow more in love and in caring for others. For we have faith, but we must also try to live that faith out for others, each and every day.

The season of Lent begins every year on Ash Wednesday. This is the Wednesday that we receive the imposition the ashes on our foreheads, like we did this past Wednesday. This season then continues through Holy Saturday, which is the day before Easter Sunday, or Resurrection Sunday.

So why then is the season of growth, repentance, faith, and preparation for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, called “Lent,” and not called “the season before Easter”. To answer this, the Latin word “Quadragesima,” which means “Fortieth”, is the name for the 40-day period of Lent (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent). In the Old English, the word “len(c)ten” Lent is translated to mean “spring season” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent). If you count up the days from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday though, which is once again the day before Easter Sunday, there are actually 46-days in Lent, but Sundays don’t count during the Lenten Season. Jesus was resurrected on Easter Sunday, and because of this, every Sunday in the Christian faith, becomes a “mini-easter,” or a mini-resurrection celebration. During Lent therefore, Sundays are cheat days.

          As I said this past Wednesday at the Ash Wednesday service, we have plenty of examples of things occurring in the Bible in sevens, or forty’s, and etc. Some of these examples include Moses going up on Mount Sinai for forty-days, or Noah being in the Ark for forty-days, or the Israelites wandering around the dessert for forty-years, and etc. Lent is a forty-day season, and is a season of reflection, of faith growth, of renewal, and of growing our commitment to serve God and others in the name of Jesus Christ.

          As I also said at our recent Ash Wednesday service, some Christians give up things like sweets, or coffee, or Facebook, or television, and etc. for Lent. I believe that it is ok to do this, but I don’t think that we should give things up just to punish ourselves. Instead of trying to punish ourselves, I believe that we should seek to grow closer to Jesus Christ. If giving up something helps you to do this, then great, but I don’t think that we need suffer just for the sake of suffering.

          You see, as Christians we believe that Christ suffered and died for us, so this season of Holy Lent should be about new life, not death. This season of Holy Lent should be about renewal, repentance, giving, loving, and caring, not the opposite.

          If you are giving up something for the forty-days of Lent though, what are you giving up, and why? What can you give away this Lent? What can you do better this Lent? Do you need to pray more? Do you need to love more? Do you feel called to do more for others? Lent isn’t a season where we simply punish ourselves for being sinners, but instead we should turn to and grow in Christ. How are you planning to grow closer to Christ in this season of Lent?

          While we have many examples as I said, in both the Old and the New Testament of periods of time lasting in sevens or forty’s, we have another one of these this morning. This morning, right after Jesus was baptized by his cousin John the Baptist in the Jordan River, the gospel according to Matthew says, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished” (Mt. 4:1-2, NRSV). So once again, just like the season of Lent, just like Moses on Mount Sinai, just like Noah in the story of the Ark, “forty days and forty nights” (Mt. 4:2, NRSV). Are you beginning to see these patterns in the Bible more?

          It has always been fascinating to me that we have these numeric patterns in the Old and the New Testament. One the greatest scientific minds in history, Sir Isaac Newton, among many other things, studied the Bible. Sir Isaac Newton became convinced that there was some sort of code, or pattern, or hidden message in the Bible around the sevens, the forty’s, and many other things. Newton studied the Bible incessantly at Trinity College in Cambridge, England, and did not discover any set code, treasure map, and or etc. He also pursued alchemy, as he tried to make gold and silver out other metals and substances. This was also unsuccessful. It certainly is unique though that we have certain allotments of time that repeat over and over in the Bible.

If you remember last Sunday, in part I spoke about how the founder of the Methodist Movement, John Wesley, was an ordained priest in the Church of England, or the Anglican Church, and how he believed in the whole or “general” tenor or scripture. This notion of a whole or a “general” tenor of scripture means that the Old and New Testament scriptures are interrelated, and the ideas and concepts from throughout the Bible can and often do interlink together.

In our lectionary scriptures for this morning, we have a couple of themes that emerge. First, we are given part of the Book of Genesis story of Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden. In this story it says of Adam, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Gen. 2:15, NRSV). God told Adam and then Eve, that the garden was open to them, except the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”.

So what is the first theme then? That God created Adam and Eve with no sin. This mean that humanity started sinless. Adam and Eve were then tempted by the devil, and ate of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”. Adam and Eve were then exiled from the Garden of Eden by God, and sin had then entered the world.

Good created Adam and Eve in the Adam and Eve story, to be without sin. They were, briefly, but then sin entered, and we as humans have been fallen ever since. This means that on our own we are incapable of living without sin. We need God’s grace and love to help us to become whole.

The unchosen lectionary scripture from this morning from Psalm 32 says, “Happy are those who transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity, and in who spirit there is no deceit” (Ps. 32:1-2, NRSV). Another scripture about being freed from sin.

