Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

During Lent, we and millions of Christians around the world pass through a season of reflection, penitence, and anticipation.

With the coming of Ash Wednesday we officially left behind the joy of Jesus’ Birth and began to look forward to Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. We begin to miss the sound of the Hallelujahs for the rest of Lent. From joy to joy – but only after we endure a period of testing and penitence.

What does "testing and penitence" mean for us today in the twenty-first century? For centuries, Christians have been obliged to "give up" something during Lent. In many places, believers still go through rituals of suffering to repay God for a blessing – such as the healing of a family member or finding safety in a new land. In small towns in northern New Mexico or in villages in the highlands of central Mexico, men known as penitentes preserve long-established traditions of self-flagellation and suffering. In communities in the Philippines, some men even have themselves placed on crosses in imitation of Jesus Christ. They take testing and penitence very seriously!

For many Christians in the United States, the Lenten season means making some small, almost inconsequential sacrifice – such as not eating red meat and, instead, substituting chicken, fish, or other readily available sources of protein.

I remember all too well when, in my first year in seminary, I gave up meats of all kinds for Lent – and gained five pounds from eating too much pasta, bread, and other carbs! My seminary colleagues gave up sweets, chocolate, coffee, or some other favorite thing. We all agreed that it didn’t count as a sacrifice to give up something that you don’t like – for me, liver and tongue, turnips and brussel sprouts quickly come to mind – but you would have a different list.

Even when we give up something for Lent that we really crave –for instance, Girl Scout cookies – we still should ask ourselves if we are making a real sacrifice. What kind of testing or penitence is it to give up something that would be an unobtainable luxury for most of the world’s people? Everyday, not just during Lent, billions of God’s people suffer poverty, deprivation, illness, violence, and abuse. Given this reality, what must God think about our "sacrifices" when we decide not to consume red meat or chocolate, or whatever we decide to give up during Lent? Where is the true testing and penitence in such acts?

Some Christians want to know, "What kind of sacrifice is enough?" If you believe that "more testing and penitence is better," then perhaps you also think that you can change God’s acceptance of you by doing just a little more of whatever you define as "good." Such an attitude leads very quickly to the concept of "works righteousness" – the idea that you can increase your righteousness in God’s eyes by doing more good works.

As Presbyterians, we believe that, no matter what the testing or penitence, we always depend on God’s grace and mercy. It is not about what we do, it is about how we respond to what God does.

This Presbyterian perspective on sacrifice turns upside down the traditional approach to the Lenten Season. We practice sacrificial giving not because this makes us better Christians or brings us closer to salvation, but because sacrificial giving is an appropriate response to God’s grace.

With this perspective on testing and penitence, let us turn at last to this morning’s Gospel text, Luke chapter 4:1-13. Most of you have heard this story many times. Here is Luke’s version in a capsule:

Having been baptized in the Jordan, Jesus was led by the Spirit to spend forty days in the wilderness. After fasting during those days, he was tempted by the devil to turn a stone into bread. But Jesus answered him with scripture "One does not live by bread alone."

Then the devil showed him all of the kingdoms of the world and promised all of it to Jesus – if Jesus would worship him. Again, Jesus answered the devil with scripture, "Worship the Lord your God, and se4rve only him."

Finally, the devil placed Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem and challenged Jesus to throw himself down so that the angels would save him. But Jesus answered with scripture a third time, saying "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."

Luke closes the story by commenting, "When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time."

After fasting for forty days during Lent – much less forty days while living in the wilderness – most of us wouldn’t need any devil to tempt us to turn a stone into a loaf of bread. Nor would it take very much to tempt most of us to take on all the glory and all the authority in the world. And, as far as being tempted to throw ourselves down from a great height so that the angels would save us, most of us would be much more interested in finding a ladder to take us back down to earth.

None of these are tests that we likely would survive, much less pass with perfection. Unlike Jesus, we are mere mortals prone to error and sin.

The well-intentioned efforts of most Christians in this country to give up something for Lent, to put ourselves through testing and penitence, to make a sacrifice, are more symbolic than real. By making real sacrifices, we can be transformed into instruments of God’s grace. As we are transformed, so too will be our congregation and our community.

In this Lenten Season, let us seek God’s righteousness, let us seek to alleviate the poverty, deprivation, illness, violence, and abuse suffered by so many of our neighbors – not just during the Lenten Season but also in the Ordinary Time throughout the whole year. At the end of Lent, when we celebrate the joy of Easter, we will look back on this season. Will we have made real sacrifices or merely gone through inconsequential testing and penitence?

In the end, what we go through during Lent is not merely symbolic. It is real. Like the Passion and Resurrection that mark the end of the Lenten Season, this is not a test.

Amen.

© 2007 Van Kemper(e-mail: rkemper@trinitypresdallas.org)