[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #544, Lent 1, 2/25/07

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Lent 1, February 25, 2007

Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13

God's Protection, God's Reign

If you are the Son of God, command this crude oil to become gasoline 
and drive off.  Jesus hesitated to satisfy his hunger, to take from the 
earth at the instance of his need.  He paused to remember that "the 
earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who 
live in it."  (Psalms 24:1)  We don't do that.  Most of us don't. We 
pounce on a resource as if it were ours by birthright.  Our whole 
economy is based on this pounce.  Find a resource and exploit it.  That 
is our golden rule.

Choosing to live under that rule, however, negates both the rule and 
the promise of God:    "You who live in the shelter of the Most High, 
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the LORD, 'My 
refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.'  For he will deliver 
you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he 
will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find 
refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.  You will not fear 
the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the 
pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at 
noonday. (Psalm 91:1-6)

We turn every stone into bread.  We turn every kingdom into an emerging 
market.  We worship our asset value, and when the DOW plunges from its 
pinnacle, we cry, "Remember your promises to us, O L - o - o - o - r - 
d!"  Right.  But, where was the fast?  Where was the tithe?  Where was 
the humility in the presence of the gifts of God?  Where was the 
recognition of God's claim on God's earth?  On our use of it?  Where 
was the sharing and the generosity appropriate to God's love for all?  
Where was provision for the alien? Wait! I thought that if I confess 
with my lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that God raised 
him from the dead, I could exploit my environment at will.  Can't I 
confess with my lips and eat a Twinky at the same time?  Can't my 
provision for the poor be never to let a chocolate eclair go begging?

I don't believe Paul intended his proclamation to be read, "If you ever 
confess with your lips... if you ever believe in your heart..."  
Confessing with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord is like what Jesus 
was doing when he told Satan that his first allegiance was to God.  It 
is not that Jesus never ate again.  The point is that his confession, 
his fasting, preceded his eating.  The confessing and believing upon 
which salvation follows is one that precedes every act  --  before one 
eats, before one takes possession of the land, before one indulges in 
the bounty of the land.  It issues in the tithe of the first fruit.  It 
is to that confessing and believing person, to that confessing and 
believing community that the promises of God belong.

(The only weight loss program that has ever blessed my household has 
nothing to do with diet, but everything to do with fasting and 
replacing the reign of appetite with the reign of God.)

At each temptation, Jesus denied his own need in favor of God's reign.  
In so doing he thwarted Satan and claimed God's protection. We deceive 
ourselves if we think we can claim God's protection without deferring 
to God's reign.



May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
(an e-mail service)

[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with 
these lections.]

http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/

Multiple Sermon Starter Essays are available at
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