<html><body>Unproofed draft for Sunday!<div><br></div><div>Peace,</div><div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY 1 LENT C<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">DEUTERONOMY 26:1-11 14<sup>th</sup> FEBRUARY, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">ROMANS 10:8b-13 PSALM 91:1-2, 9-16 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">LUKE 4:1-13<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “If you are the Son of God ….”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> What can be worse than sowing the seeds of self-doubt?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Jesus is at the start of His ministry. I don’t now how He felt about it, but He left home. He walked into the Jordan Valley. Quite possibly He watched His cousin John call the nation to renew its life, corporately and individually, to center their lives in those commandments Bishop Michael talked about last week. Jesus may have wondered how He was going to engage in ministry, but He joined the others in the waters of renewal and, all of a sudden, everything began to fall into place. Perhaps a sense of cal surrounded Him. He may have felt He’d judged his vocation wisely and truly. Then the Spirit gave Her affirmation. God approved.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> It must have been such a relief to Jesus to know that He was doing and planning to continue doing what was God’s will.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Then He was sent – some translations say driven, compelled – to go into the desert.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Now the desert was not necessarily the barren place we might imagine. Certainly, there would be no cell phone coverage. But the desert was, and remains, the place where one went to test one’s spiritual personality and vocation. The desert, free from most distractions, was where one’s sense became heightened and one could discover God more clearly, who was able to reach deep within one, to give insight possibly unnoticeable elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> John the Baptist came out from the desert. Jesus went there right after His baptism, probably feeling weary but really pleased to be blessed by the Spirit. Jesus may have felt a little awkward, until He was wrenched out of His meditation and self-examination by those sweet, sugar-coated, teasing words: “If you are the Son of God…”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Of course He was. He’d just been told He was. He wouldn’t <b><u>BE</u></b> there if He didn’t think He was.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> But this is where Jesus was, possibly, most vulnerable. He was challenged to give up on the insight He’d obtained. He was tempted to redefine His whole outlook on life. And, what seems the worst point of this, He was made to doubt Himself – who He was, what His mother had told Him, what His friends may have done to encourage Him.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> I don’t know how many of you have been in the same position. You apply yourself at school. You may go on to university of a trade school. You struggle against all the others competing for the same jobs. Then you land a place where you feel you’ll be happy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The vocation you begin may not be the exact same as imagined as you left High School. All sorts of circumstances may have impinged on your lives. Your health and living situation may have taken a strange turn.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Nevertheless, here you are, reasonably happy and content, with some sort of an idea what you may be doing next – whether you’re retired or not. Then someone or something eases into the picture and starts to suggest that everything may not proceed as you thought.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Somewhere along in the development process of our lives, we’ve come to some image of who or what is dangerous, or threatening, or destructive. We look for people wearing red, possibly with a hat, so we can’t see the embryonic horns, or the tail. We look for those with a pallid complexion, overly-brightly-coloured lips and extremely long and pointed eye teeth. We look for those who seem to stare vacantly into front of them and walk with a stumbling gait. If we see anyone remotely like these, then our radar is triggered and we go on the alert immediately.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> But that’s not what’s most dangerous. The greatest problems to our spiritual, our emotional, our physical lives comes from the person who smiles, who talks earnestly, who seems to listen to what we’re saying creates stress for us in our lives and seems to be most sympathetic. Their advice may come in such a way that it sounds as if that person really knows what’s happening, and that that person has the information and pinion to resolve and connect every issue.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> You’re hungry? What would you say to a sandwich right about now? No one seems to respect you? Let me tell you how to put people in their places and to give you the kudos you so richly deserve.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> You feel that you don’t have people pay attention to you, and sympathise with you? We can do something about that!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The danger of temptation is that it comes, usually, from the person or situation you’d never imagine had a mean bone in her or his body. The danger of temptation is that, nine times out of ten, it seems so reasonable, as if what you think you need isn’t that excessive, or beyond what you think you’re owed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The person or situation <b><u>MOST</u></b> disruptive to the entirety of our lives is, most frequently, the one which suggests that all that we need to do is to cut a little corner, to take for ourselves just a portion of what we know belongs to someone else.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Remember those ten commandments of which Bishop Michael spoke last Sunday? How do they relate to the ways in which the urge and motivation to set aside our principles? What about bearing false witness? You know, that can mean outright lying, telling someone a story with just the tiniest amount of truth to it to persuade someone else that whatever else you make up is actually true also.