Getting back to the story of Adam and Eve, if they were created without sin, and if they then succumbed to the temptation of sin, then they became sinners. If Adam and Eve failed, and if every succeeding generation after them failed to be sinless, how can we then live free of sin and iniquity? How can we be sinless and upright, if Adam and Eve failed right from the beginning? I mean if God wants to be without sin, then how can we do we do this?

The reason that these lectionary scriptures for this morning are in part bundled together the way they are, is that Jesus Christ is the second Adam. You see Adam failed to live without sin in the Garden of Eden, and this morning Jesus is tempted by the devil for forty-days, and forty-nights. Unlike Adam, unlike Eve, Jesus, and only Jesus, passes the test. Where Adam failed to live sinless, Jesus succeeds. Not only does Jesus succeed, but he first fasts for forty-days and forty-nights, as many great things occurred in the Bible in forty’s. Are you still seeing the connections here?

The Apostle Paul speaks specifically about this in his Epistle or letter to the Romans for this morning. The Apostle Paul, speaking first of Adam in the Garden says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned—sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned where there is no law” (Rom. 5:12-13, NRSV).

The Apostle Paul then writes, “Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those sins were not the like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come” (Rom. 5:14, NRSV).

The Apostle Paul continues by saying, “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God, and the free gift of grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of one man’s sins. For the judgment following on trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses bring justification” (Rom. 5:15-16, NRSV).

The Apostle Paul then ends this reading by saying first of Adam, “For just as by one man’s disobedience the many were sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19, NRSV).

The Apostle Paul is telling us that this theme of God creating us sinless, ended pretty quick with Adam and Eve. The Apostle Paul is also telling us that through Jesus Christ and his cross, that all of sins of humanity, that all of our wrong doings, and all of our transgressions can be forgiven. All we have to do is ask Jesus for forgiveness, and make him the Lord of our lives. This is an open invitation to any and all people.

Well another theme that we see for this morning, particularly in the gospel of Matthew reading for this morning is the idea again of forty-days, which as I have been saying is a pretty common theme throughout the Bible.

So Jesus is born as the savior, the Wise Men go to bring him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. He then grows up, his cousin John the Baptist has just baptized him, and now right after this it’s test time. You see before you officially in the Army, or the Air Force, or the Marin Corp. and etc., if you are an enlisted person, you must first go through basic training.

I remember when I was in Air Force ROTC during my freshman year of college up at SUNY Potsdam. My best friend from high school Scott went on to enlist in the Marine Corps. Scott was always busting on the Air Force. He called it the “Chair Force,” and etc. Scott went through a 12-week basic training to join the Marine Corps., where many other branches of service now have a 6-week basic training.

Scott told me about the most intense part of his basic training towards the end of it, called the “crucible”. In this portion of his training, he said that he and the other Marine Corps. recruits were awake for like three or four days, in a simulated combat situation. It was tough, it was the crucible. This morning, Jesus Christ, the second and successful Adam enters into his crucible, his basic training, before he officially begins his public ministry.

As I said, the gospel says, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished” (Mt. 4:1-2, NRSV). So Jesus was hungry, and he was depleted. This is a perfect time to be tempted by the evil one no? So will Jesus break, like Adam and Eve did? Nope.

This morning, Jesus Christ, the son of God, God in the flesh, stands “toe to toe with the devil,” and he doesn’t break. Jesus holds his ground, and further proves that he is the messiah, the one who will die for us on Good Friday. The one who will die and remove our sin, so that through him we may be forgiven, so that we may live abundantly. You see if we are born into sin, if we cannot live without sinning, then we need to be set free. We are free from our sin and our bondage to sin through Jesus dying on the cross to see us free. We are forgiven and wiped clean, if we but ask for it.

This morning, the devil asks Jesus turn stones into bread, as he is hungry. Jesus resists. The devil then takes Jesus to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem and tells him to jump off as angels will catch. Jesus resists. The devil then takes Jesus to a very high mountain, and shows him images of all of kingdoms of the world. The devil tells Jesus that all the wealth and the power of the world will be his, if he would just follow him. Jesus resists.

The gospels then ends by saying, “Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him” (Mt. 4:11, NRSV).

So do we have a weak and wimpy savior? I don’t think so. Where Adam failed, and where all the others failed, Jesus will succeed. Since he will succeed, his life giving sacrifice on the cross will extinguish our sin, our guilt, and our shame, and all we need to do is ask him for forgiveness. It couldn’t be an easier.

In this season of Holy Lent, we are given forty-days and forty-nights to grow closer to Jesus Christ. How will we use this time? Will we realize even more just how loved we are by God, by Jesus? Will we realize even more that through Jesus Christ that we are forgiven? Will you realize that your past is gone, and that you are new creation if Jesus Christ? The one this day went “toe to toe with the devil”. Amen.