Genesis 1: 15-17, 3:1-7
NPMC
Psalm 32
1 Lent
Romans 5: 12-19
February 10, 2008
Matthew 4: 1-11
Anita Retzlaff
Desert limits: What God is not
Grace and peace to you from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the
Christ. In our moment of silent prayer this morning let us remember the people
in the southeastern United States following the tornadoes there. The winds of
God’s creation have laid waste communities, homes and lives. Let us call upon
God to restore livelihood and hope in the midst of death and devastation. Let us
pray… God of might and power, comfort and care, hear the cries of those in
despair, console those who grieve and renew the earth where life seems to have
been obliterated. In you mercy we ask this. AMEN
Once upon a time God created life forms to fill the earth and the sky, the seas
and the mountains, desert plains and rushing water - all these God brought into
being. Into the wilderness beauty and abundance of nature God placed human
beings and set them about their business. Within no time at all humans, the ones
created in the image of God, were faced with the suggestion that they might
behave like God, though that is not how they interpreted their actions. God’s
creatures quickly figured out that they just might be able to test the limits of
their createdness and act as though they were the ones in control. In the garden
of God’s hospitality the serpent, the man and the woman – all creatures of God –
embarked on an experiment. Could they not really have everything that they can
imagine? Is not everything created, theirs to do with, as they want? Why should
God impose limits on them? Indeed, do they not have access to everything in
their sight?
For God’s good reasons not everything that was created was good for humanity to
exploit or to use. And like little children throwing a tantrum when things don’t
go their way or teenagers who complain, “that’s not fair” or like most of us who
see the vast options before us and question, “why would God create something
that is off limits?” we wonder why God allowed for negative possibilities, for
the difficult, for the option that humankind will sin. In other words, “Why did
God not create a world in which everything is wonderful and lovely all the
time?” I suppose God had that option. But consider the implications.
The obvious consequence of a world of never-ending beauty and perfect harmony
would be that God need not bother to give us choices or the will to decide
anything. We do not wish to be beautiful and perfect machines with no need of a
heart that filters, sorts and judges the paradoxes and challenges that present
themselves to us in this garden of God’s hospitality. There would be no need for
the passions and joys that come our way through relationships. No choices are
necessary and the wide range of feelings we know, would have no place, in a
system where all things have been created lovely, forever. That is not our
world.
No, God desires that we choose and that we choose with care and with
understanding. God wants to have a relationship with us, invites our praise and
thanks and love. God desires for us meaningful relationships with each other.
Along with the choices that God has opened to us come limits: limits of human
understanding and limits to the power and control we dare exercise in the garden
of God’s hospitality.
Once again in a time long ago and in a land far away, in the desert of God’s
creating, the man Jesus is led by God himself, into the desolate truth about the
choices before him. Had God created a static and perfect world where no
difficult decisions are necessary this drama could not have taken place.
However, God chooses otherwise and Jesus, the hope of the world, is confronted
by choices.
In the desert wasteland of decision-making, in the desolate reality of the need
to make life and death decisions alone and on behalf of many, our Lord is
offered some powerful and heady alternatives to God’s way:
“If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the
temple.”
“All these kingdoms of the world I will give you, if you will fall down and
worship me,” the tempter offers.
Will Jesus save the world by acts of power that will turn stones into bread and
feed the people? That would be so good because it would begin to address the
needs in our world. Will Jesus save the world by demonstrating his spectacular
power, convincing and winning over millions because he can do acts of magic?
That would be so good because we would finally have undeniable proof that we are
putting our hope in the right place. Is our hope for the world to be found in
the one who will sidle up to the power brokers of this age and attach himself to
the power of empire, promising to reign supreme? That would be so good because
then we would be aligned with those who could make things happen. However, in
Jesus’ responses to these temptations we discover what God is not, what God will
not do to save the world.
In the seeming Godforsakenness of the wilderness encounter with the temptation
to power and influence, Jesus does not forsake his understanding of the way in
which God works for good. It is tempting to imagine how Jesus might grab power
and force the agenda of peace on earth but violence and magic are not God’s way
of saving the world. Salvation comes by means of relinquishing control, by
living from the perspective of the lowliest of humanity not by decree from the
pinnacles of power. The hope of the world comes to expression, to reality, in
the acts of love and compassion for our neighbour. The presence of these are the
real test of the presence of God.
In the most recent issue of the Christian Century there is an interview with
John Polkinghorne, a physicist, a man who has written 15 books on Quantum
theory. John Polkinghorne is also an ordained Anglican priest: science and
religion beautifully wrought together in the life and vocation of one man. He
makes the assertion that we cannot test God, not that we shouldn’t test God but
that we cannot test God: “The secret weapon of science is experiment. If you
don’t believe what somebody says about something, you can in principle and
sometimes in practice, try to replicate the experiment. That’s very persuasive.
In the whole swale of human experience, we can’t do that. You can’t put God to
the test. God is not a subject to be manipulated but a subject to be met and
ultimately to meet in awe and worship.”
Jesus in the desert knows intimately that God is not to be controlled by any of
the elaborate systems of human construction, though many of them are very good.
Jesus is committed to the work of his Father because that is the only way to
save the world. Hope and faith in God’s ultimate goodness is what we have been
given to cling to. And faith leaves us human beings somewhat unsatisfied for
faith in God will not produce a fair world. Faith in God will not provide proof
for God’s existence. Faith in God does not play favorites even for the sake of
producing some good results. Faith in God accompanies us into the wilderness,
into these situations in our lives, where alone and tempted we must decide for
the way of love.
And so as we enter into this journey of Lent, we are acutely aware of our
limits, the limits that God has created as part of the human experience. These
are limits, not meant to keep us down but limits inherent in life lived close to
the heart of God. In the wilderness that we will all face at various times in
our lives, God attends to our need, just as the angels attended to Jesus in his
need. In this lies our ultimate hope and joy. AMEN