HOMILY [longer web version]
FIRST READING Deut 26> [The Story of the First Fruits Feast] Moses spoke to the people, saying: The priest shall receive the basket from you and shall set it in front of the altar of the LORD, your God. Then you shall declare before the Lord, your God… O LORD You have brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and outstretched arm, with terrifying power, with signs and wonders; and have brought us into this country…this land flowing with milk and honey. Therefore, I have now brought you the first-fruits of the products of the soil…to set them before You…as I bow down in Your presence.
GOSPEL Luke 6> Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil began then to tempt Him, saying “turn this stone into bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ”One does not live on bread alone but eating on the Word of God.” The devil said to him, “all the kingdoms of the world I will give you in a single instant, if you worship me.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written “You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.” The devil then tempted Jesus to throw Himself off from the heights to be rescued by angels, thus proving Him to be the Son of God. Jesus said to him in reply, “It says in Sacred Scripture, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.
Getting tempted is a part of life—for we are in a world of choices. We can come up with the good response and right decisions for God to show Him our faith, our love, our obedience, and our hope. Or, if we sin, then we can recognize how God’s Spirit is leading us aright, to be contrite, and pray to be changed unto the Godly good. We fully show sorrow to God, in ways He’s appointed us to do, and we get restored to Grace. That’s your Lenten roadmap to the holiest hopes for Easter.
We all have our temptations to succumb to sin. To be tempted is not yet to be in sin. It means that in a moment that:
A/ we are being incited to sin in some lure of pleasure, by some lie we’ll believe. What we will be our next move: resist or succumb? OR B/ we are being tested in some manner, under God’s review. Then, there is a decision time of the will, mind, soul and body of how to proceed. What shall we choose? To lovingly obey what we perceive are God’s ways or to green-light our falling into sin?
Falling into temptation’s traps is what then puts us in sin mode. If your temptation is to harshly judge someone, and it has a selfish rush inside of you to do so, for a scalding sentence of hate to thus spit out, then the moment you decide in your mind to blurt out the harmful words—you’re now in sin.
You had the opportunity to rebuke it OR to act in holiness and love with a different course of action. If you had done so, then it would have remained only a temptation. If you let yourself go and sin, then it is by your choice. Part of the example of Jesus’ three temptations (in the wilderness start), of which we can use for ourselves, is to act with quick defense and not to dialogue with Satan nor ever mull over a sin. Jesus gives three Word defenses and that’s it. There’s no room for the sin to dwell.
In the advice of Fr. Jean Marie Vincent, here yesterday for the mini-retreat on the Temptations of Christ, we need to say “Back off!” with a Word punch to whatever ill comes our way. Jesus does so three times, with #1. “Sure, I’m hungry physically, but “I feed on every Word of the mouth of God.” #2. The Word of God proclaims“You shall worship the Lord your God alone, Him alone to serve.” #3. ‘Twist some Bible verses around to deceive Me, you try, devil—but it’s plain and simple in the Word: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” All these Scripture defenses come from Deuteronomy (8:3, 6:13 and 6:16) These passages emphasize one’s reliance on God and obedience to His will.
How is it that we are so enticed to sin, led to the wrong words and actions? Do we love sin? Do we envy the worldly unbelievers who can seemingly do or say whatever they want? Is that what ‘freedom’ is? What about all the lies and falsehoods behind what sins they are commiting, and do they know what all of it is heading them towards? Their rampant sin and bold foolishness (as if there’s no God—see Psalm 2) is heading them into oblivion!
Last Sunday’s gospel (Lk. 6:39) tells how it’s like having “a blind guide lead a blind person along an unfamiliar way. It’ll eventually put them both into a ditch or pit,” so says Jesus. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life” says the Word (Romans 6:23). So we can’t rely on worldliness and its ways. We need to be wary of being enticed into its sins. Paired with our own care for our soul is our witness out to others of the Truth of Jesus Christ as The Savior. We need to help the poor unbelievers to get out of sin’s slavery into the freedom of the children of God. (Romans 8:21) The respect we show for God just might help them see His Light! It’s the example of a pilgrim of hope.
Yet even for Christians, while we are started in a life of salvation, it seems that every day there are these sick influences upon us for sinning. We become incited to something alluring, but it’s bad—still we go for it. We end up coveting the supposed or instant pleasure we are told is there in the sin, but then do fall into materialism or of hurting others by our wantonness. That’s the blind recklessness of living in sin. Coveting can have us acting far too selfishly, immorally, inhumanely, or just even into an unhealthy impatient, demanding spirit. It brings on the ugly self. Yet the bold sinner acts in pride of all their shame. They go on as if God is not observing. ‘So dumb! Coveting is such a problem that God made two Commandments among ten to cover it.
Some of the temptations we gave also incite or steer us to sins of omission, as to avoid God’s will, as if it doesn’t matter for us to follow it. The devil’s play in the fore-mentioned is the original lie of that God can’t be trusted. But the truth of it is that the devil or the world cannot be trusted. The devil’s other ploy is to get you to think that he has all this power. Yet it’s so much in the intimidation of getting you (or me) to do something bad. For yourself, fight him off, like Jesus did, by quoting Scripture truths. Like, use 1st John 4:4 to state the truth: “Greater is He Who is Within Me, than he (you sluefoot) that is in the world.” Confess Who’s in Charge—Jesus is Lord!! Use Colossians 1:27 “Christ in us is the Hope of Glory.” Pray, my hope is in me—Jesus is in me. He’s said: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” and “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” (Mt.28:20; Josh 1:5)
As we opened this look at temptation to sin, we said that it was NOT a sin to be tempted, but it’s all in the response to the challenge where the sin enters in. I said that temptations can come in two ways: in the alluring enticements to sin but also they can come as tests for us.
