February 10, 2008
Matthew 4:1-11
“Grace Abides In The Wilderness”

If we begin with the understanding that the term “wilderness,” when used from the viewpoint of our religious lives, describes not so much a geographical place, but a spiritual condition, then almost every one of us can say that we are, or have at one time or another been, in a wilderness.

Thus, a wilderness is a place or time or condition of our lives when we are deprived of the usual resources we have for getting along.  Such wilderness journeys (although the word “journey” perhaps prettifies such a painful time too much), such wilderness journeys often last for a while, usually longer than we feel we can stand it.  When we are in the wilderness, more often than not, we feel alone, perhaps even forgotten, forsaken, betrayed.  Living in the wilderness is excruciatingly painful, and all we can think about is getting out of it.

I believe all of us, if we are honest with ourselves, have experienced the wilderness.  If not now, then sometime in the past.  If not for ourselves, then as a companion to someone who did.  What is your wilderness? Can you face it squarely? What is your wilderness? Can you bear to describe it?

Is your wilderness a physical disease, injury, or ailment that has not killed you - yet?  Is your wilderness the absence or scarcity of love or affection, someone with whom to share your innermost dreams and longings - a soul-mate?  Is your wilderness a time of anxiety, depression, or sorrow or other mental illness?  Does your wilderness include a battle with the evil forces of addictions: alcohol, drugs, food, sex, or work?  Has your wilderness included actual periods of homelessness or incarceration?  Perhaps your wilderness is quite different, a period of your life which seemed, on the surface, really quite calm and happy, but which masked the demons all-too-familiar to a consumer-oriented culture: comfort at the expense of compassion, peace at the expense of honesty, or security at the expense of justice.
The power of our faith is that there is no wilderness so terrible that God cannot stand with us through it.  The truly stunning nature of the Christian witness is that no matter how long the expanse of the desert, no matter how deep the shadowy valley, our God has been there before, and willingly treks there again.  “Jesus walked this lonesome valley” the song reminds us.  Do we believe it?

But difficult times and long roads aren't the only dreadful characteristics of the wilderness.  It is there that we are tested, tempted, enticed to do and say and be that which is not a true expression of our authentic selves, which is to say, to be bad.  The wilderness would be hard enough on its own, but it is there that evil lurks, knowing we are at our weakest, and taking full advantage of it.

Fred Craddock, one of our nation's best preachers (I can confirm that from hearing him myself!) and the pride and joy of our denomination, helped me understand my wilderness journeys a little better as he unpacked today's scripture lesson. (1)

Craddock reminds us that Jesus is not tempted in the wilderness because he had departed from God's will.  In fact, Jesus was in his desert wilderness because the Holy Spirit led him there!  The same is true for most of us.  Craddock humorously says, “Take a poll among the churches: it's usually the obedient and not the disobedient who are struggling, being opposed and tested.  The disobedient seem to have a knack for locating the cushions.”

Secondly, Craddock sternly reminds me, and you, too, if you will, that temptation indicates strength, not weakness.  We are tempted only by those things of which we are capable of doing.  “The greater one's capacities, the greater one's temptations.”  Jesus' struggle with the tempter's lure is a testimony to his power, not his weakness.  The same is true for us!  Temptation reveals a will to not be tempted.

Third, we must give ourselves the credit that true evil is never obvious or simple: it is always cunning and complicated.  Jesus didn't debate a cartoon character, with horns, a fiendish face, and the smell of sulfur, Craddock reminds us.  Jesus - and we, too - struggle with real choices, with intricacy and shades of right and wrong.  It's gosh darn hard surviving in the wilderness.  No simple “Yes” or “No” or even multiple choice questions here.  It's all essay questions in the wilderness!

Fourth, Craddock helps us see that the wilderness is not a “private morality game” but a contest about the nature and shape of who we are going to be.  Jesus' trials weren't silly playground rivalry, like who will stick their tongue to the frozen flagpole.  He was dealing with what his entire ministry would involve.  And we are not tested on simple, mindless things, but on the great questions of on whom will we rely, in whom will we trust, and where are we headed in life.  These are issues of life and death, and when we are in the thick of the wilderness, we know that truth well.

But so did Jesus, and that is why we have this story of his forty-day trek through the wilderness.  We have this, and every other example of Jesus being tempted and tested by the powers that be, in our scriptures: so that we might know that he knows that grace abides in the wilderness.  Grace is there because Jesus is there.  God-in-Christ goes before us, not to clear the way, but to know our pain, to remind us that this is not some pie-in-the-sky god we worship and serve, but a flesh and blood God.  This is a hurting and surviving God… offered to us so that in our hurting we, too, can survive.

Fred Craddock reminds us, “Jesus' response to every test was to refuse to try to be like God or to be God.  As Paul put it, he "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (Phil. 2:6-7).  He did not use the power of the spirit to claim exemption or to avoid the painful difficulties of the path of service.”  He knows our pain, he really, really does!

We must not let Jesus' divinity create a great chasm between his wilderness and ours.  They are far more alike than different.  Jesus knows our wildernesses as his own, and will not leave us nor forsake us to the tempter's snare.
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged;
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
take it to the Lord in prayer.

There is grace in the wilderness, my beloved congregation.  I know this, because that amazing grace present in our most difficult tasks and our most painful moments is nothing other than Christ, himself, crucified.  And just as Christ did not remain in the desert, but survived to serve and to teach and to laugh and to love, so will we survive to do God's will for another day.  And just as Christ did not stay on the Cross, but was buried, and resurrected to glory, so will we, if we trust in him, will also die and rise again.  Amazing Grace abides in the wilderness.  Amen.

(1) "Testing that Never Ceases," commentary by Fred B. Craddock from The Christian Century, 1990. At Religion Online found at http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=708. Fred B. Craddock is professor of preaching and New Testament at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta. This article appeared in the Christian Century, February 28, 1990, p. 211, copyright by the Christian Century Foundation and used by permission. Current articles and subscription information can be found at www.christiancentury.org. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock

Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org


“Grace Abides In The Wilderness”
Sermon February 13, 2008
Matthew 4:1-11
Outline & Study Helps

>>Outline (write notes under each point to help you remember it):
1. Wilderness as a spiritual state

2. Naming our wildernesses

3. Temptation an added burden of wilderness

4. Craddock's Five Wilderness/Temptation Points
a. Temptation effects the obedient more than the disobedient.
b. Temptation indicates strength, not weakness.
c. Temptation is subtle and complex, rarely obvious or simple.
d. Temptation isn't about simplistic morality, but defines the nature of who we are.
e. Resisting temptation doesn't require us to be God, rather, it allows God to be like us.

5. Our hope is that Jesus/God is in the wilderness with us, and that is amazing grace.

>>Study Helps (try answering one, two, or all of them!):

Name some of the “wildernesses” you have been or are going through.

Are they physical/geographical wildernesses, spiritual wildernesses, or both?

Is temptation always a characteristic of the wilderness? If so, why?

Taking each of Fred Craddock's five points, agree or disagree with each, and give an example to make your case.

Do you think Jesus was fully and completely tempted in the wilderness, or do you think it was more a show of his power? Why or why not?

Using the hymn “What a friend we have in Jesus,” tell how you know Jesus is “grace in the wilderness.”

Write a short prayer that comes to you out of today's sermon.

God Bless You!

 

Copyright 2008 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096