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Or, bearing false witness – going up to someone, especially if she or he is vulnerable and under stress, and saying, “If you <b><u>ARE</u></b> the Son of God, then God wouldn’t want this and that to go wrong for you” – saying that with the implication that you <b><u>AREN’T</u></b> the Son of God; that you <b><u>AREN’T</u></b> loved by God; That you <b><u>AREN’T</u></b> sister or brother to Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Sowing the seed of doubt that we aren’t really loveable, that we aren’t really competent, that we aren’t really called to one vocation or another; sowing such a seed goes directly against God and God’s loving plan. And the bad news is that this seed-sower can look like the most friendly, the most innocuous, least troublesome person on the street or in the room.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> I think this story is in the Gospel for at least the reason that we may read it today as a warning and as encouragement.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Even Jesus underwent temptations. We’re not the only ones. So we can take hope that Jesus knows everything that confuses and burdens our lives; Jesus knows who and what cam appear to be so reasonable and yet actually has the potential to be really disturbing and destructive.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> But the warning is to every last one of us, no matter what our age, what our background, what our role in life and society.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Somehow, we have to be able the difference between trusting someone and never taking things for granted, possibly never taking things at their face value.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> We have to learn and relearn, to ask questions, never to write anyone or anything off, but to ask ourselves what someone’s suggestions will do for and to us, both positively and negatively. Jesus was given the ability to reason. Jesus was able to think through all the temptations and decisions He had to make throughout His life. He had the human intelligence and deductive powers to see where those paths would lead, and He made choices based on how He found these choices matched up with His learning and experience of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Just so, each of us has been granted the ability to reason, to question, to match what we hear and see against what we have experienced and what others have experienced and described.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Ladislaus Boros, a Jesuit theologian and priest, wrote, ”</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">The temptations were intended to induce (Jesus) to externalize his being, to turn his life into an expression of power, to dominate, to be ‘extraordinary’; and not, on the contrary, to hold out to the end, enduring whatever was to befall him, hiding his immediate personal divinity in the obscurity of his way of life, not imposing himself upon anyone, living cheerfully and peacefully among simple people, and not forcing God’s hand even his most extreme need.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 1.25rem; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);"> “When Christ rejected the temptations, he won back the essence of humanity. He let the powers of evil come right up to him. And at the decisive moment he shattered them with a simple No. He did not betray us for a crust of bread. To him our wretchedness was sacred. He did not hesitate for a moment. His victory was not a dazzling triumph, since no one knew of it. It took place in utter solitude. Nevertheless it made possible a new future for mankind—the turning of hearts to goodness, not of stones to bread.” <sup>1</sup><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> So, as Boros suggests happened with Jesus – that he “won back the essence of humanity”, so we, in our turn, as individuals, show our true humanity, show the essence of God within us. Is it easy? Seldom is anything of value easy. Will living alertly, aware of the potential for someone or something to sneak up on us, ever be overcome in our lives? No, not that either. There will always be temptations, whether it’s as simple as reaching for the chocolate doughnut on the plate, or of seeking the accolades of everyone in Albany, or Oregon, or the world. There’s a bit of Walter Mitty in all of us. Not that we can’t dream – Jesus dreamt continually of the day when God’s justice, and mercy, and joy would overflow throughout creation. But we need to ask what anything, what anyone, will do to our souls, to the soul of the person talking to us, to the souls of everyone else.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Because our souls, and their health, <b><u>DO</u></b> matter!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Maybe ask yourself, for the next ten months, what on earth those presidential nominees are saying.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">NOTE:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ladislaus Boros (1927-1981)</span><span class="terms"><span style="padding: 0in; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">:</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="padding: 0in; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"> <i>“</i></span></span><span class="terms"><span style="padding: 0in; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://inwardoutward.org/quote-source/in-time-of-temptation-translated-by-simon-and-erika-young/"><i><span style="color: windowtext;">In Time of Temptation”</span></i><span style="color: windowtext;"> translated by Simon and Erika Young</span></a></span>. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Burns & Oates London, © 1968</span><span class="terms"><span style="padding: 0in; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjCiqarjfTKAhVK12MKHQ2FAPoQFggcMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Finwardoutward.org%2Fquote-author%2Fladislaus-boros%2F&usg=AFQjCNErd6qGyhmv1NNeIpwDDmBxCAmg7Q"><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 153);">Ladislaus Boros Archives - inward/outward</span></a> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 102, 33);">inwardoutward.org/quote-author/ladislaus-boros/ </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">quoted in <i><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 33);">“</span></i></span><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">At the Edge of the Enclosure: Soulwork towards Sunday 1 Lent c</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">” 14<sup>th</sup> February, 2016, by Suzanne Guthrie <a href="http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/lent1c.html">http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/lent1c.html</a></span></p></div></body></html>