Let’s now consider this category of our tested by God situations. Since we are in a broken, rebellious world—it comes about that we will suffer the effects of it. Anyone can get hurt in a proud, fallen world—where sin abounds. Things are broken everywhere. In a Lent Sunday gospel we’ll hear how Jesus comments that the tower of Siloam fell on some people and killed them, but just because towers are imperfect and temporary. Things like it will happen like that. Do not interpret it as God throwing things at you for punishment or chastisement. However, He does use the broken situations of the world for our good, sometimes. He lets it through as tests to our faith. Yet but assured, as it says in Romans 8:28, how “all things work out for the good for those who love the Lord.”
So it is that God sometimes will use an event or situation where it is allowed through to us, of God’s choosing to use it to help us notice the fallen state of things, and to teach us to use our lessons wisely to grow or change to become the believer we ought to be. Or to even to notice how we are growing and letting go of the world. God forms lives by tests.
The devil does not want us to notice it that way. He wants us to rebel if we don’t get things to go our own way. Period. Or else, throw a fit!
Now, perhaps maybe as some of you, I don’t like tests. Even in school, I was not a fan of tests. Yet they were indications of my advancing on in maturity and understandings. In life tests allowed our way by God, He has a purpose for them and in their timing or type. It’s likely for you but he may be using you in a test for the good towards another to work out.
Yesterday, a car accident happened to my brother, his wife and two passengers, as a speeding, out-of-control car plowed into the back of theirs—and it totaled the vehicle. My brother called calmly to tell me about it, just grateful that he and all others were out alive and not badly hurt, nor the horrible driver of the car to hit them. The devil would have rather wanted him to go berserk. It had the emotional potential of ruining a nice day with his wife and friends out at the Terps basketball victory on Saturday.(I was at that game, too.) Secondly, this is the car that was the one planned to be used for my brother and wife’s cross-country trip on Thursday. That trip’s no more. Yet they are ready to make adjustments to this unfortunate event.
While it’s not great to have your favorite car creamed, and be victimized by one of Maryland’s many wild drivers—rather to fall into the temptation to be very mad over it, or in questioning God of “why me?” about the wreck, or be distraught over a loss of a great material possession—my brother and sister-in-law’s witness was gratefulness to God for all crash victims lives being spared and safe even, and for assured happiness ahead for being alive to host their daughter Meghan’s November wedding. They said no to the temptation of taking this life incident the wrong way. They said yes to valuing life and God’s care for us in this unpredictable world. Our life is in God’s hands, we need not have that mind-set changed by life’s misfortunes. Still, it can be a time of weakness when a testy event or situation has us much more vulnerable to fall apart and follow emotions towards an upset end. Temptation can come and stir up some selfish rights we think we deserve—and to go and tempt God to fit our plans or else we walk away. One can be put in a long, stubborn fit. Have you seen or known the kind?
Lastly, in talking about tests by God given to us, Deuteronomy 26 today said that the Feast of First Fruits was established for the Jew’s practice to keep giving their best to God and His due worship. This feast would be like a test of God for His people to see if their thanks and celebration would last for remembering God’s help to the Jews for the final Exodus success in getting back to their homeland Israel, to ‘the land of milk and honey’ and a fruitful land. In the Spring’s First Fruits, would they keep to their giving up their best to God as a thankful gesture, and combine it with deep worship for God? The historical record is that the Jews failed in keeping Yom Habikkurim; and most people in Judaism fell into the old categories of being more like the cheap, compromising Cain-like person, the bad example in Genesis who gave not much worship nor any first fruits to God. Yet God was looking for the good example again to happen like He pleasingly saw of Abel the Just—who worshipped and gave God first place over his life and possessions by his faith testimony.
Jeremiah the prophet comes around six centuries or so before Christ and in his book (50:5) he sums up things in what is chapter 50, verse 5. “Presently the Jews are lost sheep, with their shepherd-leaders having led them astray to roam the mountains, wandering about, having forgotten their resting place in God…. They will have to ask for the way to Zion, so to turn their faces toward it.” Jeremiah the suffering prophet longs for the Day of a True Holy Passover again and of First Fruits living. In that longing, God shows Jeremiah a deliverer and shepherd on the far horizon of time. It would be Jesus Christ the Lord.
As Jesus came and then completed His ministry, He laid down Himself as God’s best. He was The Passover and the First Fruits Feast all in Himself. St. Paul writes of this in the Resurrection chapter of 1st Corinthians 15: “The Messiah has been raised from the dead, as the First Fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death to the world and humankind, so as by a man has come the resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. For in Christ, and His coming, will those who have followed Him be raised up. This is our Passover hope. “
As our Lent has begun, we can get back to the call we have in Christ Jesus? Will we choose wisely in our temptation fits, so as to be truly in the kingdom of God life, and headed to fulfillment in Christ? Do we want to start witnessing in celebration of God in First Place in our life, like Abel the Just did? Do we want others to come to Christ via us? “Hope so.”