The First Sunday In Lent, 2014
Christ Church, Laredo, Texas
"Spiritual War" - This is part of our series for this Lent. The others will be:
Spiritual
Birth
Spiritual
Harvest
Spiritual
Eyes
Spiritual
Life
Here are the main "Take aways":
1) There is a spiritual war.
(and there is no such thing
as neutrality, you must pick a side.)
2) Pick the winning side.
(It will still be hard, but
you won’t be sabotaged by your commanding officer, which will happen to you on
the other side.)
3) When you are tired, or
wounded, ask for help and ask for rest and recreation.
Why does Jesus love
Centurions, Officers in the Roman army? I think it's because they have the same
kind of mission. Their job is to claim
and hold territory for their ruler. Jesus mission is to reclaim and hold
territory for the supreme ruler, God.
You and I are in a spiritual
war. We do not always recognize it. This is in some ways because we are blind
from birth. What do I mean by that?
Some of you know I've been
blessed to work with Tina Trevino and others helping blind young men and women
learn how to play tennis. It struck me the other day but in many ways all of us
have blindness. My blindness is spiritual. I suspect that Jesus can see the
spiritual world in a slightly different way than we can. Angels and demons are
not generally visible to us.
The blind tennis players can
hear the tennis ball because it has a rattle inside so they can actually know
where the ball is. But they have to use different senses to know where the ball
is in that there is a ball. In much the same way you and I do not generally
have the ability to see spiritual entities. We have to use other senses. What
do I mean by this?
I suspect that all of us have
some spiritual sense. I think it is generally intuitive. However many of us as
children see things that are not right and grasp that they are not right. I
think over time this sense gets sharpened or doled. The danger when it is told
is that we disbelieve that there is any spiritual reality. My favorite author
home you all mobile now is see. S. Lewis says that demons are happy when human
beings make either of two mistakes. One is to believe the demons are around at
every turn. Two is to disbelieve in their existence entirely. Lewis says the
devil is happy with either outcome.
Or for you Harry Potter fans,
some of us are muggles and don't believe in magic, and some of us are magicians
who are tempted to see the dark lord around every corner.
We have been watching Russia
and the United States deal with each other in a way that was very similar to
what many of us grew up with in the 1950's and 60's all the way up until the
1980's when the Berlin wall came down.
One of the hallmarks of the
Cold War was the difficulty in knowing what was really going on. Each side had strategies that had wheels
within wheels, and often a conflict in one place was a feint, set up to
distract the other, so that some other goal could be pursued. In the same way
spiritual warfare is often a battle that is confusing.
What can we learn from
today's texts?
First we can take the story
with Jesus and the devil literally. The Bible makes no apology for the
existence of a spiritual entity angelic in nature in rebellion against God.
This being is warped and seeks to do evil with the gifts talents and powers
that he she or it has.
Two, we learn from Genesis
that our ancestors chose the wrong side, and set up a bad situation for us.
Three, St. Paul says that we
were subject to death, and later to death and “the law”. This topic of death
and the law is deserving of it’s own sermon and I’m not going to tackle it
today.
Remember the takeaways we
started with:
1) There is a spiritual war.
(and there is no such thing
as neutrality, you must pick a side.)
2) Pick the winning side.
(It will still be hard, but
you won’t be sabotaged by your commanding officer, which will happen to you on
the other side.)
3) When you are tired, or
wounded, ask for help and ask for rest and recreation.
If we focus on the Gospel we
see that Jesus is deliberately led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to engage
in a battle in this Spiritual War. He is
led out to fast, and near the end the devil arrives to tempt him. Three things we must know.
One, fasting does make you
hungry.
Second, fasting strengthens
us spiritually.
Third, our primary spiritual
weapons and armor are the Word of God, the Bible.
So while Jesus is weaker physically, and
certainly hungry, the first temptation, the one to create and eat bread he
resists.
He is strong spiritually
because of the fasting and prayer.
And he resists the Devil by
his use of the scripture, even when the Devil tries to use the same method
against him.
Jesus wins the first round of
this Spiritual war.
If we look ahead in Matthew’s
Gospel, when he returns from this victory, he preaches the Kingdom of God.
What we may not think about
is that Jesus is preaching that Kingdom as opposed to another Kingdom. He is
not preaching the Kingdom of Israel, or Rome, but God’s Kingdom, over and above
the others.
And if we jump even farther
forward, Jesus faces one more great battle with Satan, which ends with his betrayal
and death. It certainly looks like the score in that battle is Satan 1, Jesus
0.
But, surprise, on Easter, a
great reversal takes place. What looks like defeat proves to be the final
victory.
Remember the takeaways we
started with:
1) There is a spiritual war.
(and there is no such thing
as neutrality, you must pick a side.)
2) Pick the winning side.
(It will still be hard, but
you won’t be sabotaged by your commanding officer, which will happen to you on
the other side.)
3) When you are tired, or
wounded, ask for help and ask for rest and recreation.
Let’s look at number 2. Pick
the winning side.
In God’s Kingdom, even if you
have been on the wrong side, you are invited to join the winning side. You’re
forgiven for all your actions against God’s kingdom and given all the rights
and privileges that belong to anyone on God’s side.
Even more amazingly, God will
let you do this over, and over, and over.
Imagine if the Army let
people who went AWOL, (for the acronym challenged that means Absent With Out
Leave), return with no punishment.
God does that each time we
return to him after sinning against him. Even our worst betrayals have been
forgiven, and if we come back and admit our fault and ask for that forgiveness
we get a brand new start.
Not only that. Imagine if at the conclusion of the Superbowl
the winning team handed the trophy and Superbowl rings to the losing side.
God not only forgives us over
and over, but provides ways for us to grow stronger and keep going. We are
given spiritual gifts if we will be open to them. We are given answers to
prayer more often than we know. We are protected from harm far more than we
know. And above all, we are deeply loved and cherished by God.
Lent is a time when you will
probably experience three things.
Remember the takeaways we
started with:
1) There is a spiritual war.
(and there is no such thing
as neutrality, you must pick a side.)
2) Pick the winning side.
(It will still be hard, but
you won’t be sabotaged by your commanding officer, which will happen to you on
the other side.)
3) When you are tired, or
wounded, ask for help and ask for rest and recreation.
Notes:
1 For a person before sleep
May the cross of the Son of
God,
which is mightier than all
the hosts of Satan
and more glorious than all
the hosts of heaven,
abide with you in your going
out and in your coming in.
By day and by night, at
morning and at evening,
at all times and in all
places may it protect and defend you.
From the wrath of evildoers,
from the assaults of evil spirits,
from foes visible and
invisible, from the snares of the devil,
from all passions that
beguile the soul and body:
may it guard, protect and
deliver you. Amen.
From the Church of England
Website (http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/pastoral/healing/protectionpeace.aspx)
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